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Interviews of Centipede:
Dona Bailey and Ed Logg are the brilliant minds behind the classic arcade game Centipede. Here’s a brief overview of their contributions and insights from their interviews:
Dona Bailey
Dona Bailey was one of the few female programmers in the gaming industry during the early 1980s. She joined Atari in 1980 and co-created Centipede with Ed Logg. Bailey was inspired to enter the video game industry after being introduced to the game Space Invaders. She noticed that the display on Space Invaders resembled the display she worked with at General Motors, which sparked her interest in video games.
Ed Logg
Wikipedia, Outstanding Ideas: Ed Logg on Asteroids and Gauntlet, Designer
Ed Logg was a supervisor at Atari and played a significant role in the design and development of Centipede. He assigned Bailey to do the programming for the game while he focused on the game’s design. Together, they created a game that became one of Atari’s best-selling coin-op games.
Development of Centipede
Centipede was developed from July 1980 until its release in May 1981. The game began with an idea from a brainstorming notebook at Atari: “A multi-segmented insect crawls onto the screen and is shot, segment by segment.” The development process included creating raster graphics, gameplay, scoring, sounds, and various iterations to make the game more challenging. The game also went through a marketing focus group and on-site testing before its release.
Impact and Legacy
Centipede was one of the first coin-op arcade machines to have a significant female player base, thanks to its vibrant pastel colors and trackball-based gameplay. The game’s unique color palette is credited to Bailey, who chose pastel colors for Centipede.
For more detailed insights, you can check out the full interviews with Dona Bailey and Ed Logg on Arcade Attack and VICE.
Interviews of Defender:
Eugene Jarvis is a legendary game designer known for creating the classic arcade game Defender. Here’s a brief overview of his contributions and insights from his interviews:
Eugene Jarvis and Defender
Eugene Jarvis began his career at Atari, where he initially worked on pinball games. He later moved to Williams Electronics, where he created Defender, one of the most influential arcade games of all time. Defender was released in 1981 and became a massive hit, known for its fast-paced gameplay and innovative mechanics.
Key Insights from Interviews
- Inspiration and Development:
- Jarvis was inspired by the challenge of creating a game that was both engaging and difficult. He wanted to push the boundaries of what was possible in arcade games at the time.
- Defender was one of the first games to feature a scrolling environment, allowing players to move horizontally across a larger game world.
- Game Design Philosophy:
- Jarvis emphasized the importance of creating conflicting goals within games to keep players engaged. He believed that the best games were those that constantly challenged players and kept them on their toes.
- He also highlighted the significance of player feedback and iteration in the game development process. Many of the best ideas for Defender came from fellow game players and developers.
- Legacy and Impact:
- Defender’s success paved the way for other classic games like Robotron: 2084 and Smash TV, both of which were also created by Jarvis.
- Jarvis’s work continues to influence the gaming industry, and he remains an active figure in game development through his company, Raw Thrills.
For more detailed insights, you can check out the full interviews with Eugene Jarvis on Arcade Attack and VG247.
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Interviews of Asteroids:
Lyle Rains and Ed Logg are the creative minds behind the classic arcade game Asteroids. Here’s a brief overview of their contributions and insights from their interviews:
Lyle Rains
Lyle Rains was the Vice President of Engineering at Atari and played a crucial role in the development of Asteroids. He came up with the initial concept for the game, inspired by the idea of a spaceship navigating through an asteroid field. Rains’ vision was to create a game that combined the excitement of space exploration with the challenge of avoiding and destroying obstacles.
Ed Logg
Ed Logg was the lead programmer and designer for Asteroids. He took Rains’ concept and brought it to life by developing the game’s mechanics and coding. Logg introduced several innovative features, such as the use of vector graphics, which gave the game its distinctive look and feel. He also implemented the wrap-around screen, allowing players to move off one edge of the screen and reappear on the opposite side.
Development of Asteroids
Asteroids was developed in 1979 and released by Atari in November of that year. The game quickly became a massive hit, known for its addictive gameplay and challenging mechanics. Players control a spaceship that must destroy asteroids and flying saucers while avoiding collisions. The game features a unique control scheme with thrust, rotate, and fire buttons, adding to its complexity and appeal.
Key Insights from Interviews
- Inspiration and Concept:
- Rains and Logg were inspired by the success of earlier space-themed games like Space Invaders. They wanted to create a game that offered a different kind of challenge, focusing on navigation and precision shooting.
- Technical Innovations:
- The use of vector graphics allowed for smooth and precise movement of objects on the screen. This technology was relatively new at the time and set Asteroids apart from other games.
- The wrap-around screen mechanic added a new layer of strategy, as players had to be aware of their position relative to the edges of the screen.
- Player Feedback and Iteration:
- During development, Rains and Logg conducted extensive playtesting to gather feedback from players. This feedback was crucial in refining the game’s mechanics and difficulty level.
- Legacy and Impact:
- Asteroids became one of Atari’s best-selling games and is considered a classic in the arcade gaming world. Its success paved the way for future space-themed games and influenced many game designers.
For more detailed insights, you can check out the full interviews with Lyle Rains and Ed Logg on Flylib, Old School Gamer Magazine, and Game Developer.
Interviews of Stargate:
Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar are the creative geniuses behind the classic arcade game Stargate, also known as Defender II. Here’s a brief overview of their contributions and insights from their interviews:
Eugene Jarvis
Eugene Jarvis is a legendary game designer known for his work on iconic arcade games such as Defender, Robotron: 2084, and Smash TV. He began his career at Atari and later moved to Williams Electronics, where he created some of the most influential games in the industry.
Larry DeMar
Larry DeMar, also known as “L.E.D.,” is a renowned game designer and programmer who collaborated with Eugene Jarvis on several classic games. He played a significant role in the development of Defender and its sequel, Stargate.
Development of Stargate
Stargate, also known as Defender II, was released in 1981 as a sequel to the highly successful Defender. The game introduced new features and gameplay mechanics, including the Stargate, which allowed players to warp to different locations on the screen. The game also featured new enemies and challenges, making it a more complex and engaging experience.
Key Insights from Interviews
- Inspiration and Concept:
- Jarvis and DeMar were inspired by the success of Defender and wanted to create a sequel that built upon its innovative gameplay. They aimed to introduce new elements that would challenge players and keep them engaged.
- Technical Innovations:
- Stargate introduced the concept of warping, allowing players to quickly move to different parts of the screen. This added a new layer of strategy and excitement to the game.
- The game also featured improved graphics and sound, enhancing the overall player experience.
- Collaboration and Iteration:
- Jarvis and DeMar emphasized the importance of collaboration and iteration in the game development process. They worked closely together to refine the game’s mechanics and ensure it was both challenging and enjoyable.
- Legacy and Impact:
- Stargate became a classic in the arcade gaming world and is still remembered fondly by gamers today. Its success paved the way for future collaborations between Jarvis and DeMar, including the creation of other iconic games.
For more detailed insights, you can check out the full interviews with Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar on Arcade Attack, The Ted Dabney Experience, and YouTube.
Gravitar is a color vector graphics multidirectional shooter arcade video game released by Atari, Inc. in 1982. Using the same “rotate-and-thrust” controls as Asteroids and Space Duel, the game was known for its high level of difficulty. It was the first of over twenty games (including the 1983 Star Wars) that Mike Hally designed and produced for Atari. The main programmer was Rich Adam and the cabinet art was designed by Brad Chaboya. 5,427 cabinets were produced. An Atari 2600 version by Dan Hitchens was published by Atari in 1983.
The player controls a small blue spacecraft. The game starts in a fictional solar system with several planets to explore. If the player moves their ship into a planet, they will be taken to a side-view landscape. Unlike many other shooting games, gravity plays a fair part in Gravitar: the ship will be pulled slowly to the deadly star in the overworld, and downward in the side-view levels. Great precision is demanded of the player, as the ship rotates too slowly to allow a player to correct their mistake if they apply too much thrust and fly toward an obstacle.
The player has five buttons: one each to rotate the ship left or right, one to shoot, one to activate the thruster, and one for both a tractor beam and force field. Gravitar, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe and Space Duel all used similar 5-button controlling systems.
In the side-view levels, the player has to destroy red bunkers that shoot constantly, and can also use the tractor beam to pick up blue fuel tanks. Once all of the bunkers are destroyed, the planet will blow up, and the player will earn a bonus. Once all planets are destroyed, the player will move onto another solar system.
The player will lose a life if they crash into the terrain or get hit by an enemy’s shot, and the game will end immediately if fuel runs out.
Gravitar has 12 different planets. Red Planet is available in all 3 phases in the universe; it contains a reactor. Shooting the reactor core activates a link. Escaping the reactor successfully moves the player to the next phase of planets, awards bonus points and 7500 units of fuel. Reactor escape time reduces after each phase and eventually becomes virtually impossible to complete.
After completing all 11 planets (or alternatively completing the reactor three times) the player enters the second universe and the gravity will reverse. Instead of dragging the ship towards the planet surface, the gravity pushes it away. In the third universe the landscape becomes invisible and the gravity is positive again. The final, fourth universe, has invisible landscape and reverse gravity. After completing the fourth universe the game starts over, but the reactor escape time will never reset back to high levels again.
The programmers thought that even the best players could never complete the most difficult planets on the invisible levels. Neither of the key developers themselves, Mike Hally and Rich Adam, have ever completed their own game “without cheating” (their words).
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Space Duel is an arcade game released in 1982 by Atari, Inc. It is a direct descendant of the original Asteroids, with asteroids replaced by colorful geometric shapes like cubes, diamonds, and spinning pinwheels. Space Duel is the first and only multiplayer vector game by Atari. When Asteroids Deluxe did not sell well, this game was taken off the shelf and released to moderate success. The player has five buttons: two to rotate the ship left or right, one to shoot, one to activate the thruster, and one for force field. Shooting all objects on the screen completes a level. Space Duel, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, and Gravitar all use similar 5-button control system.
Tempest is a 1981 arcade video game by Atari, Inc., designed and programmed by Dave Theurer. It takes place on a three-dimensional surface divided into lanes, sometimes as a closed tube, and viewed from one end. The player controls a claw-shaped “blaster” that sits on the edge of the surface, snapping from segment to segment as a rotary knob is turned, and can fire blaster shots to destroy enemies and obstacles by pressing a button.
Tempest was one of the first games to use Atari’s Color-QuadraScan vector display technology. It was also the first to let players choose their starting level (a system Atari called “SkillStep”). This feature increases the preferred starting level, which could also be used to let the player continue the previous game if they wished. Tempest was one of the first video games that had a progressive level design where the levels themselves varied rather than giving the player the same layout with increasing difficulty.
The goal in Tempest is to survive and score as many points as possible, by clearing the screen of enemies that appear on the playing field. The player controls an articulating, claw-shaped ship at the near end of the field (referred to as a “blaster”, or in some sources as the “Live Wire”), moving it left and right using a rotary knob. The player can rapid-fire shots down individual lanes of the field, destroying any enemies or projectiles within the same lane. The blaster is also equipped with a “Superzapper” which, once per level, destroys all enemies currently on the field. A second use of the Superzapper in the same level destroys one random enemy. The Superzapper is recharged between each level.
The game features sixteen unique levels of different shapes, including geometric shapes, a flat line, and the symbol for infinity. Some levels are closed tubes that allow the player to loop throughout it continuously, while others have definite left and right endpoints. When all sixteen levels have been played, the sequence repeats with a different color scheme and higher difficulty. One set of levels (65 through 80) is “invisible” (black). After reaching Stage 99, the level counter stops increasing and each successive level shape is picked randomly.
Enemies first appear on the screen as swirling dots beyond the far end of the field, initially showing up one at a time, but coming faster and in greater numbers the more the game progresses. There are seven types of enemies in the game, each with their own behavior pattern. Flippers, shaped like pairs of linked chevrons, attempt to catch the player’s blaster and drag it to the far end of the field, costing a life if successful. Pulsars, shaped like wavy lines, periodically electrify the lane which they occupy; if the player’s ship is in the lane at that moment, it is destroyed. Fuseballs, white spheres with multiple tendrils, jump forward and back unpredictably along the edges of each lane, destroying the player’s ship on contact. They move slowly between the lanes which gives the player a brief opportunity to shoot them. Spikers are spirals that move up and down a lane, leaving a line of “spikes” which may be worn down by shooting it. After the first few levels, each level has a short line of spikes at the far end of every lane. Tankers, rhomboid in shape, slowly advance up the field in a particular lane, splitting into two Flippers upon destruction or reaching the player’s ring. Later levels also feature Fuseball and Pulsar Tankers, which split into two Fuseballs or two Pulsars when hit, respectively. Aside from the Fuseball and Pulsar, enemies can shoot destructible projectiles up the lane they reside in, which will destroy the player’s ship if they impact.
When all enemies on the field have been destroyed, the player “warps” to the next level by traveling down the field and into the space beyond it. The player must avoid or destroy any spikes that are in the way; hitting one will destroy the player’s ship and the warp will have to be retried.
The player loses a life when their ship is destroyed or captured, and the game ends when all lives are lost. Extra lives (up to six at a time) are awarded at certain score intervals.
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