Page 38 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #5

design of a custom video chip for the ma- always try out some new game at lunch -
ort Wayne, Indiana may not strike a chine. TI was working on a game ma- a board game or a video game. The cor-
F familiar chord within the video game chine of their own, and a joint venture porate atmosphere was pretty stodgy
industry, but in the late 1970s, it was an was formed. Milton Bradley's idea of the though. Certain building entrances were
unlikely hotbed of activity supporting what machine was a games-only machine with reserved for folks above a certain grade
was then considered the most serious a price point of around $200. I think the level, you had assigned parking spots,
competition faced by the Atari VCS. Fort Atari 2600 and Odyssey 2 were around and the buildings all had a serious secu-
Wayne was home to the original game $150 at this time, but I'm not positive. rity staff. My first day at work I got a stan-
development group working on new titles TI's idea ended up being a home com- dard issue memo that said ‘the work day
for Magnavox's Odyssey 2 console…or at puter with a higher price point. By the ends at 4:45; at 4:40 you will begin to
least it was for a little over a year. The time TI brought the thing to market, as clear your desk of everything except for
original development group was dis- the TI Home Computer, it was $900, plus your telephone and your comptometer.’
banded sometime in 1979, with the bulk another $500 for a monitor.” Before that, I didn't even know what a
of new software for the Odyssey 2 Still, Harris says, Milton Bradley comptometer was!”
being generated by freelance pro- was committed to the TI 99/4A and Then a curious twist of fate took Bob
grammer Ed Averett. Averett's ini- had already developed several ti- Harris away from Milton Bradley’s young
tial involvement with the Odyssey 2 tles, which were released to game development group. “One of the
was not as a game designer, but as a coincide with the debut of guys in the Milton Bradley group,
sales rep. Working for Intel, Averett TI’s computer circa 1980. Sam Overton, got hired away to go
worked Magnavox's account, providing Harris worked on two li- back to Magnavox/N.A.P. to re-
the manufacturer with the chips that censed arcade game trans- start their games group, and he
drove the Odyssey 2; he would later write lations, Hustle and Blasto. brought me along."
games for Magnavox on a royalty basis, “Hustle was a licensed It was a heady time in the
which was an unusual arrangement in the game, presumably from the video game business. Pac-Man
early 1980s. arcades, but I never saw an Fever was at its peak. The best-
Magnavox was bought by the elec- arcade version personally. I saw selling Atari VCS titles were Aster-
tronics wing of North American Phillips, many similar programs on com- oids and Space Invaders, and that
which itself was the American division of puter screens. I added a lot of vari- machine's hold over the home video
a Dutch-based Electronics company. N. ant versions that we all enjoyed at game console market was still new.
A.P. quickly brought a version of the Od- Milton Bradley, but the marketing Anything could still happen in this in-
yssey 2 to the Netherlands as the Vid- folks nixed that to keep true to the dustry. By re-hiring Sam Overton, one
eopac console, and set up its own game license.” Harris does, on the other of the members of the original Odyssey
design group there (which was responsi- hand, remember seeing the Blasto 2 development group from Fort Wayne,
ble for many of the European-only re- coin-op. He also remembers that the North American Phillips seemed to be
leases for the Videopac). But N.A.P. also home version of Blasto was the first taking the challenge of putting their
resurrected the U.S. Odyssey 2 design game he programmed, having taken console at the top of the heap seri-
group, basing them in Knoxville, Tennes- over that project from another staff ously.
see in 1981. programmer. "Well, they tried," says Bob Harris.
It was through this newly-reorganized “Sales of the TI machine were very "But they didn't understand games. It
group that Bob Harris, known to classic disappointing, and Milton Bradley was not their business. At least they
gaming fans by the nickname of backed off on further work for it,” Har- set us up in a separate office 20
"RoSHa," continued his then-new career ris says, explaining why the name Mil- miles from the main building and
as a video game designer and program- ton Bradley doesn’t sit next to fellow mostly left us alone. As to what it
mer. "I wanted to do video games, and toy giants Hasbro and Parker Brothers was like...boy, thinking back almost
when I graduated from college in '79, as a video game manufacturer in the 20 years, it was a lot of work, a lot of
Atari replied to my persistent letters with minds of many gamers. “At that point, hours. It's not that management
'thanks, but we have all the people we Milton Bradley looked at doing games really pressured us to work a lot of
need.' I found a non-video-game job at for the Atari 2600. At the time, we had hours, though. The schedules were
Milton Bradley and, after about six reverse engineered the 2600, and had generally designed for us to be suc-
months, convinced them to let me try my a group working on games for it. I be- cessful - I think we were a little
hand at them.” lieve I saw some 2600 titles at the Mil- more relaxed in this regard than
Harris found that Milton Bradley un- ton Bradley booth at the ‘82 CES, but Atari was."
derstood the game market quite well…but I'm not certain if they ever took them to Working solo, the Odyssey 2
they may have pinned their hopes on the market. About the same time, they programmers could take any-
wrong platform. In explaining the situa- bought Vectrex (or bought a license to where from three to six months on
tion, Harris reveals that Milton Bradley build them), and though I don't remem- average to complete a new title.
played an important role in the genesis of ber any specific games, I think they must As Harris remembers it, "What
the Texas Instruments 99/4A computer. have released games for it.” Ironically, made for a lot of hours was being perfec-
“Milton Bradley had recently had a big hit both Milton Bradley and rival Parker tionists; trying to get the thing to play just
with Simon, and decided to staff up their Brothers were later bought out by Has- right, spending time playing each other's
own electronic development group bro. games, being critical and offering sugges-
around early to mid 1978. They decided Milton Bradley did, however, take their tions. You always had plenty of sugges-
to produce a video game machine, and games seriously. “Milton Bradley was tions, but it was still your project, so you
approached Texas Instruments with the pretty good if you liked games. We would had the final say-so."
Classic Gamer Magazine December 2000 38