Want to know more about the people behind the games? So do we! That's why we spend time tracking down legends and icons from video gaming's rich past for a virtual fireside chat about life, the universe, and everything. Learn about what went into making some of your favorite games, the folks responsible for them, and what they're doing now.
· Latest interviews!
|
PERSON |
YEAR |
DESCRIPTION |
| Actor, Lee | 2007 | An accomplished game programmer-turned-composer and conductor, Lee Actor cut his musical chops on the Atari 800. |
| Baker, Steven A. | 2001 | The man behind the awesome Atari 8-bit Defender, as well as Atari 2600 Summer Games, Winter Games, California Games, and many more. |
| Bass, Daniel | Sean Kelly talks with Intellivision programmer Daniel Bass, who designed Loco-Motion and Ad. D&D: Tower of Doom. | |
| Battaglia, John-Michael | 2010 | He was a Senior Copywriter at Atari who wrote manuals for several popular Atari VCS/2600 and 5200 games, and single-handedly gave the SwordQuest Earthworld contest its 'groove' back. He also has some interesting stories about his post-Atari career. |
| Bluth, Don | 8/2002 | Come on, you know him. He's the animation wizard responsible for scores of Disney movies and was the designer of the characters in the Cinematronics' classic laserdisc games Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. |
| Brown, Harry | 2006 | Former Atari games tester- turned programmer- turned ... pro golf caddy? Yep, it's all right here. |
| Case, Michael | 2007 | Although he got his start on the 'blue' side of gaming, Mike more than made up for it later on with his work on a pair of Oddworld sequels, among others. |
| Champeau, John | 2006 | Before MAME, some of the best arcade ports for the PC in the early 90s were those from CHAMProgramming. The founder now puts his talents towards the Atari VCS/2600. |
| Cheezem, Robert | 2000 | Dave Giarusso chats with the Odyssey2 programmer behind Type & Tell and Smithereens. |
| Churchill, Marilyn | 2009 | Marilyn was Atari's first dedicated computer graphics artist, and was instrumental in setting up Atari's animation department. |
| Davie, Andrew | 2001 | The veteran who most recently designed QB for Atari VCS/2600 but many more for C64, NES, and SNES "in the day". |
| Decuir, Joe | 2005 | One of the co-creators of the Atari VCS/2600 and the Amiga computer. Find out how Stella originally got her groove. |
| de Graaf, Bruce | 2008 | Digital Press peers behind the curtain and busts the myth of Mythicon with programmer Bruce de Graaf. |
| DeFrisco, Steve | 2007 | Best known for his Atari VCS/2600 games with Axlon, his career started with Imagic's Tropical Trouble for the Intellivision. |
| Delman, Howard | 2011 | Designed the hardware for several of Atari's early coin-ops, including Asteroids. He went on to co-found Videa/Sente, and later worked on hardware projects for the Genesis, Lynx, and 3DO, before going back to the arcade with Midway Games. |
| Domurat, Jerome | 2002 | You may not realize just how many Atari VCS/2600 games Jerome Dorumat had a hand in, but you'll soon learn that some of those memorable images are thanks to him. |
| Emry, Don | 2004 | One of the original Odyssey game designers. |
| Englehart, Steve | 2011 | He was a manual writer/design consultant for several Atari 8-bit games, and later worked at Activision, Disney, and others. |
| Finney, Hal | 2006 | Programmed several Atari VCS/2600 and Intellivision games for Mattel. |
| Fulop, Rob | 1993 - 2000 | Fulop's done it all, from Atari's VCS/2600 Night Driver to Sega CD's Night Trap. We caught up with the master to reminisce about the days of yore. |
| Gielens, Jaro | Roloff de Jeu gets to chat with the author of the fabulous book, Electronic Plastic. | |
| Gelberg, Larry | 2001 | The Parker Bros designer of Atari VCS/2600 Frogger II and the unreleased Ewok Adventure. |
| Gutman, Dan | 2011 | The creator of Video Games Player magazine got his start by writing about a decidedly different kind of game. |
| Hahn, Mark | 2002 | Mark Hahn designed an independent Atari VCS/2600 game Elk Attack. He's also the man behind Pengo and Dukes of Hazzard for Atari. |
| Haslacher, Bill | 2006 | A technical manual writer for Atari, and a true Atari fan. |
| Heineman, Rebecca | 2006 | Rebecca estimates she worked on over 250 games throughout her career! Chances are you've played at least one. |
| Herman, Leonard | 2001 | The gaming historian spoke with us for a few moments about his latest update to Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Video Games. |
| Horton, Kevin | 3/1997 | From across a smoky room... |
| Hubbard, Matthew | 2001 | Atari-turned Activision guy who brought us Submarine Commander, Double Dunk, Zenji, and others. |
| Huether, Jim | 2007 | Best known for his classic RealSports Football for the Atari 5200, Jim also created the early VCS/2600 hit Sky Diver, among other titles. He later became a producer for Sega on hits like Joe Montana Football. |
| Jaeger, Robert | 2009 | Robert talks about getting started the game industry with his own company, Utopia Software, as well as the games he made, such as Montezuma's Revenge. |
| Jost, Patrick | Sean Kelly corners former Intellivision speech developer Patrick Jost and gets his side of the Mattel story. | |
| Kaestner, Ray | 1993 | Find out a little more about what went on behind the scenes in the heyday of the Intellivision from one of its original Blue Sky Rangers |
| Kaplan, Larry | 2006 | One of the original Atari VCS/2600 designers at Atari, who went on to do something even more original - help found Activision. |
| Kranish, Steve | 2007 | Former Parker Brothers designer who did Atari 8-bit Frogger and the never-completed version of Risk. He also worked on a secret Atari VCS/2600 project... |
| Kunkel, Bill & Joyce Worley | 2000 | Easter egg hunting with 2 of the founders of video game journalism. |
| Lamkins, David | 2004 | Some of the memorable sound effects you hear on your Parker Bros Atari VCS/2600 games are courtesy of Mr. Lamkins, who was also one of the "Gang of Five" that defected to Activision. |
| Lesser, Mark | 2007 | Mark started designing some of Mattel's best-known handheld games and eventually started his own company, making games for EA. |
| Levine, Rick | 1999 | The man that brought us Intellivision's Microsurgeon and Truckin' speaks out. |
| Lubar, David | 2003 | He's done everything from Atari VCS/2600 to SNES game design, and his "gameology" is thick enough to stun an ox! A relatively large ox, in fact! |
| Miller, Alan | 2003 | Al Backiel talks in-depth with the co-founder of Activision and Accolade on his 25+ year career in the video game business. |
| Newell, Paul Allen | 2008 | Former Western Technologies programmer "scrambles" up a burning building to answer "entombed" gamer's questions. |
| Nikolich, Laura | 2006 | Read about the house that Spider-Man built with Parker Brothers programmer Laura Nikolich. |
| Palecki, Tom | 2010 | Best known for some of his case designs for the Atari 8-bit 1050 Disk Drive, Trak-Ball, and Touch Tablet, Tom Palecki also worked on several unreleased products. |
| Patchell, James | 2006 | Scott Stilphen talks with James Patchell about the Atari 1050 Duplicator, hardware design, synthesizers, and alternate forms of payment. |
| Pigeon, Corky | 2007 | We reminisce with the former Silver Spoons actor and star of Imagic's Cosmic Ark commercial. |
| Polaro, Bob | 1999 | Al Backiel dines with former Atari programmer Bob Polaro while he dishes out the details behind some of his most popular games. |
| Rideout, Michael S. | 3/1998-2005 | John Hardie chats with Atari SwordQuest FireWorld winner Michael Rideout. A jewel-encrusted chalice? What about the others? |
| Rogers, Todd | 2005 | Gamer extraordinaire Todd Rogers tells all! Well, except all his video gaming secrets. |
| Rolfe, David | 2004 | One of classic gaming's most diverse talents, Rolfe is responsible for development on a gamut of systems. He's also the guy behind the arcade games Star Fire and Fire One and the handheld system Football II. |
| Ross, Stuart | 2004 | His game, Wings, was announced, promoted, and even hyped a bit but never released, until DP released it on New Year's Day 2005. Read up on the game designers' notes and recollections from his days at CBS. |
| Salvo, Ed |
2006 |
Best known for his Atari VCS/2600 work at Games By Apollo, he's also responsible for one of the more infamous titles - Texas Chainsaw Massacre. |
| Schweitzer, James | 2005 | Scott hunts down, interviews, and kills the long-lost Atari SwordQuest EarthWorld finalist. OK he doesn't really kill him, that was just dramatics. James also has some very cool contest photos to share with us. |
| Scolari, David | 2000 | Don Evanoff speaks to the man in charge at Codemasters. |
| Sloper, Tom | 2009 | Designed Vectrex Spike and Bedlam as well as several Sega home games. Later became a Producer at companies such as Atari Corp. and Activision. |
| Southerland, Mike | 2004 | Who's Mike Southerland? Why, he was the Atari VCS/2600 Quadrun champion, of course, and he's got the paperwork to prove it. |
| Springer, David | 2007 | A former Western Tech programmer who worked on games for the never-released Androman peripheral for the VCS/2600 . |
| Stewart, Brad | 2001 | The Atari-turned Imagic guy who brought us Atari VCS/2600 Breakout, Asteroids, Fire Fighter, and Sky Patrol. |
| Surine, James | 2000 | Meet the person who ported MAME and MESS to Digital OS-based digital cameras! |
| Swartz, Bill | 2003 | Greg Wilcox interviews the President of Mastiff Games on localizing La Pucelle tactics. |
| Tavares, Gregg | 2006 | Creator of Locoroco for the PSP. Also wrote or collaborated with about 3 dozen titles ranging from the Atari 400/800 up to current systems! Prolific indeed. |
| Van Ryzin, John | 1994 | His game, H.E.R.O.,is still considered one of Activision's best original games. He also went to design games for several platforms up until the Genesis & SNES. |
| Warshaw, Howard Scott | 1997 | You KNOW you wanna hear about the guy who wrote Atari VCS/2600 Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., and Yar's Revenge! |
| Weber, Anthony | 2004 | He founded STEDEK software and worked at Roklan back in the day. We caught up with him to see what we may have missed in his past and what he's up to today. |
| Whitehead, Bob | 2005 | Designed early Atari VCS/2600 games such as Home Run, Football, Blackjack and Star Ship while at Atari, Chopper Command, Sky Jinks and Boxing at Activision, and Hardball and 4th and Inches at Accolade. |
| Woita, Steve | 2001 | The man behind Atari VCS/2600 Taz, Quadrun, and Garfield. |
| Zedeck, Steve | 2006 | Programmed Tutankham for the TI-99/4a, along with some IBM PC Jr. and Apple II games. |
