Page 56 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #5

I I I I Howard Scott

Warshaw

learned
Most of
many things and • the information
got to meet many listed under
people at Classic here actually
Gaming Expo came from the
(CGE) 2000. Atari 2600 key-
You probably note, but he
don't care much was the liveli-
about who I met est panel mem-
in person for the ber and con-
first time tributed
(although it in- enough infor-
cluded the illustri- mation to war-
ous duo of Chris rant his own
Cavanaugh and section.
Sarah Thomas),
so I thought I'd share some of the • Although Yars' Revenge was
things I learned while there. There was • It took an entire day for Steve planned to be a Star Castle port, at
so much to see, do, and learn at CGE Woita to record the speech in no time did the programmed game
that I'm doubtless leaving out many Quadrun and get it under 700 actually resemble Star Castle any
interesting things, but Chris will only bytes. more than the final game does.
give me so much room. Most, but not Warshaw immediately realized that
all, of my new knowledge came from the 2600 wasn't capable of repro-
the discussion panels and keynote ducing the game well. (And be-
speeches. I primarily attended the sides, Atari ended up not getting
Atari 2600 related ones, so this article the license for it.)
is biased toward it. My apologies for
that. By covering what was new to me, • The original name for Yars'
I'm sure there will be something new Revenge was ‘Time Freeze’.
here for every reader, even if you're
Leonard Herman (whom I also met). • Steven Spielberg asked Warshaw
if he couldn't just do something like
Atari 2600 Panel Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial game. War-
• Steve Cartwright was Activision shaw said no, saying there was no
employee number 26. point in rehashing someone else's
game. In retrospect, he quips, it
• A two-man salvage team named may not have been a bad idea.
Seaquest sued Activision after • Approximately 10,000 Quadrun
seeing the Atari 2600 Seaquest cartridges were manufactured for • The comic book packaged with
game, thinking it had been named the Atari 2600. Yars' Revenge is a simplified ver-
after their business. sion of the story Warshaw created
• Mike Albis' (Atari Games em- for the game. He was given a
• Bob Polaro is currently writing ployee for 24 years) corollary to choice of taking credit for the
games in Java. He feels this has a Nolan Bushnell's theorem that "a game or the story, as credit for
lot in common with the old days of game should be easy to learn but both was too much, he was told by
video games where the games difficult to master": You should be Atari.
were one-man creations. able to play the game with one
hand in order to hold your beer or • According to Warshaw, Yars' Re-
girlfriend in the other. venge was the first game Atari pro-

• Brad Stewart played a game of
coin-op Breakout against newly
hired Ian Shepherd to decide who
would program the Atari 2600 ver-
sion. Stewart cleared the board
with his first ball, thus winning the
contest.

• Someone in marketing at Atari ac-
tually asked Rob Fulop where he'd
gotten the idea for the Atari 2600
game Night Driver. (It was an
Atari coin-op first.)

“Antenna” by Steve Woita “Star Castle”
Classic Gamer Magazine December 2000 56