Who Is Your Favorite Game Designer?

[Metal Jesus]

I'm gonna go with Looking Glass Studios, and not a specific person... because they developed some of my all-time favorite games: Thief 1&2 and System Shock 2, as well as Ultima Underworld 1&2.

[Cebus Capucinis]

Thomas Jentzsch!

Darrell Spice, Jr.!

and

Fred Quimby!

 

[Rex Dart]

I'm gonna go with Looking Glass Studios, and not a specific person... because they developed some of my all-time favorite games: Thief 1&2 and System Shock 2, as well as Ultima Underworld 1&2.

 

Thief's my favorite PC series ever... but it's not on 2600.

 

Now there's an idea for a homebrew.

[retrorussell]

David Crane was the only name I thought of before I jumped on this thread.

[+save2600]

Don't know if I could pick just one as they all contributed greatly to one of the worst systems ever to program for. These guys and gals pulled more rabbits out of their hats and literally ended up polishing a turd. Brought us so much enjoyment, and still, even after all these decades.

 

I don't think Carol Shaw has been mentioned yet, so gotta give it up for some River Raid.

 

Honorable mentions to:

 

Tod Frye - yes, even for his version of Pac-Man. There's a natural (or unnatural?) charm to it, despite how it turned out. And too bad Xevious wasn't finished. Looked to be a great start and surely could have been a great game.

 

Stephen Landrum's port for Startpath's 'The Official Frogger' and Dragonstomper are incredible.

 

HSW for E.T.

 

Glenn Axworthy for Midnight Magic. Awesome 2600 pinball "feel"!

 

Bill Aspromonte for Stargate.

 

Joe Hellesen and Joe Wagner for Wizard of Wor.

 

Doug Neubauer for Solaris.

 

Alan Miller for Starmaster.

 

Joe Gaucher for Popeye.

 

...and some of my favorite Homebrew authors:

 

Darrell Spice Jr. for Medieval Mayhem

 

Thomas Jentzsch for Jammed, Star Fire and Thrust

 

Simon Quernhorst for A-VCS-Tec Challenge and Paul Slocom's music for any game.

 

And John Payson for Strat-O-Gems Deluxe.

[ScumSoft]

Do any of the original atari programmers surface here and do new stuff? or have they almost all faded into the woodwork? I can understand them wanting to be anonymous so not to over-inflate the "ZOMG YOUR (insert name here), I love you!" posts.

I think it would be REALLY neat to see what they can do with the modern toolkits.

 

I grew up with classic consoles and love them, but I've never grown knowledgeable of the names in the industry. So forgive my ignorance when you toss out big names I don't recognize. I'll recognize the games, just not those responsible for them But I am a quick learner and am loving learning about the neat gaming history we have.

 

I've watched the David Crane GDC speech and he seems a likable fellow. I've also seen a preview for "Once upon atari", so I have a face now for HSW.

 

Aside from those two I know little to no one else responsible for the games I grew up playing.

But don't feel bad for my ignorance, I will watch popular movies and have no idea who the actors are by name (I am learning them though) so this isn't isolated to just gaming history knowledge.

 

With that, I don't have a personal favorite as I am just now getting introduced to them. But I will choose David Crane for now, since I like Pitfall and it was a part of my childhood favorites.

[maiki]

David Crane is the most experienced designer (coder) I think. My favourite: The guy behind A Star and Fall Down - really well designed games!!! and the guy behind Bee Ball - fantastic AI! edit: And also guy behind Stay Frosty... edit 2: John W Champeau - great talent to max out any game...

Edited July 19, 2011 by maiki

[2600dude]

David Crane hands down. All the games he made are a blast to play.

[+Cafeman]

If I could only mention one, I'd probably pick David Crane because of his solid work - mostly Pitfall/Pitfall II both of which were fantastic and still are fun to me to this day. Also because of the great interviews I've read with him.

 

But I can pick as many as I want! Nya Nya Nyaaa! So here are some more:

 

Enduro (Larry Miller) - this game is still very playable and was fantastic when released. Within the 2600 constraints, its just got so much arcade-racing fun, with unexpected variation and challenge.

 

River Raid (Carol Shaw) - I guess 3D tic-tac-toe was just a learning exercise for her, because she really hit it out of the park on this game.

 

Kaboom! (Larry Kaplan) - with paddles controllers, there's nothing as fast or quite like it on any other system. Kudos to mr. Kaplan for actually putting that ridiculous speed in the game and not watering it down for the masses.

[toptenmaterial]

Do any of the original atari programmers surface here and do new stuff? or have they almost all faded into the woodwork?

 

Good question. I suspect that most of them are elderly by now. The 2600 was released in '77, 3 years before my birth. My father was about 35 then, so I wonder how old these programmers were. On the other hand, my parents still work and are active in new projects (not computing).

[+Random Terrain]

I guess I'd have to say Warren Robinett for creating the template for replayable Atari 2600 adventure games and Howard Scott Warshaw for improving on the template.

 

David Crane did some cool technical things on the Atari 2600 and gave us professional looking games with higher quality graphics. But as a game designer, he was mostly a disappointment to me, especially when I bought Pitfall II: Lost Caverns.