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The man who made 'the worst video game in history'

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Re: The man who made 'the worst video game in history'

#131

Post by muzani »

cornholio wrote: post #129
Nutmog wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness, what else could they have done, given the time constraints? They even hired support staff to make sure he got fed! They surely didn't have source control or other systems to make it safe/easy for multiple programmers to work on it together. I imagine the code is some monolithic thing full of complicated Atari hacks that's best managed by being all together in one person'd mind. Perhaps they could have ma…

Instead of force feeding the genius, how about giving him a competent team of 10 average programmers, and 15 testers / players ? This way, the genius if free to imagine great games, not fiddle with screenbuffer bits and lose all contact with reality.

10 programmers and no source control sounds like a recipe to make this even worse than it had been.

Re: The man who made 'the worst video game in history'

#132

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

makomk wrote: post #119
hartpuff wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As the sole programmer. In an era when programming was far more tricky and low level. In the same era, early 80s, kids across the UK were single-handedly writing games packed into 1-16k, some of which (Manic Miner being a prime example) sold in their hundreds of thousands in the UK market alone. There was some pretty amazing programming skill going on back then.

In some ways it was probably easier to write a game solo than it is now, because expectations were lower and there were such tight limits on what was technically possible. These days people expect high-quality graphics, music and sound effects as well as good gameplay, and they expect much bigger games too. I'm not sure anyone's managed to develop a commercially-successful game solo, and even developing most of one s…

> I'm not sure anyone's managed to develop a commercially-successful game solo

Minecraft?

Re: The man who made 'the worst video game in history'

#133

Post by SeanDav »

Nutmog wrote: post #125
SeanDav wrote: post #98

Talk about screwed up priorities. Atari spent $21 million on ET video game rights, $5 million on an advertising campaign and gave 1 programmer, 5 weeks to deliver something that would justify that cost. No wonder they went bankrupt!

In fairness, what else could they have done, given the time constraints? They even hired support staff to make sure he got fed! They surely didn't have source control or other systems to make it safe/easy for multiple programmers to work on it together. I imagine the code is some monolithic thing full of complicated Atari hacks that's best managed by being all together in one person'd mind. Perhaps they could have ma…

It does not make any kind of business sense to spend that much money and rely on 1 programmer and such a short project time. What happened if the programmer fell down some stairs or got hit by a bus? Normal project time for a game was 6 to 8 months, they gave this guy 5 weeks and no team. Obviously the programmer should never have agreed to the time frame, but he was 24 and at that age nothing seems impossible. This was not his fault, but shows a shocking lack of planning and communication within Atari at that time.

Re: The man who made 'the worst video game in history'

#134

Post by DanBC »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #132
makomk wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some ways it was probably easier to write a game solo than it is now, because expectations were lower and there were such tight limits on what was technically possible. These days people expect high-quality graphics, music and sound effects as well as good gameplay, and they expect much bigger games too. I'm not sure anyone's managed to develop a commercially-successful game solo, and even developing most of one s…

> I'm not sure anyone's managed to develop a commercially-successful game solo Minecraft?

Flappy Bird?

Re: The man who made 'the worst video game in history'

#135

Post by Nullabillity »

purpled_haze wrote: post #120
moonshinefe wrote: post #59

It's a cool story. I'm actually really amazed he managed to make a game that sold 1.5 million copies (@ $40 per unit that'd be $60mil) in _5 weeks_. As the sole programmer. In an era when programming was far more tricky and low level. It isn't his fault the managers were being unreasonable in the timeline, and the company grossly over-manufactured the cartridges. If I made something in just 5 weeks that sold 1.5 mill…

> It isn't his fault the managers were being unreasonable in the timeline, and the company grossly over-manufactured the cartridges. Yes, the real problem is that they expected something comparable in quality to his previous games with less time to develop it. He did agree to it, though. Watch "Atari: Game Over" and you'll be able to tell from interviews with him that he held a lot of guilt about it- for years. The f…

The NES set an awful precedent that we're still dealing with today.

Re: The man who made 'the worst video game in history'

#136

Post by bluedino »

Nutmog wrote: post #125
SeanDav wrote: post #98

Talk about screwed up priorities. Atari spent $21 million on ET video game rights, $5 million on an advertising campaign and gave 1 programmer, 5 weeks to deliver something that would justify that cost. No wonder they went bankrupt!

In fairness, what else could they have done, given the time constraints? They even hired support staff to make sure he got fed! They surely didn't have source control or other systems to make it safe/easy for multiple programmers to work on it together. I imagine the code is some monolithic thing full of complicated Atari hacks that's best managed by being all together in one person'd mind. Perhaps they could have ma…

Why wouldn't they have just re-branded an existing game in development with E.T.?

Re: The man who made 'the worst video game in history'

#137

Post by mrits »

VonGuard wrote: post #42
knieveltech wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I played the hell out of that game when it came out. I mean, who in their right mind would rank "Skiing" or "Combat" higher that this game?

Combat is, frankly, one of the greatest videogames ever made. Easily in the top ten. If you don't understand why, you've missed out on a great deal of history. The Atari 2600 was designed, almost exclusively, to play Combat. It has the ability to animate only 3 sprites: player 1, player 2 and "ball". There are many hacks to get around this, but we're talking about the pre-release period of the Atari Video Computer Sy…

Combat was my favorite game on Atari.

Re: The man who made 'the worst video game in history'

#138

Post by bluedino »

spdustin wrote: post #66
VonGuard wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Combat is, frankly, one of the greatest videogames ever made. Easily in the top ten. If you don't understand why, you've missed out on a great deal of history. The Atari 2600 was designed, almost exclusively, to play Combat. It has the ability to animate only 3 sprites: player 1, player 2 and "ball". There are many hacks to get around this, but we're talking about the pre-release period of the Atari Video Computer Sy…

I played combat ... With my mother . The day we got our 2600. It was accessible, simple, and as a child, made me see my mom in a whole new light. I'm 40 now, but feel like a little boy realizing that his mom is fun whenever I see that game come up. Thanks for the memory :)

>> I played combat ... With my mother.

80's kid here. My mom could always kick my butt in a small set of video games. Galaga, Ms. Pacman, Tetris. But she can't beat the first couple levels in Super Mario Brothers to save her lift.

Re: The man who made 'the worst video game in history'

#139

Post by FiatLuxDave »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #109
protomyth wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4 player Warlords was a favorite in the dorm during college. Many a night was spent on that game.

We played 4 player Warlords in our dorm at Ga Tech years after its era. There was a trick move for each castle and we abused the hell out of 'em. :-)

Ha! I played 4 player Warlords in the dorms at Ga Tech during its era. Lots of fond memories of Techwood/McDaniel hall. Glad to know that the tradition continued!

Re: The man who made 'the worst video game in history'

#140

Post by mathgeek »

stevoski wrote: post #105
m-i-l wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much they paid the 1 programmer for the 5 weeks of development time. I'm sure nowhere near the $5m they spent on advertising or $21m on game rights. Also, if they did indeed sell 1.5m copies at $40 per copy, that's $60m. Even allowing for large amounts of unsold stock that surely can't have been too far off covering costs, and can't have been the only reason for their subsequent $310m loss. EDIT: Fair po…

$40 would be the retail price, no? After retailer's margin and distributor's margin, maybe Atari got max $15 per cartridge. Making the whole debacle a money-losing affair.

Don't forget licensing, as well. There was likely a percentage cut on top of the rights.
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