Tod Frye Interview - Podcast Chat about Pac-Man, Swordquest & more!

[Adriano Arcade]

Tod Frye is an extremely big deal in our circles and he kindly gave our Adrian an hour of his precious time for the latest Arcade Attack podcast!

 

He's known for his work on the Atari 2600 Pac Man, Swordquest and also on the 3DO. But, could he finally complete the Swordquest games and Airworld? You'll have to listen to find out...

 

Links:

 

Stream: http://arcadeattackpodcast.podbean.com/?source=pb

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/arcade-attack-podcast/id1174983594

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/arcade-attack-retro-gaming-podcast

YouTube:

 

I hope you enjoy this lovely chat with a true Atari legend!

[high voltage]

Loved Pac-Man on VCS, my first game.

[Rom Hunter]

Excellent!

Thanks for sharing!

[Adriano Arcade]

Excellent!

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

 

 

My pleasure! I hope you enjoy! Tod was great to talk to and was quite open and honest with a lot of his answers!

[Rom Hunter]

My pleasure! I hope you enjoy! Tod was great to talk to and was quite open and honest with a lot of his answers!

Yes, indeed.

 

Too bad he didn't know the programmers name of WaterWorld (I don't think it was Steve Baker)

 

 

 

[bigfriendly]

Thanks for posting the interview. I was hoping for more clarity on the design of the Earthworld game itself. How did the game end up just as an impossible to solve trial an error mess??? I always thought Atari totally blew it with the Swordquest series. The games were labeled as the next Adventure which we all know was a complete farce. Everything about the Swordquest series was awesome. The buildup until release, the comics, the posters, the gold prizes, and even the artwork for the boxes still to this day remains as some of my favorites. But the games were just terrible! It's like they put 90% of the effort into everything else and 10% into the games.

[Tempest]

Yes, indeed.

 

Too bad he didn't know the programmers name of WaterWorld (I don't think it was Steve Baker)

 

 

AFAIK Steve Baker didn't do any 2600 games except some work on Summer, Winter, and California Games. He was an 8-bit guy back when he was at Atari.

 

I'll have to correct my WaterWorld entry then.

[p1FqO3]

Very cool interview.

 

Have you ever tried to get an interview with Warren Robbinett? There's some interest over at the Ready Player One subreddit in hearing from him about the book/movie (currently the top thread) and I've been dying to hear about what's going on with "The Annotated Adventure".

Edited May 29, 2018 by p1FqO3

[Rom Collector]

How did the game end up just as an impossible to solve trial an error mess??? I always thought Atari totally blew it with the Swordquest series. The games were labeled as the next Adventure which we all know was a complete farce. But the games were just terrible! It's like they put 90% of the effort into everything else and 10% into the games.

 

Corporate greed. Another reason Atari fell on its face during the video game crash.

Pac-man & E.T. = bad games? Look at this Swordquest rubbish.

[Adriano Arcade]

Very cool interview.

 

Have you ever tried to get an interview with Warren Robbinett? There's some interest over at the Ready Player One subreddit in hearing from him about the book/movie (currently the top thread) and I've been dying to hear about what's going on with "The Annotated Adventure".

I have already actually! But sadly this was done before Ready Player One! Thanks for the kind words!!!

 

http://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/warren-robinett/

[p1FqO3]

I have already actually! But sadly this was done before Ready Player One! Thanks for the kind words!!!

 

http://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/warren-robinett/

 

I actually read that somewhat recently Didn't remember what site it was on though. I swear I searched before I asked but it was through arcadeattackpodcast.podbean.com so that article didn't show up.

 

Edit: In fact, I was looking for that exact article recently because I remembered it was the most recent interview with mention of "The Annotated Adventure", after 2016. Where the heck is that damn book Anyway, he responsed to the Reddit user, might do an AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/readyplayerone/comments/8n681n/warren_robinett_answered/

Edited May 31, 2018 by p1FqO3