Vintage Video Game and Computer Designer

[Ed Smith]

Hi,

 

my name is Ed Smith. I am one of only two African Americans who worked in the design of video games and The Imagination Machine personal computer in the 1970s. My story can be viewed here - http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/1230/ed-smith-interview. My book called Imagine That! Is available on Amazon here - https://www.amazon.com/Imagine-That-Americans-personal-computers-ebook/dp/B0846535TR/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Imagine+that!+Ed+smith&qid=1590615761&sr=8-1  I would love to hear your feedback after reading the my book or the interview.

[+cjherr]

My copy is on the way. Looking forward to it!

[Ed Smith]

Enjoy!

[+eebuckeye]

Really awesome!  Thanks for coming in to AtariAge to let us know!

[ubersaurus]

Hi Ed, I read that interview a while ago and it was great. It got me interested in checking out the MP1000, which is a pretty nifty little machine. I've also gone ahead and ordered a copy of your book, it'll have a nice place on my shelf of game history texts.

 

I did have a couple questions, though (and I'm not sure if they get answered in the book since I just ordered it, heh). In the interview, it gets mentioned that a Harry Cox worked on the games - do you know if he indeed developed every game, or did someone else handle some of them? and what was the working environment at APF like?

[MrMaddog]

On 5/27/2020 at 5:47 PM, Ed Smith said:

Hi,

 

my name is Ed Smith. I am one of only two African Americans who worked in the design of video games and The Imagination Machine personal computer in the 1970s. My story can be viewed here - http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/1230/ed-smith-interview. My book called Imagine That! Is available on Amazon here - https://www.amazon.com/Imagine-That-Americans-personal-computers-ebook/dp/B0846535TR/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Imagine+that!+Ed+smith&qid=1590615761&sr=8-1  I would love to hear your feedback after reading the my book or the interview.

That's awesome you did work on the MP-1000, I should read more about it...

 

You also worked at Atari? (Going by the cover) When was that and what was it like then?

[CatPix]

On 5/27/2020 at 11:47 PM, Ed Smith said:

Hi,

 

my name is Ed Smith. I am one of only two African Americans who worked in the design of video games and The Imagination Machine personal computer in the 1970s. My story can be viewed here - http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/1230/ed-smith-interview. My book called Imagine That! Is available on Amazon here - https://www.amazon.com/Imagine-That-Americans-personal-computers-ebook/dp/B0846535TR/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Imagine+that!+Ed+smith&qid=1590615761&sr=8-1  I would love to hear your feedback after reading the my book or the interview.

This is a very detailled and interesting interview. I'll probably order the book soon.

 

It's very interesting to me to read the whole of your life - especially with that specific Black American background. It resnate strongly with the current events.

 

More on video game, the idea of conceiving a video game machine/ computer at the time is really a fascinating thing; there was basically nothing to really look into for the general consumer market. It was probably an exciting (and a bit frightening for the APF guys) to try and see what would work, what was a good idea or not.

 

And why. Many American machines would end up being licenced in Europe under other brands, do you know if it was even planned for the Imagination Machine? To be sold internationally, either with a famous name and under your own brand (For example, the Colecovision was sold in Europe under the CBS Colecovision name, but the Fairchild Channel F was sold under different names, mostly as the Saba Videoplay)

 

It's also weird to read that as early as 1979, the tape was considered obsolete and "brought APF down" as here, the Amstrad CPC 464 enjoyed tremendous success between 1984 and 1990 with a buildt-in tape player and optionnal, additional floppy drive (and the 1990 Amstrad CPC+ 6128 version even got some slack for ditching tape support entierely).

And while not built-in the machines, most Commodore 64, Atari 8 bits and ZX Spectrum here never saw a floppy drive.

It really shows how different markets were.

Edited June 3, 2020 by CatPix