Chapter 5

Cartridges and
Hon,e Consoles
(1976-1984)

The Second Generation

of Home Consoles
Dedicated units that played variations of ping-pong dominated the first genera-
tion of home consoles. A major drawback of these machines, however, revolved
around their inability to offer new content; once the novelty of playing the
game wore off, players quickly tired of them. As discussed in Chapter 3, these
machines flooded consumer outlets in the mid- to late 1970s and contributed
to the market crash of 1977. Just prior to this slowdown, however, Fairchild
Semiconductor followed by Atari each explored an alternative approach to
home consoles (Figure 5.1).This approach took inspiration from computers as a
single program could be switched into and out of the console's memory, poten-
tially allowed for an infinite library of games. Other companies later followed
this design concept as well, resulting in fierce competition as the home console
market expanded rapidly in the early 1980s. Spanning approximately from
1976 to 1983, these "second-generation" consoles introduced game concepts
and business practices that shaped the industry's development for decades.
Like prior dedicated consoles, arcade titles helped drive the popularity of
the second generation. Atari, the largest coin-op game developer, particularly
benefitted from porting its catalog of arcade hits to its home consoles, while
Coleco pursued exclusive licenses with arcade game developers. Even games
not originating in the arcade were commonly designed with arcade game-like

91
92 History of Digital Games

FIGURE 5.1 Fairchild Semiconductor released the first true cartridge-based

home console in 1976. The main unit, designed by engineer Jerry Lawson, con-
tained a number of built-in games as well as a cartridge port. The most notable
feature of the unit was its unconventional controllers that combined a push button
and rotary-like directional controller on a stick. (Photo Evan Amos. CC BY-SA 3.0.)

qualities. Despite the dominance of design ideas inherited from the arcades,
the period saw the early development of a new approach to games that were
more suited for play at home. These games utilized larger, more complex
game spaces and centered their play on exploration and the discovery of the
unknown. As such, their length of gameplay was measured in increments of
tens of minutes, or in the most extreme cases, hours, as opposed to the 90
seconds of gameplay favored by arcade game designers.
New ideas in game design coupled with arcade hits reconfigured for home
use, accelerated the young industry's growth in the early 1980s. By 1982, the
industry had reached unprecedented heights only to be followed by a dramatic
reversal. Multiple attempts at fast grabs for profit resulted in poorly designed
games and created instability that weakened consumer demand and led to a
collapse of the North American game industry in 1983.Companies like Atari
saw its divisions spun off while many others, like Coleco and Mattel, exited
the videogame market entirely. The void left behind allowed Japanese compa-
nies like Nintendo, Sega, and eventually Sony, to dominate the home console
market from the late 1980s through much of the present day.

Atari and the VCS

Following the success of its home Pong unit, Atari released a cartridge-
based console in 1977 called the "Video Computer System" or VCS (later
renamed the 2600 after its product number). Since the console was intended
for use in the home living room, the unit, like the Odyssey and Channel F,
was designed with a faux wood front that matched home electronic trends of
the 1970s. It was the unit's most iconic physical feature (Figure 5.2). Atari's
arcade game background was apparent in the design of the unit's two main
 Cartridges and Home Consoles (1976-1984) 93

FIGURE 5.2 The first of several models of Atari's Video Computer System known
as the "Heavy Sixer." Like Atari's Pong console, Sears released a version of the VCS
as well as numerous cartridges under its "Telegames" brand. (Photo by Evan Amos.)

controllers: one a rotary-dial paddle and the other, a single-button joystick.

The joystick, however, was not particularly well-suited for operation in the
home as a player needed to hold its base in one hand and manipulate the
stick with the other. While this awkwardness led to frequent hand cramp-
ing, it nonetheless allowed game designers to more easily translate the basic
controls of arcade games to home units.
The VCS, like other consoles of the time, was presented to the public as
a machine capable of many applications. Its launch titles ranged from Basic
Math (1977, Atari), an educational program centered on solving elemen-
tary-level math problems, to a simulation of the card game, Blackjack (1977,
Atari). The majority of the launch titles, however, consisted of games either
directly ported from or inspired by popular arcade games: Surround (1977,
Atari) was effectively the dueling maze game Blockade, Indy 500 (1977,
Atari) included a port of Atari's Crash n' Score as well as a game similar
to Gran Trak 10, Combat (1977, Atari) contained versions of Tank (1974)
and Jet Fighter (1975),while Video Olympics (1977,Atari) featured a number
of Atari's Pong variants. The debut of the VCS, however, was not met with
immediate success: issues in production quality plagued the system and the
glut of dedicated consoles slowed sales of home video games. In 1980, for-
tunes reversed as the VCS saw major gains, becoming the leader in the home
market and overshadowing the Fairchild Channel F.
Game Design for the VCS
The majority of development time for VCS games was spent primarily on
finding ways to display the game and achieve the programmer's goals as the
machine had a strict set oflimitations. From its earliest conception, the VCSwas
designed to play ball and paddle games like Pong and Quadrapong and duel-
ing/ shooting games like Tank and Jet Fighter. As such, the unit's hardware was
designed to produce two projectiles, a ball and two player-controlled sprites-
independently moving objects placed on top of a background. Additionally
the cartridges loaded into the unit initially held only 2-4 kilobytes of memory,
while the VCS could only hold a maximum of 128 bytes of data.
94 History of Digital Games

Despite these limitations, the VCS was remarkably flexible once its unique
properties were mastered resulting in greater longevity than expected.
Video Chess (1979,Atari), for example, presented a particularly clever set of
solutions to these limitations. Although it took programmer Larry Wagner
two years to write an algorithm to play chess on the VCS, one of the most
difficult parts was representing the pieces on the screen. A standard game
of chess gives each player 16 pieces to control distributed in two rows of
eight. Translating this to the VCS meant placing eight sprites in a row.
While certain techniques allowed programmers to place more sprites on
the screen, eight sprites placed next to each other exceeded the unit's capa-
bilities. Aiding Wagner was fellow Atari programmer Bob Whitehead who
developed a graphical technique called venetian blinds, which broke each
chess piece into segments of horizontal lines and horizontal spaces. Every
other piece was then offset relative to its neighbors, creating a slight wave-
like pattern among the rows of pieces. This technique reduced the num-
ber of sprites per row from eight to four, which when combined with other
techniques, allowed the VCS to display a full game of chess. The venetian
blinds technique was employed in several other games and is noticeable in
the score readout for the VCS version of Space Invaders (1980,Atari) (Figure
5.3). Video Chess, however, was so taxing on the machine that it did not have
enough resources to calculate the computer opponent's move and display
the pieces at the same time. This resulted in a random sequence of colors
briefly flashing across the screen between turns.
The development of Video Chess also led programmers to employ bank
switching on the VCS. Although the final version of Video Chess did not
utilize it, bank switching was a solution that allowed programmers to utilize
a double-sized, 8-kilobyte cartridge. With more space, games could feature
more game content, higher quality animations, and greater variety of visu-
als. The 1981 VCS port of Asteroids first made use of the technique. As the
price of the higher capacity cartridges had become more cost-effective,both
Atari and its competitors utilized this technique.

Changes at Atari
A number of changes occurred at Atari in the mid- to late 1970s. Atari
needed a significant injection of capital to produce the VCS, resulting in
the company's sale to Warner Communications in 1976. With Warner's
backing, Atari's facilities expanded and its already impressive international
presence grew even larger. The purchase, however, eventually led to friction
as Warner Communications' traditional management structure clashed
with the loose business culture at Atari. This, along with Nolan Bushnell
becoming increasingly distracted by his new side venture, Chuck E. Cheese's
Pizza Time Theatre, forced Warner Communications to initiate change.
Bushnell was removed from executive functions and left Atari in 1979.After
 Cartridges and Home Consoles (1976-1984) 95

FIGURE 5.3 Space Invaders (1980, Atari) for the Atari VCS.

Bushnell, several others of the company's original management departed

as well. In the wake of these high-profile departures, the new managers
at Atari realigned company focus to favor marketing and advertising and
put greater attention on the VCS. Marketing thus began to dictate not only
which games would be made, but also when they were to be released. This
led to an aggressive period oflicensing arcade hits outside of Atari's catalog.
The first was an adaption of Nishikado's Space Invaders arcade game to the
VCS (Figure 5.3). The popularity of the arcade version of Space Invaders
translated to the home as players bought new VCSs just to play the game at
home. While this led to phenomenal short-term profits, it created a number
of weaknesses that eventually came back to haunt the company.

Competition in the Home Market

The Emergence of Third-Party Developers
Throughout the second generation, it was common for a single individual to
be responsible for all parts of a game's development-the design, program-
ming, graphics, sound, etc. As such, the work of particularly talented individu-
als translated into great profits for the company. The games created by David
Crane, Bob Whitehead, Alan Miller, and Larry Kaplan, for example, consisted
of more than half of Atari's profits in 1978.While the company had a good year
and the executives received lavish bonuses, its programmers saw no change
in compensation and no public credit for their work. When Crane raised
these concerns to the company's upper management, they were turned away.
Further, in a news article about the company, Atari's new president referred
to its VCS programmers as "high strung prima donnas;' an off interview
quote that was published as part of the story. Disgruntled, Crane, Whitehead,
Miller, and Kaplan departed Atari in 1979 and with former Intellivision pro-
grammers, founded their own game company, Activision. In 1981, Atari
96 History of Digital Games

programmers Rob Fulop, Dennis Kolbe, Bob Smith, and others also departed
under the same circumstances, founding Imagic. The resentment of these ex-
Atari employees was made dear as the instruction booklets for both Activision
and Imagic games identified the programmers by name. Activision went a step
further and occasionally included the programmer's name on the cartridge
label, along with a picture and a personal message that unambiguously estab-
lished authorship.
These "third party" software developers such as Activision, Imagic, and
soon many more, represented a new practice in the game industry as studios
created games for hardware they did not own. As a result, both Activision and
Imagic became direct competitors to Atari, producing a number of highly
innovative and original games for not only the Atari VCS, but also other gam-
ing platforms such as the Intellivision, ColecoVision, and numerous early
home computers. The greater variety of game ideas resulted in successful sales
and helped keep the VCS in high demand through the early 1980s as com-
petition drove each of the companies to excel. Although Atari brought suits
against Activision, the case was thrown out. This effectivelyprovided the legal
basis for one company to produce software for another company's product,
resulting in a flood of other startups that also wanted to produce games for the
VCS. Although Atari's management eventually granted its VCS programmers
profit sharing through bonus packages, it had already lost some of its most
talented designers and created some of its strongest competitors.
The games produced for the VCS by Activision and Imagic were visually
distinctive from those of Atari. Both companies used brighter, more satu-
rated colors for their game worlds and featured some of the most advanced
animations for the platform. David Crane's Grand Prix (1982, Activision)
went beyond any of the previous race games offered on VCS as it included
multi-colored vehicles complete with tires that simulated rotation at dif-
ferent speeds. !magic meanwhile, established the first art department and
hired artist Michael Becker as the industry's first videogame art director.
This move was prompted by the state of visual quality in many second-gen-
eration games as programmers often did not have a background in art. With
a dedicated art department, not only did visuals improve, but the process of
creating them changed as well. Typically, a programmer laid out images on
graph paper, which allowed one to code the coordinates of the individual
pixels and their colors into the game. As this labor-intensive method was
slow and discouraged refining game visuals, Bob Smith and Rob Fulop cre-
ated tools that allowed artists to quickly edit pixel art and translate it into
computer code. !magic's Michael Becker first used these tools to create the
demon characters for Rob Fulop's Demon Attack (1982), which received
accolades for its art, animation, and gameplay. Soon after, as games grew in
complexity, it became increasingly common to divide the work of making a
game between programmers and artists.
 Cartridgesand HomeConsoles(1976-1984) 97

GAME AUTHORSHIP AND EASTER EGGS

Throughout the second generation, many programmers hid their names or
initials in their games. These Easter eggs typically required a great deal of
effort by the player to find-effectively a separate game played between pro-
gram mer and player. The first known occurrence of hidden names appeared
on games for the Fairchild Channel F. A collection of demonstration pro-
grams for the system known as Democart (1977) revealed the name of pro-
grammer Michael Glass if a certain combination of the machine's buttons
was pressed at the demo's end. Video Whizba/1(1978) displayed the name
"Reid-Seith" for its programmer Brad Reid-Seith if the player performed a
sequence of actions before starting a new game. The complexity of these
unofficial parts of the program grew quickly. Warren Robinett's Adventure
(1979, Atari) contained a secret room that displayed his name but was only
accessible if the player found a one-pixel gray box concealed in a gray wall,
then used it to walk through an impassable border. Although executives at
Atari and other companies were initially unaware that their programmers
were hiding their names, Atari, in particular, decided that Easter eggs like
these and others a desirable mystique and sanctioned their creation.
Howard Scott Warshaw of Atari created some of the most elaborate
and playful Easter eggs of the era that not only revealed his initials, but
also referenced his game career: after collecting seven Reese's Pieces and
turning them into Elliot in Warshaw's third game, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
(1982), the player could revive a dying flower that turned into an animated
"Yar" from Yar's Revenge (1982). The second time the player performed this
task, the flower changed into an "Indy" from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982).
A third time revealed the initials "HSW3" in the score area, to signify E.T. as
Howard Scott Warshaw's third game.
The creator's name or identity as an Easter egg continued beyond the
second generation almost as a tradition of the medium. Mortal Kombat II
(1993, Midway) contained a secret playable fighter named "Naab Saibot,"
the reverse spelling of the game's main creators, Ed Boon and John Tobias
while Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994, id Software) used a hidden target in the
game's final boss battle-the severed head of its founder John Romero.

Mattel and Coleco Enter the Console Market

Beginning in 1976, toy company Mattel released a number of L.E.D.
hand.held games based on various sports themes. The following year, the
company began developing the Intellivision, a home videogame console
designed to compete against Atari's VCS. The popularity of the handheld
games, however, and Mattel's reluctance to directly compete against Atari,
delayed serious action until the Intellivision was released in 1980. Much like
Atari's VCS, the initial Intellivision game catalog concentrated on variety,
featuring sports games, with a few gambling, board, and arcade-style games.
Mattel's marketing strategy presented the Intellivision as a sophisticated,
98 History of Digital Games

educational, and family-oriented entertainment system; it was "intelligent

television."The campaign also was keen to draw visual comparisons between
the Intellivision and VCS using sports games. Since the Intellivision could
more easily display a larger number of sprites, it was more able to represent
popular sports like football and baseball. The use of well-known journalist
George Plimpton as spokesperson further cemented the Intellivision'sidentity.
By 1982,however, the boom of the Golden Age arcade directed Mattel to
pursue more shooting-oriented games. A number of licensed arcade ports
produced by rival Coleco also made an appearance on the system at this time.
The Intellivision proved a strong competitor to the VCS and inaugurated the
first of many "console wars" in home videogames. In reaction to this, Atari
rushed production of the VCS's successor, the Atari 5200 Super System, a
decision that also would hurt the company. Atari had recognized that arcade
games helped sell home units and thus designed the 5200 using the sophis-
ticated hardware from its 400/800 line of home computers (see Chapter 6).
Although more powerful, the 5200 struggled to gain traction: it lacked unique
game offerings and its poorly designed controllers featured a non-centering
joystick that made gameplay feel "sloppy" (Figure 5.7). In addition, much of
the built-up anticipation for the Atari 5200 was deflated after Coleco released
its sophisticated home system in 1982,the ColecoVision.
Coleco emerged from the market crash of 1977 in financial straits.
Although its line of Telstar dedicated consoles, powered by the General
Instruments AY-3-8500"Pong-on-a-chip," had been successful, the flooded
market created difficult to absorb financial losses. Coleco's management,
however, was undeterred and, like Mattel, produced a number of handheld
sports games in the late 1970s. The surge in popularity of arcade games in
the early 1980s led Coleco to wisely secure exclusive licenses with a num-
ber of Japanese game companies including Nintendo, Namco, Konami,
and Sega. Coleco used these licenses to produce a line of miniature arcade
cabinets, complete with replicated cabinet art and joysticks (Figure 5.4).
Seeing an opportunity to compete with both Atari and Mattel, Coleco
used its exclusive licenses to push its 1982 cartridge-based home console,
the ColecoVision. In a stroke of masterful marketing, they packaged the
ColecoVision with a port of Donkey Kong, which, of all second-gener-
ation consoles, most closely replicated the images and sound of Shigeru
Miyamoto's original arcade game. Coleco's exclusive rights to the home
version of many Golden Age greats also allowed it to produce arcade game
ports for both the VCS and Intellivision. This earned the company signifi-
cant sales across all platforms and provided constant opportunities to show
the graphical superiority of its own system.
Despite being underpowered compared to its rivals, the VCS had a
head start, a well-developed library of ports from Atari's arcade division,
a few exclusive licensing deals and robust third-party development. These
 Cartridges and Home Consoles (1976-1984) 99

FIGURE 5.4 Coleco's Mini Arcade cabinets used VFD technology to create bright
colors that other small LED and LCD units could not replicate.

circumstances allowed Atari's VCS console to remain competitive in the

early 1980s. Both Mattel and Coleco targeted these great advantages by
creating accessories that allowed their systems to play Atari's VCS games.
The 1982 "Expansion Module 1" for the ColecoVision and the 1983 "System
Changer" for the Intellivision plugged into each console and accepted Atari
cartridges. Even Atari released an add-on that allowed its floundering 5200
console to play VCS games, although some models required an upgrade
at an official Atari service center first. The introduction of these add-ons
resulted in numerous marketing campaigns where each system, aided by the
extensive VCS catalog, claimed the ability to play the most games.

Beyond the Arcade

Adding Content to Home Console Games
Arcade games were the single greatest influence on designers of second-gen-
eration home console hardware and games, especially so after 1980. Much of
this was due to the desire to replicate the proven designs of certain coin-op
games. As such, designers of home console games like K.C. Munchkin! (1981,
Magnavox) and Astrosmash (1981,Mattel) strove to create the tension and
action of arcade games like Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Asteroids. The eco-
nomics that shaped game design in the arcade, however, were not the same
as those of the home. Without the need to insert a quarter into the machine,
home video games lost the single greatest choice made by the player-whether
100 History of Digital Games

to play the game again. With replay as a given, games for the home would be
played more frequently. Quick deaths and rapid increases in difficulty would
not justify the significantly greater cost for those who purchased game car-
tridges. Designers, thus, needed a way to extend the length of a player's inter-
action while still employing the qualities that made arcade games enjoyable.
The most common solution to extend play was to allow the player to
choose the level of game difficulty. This setting typically governed the num-
ber of lives one received, speed of enemies, or other variables that aided or
hindered the player's performance. The 1982 version of Donkey Kong for the
Colecovision, for example, offered a number of skill levels that set the game's
countdown timer at higher or lower values, while the difficulty switches for
the VCS's version of Frogger (1982, Parker Brothers) controlled how soon the
game's more difficult enemies appeared.
Another typical approach was a "game select" option that could substan-
tially change the nature of gameplay by altering rules. The Space Invaders-
inspired, Alien Invasion (1981, Fairchild Semiconductor) for the Fairchild
Channel F, for instance, featured 10 variations that allowed the player to
control the number of shots at a time by both player and aliens. Although
seemingly minor, these rule changes resulted in different gameplay experi-
ences. Games on the VCS were particularly notable for their high number
of variations. The two-player dueling game Combat featured 27 variations
spread out between six distinct games with different rules and graphics. One
of the more eccentric of these was the "Easy Maze, Billiard Hit, Invisible
Tank Pong" variation in which the dueling tanks were only visible at cer-
tain times and could only score a hit after a projectile bounced off the maze
walls at least once. The Atari VCS's version of Space Invaders contained an
astonishing 112 variations and included everything from invisible aliens
to a cooperative mode that divided the turret's left and right movement
between two players. Other variants such as those found in Video Olympics
and Basketball (1978,Atari) featured options for dueling against a human or
computer-controlled opponent. Often, the variations were so numerous that
manuals listed them in chart form for easy reference. Since programmers
needed every byte possible to create a complete game, these minor manipu-
lations were economical solutions to providing more gameplay.

Altering Time in Home Console Games

In addition to creating minor gameplay variations, game designers explored
ways to extend the home gaming experience by altering the way time was
used. This undercut a central pillar of arcade game design as a majority of
postwar electromechanical arcade games such as K.O. Champ (Figure 1.11)
and many early digital arcade games like Death Race (Figure 3.9), gave the
player a fixed amount of time for each coin. Additionally, the related rate of
 Cartridges and Home Consoles (1976-1984) 101

increase in game difficulty was also reconsidered. As discussed in Chapters

3 and 4, these systems were designed to limit a player's game time, allowing
the machine to acquire more money through replay or new customers. The
modification of this fundamental element of arcade games lowered stress on
the player and encouraged a more strategic or leisurely pace of play. These
modifications allowed the development of new game forms for home con-
soles; games focused on the exploration of space and the strategic manage-
ment of resources. Additionally narrative became increasingly important.
Critical to their development were the mainframe computer games of the
1960s and 1970s created and modified by amateur computer programmers.
Although several home console games still bore a resemblance to popular
maze and shooter-type arcade games, they nonetheless led to meaningful
distinctions between games for arcades and games for home consoles.

Adventure and Exploration in Console Games

Game designers had considerable freedom to develop games along their own
lines despite management and marketing divisions pushing programmers
to create games according to arcade conventions. Adventure (1979),by Atari
programmer Warren Robinett, set a precedent for graphics-based adventure
games throughout the second generation and beyond. Robinett wished to
re-create Don Woods and William Crowther's 1978 text adventure, Colossal
Cave Adventure (see Chapter 6). After he encountered the limitations of the
VCS, however, Robinett revised the concept and delivered an innovative expe-
rience focused on the search for a chalice through dragon-inhabited mazes
and torch-lit catacombs. He translated familiar text adventure keyboard
commands "GO NORTH," "PICK UP SWORD", and "USE KEY" to the one
button Atari joystick: this allowed players to pick up objects by moving over
them, to use objects by touching them with other objects, and to drop objects
with the push of a button. Without arcade elements such as score, timer, or
limited lives, players were free to explore and play at their own pace.
The most novel aspect of Adventure, however, was the space. In order to
create a feeling that the player had embarked on a journey, the game spanned
a set of screens and took the player through different environments: mazes,
castles, and catacombs. The catacombs in particular were visually innova-
tive as the player's view consisted of a small circle surrounded by blank space
that represented movement by torchlight. Throughout their journey, play-
ers needed to revisit certain spaces multiple times to collect items or slay
dragons, an unconventional use of space in light of the linear progression
through levels of arcade games. To add to the already relatively long game,
the player could choose a game variation that placed the objects and dragons
in random places throughout the game's world, allowing for a greater degree
of replay. These features helped make Adventure one of the most successful
games of not only the VCS, but of the entire second generation.
102 History of Digital Games

The medieval fantasy theme proved to be useful for extending gameplay

through exploration, as the pre-industrial setting conjured images of vast
natural landscapes with hidden dangers and rewards. The 1982 Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons (later retitled Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy
Mountain Cartridge), designed by Tom Loughry for Mattel's Intellivision
console, used this idea by dividing the game space between two levels: a
map-like overworld that represented a landscape of multiple terrains and a
subterranean maze of cave passages. The player's task was to find two pieces
of a crown guarded by winged dragons in the titular Cloudy Mountain.
In order to reach Cloudy Mountain, players needed to make their way
through a number of underground passages filled with monsters and, at
times, backtrack through previously explored areas to locate crucial items
(Figure 5.5).
Loughry felt that players needed to be presented with something new
each time they played; that surprise and discovery were the key attributes
of an enjoyable game. Randomization, thus, was a core part of Cloudy
Mountain's design, as each play session yielded a different configuration of
the overworld landscape and subterranean caves. Using similar mechan-
ics as the computer game Rogue (see Chapter 6), the space of each cave in
Cloudy Mountain was only revealed by exploration: this resulted in either
the surprise of finding a useful item or the shock of seeing a monster. To
keep the act of exploration even more full of tension, Loughry programmed
the monsters to signal their presence by emitting sounds from off-screen.
Loughry's follow-up adventure game for the Intellivision, Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin Cartridge (1982),proved to be an
even greater departure from the arcades. Inspired bya first-person adventure
game that Loughry played on a computer mainframe, Treasure of Tarmin

FIGURE 5.5 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain Cartridge (1982,
Mattel).
 Cartridges and Home Consoles (1976-1984) 103

provided a sense of immersion not seen on a home console (Figure 5.6).

The player, again tasked with finding treasure, descended through increas-
ingly difficult levels of a labyrinth, gathering weapons and armor of varied
quality in preparation for a final confrontation with the maze's minotaur.
Randomization again played an important role in the game experience, as
each level was assembled from various premade segments and included hid-
den doors leading to treasure.
One of Loughry's main concerns with a first-person perspective was the
ease with which a player could get lost. To help prevent this he incorporated
a compass in the interface, a screen-wipe that originated from the left or
right edge of the screen when the player turned and, finally, a set of markers
on the floor denoting the outside edge of each level. It also incorporated an
elegantly designed inventory system, managed by the player and accessed by
the Intellivision's unique disk and keypad controller.
The complex game play and process of character development in Treasure
of Tarmin required a significant time commitment on the part of the player, as
the Intellivision was incapable of saving the game's progress. The game's four
difficulty settings were measured in the number of levels required to reach
the final treasure, an estimated 5 minutes on the easiest setting, to 5 hours on
the most difficult. The memory resources needed to produce Loughry's two
games were significant, which demanded larger cartridges. Cloudy Mountain
was designed on a 6 kilobyte cartridge at a time when 4 kilobytes was stan-
dard, while Treasure of Tarmin was even larger at 8 kilobytes.
Exploration-based gameplay appeared in many other home console
games of the early 1980s. Haunted House (1982,Atari) placed the player in a
haunted mansion, searching for pieces of a broken urn. Since the game was
comprised of slowly feeling one's way through the dark by way of match light,
the game had no timer and awarded the player for using as few matches as

FIGURE 5.6 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin Cartridge (1982,
Mattel).
104 History of Digital Games

OVERLAYS IN LATER SECOND-GENERATION CONTROLLERS

Beginning with the lntellivision, many consoles featured controllers with
a numeric keypad similar to that of a touchtone phone (Figure 5.7). This
allowed game designers to program more actions and thus give the player
more choices, an approach avoided in the simple to control arcade games
of the period. The change of input helped remove one of the barriers to cre-
ating games that were better suited for play at home.
A problem with this type of controller design, however, was that any
one game might use a different configuration of the buttons, leading to
difficulties in controlling the game. To avoid confusion, game developers
created overlays that slid into the controllers over the keys. The overlays
helped direct the player's attention as unused keys were blocked out and
active keys were given meaning with labels and graphics. The lntellivision,
Emerson Arcadia 2001, ColecoVision, and Atari 5200 all used this method.
Despite being widespread, controller overlays were short lived. Third- and
fourth-generation consoles moved away from remotes with keypads and
adopted game pads with a simpler button and d-pad setup.

FIGURE 5.7 Atari 5200 Super System Controllers with overlays for Space Invaders
and Soccer. Each reveals the different input needs of each game.
 Cartridges and Home Consoles (1976-1984) 105

possible. Randomized locations of objects, again, played an important part

in the game's replayability. Howard Scott Warshaw's Raiders of the Lost Ark
(1982, Atari) for the VCS, reenacted the film of the same name and put the
player on a multi-screen adventure looking for the location of the Ark of the
Covenant. The complexity of the game necessitated an inventory system,
as multiple items were often required to advance to new sections. Since the
VCS joystick had a limited number of inputs, Raiders of the Lost Ark experi-
mented with the use of two joysticks-one to control the character, the other
to select items from the inventory.
A different approach to action and exploration was used in David
Crane's incredible 255 screen game, Pitfall! (1982, Activision). Pitfall!
required the player to move between multiple spaces in search of treasure,
often backtracking in order to retrieve an out-of-reach item (Figure 5.8).
Crane's design for Pitfall! allowed it to remain challenging for new and
experienced players without resorting to difficulty settings or game varia-
tions. The game had a unique approach to scoring, as collecting treasures
increased score but certain dangers, like rolling logs or falling into an
underground tunnel, would erode accumulated points. Other dangers like
crocodiles, quicksand, and scorpions resulted in an instant loss of a life.
The longer one played, the greater the chance that the score would fluctu-
ate, adding another level of challenge to experienced players. Further, he
used a timer set at 20 minutes. This feature allowed newer players, who
would presumably lose quicker, the opportunity to explore the large game
space and see its vast offerings without being required to hurry through
it. Once a player mastered the game's early challenges and played longer,
the timer became an important consideration and created a new source of
tension. The unique combination of elements, coupled with sophisticated
graphics that many thought were impossible to display on the VCS, made
Pitfall! one of the most highly regarded games of the second generation.

FIGURE 5.8
----------
A~a N

Pitfall! (1982, Activision).

i;;:-_
106 History of Digital Games

Resource Management Games on Home Consoles

Prior to becoming an Intellivision programmer in 1980,Don Daglow created
university mainframe games in the 1970s such as Star Trek, Dungeon and
others. Additionally, he designed a number of social studies-themed educa-
tional games that he used as a middle school teacher. When Mattel's man-
agement requested an Intellivision game that differed from arcade-style and
sports games, Daglow drew on his background to create Utopia (1981,Mattel).
The principal gameplay of Utopia was centered on managing an island com-
munity's happiness by building infrastructure and mitigating the effects of
natural disasters. It combined active resource gathering-moving a fishing
boat around the screen, with long-term strategic planning-building struc-
tures that modified elements such as the rate of currency gain, food produced,
and population growth. Like many second-generation games one or two play-
ers could play the game, each governing their own island. The game's systems
included uncontrollable weather patterns that could help or hinder as well as
affordances that created rebellions should the quality of life of the inhabitants
drop too low.
Utopia was one of the first "god games," as it allowed an omniscient
player to see all and direct all. The Intellivision's keypad controller was
well-suited for the gameplay: each button allowed the player to build a dif-
ferent structure, a method of interaction that appeared as a graphical user
interface in later simulation and real-time strategy games such as Sim City
and Command & Conquer (see Chapter 6). It was an immediate success and
earned praise as a game type that reinforced Intellivision's image as a more
sophisticated, "intelligent" console.
A similar management-type game, Fortune Builder (1984, Coleco),
appeared 3 years later on the ColecoVision (Figure 5.9). One or two play-
ers developed land by building infrastructure, residential areas, and com-
mercial spaces while managing a pool of money. The player used a scrolling
window to navigate the game space, allowing them to encounter a variety
of terrain such as mountains, rivers, and coastlines. Television bulletins
occasionally informed the player of severe weather and provided direction
for popular and unpopular activities among the city's inhabitants. Fortune
Builder was not as loosely structured as Utopia: players worked toward earn-
ing $250,000,000 in a set time limit or raced to reach the goal before their
opponent. Like Utopia, however, its design was wholly suited for play at
home as the game's relatively flat difficulty and longer gameplay time would
be unsustainable in an arcade context.
The map-like spaces of these games and others of the second genera-
tion like War Room (1983, NAP Consumer Electronics) meshed well with
the capabilities of the Intellivision and ColecoVision as they utilized til-
ing. As opposed to drawing each pixel and remembering their individual
 Cartridges and Home Consoles (1976-1984) 107

FIGURE 5.9 Fortune Builder (1984, Coleco).

positions, the tile-based lntellivision and ColecoVision systems created the

screen from sets of 8 x 8 pixel tiles. This reduced the amount of informa-
tion the processor needed to track and allowed for faster game performance.
Additionally, artists could create game visuals faster as tiles could be reused
to cover areas quickly. Tiling was particularly apparent in the landscapes of
Fortune Builder as the mountains and bends in the river were created from
the same sets of tiles. Each icon representing improvements on the land-
scape was also composed of a single tile. Tiling was not exclusive to home
consoles as many 2D arcade games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and
Gauntlet also utilized this method of creating graphics. It would also appear
in later 2D home consoles of the 1980s and early 1990s such as the Nintendo
Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and others.

Sports Games for the Home

Time of gameplay was also significant in translating sports-based games
from the arcades to the home. Atari's coin-op Football (1978),for instance,
granted the player up to 3 minutes of gameplay per quarter. Players who
wished to play longer needed to add additional coins, which broke up the flow
of the game or otherwise caused the player to adopt riskier strategies that
would result in a quick score. The game length of Bob Whitehead's Football
(1978, Atari) for the VCS, however, began with five minutes. Realsports
Football (1982, Atari) simulated a 15 minute game, with later titles adding
more time per play. In addition to football, designers recreated most of the
major sports in greater detail by including more of the sport's dimensions
of play; a trajectory that put sports-based games on the path to simulations.
108 History of Digital Games

The North American Console Crash

In 1982 the game industry was riding high and expanding rapidly; projec-
tions estimated that the industry would break two billion dollars some-
time during the year. Atari, itself, represented the majority of the industry,
with arcade games, home consoles, and home computers (see Chapter 6).
Atari's competitors also looked vigorous, as analysts predicted a high that
would run through 1985.These predictions, however, were based on grossly
inflated estimations of worth: the stock of Atari's parent company, Warner
Communications was selling at eight times its earnings, while Intellivision
producer Mattel was selling at four times its earnings. In addition to a false
perspective of the industry's worth, management at many game companies
failed to respect the process of game development leading to a number of
poor business decisions. The North American crash of 1983 was thus a per-
fect storm of circumstances occurring within a bubble ready to burst.
Perhaps the main factor that contributed to the crash was the attempt
by software developers to cash-in quickly by churning out a high volume
of games that were frequently substandard and derivative. Companies
large and small, many of which had little to no experience in digital games,
attempted to find success in a market that seemed to go only in one direc-
tion-up. But, as the major console producers lost control over who could
publish content on their systems, consumers were forced to wade through
an escalating volume of poorly designed or unimaginative games to find
quality.
Two high-profile releases by Atari, Pac-Man in the spring of 1982followed
by E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial during the year's holiday season, added to the
problems. Pac-Man was the most popular arcade game in the United States
after its 1980 debut. It spawned copious amounts of merchandise, multiple
strategy guides, a Top 40 song, and even a Hanna-Barbera animated series.
Expectations, thus, were high when Atari announced the game would be
available for the VCS in the early spring of 1982. Atari understood the
importance of the game in so far as its ability to generate profit, but it failed
to take the steps necessary to produce a quality product.
Rather than being assigned to an experienced programmer, the VCS adap-
tion of Pac-Man was put up for grabs and eventually found its way to pro-
grammer Tod Frye as his first project. Further, Atari management decided
to use cheaper 4 kilobyte cartridges rather than higher capacity 8 kilobyte
cartridges, severely limiting the game's scope. Frye's adaption, nonetheless,
faithfully recreated the rules and game mechanics of Pac-Man, but had little
of the game's feel and beloved visuals: the individually colored ghosts of
the arcade version were rendered in identical colors that flickered due to
the VCS's sprite limitations; the sounds and animations were limited and
choppy; it contained none of the cut scenes; and the colorful bonus fruit was
 Cartridges and Home Consoles (1976-1984) 109

FIGURE 5.10 The VCS Version of Pac-Man (1982, Atari).

replaced with a generic square set of pixels identified as a "vitamin" (Figure

5.10). Since Atari expected sales to be significant, it ordered the creation of
approximately 12 million cartridges, a figure that exceeded the estimated
number ofVCS consoles in the United States by a few million. This decision
was based on the assumption that the game itself would sell more consoles,
similar to what had happened with the VCS port of Space Invaders.
The development of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, was similarly compro-
mised by poor business decisions, the most significant mistakes coming from
Atari's parent company, Warner Communications. Warner, in an attempt
to persuade Steven Spielberg to direct films for Warner Communication's
film branch, Warner Studios, agreed to pay Spielberg an exorbitant sum
of $21 million dollars for the rights to create an E.T. game. With the deal
made, Warner informed executives at Atari that not only must a game
based on E.T. be made, but also that it be ready for the 1982 holiday sea-
son. Programmer Howard Scott Warshaw had experience producing games,
including the acclaimed Yar's Revenge (1982, Atari) and Raiders of the Lost
Ark, but was given just over 5 weeks to take the game from concept to pro-
duction. Despite this limited time frame, the game was fairly ambitious: an
exploration game based on collecting scattered parts of a device randomly
distributed through multiple screens in order to "phone home" while avoid-
ing scientists and FBI agents. Each screen allowed E.T. to execute a different
power that helped him on his journey. Nonetheless, since development times
for most second-generation games typically took a few months, quality test-
ing was skipped and the game shipped in an unpolished state that made it
frustrating to play. In particular, the gameplay was disorienting to players as
moving from one screen space to another could result in continuously fall-
ing into pits. Worse yet, Atari needed to sell a large number of cartridges to
recoup the $21 million licensing deal and return a slim profit, leading them
to produce 5 million cartridges.
110 History of Digital Games

Just as 1982 was a year of intense growth, 1983 and especially 1984 were
years of rapid contraction. Although Pac-Man and E.T.:The Extra-Terrestrial
initially made spectacular sales, the gameplay of E.T.,in particular, motivated
a large number of consumers to return the game. Retailers saw the demand
for nearly all console games evaporate and returned their unsold and often
unopened merchandise to Atari. Of the 5 million E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
cartridges produced, approximately three and a half million were eventu-
ally returned to the company from distributers. Other games were similarly
returned. Atari, with a backlog of multiple titles that retailers could not sell,
disposed of a majority of the overstock in a Sunnyvale, California landfill.
A small portion was sent to a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where
the dumping was sensationalized in local newspapers and national media,
growing in scale over time. The end result was a myth that the Alamogordo
landfill received all 3.5 million unwanted copies of E.T. and that the game
had single-handedly brought the industry crashing down.

Other Factors
The development and marketing fiasco of Pac-Man and E.T.,while extremely
damaging to Atari, was not in itself sufficient to cause the market crash.
The introduction of affordable home computers, like the 1982 Commodore
64, persuaded many consumers to purchase something with an applica-
tion beyond game playing (see Chapter 6). Consumer confidence was also
steadily eroded as many companies over-promised and under delivered.
Mattel released the Intellivision II in 1982, which despite its name, was iden-
tical to the original Intellivision except for a number of cost-saving elements
that lowered the quality of the product but allowed it to play VCS games via
the System Changer add-on. Mattel and Coleco both produced other add-
ons that turned their consoles into fully functioning home computers; how-
ever, Mattel's did not materialize until it was too late and Coleco's ''Adam"
computer conversion kit did not sell well. Further Coleco had rushed its
1983 Adam computer into production to meet a promised shipping date,
half of which were returned as defective.

Fallout of the Crash

As sales of home videogame consoles and cartridges declined, many game
producers large and small were forced to shut down. Coleco exited the mar-
ket completely in 1985. Mattel closed its electronics division in 1984, how-
ever investors bought the rights to the machine and continued to release
games and units until 1990.Nonetheless, the Intellivision would be seen as a
minor player in the upcoming era of the Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment
System (see Chapter 7). Warner Communications sold the home console
and computer division of Atari in 1984 to help finance the company's value
drop and in 1985,the coin-op arcade division was sold as well. Parts of Atari
 Cartridges and Home Consoles (1976-1984) 111

Inc. bounced between various companies around the world throughout

the 1980s and 1990s. It continued to produce home video game consoles
through the mid-1990s with the Jaguar, but the brand never regained its
earlier status. While home consoles took the brunt of the damage from the
crash, arcades in the United States too suffered as an estimated one-fifth
closed their doors in 1983.Smaller venues such as bowling alleys and movie
theaters, however helped keep arcade games in demand through the 1980s
and 1990s.
It is important to keep in mind that the crash of 1983was confined largely
to North America. The console industry in the early 1980s was not as devel-
oped in other parts of the world, at times resulting in little indication of
anything that could be construed as a "crash." Much of this was due to the
greater popularity of home computers in Europe and elsewhere, as they rep-
resented a different market and catered to a wider array of gaming pref-
erences. Nonetheless, the fallout created a vacuum that allowed Japanese
companies like Nintendo, Sega, and Sony to rekindle the home console
market in North America and lead it through much of the contemporary
context.
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http://taylorandfrancis.com
 Chapter 6
Ho111e Computers
(1977-1995)

The Microcomputer Revolution

In 1974, computer visionary Ted Nelson wrote the combined books Computer
Lib/Dream Machines: a counterculture-infused introduction to computers and
computer concepts aimed at the general population with the tagline "You can
and must understand computers NOW." Nelson's motivation stemmed from his
concern with the fundamental misunderstandings of computers by the public
and what he saw as narrow-minded computer applications by government and
corporate entities. Nelson believed that computers had already remade society
by 1974 and would continue to do so at an ever-increasing pace. He saw them
as machines capable of empowering humanity and fostering limitless creativity.
His book, fighting against restriction, coercion, and "cybercrud," aimed to cre-
ate a population that was both educated and critical about computer use.
Nelson's book was timely as the mid to late 1970s saw the first "microcomput-
ers." Unlike time-shared terminals connected to minicomputers like the PDP-1
(see Chapter 2), microcomputers were intended for individual use. Technology
companies Apple, Commodore, and Tandy (owned by Radio Shack) released
the first set of preassembled, mass-produced microcomputers in 1977:the Apple
II, Commodore PET, and TRS-80. Coin-op arcade and home console manufac-
turer, Atari soon followed with the Atari 400 and Atari 800 computers in 1979.

• Nelson, T. 1974. Computer Lib: You Can and Must Understand Computers Now. Chicago: Nelson.

113
114 History of Digital Games

In England, inventor, Clive Sinclair released the affordable ZX80 and ZX81
computers while Acorn Computers created a string of machines including
the 1981 BBC Micro. As the price of computer components tumbled in the
early 1980s,computers such as the British ZX Spectrum and North American
Commodore 64, combined high performance and affordability, helping to
place computers in homes throughout the decade.
As the new class of microcomputers was marketed to both businesses and
individuals, knowledge of computers was imperative for future political, eco-
nomic, and cultural development. Universities and elementary schools began
teaching how to use computers through educational software, word pro-
cessors, and even programming languages. Special arrangements between
computer manufacturers and schools led to machines like the French TO 7
computer, part of a French educational initiative called "dix mille micro-
ordinateurs" (10,000microcomputers). In England, the British Broadcasting
Corporation initiated the BBC Computer Literacy Project, leading not only
to the creation of the BBC Micro but also weekly television programs of
the 1980s such as The Computer Programme, which aimed to educate the
population of the British Isles on how to use computers. Although Nelson's
prescient Computer Lib/Dream Machines predicted the need to "understand
computers NOW," it was centered on minicomputers and did not anticipate
that the true revolution would come on the wings of the microcomputer
(hereafter referred to as simply "computers" to prevent confusion).

Computer Games of the

Late 1970s and Early 1980s
The first consumer model computers were marketed primarily on their
text-based applications such as programming, organizing payrolls, learning
mathematics, and keeping track of inventory. The graphically robust Apple
II, for instance, gained its prominence through VisiCalc (1979, VisiCorp),
the first computer spreadsheet program. Game development was seen by
marketing bodies as a secondary function of these machines. Nonetheless
the Apple II, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and the Atari 400/800 comput-
ers were particularly popular for game development because of their ability
to display more complicated graphics and superior sound.
Early games for computers explored various approaches to game design
including clones or derivatives of Golden Age arcade games, simulations
of card and board games, and the adaption of minicomputer games. As
the capabilities of computers were limited in memory and processing
power compared to their larger cousins, it was essential for programmers
to employ memory-saving tricks, especially for advanced graphics. A com-
mon method involved programming in assembly language, where the pro-
grammer directed the processor's individual actions through abbreviated
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 115

words and numbers, frequently resulting in unintelligible strings of com-

mands. This contrasted with higher-level languages such as BASIC, which
automatically translated clear word commands into multiple actions under-
standable by the computer. For example, a program that displayed the text
"hello world," could be simply executed with one line of code in BASIC,
while the same program in assembly language could take upwards of 12
lines of code. Saving a few bytes could result in a game with more appeal-
ing visuals or a larger scope, as was the case with Elite (see below). The most
significant advantage of the tedious assembly language, however, was the
greater degree of speed: games written in assembly could outperform those
written in BASIC by a wide margin leading to a significant difference in
quality.
As opposed to home console games that were sold at established store
chains and packaged professionally, marketing for early computer games
was informal. Game disks in the United States were commonly packaged
in resalable plastic bags with short, photocopied manuals and sold in local
stores. This zine-like quality with small runs and local distribution meant
that few of the early consumer computer games reached national audiences.
In England, retail distribution was hardly an option until the mid-1980s:
programmers instead distributed games via mail order, often sent from their
home address. Nonetheless, the late 1970s and early 1980s saw the devel-
opment of three unique genres of commercial computer games: adventure
games, role-playing games, and simulation games-all of which were con-
nected to the games produced for minicomputers by hackers in the 1970s
(see Chapter 2).

COMPUTERS AND SECOND GENERATION CONSOLES

Early consumer computers shared a number of similarities with second
generation consoles. Both contained the same or similar 8-bit processors,
both used home televisions for display, and both could even use some of
the same game controllers (Figure 6.1). Both types of machines functioned
in similar ways as neither was capable of storing information on internal
hard drives. Programs, such as games, needed to be loaded into the com-
puter's random access memory (RAM), which temporarily held the informa-
tion while the machine was running. Computers, such as the Tl-99, Atari
400, Atari 800, and Commodore 64, also used cartridges as the standard
method of loading programs. Higher capacity 5.25" floppy disk drives were
initially uncommon because of expense and were typically sold separately.
Finally, most early computers, like home consoles, featured a closed archi-
tecture design that did not allow upgrades; the main exception being the
ability to add more RAM.
116 History of Digital Games

FIGURE 6.1 Challenger Turbo Deluxe Joystick Controller (left) with unconven-
tional pivoting dome and the motion-sensitive Le Stick joystick by Datasoft (right).
Both plugged into DE-9 connection ports, which were used, among others, by the
Atari VCS, Commodore 64, Atari 400, Atari 800, and many MSX-spec computers.

From Text to Graphic Adventure Games

One of the earliest types of commercialized computer games was interac-
tive fiction. Interactive fiction games used descriptive blocks of text rather
than images, to communicate the setting and actions within the game
world. Players issued commands by typing words on the keyboard. While
the games contained several kinds of play, including turn-based combat, the
main focus was on exploration and puzzle solving.
The first interactive fiction game was Adventure, or Colossal Cave
Adventure, created on a university mainframe minicomputer by Will
Crowther in 1975 and modified in 1976 by Don Woods. Crowther's game
simulated the exploration of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. It combined ele-
ments from his background as a caver with fantasy aspects from the tabletop
version of Dungeons & Dragons (see Chapter 2). Adventure featured puzzles,
a combat system and score: players earned points for exploring, collecting
treasure, and bringing it back to the surface after descending through the
caves. The original game allowed only two-word commands, such as "GO
IN" or "OPEN DOOR," due to limitations of the FORTRAN computer lan-
guage that Crowther used.
Adventure also differed from earlier games like Spacewar!, in that it was
primarily played via monitor-less teletype terminals connected to a cen-
tral minicomputer. Players entered commands into a keyboard and waited
for the distant computer to process, then sent back the result through long
sheets of paper from the terminal's printer. The game became popular on
mainframe minicomputers in the late 1970s and spread via the ARPAnet
as well as other forms of sharing. Microsoft eventually obtained permission
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 117

from Crowther and Woods to produce a version of the game as Microsoft

Adventure (1980),touted as a "complete version of the original."
Adventure's design concept inspired a number of other interactive fic-
tion games, of which Zork (1980, Infocom) was one of the most significant.
Zork began as an effort to top Adventure by programmers at MIT's Dynamic
Modeling Group consisting of Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels,
and Dave Lebling; Lebling, as noted in Chapter 2, cocreated an ARPAnet-
playable version of Maze War. For Zork, the group created a setting, puz-
zles, and creatures using rich descriptive blocks of text. Like Dungeons &
Dragons, characters had hit points, used different armor types, and engaged
in combat with trolls and other fantasy creatures. One of the game's most
famous elements was the Grue, an unseen creature that killed players if they
lingered too long in dark areas. This added high tension as players had to
consider whether to use a limited supply of lantern oil or risk the perils of
the darkness.
Zork's most significant improvement over Adventure was the design of a
text parser that allowed the computer to understand variations of the same
command. For example, "GO NORTH" and "WALK NORTH" produced
the same result of moving the character. This provided a greater degree
of accessibility, as it reduced the need to hunt for the correct command to
accomplish the action. Further, the range of commands could be more com-
plex than two words, allowing the game to have a variety of interactions and
puzzles; objects could be used in conjunction with the environment through
phrases such as "TIE ROPE TO RAILING," further expanding the immer-
sive capabilities.
Members of the original Zork group incorporated in 1979 as Infocom, a
company initially dedicated to developing productivity software for com-
puters. In the meantime, Zork spread through the ARPAnet and became a
favorite on mainframe minicomputers where, like Adventure, it was played
via terminal and printouts. The members of Infocom, seeing an opportunity
in computer games, worked to bring Zork into the commercial context. The
central hurdle in this adaption was the game's size as it was one megabyte
or approximately 1000 kilobytes, well beyond the maximum 48 kilobytes
of RAM on even the highest performance Apple II computers. The solu-
tion involved more efficient compression methods as well as cutting large
amounts out of the original game. Zork's initial commercial release in 1980,
was followed by Zork II (1981)and Zork III (1982),each containing elements
cut from the original.
Infocom initially used a publisher for its games, but after a string of prob-
lems, decided to self-publish its software. The company built a reputation
on its interactive fiction games, releasing more than 20 throughout the
1980s,despite the computer game industry's growing emphasis on graphics.
Infocom ran an aggressively anti-graphics ad campaign in the mid-1980s,
118 History of Digital Games

expounding on the merits and depth of using one's imagination rather

than relying on the computer display. The company also gained fame for
its inclusion of "feelies," small tangible items directly related to the game.
The feelies for Infocom's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1984), for
example, included papers representing "Destruction Orders for Your Home
and Planet," an empty bag representing "Microscopic Space Fleet," and a
"Don't Panic" button, among other items.
Although Infocom resisted graphics, other adventure game companies
made graphics a central part of their games, feeling that text-only games
were wasteful and did not take full advantage of a computer's capabilities.
On-Line Systems, founded by husband and wife team Ken and Roberta
Williams, began its line of adventure games with the Hi-Res Adventure
series. Inspired by Crowther and Woods' Adventure, Roberta Williams
designed Mystery House (1980, On-Line Systems), a game that closely fol-
lowed the design conventions of Adventure: players read text descriptions
of the scene and used two-word commands to solve a murder mystery.
Roberta Williams' game was, however, a major departure from formula: it
used simple line drawings to visually represent the player's view of the game
spaces (Figure 6.2). This combination of text and image helped compen-
sate for the shortcomings of each mode of presentation; images reduced the

FIGURE 6.2 Hi-Res Adventure #1: Mystery House (1980, On-Line Systems).
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 119

need for lengthy text descriptions, while words clearly identified the visually
ambiguous objects in the rooms. Visuals also offered clues to the solution of
puzzles rather than explicitly communicating them via text. As the sophis-
tication of visuals in graphics-based adventure games grew, the player's need
to be sensitive to subtle cues also became greater.
The second of the Hi-Res Adventure games, The Wizard and the Princess
(1980, On-Line Systems), combined text entry with images, but did so with
full color graphics, a setup used in subsequent Hi-Res Adventure games
through 1983. The color capabilities of early home computers were limited
to a specific palette: game artists compensated for this by creating greater
visual subtlety through employing optical color mixing, an technique that
relied on the human eye's ability to blend different colors placed closely
together. A regular pattern of red placed in a field of white, created pink;
black pixels in a field of blue created navy blue. A number of computer
games from all genres of the early 1980s used this approach, particularly
those featuring large images on the screen.
On-Line Systems, renamed Sierra Online in 1982, initiated a major turn-
ing point for the burgeoning adventure game genre with Roberta Williams'
fairytale-inspired King's Quest (1984, Sierra Online). The game was the
result of a collaborative effort between IBM and Sierra Online to help
demonstrate the color graphic capabilities of the ill-fated IBM PCjr home
computer. Each of the game's 80 single screen spaces were represented in
vivid blocks of multiple pure colors rather than the mixed colors used in
other adventure games. The impressive graphics of King's Quest, however,
required conscious use of computer resources as storing each of the game's
80 game spaces would have used too much disk space. The game, instead,
relied on vectors to draw the outlines of objects, which were then filled in.
The effect of outlining, then filling, was seen each time the player moved to
a new space. Although it was slower to draw the graphics this way, it allowed
the game to have a larger world.
The gameplay of King's Quest was also significant as players directed an
avatar through various animated screens using a joystick or arrow keys. This
imparted a sense of depth, as the game's protagonist, Sir Grahame, could
move vertically and horizontally in the game space, walking in front of or
behind objects such as rocks, trees, and walls. King's Quest retained text
commands for opening doors and picking up objects. This provided a dif-
ferent experience, as the position of the character on the screen became an
essential consideration for the execution of actions. For example, players
needed to move Sir Grahame in front of a door before typing the "OPEN
DOOR" command. The combination of controlling the character and using
typed commands remained consistent through subsequent sequels until
King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! (1990, Sierra Online),
which adopted the icon-driven, point-and-dick interface.
120 History of Digital Games

Early Computer Role-Playing Games

The late 1970sand early 1980ssaw the beginnings of commercialized CRPGs,
a genre that became a staple of computer gaming in the mid to late 1980s. As
opposed to text adventures, which replicated the story-telling aspects of the
tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, CRPGs featured robust systems for simulated
combat with monsters or other foes. This led to the same "hack-and-slash"
style of gameplay seen in the Dungeons & Dragons-inspired PLATO net-
work games of the 1970s (see Chapter 2). Although more combat intensive,
early CRPGs moved at a more methodical pace akin to a board game rather
than the comparative hyper-speed of their contemporary arcade games.
Gameplay, like tabletop RPGs, followed a prescribed order: creation of
a character or party of characters, purchase of equipment and supplies,
descent into a dungeon and combat with monsters. Often the games incor-
porated a first-person perspective with simple graphics representing rectan-
gular hallways. Players plodding through the spaces created maps on graph
paper, as computer resources were limited. So universal was this form of
gameplay, that CRPGs became synonymous with the term "dungeon crawl."
Gameplay frequently culminated in a battle with a dragon, evil wizard, or
other powerful enemy, a pattern long established by several earlier games on
PLATO. Two early-1980s games proved particularly successful and influen-
tial on later releases: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981,
SRI Tech) and Richard Garriott's Ultima (1982).
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was designed by Robert
Woodhead and Andrew Greenberg for the Apple II computer. The game
attempted to reproduce the PLATO network's multiplayer, party-based
games like Oubliette, but in a single player format. Wizardry, unlike other
early CRPGs, allowed players to manage a party of six characters instead
of a single character as they embarked on a quest to retrieve an amulet
from a IO-leveldungeon. Like a character sheet from the tabletop version of
Dungeons & Dragons or the many dungeon-based PLATO games, the initial
version of Wizardry displayed a large amount of information all at once to
the player: various key commands for actions, active spells, the name and
status of each party member, and a simple line drawing rendered in perspec-
tive that represented the dungeon hallways. Wizardry became one of the
most popular CRPGs, despite its graphic simplicity and extreme difficulty,
spawning an entire franchise that remained strong throughout the 1980s. It
was particularly influential in Japan and was one of the games that helped
shape the basis for Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs) (see Chapter 7).
In the late 1970s, high school student Richard Garriott taught himself
computer programming by creating games inspired by Tolkien's Lord of
the Rings novels and tabletop role-playing games. After gaining proficiency
with programming and game design, Garriott then self-published one of
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 121

his test games, Akalabeth: World of Doom (1980),while still in high school.
Although sold at local computer shops, the game gained the attention of
software publisher California Pacific, which promptly licensed and distrib-
uted Akalebeth nationally.
Garriott's first game as a professional was Ultima (1981), which fea-
tured many refined concepts explored in his earlier noncommercial games.
Ultima's story was a postmodern mash-up that blended medieval fantasy
with science fiction as players used a time machine to graduate from leather
armor and axes to vacuum suits and blasters in order to confront and defeat
the game's final evil wizard. The game world featured a variety of environ-
ments: vast natural landscapes, towns, and subterranean dungeons that
encouraged players to explore.
Ultima used a map-like overworld with icons to represent the various cit-
ies and dungeons in a continuous shifting of perspectives (Figure 6.3)-an
element similarly employed the following year in Tom Loughry's Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain Cartridge for the Intellivision (see
Chapter 5). Players that moved over the city icon from the turn-based over-
world map abruptly transitioned into a large populated game space where
the player could purchase supplies or talk with certain inhabitants. Walking
over a dungeon icon in the overworld map, meanwhile, changed the view
to a first-person labyrinth where players hunted for treasure and looked for
secret doors much like Wizardry and other dungeon-based games on PLATO.
Combat against enemies such as bats, necromancers, ores, and knights, like
the rest of the game, followed a turn-based procession of action. Similar to
contemporary text adventures, contextual information about the environ-
ment, the results of combat and dialog between characters were communi-
cated through a text box. Following the closure of Garriot's publisher and a
brief stint with Sierra Online, Garriott formed Origin Systems in 1983.With

FIGURE 6.3 Ultima (1982, Origin Systems).

122 History of Digital Games

Origin Systems, Garriott was able to exercise greater creative control over
the direction of his work.
From his first game through Ultima III: Exodus, Garriott remained the
sole programmer, designer, and artist of his games. As the Ultima series
became more popular, however, it was necessary not only to expand the
game development team, but also to explore new narrative and gameplay
themes. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985, Origin Systems), departed
from the typical hack-and-slash, dungeon crawl style of gameplay that had
dominated CRPGs as it took place in a world where the monstrous forces
of evil had already been vanquished. Gameplay, instead, revolved around
developing eight personal virtues in a game where the main enemy was
internal. Although combat against small antagonists remained a part of the
game, objectionable player actions that eroded the social fabric of the game
world such as lying, stealing, or cheating other characters limited one's abil-
ity to embody the virtues, providing an innovative form of consequences
for choices. Once the player had developed their character through virtuous
acts such as helping others, the player ventured into the Great Stygian Abyss
in search of the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom and returning it to the surface.

Other Directions in CRPGs

First-person dungeon crawling games were not the only CRPGs to emerge
from earlier games on minicomputers. Rogue was a turn-based minicom-
puter game developed by Michael Toy, Glen Wichman, and Ken Arnold in
the early 1980s. Inspired by Adventure, Rogue retained the latter's use of
text to describe the contents of rooms as well as the results of player actions.
The game, however, featured none of the farmer's puzzle solving and instead
emphasized "hack-and-slash" gameplay against monsters. The game space
was constructed from ASCII characters with the player represented as an
"@" symbol, while each of the game's 26 monsters corresponded to a differ-
ent letter of the alphabet. Players of Rogue, as in the many computer games
inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, gathered gold, gained levels, collected
powerful items, and fought increasingly dangerous monsters. The game's
most distinctive element, however, was its ability to randomly generate each
of the dungeon layouts. This feature was created in response to the limited
replayability of text adventures like Adventure and Zork, as puzzle solutions
and maze layouts remained identical in subsequent playthroughs.
Rogue was eventually released as a commercial game for the IBM PC in
1984,where it retained the use of its iconic text-based visuals; later versions
ported to other computer platforms throughout the 1980s,however, featured
more representational graphics. Thanks to its randomly generated dun-
geon layouts, Rogue was a popular computer game and spawned a subgenre
of "roguelike" games. Its commercial debut, however, was not successful
due to rampant software piracy, which forced its developer out of business.
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 123

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FIGURE 6.4 Computer games such as Star Control (Toys for Bob, Inc., 1990)
requested a special phrase upon startup that was generated from a three-ply code
wheel.

This issue plagued many computer games of the time, leading developers to
utilize cypher-based copy protection measures in the late 1980s and early
1990s such as game manuals, special black and red reference cards that were
difficult to photocopy as well as code wheels (Figure 6.4).

Flight and Vehicle Simulations on Computers

Flight Simulator (1979, subLOGIC) began as a 1975 thesis project by Bruce
Artwick while at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Heavily
based on the earlier PLATO flight simulators, Airace and Air.fight, Artwick
attempted to prove that consumer grade computers were capable of com-
puting real-time simulated flight. Adapting his thesis project to the com-
mercial context, Artwick founded the software company, subLOGIC with
Stu Moment in 1978 and eventually produced a version for the Apple II
and TRS-80. Consisting of 36 square miles of space rendered in wireframe
visuals, players engaged in free flight over airports, bridges, and mountains
(Figure 6.5). Flight Simulator, however, included a "British Ace" mode of
play that allowed users to engage in World War I-style dogfights with com-
puter-controlled enemies, as well as perform bombing runs of the enemy's
airbase and fuel depot. Players earned points for enemies shot down and the
amount of damage done to fuel depots.
124 History of Digital Games

FIGURE 6.5 Flight Simulator (1979, subLOGIC).

The commercial release of Flight Simulator was highly successful and

gained the attention of Microsoft, who, after licensing the game, began pro-
ducing its long series of Microsoft Flight Simulator games in 1982.Each sub-
sequent release increased the level of graphical realism as well as the size of
the game world. The series became notable for its use of separately sold add-
on cities and planes that presaged the popularity of downloadable content
(DLC) for games in the contemporary context.
Although later versions of Flight Simulator did not contain the com-
bat elements of the original, several other early computer games made
flight and combat a central part of gameplay. Atari's Star Raiders (1979)
for the Atari 400/800 computer drew inspiration from the space com-
bat sequences of Star Wars: players flew through a simple star field in the
blackness of space, fought enemy spacecraft, and jumped between sec-
tions of the galaxy through hyperspace. In addition to its action gameplay,
the game contained the strategic element of deciding which areas of the
galaxy to defend. Invading forces that destroyed star bases severely ham-
pered the player's ability to repair and resupply for the hyperspace jumps,
thus complicating the gameplay. The popularity of Star Raiders, like many
combat-focused flight simulation games, extended beyond computers to
home consoles as the game was eventually ported to Atari's VCS and 5200
consoles in 1982.
Flight and vehicle simulators played an important role in establishing
the reputation ofLucasfilm Games (later renamed LucasArts) as an innova-
tor in computer game technologies and design. An offshoot of Lucasfilm
Ltd., the film studio headed by Star Wars director George Lucas, Lucasfilm
Games grew out of the company's special effects-based computer divi-
sion. The group, formed in 1982,was led by veteran programmer and game
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 125

FIGURE 6.6 Bal/Blazer™ (1984, Lucasfilm Games). (Courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

LCC©.)

designer Peter Langston, who had cocreated a turn-based minicomputer

game, Empire (1971)while at Harvard University:
Aided by an initial partnership with Atari, the new studio released
its first games, Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus! in 1984 for the
Atari 400/800 computers. Ballblazer combined elements of ball and
paddle games with a first-person vehicle simulation as opposing play-
ers attempted to carry and launch a ball through moving goal posts to
score points. Because of the emphasis on movement and competition,
the game's visuals needed to clearly and economically communicate the
illusion of perspective and the sensation of movement. Ballblazer, thus,
represented its game space as a simple checkerboard pattern of alternat-
ing colors (Figure 6.6). To better communicate the smooth sensation of
movement, it incorporated the technique of anti-aliasing, which reduced
the appearance of hard, jagged edges on the checker boarded playfield.
In addition, distant objects appeared to dip below or rise above the hori-
zon line, suggesting a curved playing surface. Ballblazer was also notable
for its procedurally generated soundtrack that combined a number of
smaller "riffs" into a different musical composition each time the game
was played.
The other launch title of the Lucasfilm games group was Rescue on
Fractalus!, a combat-focused flight simulator that involved picking up
downed space pilots and destroying enemy laser guns and ships (Figure
6.7). Rather than wireframe graphics or an outer space setting, Rescue on
Fractalus! took place in a complex mountainous environment that was

• Not to be confused with John Daleske's 1973 Star Trek-themed, Empire, for PLATO (see Chapter 2).
126 History of Digital Games

FIGURE 6.7 Rescue on Fractalus™ (1984, Lucasfilm Games). (Courtesyoflucasfilm

Ltd. LLC©.)

based on the work of Loren Carpenter of the Lucasfilm Computer Division.

Previously, Carpenter had created the computer-generated terrain for the
"Genesis effect" sequence from the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
(1982)by using fractal geometry.
Fractal geometry allowed computers to create more natural looking ter-
rain than that created by hand. It could be produced by simple sets of repeat-
ing, ruled patterns that represented an efficient use of computer resources.
After David Fox of the Lucasfilm games group approached him with an idea
for a game, Carpenter was able to significantly simplify the fractal-generated
terrain process, allowing it to run on a consumer grade computer. Fox then
crafted the remaining game around the landscape. Rescue on Fractalus! fol-
lowed many elements of flight simulators through its control scheme com-
posed of individual flight commands for adjusting thrust, landing, turning
off the ship's systems, opening the air lock, and activating the boosters to
return to the mother ship. Similar versions of the fractal technology devel-
oped for Rescue on Fractalus! were also used in other games from the stu-
dio, The Eidolon (1985) and Koronis Rift (1985),both of which presented the
game space from a first-person perspective.
In England, meanwhile, the innovations of the space-based flight simu-
lator Elite (1984, Acornsoft Limited) catapulted the British computer game
industry to international prominence. David Braben and Ian Bell of Jesus
College, Cambridge began development of Elite as a demonstration of 3D
graphics on the BBC Micro. Refining the technical aspects further, the two
worked toward a game that replicated the expansive fictional worlds of Star
Trek and Star Wars. It also drew on elements such as the space station dock-
ing sequence from Stanley Kubrick's 1969 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. With
a playable demonstration of the game completed, the two were able to secure
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 127

FIGURE 6.8 Elite (1984, Acornsoft Limited).

Elite'spublication through Acornsoft, the software development division for

the BBCmicrocomputer (Figure 6.8).
Elite had one of the largest game worlds created on any platform of the
day: 2500 planets with alien races spread across eight galaxies. Players were
encouraged to explore the vastness of the game space by buying and selling
commodities at different docks across distant alien markets. Those looking
for fast money could trade in illegal cargo; however, they risked running
afoul of authorities and becoming wanted felons. In addition to manage-
ment and cargo hauling, the player could collect bounty on space pirates
and attack other cargo ships, also a felony, providing elements of action
through 3D dogfights in space. The length of play of Elite extended well
beyond what was typical of the many arcade-derived games for computers:
a single game could be played for weeks as the player attempted to reach
"elite" status through accumulating more than 6000 kills before succumb-
ing to pirates, the authorities, or both.
The size, complexity, and nonlinear nature of Elite's game world and
the ability to play everything from hero to villain, made it one of the ear-
liest commercial instances of open world sandbox gameplay. These fea-
tures, in addition to the ability to customize the capabilities of the player's
ship, were all the more impressive as Elite ran on the BBC microcomputer
which had only 18 kilobytes of usable memory at the time. The marvel of
this seemingly endless game was accomplished by Braben and Bell's mas-
tery of assembly language, which saved space and improved performance
of the 3D objects.
128 History of Digital Games

Visuals and Action-Adventure Games for Computers

Detailed graphics became an increasingly important part of computer
games as larger capacity 5.25" floppy disks and new models of comput-
ers with better visual capabilities-the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and
more powerful versions of the Apple II-arrived on the market. This, seen
across all genres, was illustrated by the differences between the Hi-Res
Adventure titles and King's Quest. Visual richness was also seen in a num-
ber of original action-adventure games that combined puzzle solving with
faster play reminiscent of arcade games. For example, Silas Warner's World
War II espionage game, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (1984, Muse Software)
featured characters wearing German-style military outfits, a contrast to the
stick figure visuals of Warner's previous Escape from Castle Wolfenstein
(1981, Muse). English developer, Ultimate Play the Game (later known
as Rare), built a reputation on smooth animation, detailed graphics, and
responsive controls in the mid-1980s through its isometric Filmation
game engine, which made its debut in Tim and Chris Stamper's Knight
Lore (1984).
As visual detail became a greater selling point for games in the mid-
1980s, programmers often struggled to produce appealing art and smooth
animations. Some, however, like programmer Jordan Mechner, were able
to overcome deficiencies by employing innovative techniques. Rotoscoping
was an animation method developed by Max Fleischer in the mid-1910s.
In it, individual frames of video were traced on paper. This allowed an
animator to produce life-like movement without the need to work out each
individual frame. Mechner, inspired by his film history classes at Yale in
the early 1980s, used the technique in two action-adventure computer
games, Karateka (1984) and Prince of Persia (1989).Both also used the cin-
ematic conventions of classic film to provide narrative structure to their
games.
Mechner's Karateka drew from the samurai epics of Japanese director
Akira Kurosawa to produce an action game set in feudal Japan. For the
game's visuals, he shot film footage of his family and their karate instructor,
which was then traced onto graph paper and then coded into the game pixel
by pixel. The game's plot centered on rescuing the protagonist's kidnapped
girlfriend from an evil warlord. Karateka began with an introductory narra-
tive segment that revealed the game's story without using words. It showed
the cruelty of the warlord, the anguish of the woman's plight, and entrance
of the hero; distinct musical themes accompanied each character and helped
communicate individual personalities. Gameplay entailed increasingly dif-
ficult martial art fights that required players to consider different attacks and
counter attacks against a single opponent in a slightly choppy side-scrolling
game space (Figure 6.9).
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 129

FIGURE 6.9 Karateka (1984).

Prince of Persia, even more ambitious in the design of its gameplay, also
used rotoscoping and dialog-less cut scenes to communicate the story. Its
Arabian Nights-themed narrative told of the player's unjust imprisonment
after a coup by the sultan's advisor, Jaffar. When Jaffar's advancements on
the sultan's daughter are refused, he gives her an hour to live unless she mar-
ries him. This narrative element structured the gameplay as the player was
given 1 hour to escape the maze-like dungeon of pits, falling platforms, spike
traps, and sword-wielding enemies. Narrative elements also extended to the
game's action, which included drama-filled sword fights rotoscoped from
actors Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone in the 1938 film, The Adventures of
Robin Hood. Mechner's cinematic approach to game creation also extended
to the interface as it was virtually nonexistent; the only visible element was a
set of simple, unobtrusive triangles at the bottom of the screen representing
health.

The Mouse and Computer Games

of the Later 1980s and 1990s
The mid to late 1980s saw the introduction of a new generation of 16 and
32 bit computers designed with more robust multimedia capabilities. They
were responsible for accelerating the revolution in graphic design, video
production, animation, and other creative areas, fundamentally transform-
ing their professional practices. Although platforms like the Apple II, ZX
Spectrum, and Commodore 64 continued to be popular throughout the
decade for creating and playing games, developers rushed to take advan-
tage of higher resolutions and new forms of interaction available through
the Apple Macintosh, the Atari ST, and Commodore Amiga. Since the new
130 History of Digital Games

computers produced higher screen resolutions, specially designed computer

monitors became essential, phasing out the living room television as a com-
puter display. As the capabilities of home computers grew, the demand for
larger storage capacity grew as well: the size of programs and files made
hard drives another essential component. Relative to floppy disks, hard
drives accessed information quicker and eliminated the need to swap disks
in the middle of gameplay.
The most significant changes for computers and game design came with
Apple's Macintosh. Announced through an iconic commercial that ref-
erenced George Orwell's novel 1984, the Macintosh was presented as a
tool of freedom for a population "held captive" by constraints of other
companies' computers. Designed for use by the broader population, the
Macintosh was made to be approachable through its pairing of a mouse
and graphic user interface (GUI). Using the mouse to issue instructions
introduced a spatial dimension to computer interactions that eliminated
the need to memorize a large number of text commands. Users could pro-
cess information visually through commands in pull down boxes grouped
by common themes or through icons and buttons that paired familiar
office items with computer functions. The Macintosh, however, was not
the first commercial instance of a GUI and mouse combination, as seen on
the Xerox Star of 1981 and the Visi On GUI of 1983,but it was a watershed
moment that signaled the beginning of the GUI's popularization. The fol-
lowing year Microsoft launched its first version of Windows, while GUis
also appeared on the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga computers. For
games, mouse-driven interactions and icons became the heart of a num-
ber of new design concepts, which changed existing genres and aided in
the creation of new ones.

Later Role-Playing Games

Since the majority of CRPGs featured a plethora of systems that tracked
hit points, experience points, weapon damage, spells, inventory, food, and
more, the games tended to feature information-dense interfaces spread out
across multiple different screens. Players typically toggled these interfaces
through keyboard shortcuts that added to the already significant number of
regular keyboard commands. Dungeon Master (1987,FTL Games) was one
of the first CRPGs to use the mouse to move between different information
screens. The player was able to check inventory, character stats, equip weap-
ons, and change the marching orders of party members in the first-person
dungeon crawler, using boxes with character names and icons. Movement,
spell casting, weapon attacks, and picking up items from the ground also
could be executed with the mouse, creating a more seamless approach to
interaction.
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 131

The game was also significant for its departure from the systems of the
tabletop Dungeons & Dragons that had shaped the CRPG genre. Dungeon
Master was played in real time, rather than in turn-based movement and
combat, meaning that careful consideration and board game-like strategy
was replaced with a need to react and make decisions quickly. Spell cast-
ing in Dungeon Master was brought about by building spells from sets of
symbols powered from a pool of mana points, instead of the Dungeons &
Dragons system of limited spells cast per level, per day. Another notable
departure was that characters in Dungeon Master increased their skills
through practice, much like the earlier Moria on PLATO.This allowed char-
acters to uniquely develop according to each player's individual play style
rather than as a fixed progression of gaining levels. These elements, plus the
game's large windowed, first-person perspective, made Dungeon Master an
immersive experience that garnered multiple awards and served as inspira-
tion for a number of later CRPGs.
By the early 1990s, nearly all CRPGs were designed for mouse input.
Icon-based interfaces, particularly beneficial for CRPGs, helped simplify
the complex text-based control schemes. The Amiga and Atari ST versions
of several games published by Strategic Simulations Inc. such as Phantasie
(1987), Demon's Winter (1988), and Eye of the Beholder (1990, Westwood
Associates), along with Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (1990, Sir-
Tech Software, Inc.) and Richard Garriot's Ultima VI: The False Prophet
(1990, Origin Systems), all featured redesigned interfaces that promoted
efficient management of the game information. Mouse-based interfaces
for CRPGs remained the basis for interaction through the 1990s and early
2000s despite great diversification in design and gameplay.

Developing the Point-and-Click Adventure

In the mid to late 1980s, Lucasfilm Games began working in the graphic
adventure genre with Labyrinth: The Computer Game (1986), based on the
1986 fantasy film Labyrinth. The player had 13 hours to defeat the game's
antagonist, Jareth (based on David Bowie's character from the film) who
was located in a castle at the center of the labyrinth. Like the conven-
tions of interactive fiction and graphic adventure games, the player gath-
ered items and used them to solve puzzles in order to progress. Unlike
Zork and King's Quest, however, Labyrinth: The Computer Game did not
employ typed text commands, but used two boxes; one containing a list
of verbs such as "open" or "talk" and the other, nouns, such as "door" or
"Jareth." The design of this interface with pre-written text prevented the
often frustrating message of "I don't understand," which was a common
response for mistyped words or words outside of an adventure game's
vocabulary.
132 History of Digital Games

The interaction via menus of text in Labyrinth: The Computer Game

was further refined in Lucasfilm Game's Maniac Mansion (1987), themed
as a parody of B-horror films. From a group of six teenagers, the player
selected a pair of companions to aid in a quest to rescue the main charac-
ter's girlfriend from a mad scientist's mansion. Through Lucasfilm Games'
playful humor and animated cut scenes, the player solved puzzles by col-
lecting and manipulating objects in the game space. Some puzzles were
only solvable by certain characters, adding variety to the gameplay and
allowing players to experience the game differently based on their charac-
ter choices.
Originally designed for a single button joystick on the Commodore 64, the
game's interface allowed players to pair a bank of verbs with objects in the
game space by selecting them (Figure 6.10).Selecting "open" and then mov-
ing the mouse over the graphic depiction of the door, for instance, directed
the player's character to open a door. This method of interaction governed
the performance of actions, talking to people or examining objects, in a
similar manner. The following year, the game was ported to the IBM PC,
where it allowed players to use either the keyboard arrow keys or the mouse,
allowing point-and-click interactions. Although mice were not standard
equipment at the time, point-and-click gameplay was revolutionary for the
adventure game genre.
In order to speed up the game's creation and provide an efficient way to
interpret the commands, programmer Chip Morningstar aided designer
Ron Gilbert by developing the Script Utility Manager for Maniac Mansion,
otherwise known as SCUMM. For Lucasfilm Games, the SCUMM engine
proved to be remarkably versatile. It and its many revisions powered

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FIGURE 6.10 Original Commodore 64version of Maniac Mansion™ (1987, Lucasfilm

Games). (Courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC©.)
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 133

much-admired games, such as Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

(1988), the pirate adventure The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) and later, the
motorcycle adventure game, Full Throttle (1995).
As mice became more common, the interfaces of adventure games
moved away from words and depended entirely on icons. One ofLucasfilm
Games' more unique point-and-dick adventures was Brian Moriarty's
Loom (1990). Set in a fantasy world with mystical craft guilds, players
guided a young weaver, Bobbin Threadbare, on a journey to protect the
world from forces of chaos. The basic setting and motivation were typical
of many adventure games, but the interface and game design were not.
Loom, unlike the bank of text commands used in Maniac Mansion and
other Lucasfilm games of the period, used a musical note interface to cast
spells by clicking a series of notes (Figure 6.11). The spell effects ranged
from simple commands that opened doors, to the ability to spin straw into
gold. Throughout the story, players learned an increasing number of spells
and versatile ways to apply them, including playing the notes backward for
a reverse effect. For the sake of immersion in the narrative Moriarty omit-
ted or modified, many expected "game-like" elements from Loom. These
changes included removing the potential for player death, eliminating the
need to collect and combine objects located in disparate locations, and
cutting difficult puzzles that served as roadblocks to progression. Loom,
thus, was designed to be completed.
Loom's success represented the growing presence of a diverse, but under-
served population of playersless interested in the arcade-like, challenge-based
gameplay that dominated the popular market. Loom's more casual-oriented
design provided an alternative approach that was explored by other games
of the period, like Myst (see Chapter 8), and continued through games like
The Sims (see Chapter 9) as well as later independent games based on narra-
tive exploration (see Chapter 10).

FIGURE 6.11 Loom™ (1990, Lucasfilm Games). (Courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC©.)
134 History of Digital Games

Infocom and Sierra Online also developed adventure games for mouse
interaction. An early mouse implementation was used in Beyond Zork: The
Coconut of Quendor (1987,Infocom) created by Brian Moriarty prior to his
employment at Lucasfilm Games. The combination adventure/role-playing
game, although entirely text based, drew a simple map of lines and rectangles
as the player explored the game space. The player, on certain computer plat-
forms, could click the map with a mouse to ascend or descend into new spaces.
Steve Meretzky's text-based Zork Zero (1988, Infocom), featured an interface
bordered in color and used graphic puzzles, as well as the option to navigate
via mouse. Return to Zork (Activision),had by 1993,completely adopted mouse
and icon-based gameplay as well as graphics that represented the world, using
an immersive first-person perspective much like dungeon crawling CRPGs.
At Sierra On-Line, Roberta Williams' third-person, King's Quest V:
Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! (1990) completely abandoned the use
of text and focused solely on mouse input through icons that moved the
character and interacted with the game world. Subsequent games by all
three major producers of adventure games, as well as those produced by
other companies, continued strong into the 1990s, as many began to move
away from pixel art and toward film and computer-generated 3D imagery
(see Chapter 8).

THE RISE AND DOMINANCE OF THE IBM COMPATIBLE PC

The consumer computer market from the early 1990s onward coalesced
around Apple's Macintosh line of computers and the IBM PC, despite a
bevy of new computers in the later 1980s. Apple's computers had a long
lineage of supporting the creation and play of computer games, but the IBM
PC was still largely seen as a machine for business purposes as initial mod-
els featured little to none of the multimedia capabilities of other computers.
However, the IBM PC featured an open architecture design that gave users
the ability to upgrade not only memory, as seen in many other comput-
ers, but also the individual components of the hardware, such as proces-
sor and motherboard. "IBM compatible" computers sold by companies like
Compaq, Gateway, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard replicated this design feature
throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
The open architecture design, significant market penetration in the busi-
ness world, and familiarity with IBM compatible PCs, offered an opportu-
nity to expand into games. A number of technology companies in the late
1980s, such as Creative Technology Limited and ATI Technologies, began
to develop powerful sound and graphics cards that brought the PC supe-
rior multimedia capabilities. With third-party hardware development, the PC
quickly rose to prominence, eclipsed competing computers, and became
the standard for computer gaming that has remained largely unchallenged
(Figure 6.12).
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 135

FIGURE 6.12 Interior of an IBM compatible PC from the mid-1990s showing the
open architecture concept.

Management and Strategy Games in the

Late 1980s and Early 1990s
Don Daglow's 1981 Utopia for Intellivision (see Chapter 5) represented one
of the first "god games," wherein omniscient players developed an island
nation and managed its population, using an overlay on a 12-button keypad.
In the late 1980s, several strategy and management games on home comput-
ers not only expanded the gameplay of the early concept, but also effectively
digitized the keypad overlay in the form of a GUI using pull down menus
driven by the mouse.
In 1984, game designer and model builder Will Wright created one
of his first commercial games, Raid on Bungeling Bay. The game con-
sisted of a top-down arcade-like shoot 'em up in which the player shot
down enemy planes and bombed enemy factories, using a helicopter.
While the game was successful and received a port to the Famicom/NES
as well as Japanese MSX-spec computers, Wright found more pleasure
in arranging the placement of buildings, roads, and other features in the
game's level editor. This activity led Wright to investigate systems related
to civic engineering and city planning, as well as the work by British
mathematician John Conway and his Life systems dynamics simulation
program from 1970. In the interim, Wright cofounded game company
Maxis with Jeff Braun, eventually resulting in the creation of SimCity
(1989, Maxis).
136 History of Digital Games

FIGURE 6.13 The original DOS version of SimCity (1989, Maxis). (Courtesy of
Electronic Arts.)

In Sim City, the player received resources in the form of tax dollars, space
to build, and a number of construction options that ranged from residences
to airports (Figure 6.13). Little, however, directed the player toward a spe-
cific type of play, as SimCity was not designed with an end goal. Players
could build a variety of cities as they interacted with the game's many sys-
tems, including taxes, crime, pollution, traffic congestion, and population.
The game was also built around mouse interaction and featured an icon-
based interface inspired by the GUI of the Apple Macintosh's MacPaint art
program.
In addition to SimCity, Sid Meier's Civilization (1991, MicroProse) rep-
resented another major innovation in management game design from the
period. MicroProse, cofounded by Sid Meier and Bill Stealey in 1982, built
a reputation on realistic, military-themed, flight simulators, such as F-15
Strike Eagle (1984) and F-19 Stealth Fighter (1987),the latter utilizing simple
3D polygons. Meier, by the turn of the decade, however, wanted to explore
other game ideas. After partnering with Bruce Shelley, a former Avalon Hill
board-game designer, the pair created the business simulation game, Sid
Meier's Railroad Tycoon (1990, MicroProse), a game that drew from Francis
Tresham's 1974 railroad building board game called 1829.
The success of Railroad Tycoon pushed Meier and Shelley to continue
looking beyond military flight simulations and into strategy-based man-
agement games. Inspiration came from the city-building gameplay of Will
Wright's SimCity, the board game Risk, Railroad Tycoon, and other sources.
The end result was Civilization, a game where players nurtured a fledgling
nation over thousands of years, from prehistory through the space age. The
turn-based game allowed players to set building projects, found cities, set
government types, trade, and go to war with neighboring nations. Although
more structured than SimCity, the game allowed significant freedom of play
and featured three distinctive victory conditions centered on building, con-
quering, and surviving.
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 137

One of the most important design features of the game was its technol-
ogy tree, a series of branching technological developments that allowed
players to advance their civilization from pottery making to space flight.
With each newly discovered technology, players could create new types
of buildings and units along with other types of advances. The ability to
choose one's path through the technology tree, along with random map
generation at the beginning of each new game, allowed for a high degree
of replayability.

Synthesis and Development of the RTS Game

The more casual gameplay of SimCity and Civilization proved popular, but
not all game developers were satisfied with the open-ended goals of SimCity
and the methodical turn-based gameplay of Civilization. Westwood Studios
(formerly Westwood Associates) applied its experience in real-time action
and the simplification of game interfaces, seen in its earlier CRPG Eye of
the Beholder, to the creation of the strategy game, Dune II: The Building of a
Dynasty (1992,Westwood Studios). Dune II, based on Frank Herbert's 1965
science-fiction novel Dune and its 1984 film adaption, pitted dynasties from
the fictional Dune universe against each other in a battle to control spice
production on the desert planet Arrakis.
The design of Dune !I's core gameplay was reminiscent of elements from
Will Wright's SimCity and Sid Meier's Civilization; the player placed individ-
ual structures in the game space while directing the movements of military
units. Like the technology tree of Civilization, the creation of certain build-
ings gave the player the ability to produce new units as well as additional
structures. The game interface, too, featured a windowed view of the game
world surrounded by a frame of buttons and mouse-driven icons. Dune II
set itself apart from these earlier strategy games, however, by pressuring the
player to make simultaneous decisions about managing resources, building
structures, producing units, and fighting the enemy in real-time. This accel-
erated, strategy-based gameplay became known as real time strategy (RTS).
Although earlier games such as The Ancient Art of War (1984, Everyware),
Carrier Command (1988,Realtime Games Software Ltd.), Herzog Zwi (1988,
Technosoft Co. Ltd.), and Populous (1989, Bullfrog) contained several of
these elements, Westwood's game created the basis from which the majority
of others would follow.
Westwood Studios followed the success of Dune II with Command and
Conquer (1995), a semi-futuristic RTS that mixed real-life military units
with science-fiction elements (Figure 6.14). More so than Dune II, the
armies of Command & Conquer showed greater asymmetry: units differed
in cost, health, range, speed, and damage, elements that required constant
evaluation in the game's skirmishes. Command & Conquer also refined the
138 History of Digital Games

FIGURE 6.14 Command and Conquer (1995, Westwood Studios). (Courtesy of

Electronic Arts.)

interface and further streamlined the interactions, increasing the speed and
flow of gameplay. Movement and attack orders could be issued to unlim-
ited units via simple mouse clicks in the game space without clicking action
icons. In addition, the player's view of the battlefield scrolled effortlessly in
eight directions by positioning the mouse at the screen's edge. The game
used the larger storage capabilities of the CD-ROM to present the narrative
through full motion video segments that combined live actors with com-
puter-generated 3D backdrops, a setup used by other games of the early to
mid-1990s (see Chapter 8).
While Westwood Studios based its RTSs on ideas of realism enhanced by
a sense of techno-science fiction, the early RTSs of Blizzard Entertainment
(formerly Silicon & Synapse) drew from medieval fantasy themes, particu-
larly those from the tabletop war game, Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy
Battles (1983, Games Workshop). Blizzard's inaugural RTS, Wareraft: Ores
and Humans (1994),was created out of a desire to add competitive multi-
player gameplay to the basic design of Dune II.
In Wareraft: Ores and Humans, like Dune II, players built bases, gath-
ered resources and directed armies of units, each with different strengths
and weaknesses. The game differed from Dune ll's build/expand/fight
setup, however, by introducing greater variety in the missions and inte-
grating the game's original mythology into the gameplay. For example,
the Ore campaign's mission, "The Dead Mines," did not feature base-
building gameplay and instead gave the player a limited number of units
to move through a dungeon-like environment in search of the Ore war
chief's daughter. The game's sequel Wareraft II: Tides of Darkness (1995,
Blizzard Entertainment), like Command & Conquer, similarly utilized an
 Home Computers (1977-1995) 139

asymmetric approach to each side's units and added further variety to the
mission types.
Following Westwood and Blizzard Entertainment, other studios pro-
vided unique forms and variations on the evolving RTS genre. Z (The
Bitmap Brothers, 1996) eliminated the base-building component and
focused on capturing enemy territory with armies of gun-crazed, beer-
drinking robots. Total Annihilation (Cavedog Entertainment, 1997) used
well-designed artificial intelligence and innovative specialized units ren-
dered in three-dimensions. Age of Empires (1997,Ensemble Studios) brought
a historical approach to the RTS, akin to Civilization, as players advanced
through epochs of time.
Westwood continued to release new titles and expansions in the
Command & Conquer franchise, with the alternate history-theme
Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996, Westwood Studios), which made
Internet-based, multiplayer game play a central feature. Blizzard's StarCraft
(1998), however, proved to be a standout in the genre as its asymmetric
design was ideal for competitive multiplayer gameplay (Figure 6.15). The
game featured three distinct factions, each with different buildings and
systems, while every individual unit's strength was countered by an oppo-
nent unit's abilities. The user interface made the most pertinent informa-
tion available at a glance through floating overlays displaying resources
and unit health. The game space also functioned differently through the
use of an isometric perspective allowing for the tactical use of height that
granted increased vision and weapon range. These elements created the
potential for a dynamic tug of war, where a well-orchestrated counter move
could suddenly alter the momentum of a battle; features that helped estab-
lish professional e-sports game leagues.

FIGURE 6.15 StarCraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 1998).

140 History of Digital Games

StarCraft was also more visually complex than many of its RTS predeces-
sors. The main parts of the user interface were moved from their traditional
position on the sides of the screen to the bottom, changing the proportions
of the game space from square to rectangle and giving an overall cinematic
impression. Instead of pixel art, the units consisted of pre-rendered sprites
created from 3D models, the same technique used to create the charac-
ters of Killer Instinct (1994, Rare), Donkey Kong Country (1994, Rare), and
Blizzard's own roguelike Diablo (1996).
The combination of 2D and 3D elements affecting the visuals and game-
play of StarCraft and other games of the period connects to a larger discus-
sion on the transition to 3D in the 1990s. As discussed in Chapter 8, the
occasionally awkward mixture of 2D and 3D across different genres was
fueled by a desire for visual and spatial realism as developers desired state-
of-the-art fully 3D characters and environments without losing the visual
fidelity offered by the tradition of pixel art. Chapter 9, meanwhile, discusses
the successful implementation of fully 3D visuals and spaces in the late
1990s as well as within contemporary game design.