Jack Tramiel (1928-2012) and the 7800 launch “myth”
14 April 2012A few days ago the computer world was saddened by the news that Jack Tramiel, one of the driving forces (if not THE driving force) of the home computer industry in its early days, has passed away.
The founder of Commodore and, later, driving force of Atari Corp. was not only one of the toughest man in the industry but also one of the true visionaries of the past century who successfully managed to bring computers into the home of millions of people by producing groundbreaking models like the VIC-20, the C64 and the Atari ST.
While computers were obviously at the center of his vision, he never dismissed video games, not even when he bought the Atari Consumer Division renaming it as Atari Corp after leaving Commodore: for example, most people believe he simply decided to withdraw the Atari 7800 console in 1984 to focus on Atari’s computer systems but this is actually a common myth in the gaming industry that is completely wrong and should be corrected once and for all.
As Marty Goldberg and Curt Vendel pointed out in their upcoming books on Atari history, things were much more complicated and licensing the 7800 wasn’t part of the original deal between Jack and Warner. In fact, the licensing process was quite complex and took much longer than expected. That’s why the 7800 had to be withdrawn from the market soon after the original launch in 1984 and things settled only by August ‘85, when Jack was finally ready to start up a formal video game division. Mike Katz was hired for the task and started the 7800 relaunch process in Sept./Oct. 85 while also looking for more titles to include for the relaunch lineup, which happened in January 86 when the Nintendo Entertainment System, unfortunately for Atari, was ready to take the spotlight.
In any case, thanks Jack: whatever the good or bad “myths” are, I might not be who I am today if I didn’t start programming games on your C64 as a kid. Rest in Peace.
Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials - Review
18 March 2012With the Unity game engine getting more and more popular in both educational institutions and professional studios alike, it’s no wonder that many books have been published discussing it in various degrees of detail.
Will Goldstone’s book “Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials” is definitely one of the better organized titles on the scene today and successfully takes the reader from the first steps to a good level of proficiency.
Personally, I appreciated the quick but clear explanations in the first chapter of basic 3D game development principles that so many other texts give for granted or simply don’t bother to cover expecting the reader to automatically understand such concepts as they dig into the tutorials, with the risk of the latter being ultimately overwhelming and confusing.
This doesn’t happen here and the book progresses smoothly into scripting (illustrating both C# and Javascript), creating 3D environments (an island in this case) and characters, setting up their controller scripts and collision detection systems. GUI, Rigid body physics and Animation basics are all covered too, making this title one of the most comprehensive and useful Unity books on the market today.
Highly recommended.
Studying Poker?
26 January 2012While I am personally not a gambler, gambling games that merge together strategic skills and luck are an extremely fascinating genre to study for anyone with an interest in game design since they can provide valuable lessons on how a basic set of game mechanics can originate a complex and exciting gameplay.
Poker, which originated in the early XIX century around New Orleans, most likely on the floating gambling saloons on the Mississippi river, is clearly one of the most famous among card based games and, in the last few years, it also gained an extremely wide popularity online. Among the different websites that offer online play, I found PartyPoker.com to be particularly well done and instructive, not only because it is localized in several different languages (including even languages like Greek: http://gr.partypoker.com/ !) but also for the wealth of information about the game itself that we can find over there. There are video tutorials and well designed sections for teaching beginners and more advanced players alike, ranging from basic lessons and a glossary to more advanced tips and strategies. In particular, I found the “Poker Trainer “ feature, where you can simply play on your own against virtual opponents for free, very instructive and entertaining.
In the end, the website provides many good resources for learning more about this fascinating game and… well, if after learning more about the game you feel the itch to actually try it in practice, you won’t have to go far away as players of all different skills and abilities are represented in their community (the website claims its client playing software has been downloaded over 30 million times since 2001!).
GameProgramming Italia
7 January 2012Thanks to the effort of some great guys with game development in their heart and souls, the website Game Programming Italia is starting a new life with the aim of becoming a central discussion and sharing space for all developers, not necessarily Italians as content can be submitted both in Italian or English languages.
I was recently invited to write an introductory article on the 6-11 Framework and the website is getting more and more lively. If you are an Italian developer or gamer you HAVE to check this out as you’ll surely enjoy the friendly atmosphere, networking opportunities and knowledge sharing that’s getting more and more interesting day after day.
See you at http://www.gameprog.it !
My 2011 Best Video Game Award!
15 December 2011Another exciting year for gamers on all platforms!
The categories changed a bit from last year to cope up with my interests and activities. Anyway, enough writing, let’s see which titles impressed me most (with the platform I tested them on)!
Best Artwork: L.A. Noire (Rockstar Games, X360)
Best Sound Design: NBA2K12 (2K Sports, X360)
Most Unique Experience: Child of Eden (Ubisoft, X360/Kinect)
Best Mobile/Indie Game: GUA-LE-NI (Double Jungle, iPad)
Best Student/Non Professional Game: Void (DigiPen, PC)
Best Retro Game: Prince of Persia (Mr.Sid, C64, http://popc64.blogspot.com/ )
And the final winner is…..
Robbie’s Best Game Award 2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Softwork, X360)
Interview on CommodoreFree
30 November 2011The Retro Gaming and Computing scenes are thriving and it’s easy to find some excellent online resources, communities and magazines. In the latter category, I have been following with interest for a while a free publication named “Commodore Free” and I am very happy to say that, last month, its editor Nigel Parker interviewed me very extensively.
Our talk can now be read in the latest issue (#56) which can be downloaded in a multitude of formats here: http://www.commodorefree.com/issues.html
Enjoy and let me know your comments!
Upcoming speaking engagements
1 October 2011Not many posts lately as I keep being extremely busy with classes and R&D work, anyway quite a few things are happening and I’ll be speaking in different places during the next couple of months.
First, on the 7th October I’ll be giving a talk titled “Analyzing Fun in Social Games” at the Symposium on Social Dynamics in Online Gaming while in the second half of the month I’ll give a speech on the Italian Videogame industry, from its origins in the 70s up to today for the Italian Institute of Culture within a series a seminars organized by the GRIS group. More information on this will follow and i hope it will be an interesting session as I’m sure I’ll unveil a few tidbits about Italian games that no one remembers and that, nonetheless, were quite significant back in the day or simply amusing when seen today under an historical perspective.
Last, in November (7-9) I’ll be in Daegu for the Korean Games Conference for the fourth time in a row (I wonder if that’s a record?)! Over there I’ll be talking about the history of video games and some important lessons we can learn from it today.
Website hacked
11 August 2011I realized my website was hacked recently and several files are missing while other files (not mine!) were added to use my storage and bandwidth. I’m trying to restore everything asap and see how I can tight up security somehow…
More on GES
10 May 2011The fourth annual Game Education Summit will take place on June 22-23 at the DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington. The event is for faculty and administrators at colleges and universities that offer game degree programs or are planning to do so. It is also geared for video game industry professionals interested in sharing requirements of game program graduates, as well as developing relationships with top institutions offering game programs.
Besides my own 6-11 Framework for game analysis and design, some of the topics featured in this year’s program include:
· Interdisciplinary collaboration.
· Components of a new Masters program: Incubator, Entrepreneurship and Game Studio Partnerships.
· Playing like a game designer – the first thing a design student should know.
· Success factors for graduates joining traditional vs social game development teams.
· HR panels – what large and small studios look for when they recruit game development graduates
· Alumni panel – feedback from graduates working in the game industry…how they transitioned from school to industry
Whether you’re a game educator or working in the video game industry, don’t miss this prime opportunity to network, share research and best practices, and foster relationships.
The website is www.GameEducationSummit.com. You may use this promo code to receive$49 discount off the on-line registration fee: GES9856.
Hope to see you at this year’s GES.
The Golden Age (plus Orfeo in Rio!)
23 April 2011Finally my second book, “The Golden Age of Video Games“, is available on Amazon and other online retailers should soon follow. I’m really curious to see what will be the reception of my latest effort: retro games got more and more popular and relevant in the last few years and, naturally, this also led to quite a few very good books on the subject to be published recently. Hopefully also “The Golden Age” will be considered as one of them too 
In the meantime, my experimental game “Orfeo” is being showcased at the FILE Games Festival in Rio de Janeiro (12 April - 8 May) together with indie masterpieces such as “PixelJunk Eden”, “Limbo”,”Flower”, “Bit Trip Beat”, “Blueberry Garden”, “The Path” and other inspiring titles including some from the friends I met at last year “Sense of Wonder Night” like “Spirits“ and “Record Tripping“.
