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clone of the ar- sponse? ment you could do."
cade hit "Star "He In all, the game took eight
Castle." It was said, months to complete. Warshaw was
Warshaw's first ‘Very proud of the results. Raiders of the
assignment at clever. Lost Ark became his second mil-
Atari. Now lion-selling title and helped prove
"After looking make the value of movie tie-ins.
at it, I realized more "It was a brilliant marketing in-
that to do Star games.' " novation, the idea of movie tie-in,"
Castle directly Warshaw says. "But then they real-
would pretty Whips ized they only wanted to do hit
much suck," War- and movies. You'd wait for a movie to
shaw says. "It be a hit, and then jump and say
would really not brains quick, do a game. Which is what
translate well to Yars’ happened with 'E.T.' "
the VCS at all." Revenge
So he began taking Howard cracking the whip went on to be- Atari phones home
Star Castle apart, pulling out the come a top- How did E.T. end up in War-
elements he knew would work and selling action title for Atari. War- shaw's hands? Simple. He was the
adding new touches of his own. It shaw's next assignment was Raid- only person crazy enough to ac-
was the game play that consumed ers of the Lost Ark. Unlike today, cept the assignment.
him most. He wanted a game that when movie tie-ins are a regular "No one else would take it, be-
would be fun to play with a joystick part of the marketing scheme, the cause it was such a short dead-
and be visually stimulating, too. idea for a "Raiders" game didn't line," Warshaw says. "It took them
He didn't want to emulate the come until well after the movie was until the end of July to negotiate
look of Star Castle. He wanted to a hit. the deal, and they needed it for the
emulate the fun. "I actually flew down to Warner Christmas market, which meant
"The reason everything came Brothers studio to meet with Ste- that it had to be done by the first of
together in Yars’ Revenge is be- ven Spielberg,” Warshaw says. "I September. That left you with five
cause it has an up-down, left-right showed him Yars’ and talked with weeks to do the whole game."
thing," Warshaw says. "You have a him and told him my theory about Five weeks. Most games took at
vertical axis and a horizontal axis how he was an alien, which got me least four months. Warshaw had
going simultaneously in the game, quote of the month in 'Games' his work cut out for him.
which I think makes things visually magazine. That was kind of cool." He met with Spielberg again. "I
compelling. . .and I put in the full- Warshaw had complete creative spent a couple of hours laying out
screen explosion because I wanted freedom with Raiders. He knew he the basic
there to be a big pay-off." wanted to do an design of
But after programming it, the exploration-style the game,
next big challenge was naming it. game, but he did- the world,
"Marketing was coming up with n't want to simply the landing
names for the game," he says. duplicate what zone, the
"The working name of the game Warren Robbi- people
was Time Freeze. But that seemed nette buildings,
kind of lame. They'd just take any had done with the pits
two space words and string them Adventure. where you
together. It was really quite pa- "Adventure find the
thetic." was a great phone
So Warshaw came up with his game. But it was parts," he says.
own storyline, about interstellar in- a very elemental, simple Yars’ Revenge "And Spielberg
sects fighting a shielded enemy. game," Warshaw says. "It goes, 'that's nice. . .but can you do
For the name, he indulged in a bit was a ground breaker. It had a a maze thing, though?' And I'm
of alphabetical trickery. huge cult following and I had a lot thinking, 'Geez, Steven, we want to
"I named it Yar, which is Ray of respect for it. So my feeling was do something new with this. I don't
spelled backwards, because Ray just to do another 'Adventure' was- think doing a Pac-Man ripoff and
Kassar was the CEO of Atari at the n't really worth it." calling it E.T. will be much fun.' "
time," Warshaw says. "The actual Instead, he wanted to raise the He pauses and chuckles. "But,
title of the game is The Yarian Re- stakes. you know. . .it might have been
venge of the Razak Solar System. "With Raiders my goal was just better." For Warshaw, program-
And Razak is Kassar spelled back- to make the biggest adventure ming E.T. soon became a 24-hour
wards." game possible for the VCS," he obsession. "I was just working all
Of course, Kassar eventually says. "Not just the most screens, the time," he says. "I had a devel-
found out about the prank. His re- but the most different scenarios opment system moved into my
and the most immersive environ-
Classic Gamer Magazine Winter 2000 36
