DATA AGE

[Klove]

That's my theory, too.

[LeeJ07]

You met the real Activision programmers? That's amazing!

[Klove]

I've met some. I've worked with others. I've worked with Garry Kitchen, David Crane, Dan Kitchen, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead. I've traced down all of the original alumni and then some. The only person I've not spoken to or haven had contact with, is Steve Kitchen. Though, I'm pretty sure I know where he is.

 

I've dealt with many of the original Atari 2600 programmers / classic gaming industry people, though. I interviewed with Atari back in the Jaguar days. Agreed to come on-aboard, but then dealt with John Skruch and that killed the deal for me. Heck, I even went to the only Jaguar Developer's Conference they ever had.

 

Sadly, it was a pretty laughable experience. Met the HIgh Voltage guys there. The amount of people that showed up was pretty silly. :-(

 

They did give away some pretty cool stuff though.

 

About 2 Years ago, I had an interview up in Sunnyvale on Borregas I think it was. A couple doors down from one of the original Atari corporate offices. After the interview, I thought.. "Why not go check out the Atari building." I did.

 

I actually went into the building and video taped my wandering around the facility, opening various doors that I could open, while filming with my cell phone.

 

I still have the video, but it's pretty big in size. I wanted to go up on the roof... AND.. I could've. I mean I found the roof door and it opened. BUT.. then I thought... "All I need is to get up there 'n' some idiot call me on it." How do I explain that? :-(

 

Anyway.. The office today is pretty much subdivided into various smaller offices.

 

What's funny, I thought was ... I remember thinking that if ever anyone asked me who I was looking for or if they could help, I'd tell them I was looking for a business colleague of mine by the name'a Sam Tramiel. I'd then apologize profusely for barging in on them and basically play stupid.

 

- Ken

Edited July 19, 2014 by Klove

[LeeJ07]

Oh wow, that's all SO COOL! I can only dream of meeting the programmers and visiting the Sunnyvale place.

Edited July 19, 2014 by LeeJ07

[high voltage]

 

 

Sadly, it was a pretty laughable experience. Met the HIgh Voltage guys there.

 

 

- Ken

Cool, I don't remember a thing, must've been the drugs.

[freewheel]

Oh wow, that's all SO COOL! I can only dream of meeting the programmers and visiting the Sunnyvale place.

 

When I did my computer science degree lo these many years ago, I'll never forget something a professor said: in every other science, we're constantly discussing dead people. In comp sci, almost all of the original people are still alive and you can talk to them.

 

Now, this was a while back and things have changed on that front, but your comment reminded me: pretty much every videogame programmer, developer, artist, sound design person, etc in history is still alive. This will not be the case for very much longer. We have a narrow window of maybe a decade or two, and then we'll lose their stories, their memories, their histories forever. So things like these Anthologies are literally priceless. When I read stories on AA about people tracking down the Men-A-Vision people, or the Red Sea Crossing guy - we have a unique opportunity to completely document every last shred of cultural history here. I can't think of anything else like this - comic books comes close, but many of the greats died before people really became interested in the historical value of the medium. With videogames, we have a chance, and the time is now.

 

Just waxing philosophical... really wish I lived in California for a lot of reasons.

Edited July 20, 2014 by freeweed

[Klove]

FW,

 

I agree. I am trying to do this as I / We go along in the discovery process. I think the DP guys do a great job of this, too.

 

It seems as though there should be a book in here / there somewhere.

 

- Ken

Edited July 20, 2014 by Klove