Bob Whitehead: Difference between revisions

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Bob Whitehead is a game designer and programmer. He is a renowned pioneer and entrepreneur of the video game industry^{[citation needed]}.

Career

Whitehead worked for Atari in the late 1970s developing games for the Atari 2600 (or VCS for Video Computer System). There he developed several games, including a VCS implementation of Chess, a feat many other programmers considered impossible for the system.^[1] Eventually he and others felt that they were not receiving fair compensation for their work, specifically, Atari refused to include credits for the developers in their games. Whitehead and a few other colleagues (Alan Miller, David Crane and Larry Kaplan) left and co-founded Activision, the first third-party video game developer.^[1]

There, with others, he developed a custom VCS development system, that integrated a debugger and required a minicomputer to run. It was used for most of Activision's VCS titles. He also developed a pioneering "venetian blinds" animation technique, an algorithim that reused sprites several times while rendering, to give the illusion that the system had more than the maximum number of sprites allowed by the hardware. The "venetian blinds" term refers to a demo he developed to showcase the technique which showed venetian blinds opening in front of a window (each slat in the blind was the same sprite, "stampted" in a different position).^[1] This technique is still used extensively today in game programming.

In 1984, he and other founders of Activision became disillusioned with their company. Their stock had dwindled in value and morale was low. They also thought that diversification to the home computer market—such as with the Commodore 64—was the key to success. So he left Activision with Alan Miller (another co-founder of Activision) and co-founded Accolade. However, soon after the founding of Accolade, Whitehead left the video game industry for good.^[1] Ironically, Accolade was later acquired by Infogrames, which shortly afterwards changed their name to Atari.

Whitehead left in order "to give back to God and spend time with “the fam” [family]". After leaving Accolade, Whitehead says he helped with "low income families, getting non-profit religious start-ups going, [and] spending time in the garden."^[1]

Of the current state of the indsutry, Whitehead said that it's:

Too dark and derivative for my taste. The console and computer gaming business is too narrowly defined by the 14 male mentality and all his not-so-honorable fantasies. It's being driven by what has worked and afraid of what a 10 million dollar development bust will entail. It has lost its moral compass.^[1]

He said he may return to the industry to develop games for cell phones since half that audience is female (and thus will allow him to develop games that he perceives as feeding the juvenile male mentality).

Titles

VCS/2600

Home Run (Atari)
Football (Atari)
Blackjack (Atari)
Casino (Atari)
Star Ship (Atari)
Video Chess (Atari)
Boxing (Activision)
Stampede (Activision)
Chopper Command (Activision)
Private Eye (Activision)
Skiing (Activision)
Sky Jinks (Activision)

Commodore 64

4th & Inches (Accolade)
Hardball (Accolade)

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Interview with Bob Whitehead from Digital Press

External links

[dpinterview-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Interview with Bob Whitehead from Digital Press

[1]

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 ==Career==
-Whitehead worked for [[Atari]] in the late [[1970s]] developing games for the [[Atari 2600]] (or VCS for Video Computer System). There he developed several games, including a VCS implementation of [[Chess]], a feat many other programmers considered impossible for the system. Eventually he and others felt that they were not receiving fair compensation for their work, specifically, Atari refused to include credits for the developers in their games.  Whitehead and a few other colleagues ([[Alan Miller]], [[David Crane]] and [[Larry Kaplan]]) left and co-founded [[Activision]], the first third-party [[video game developer]].<ref name="dpinterview"/>
+Whitehead worked for [[Atari]] in the late [[1970s]] developing games for the [[Atari 2600]] (or VCS for Video Computer System). There he developed several games, including a VCS implementation of [[Chess]], a feat many other programmers considered impossible for the system.<ref name="dpinterview">[http://www.digitpress.com/library/interviews/interview_bob_whitehead.html Interview with Bob Whitehead] from [[Digital Press]]</ref> Eventually he and others felt that they were not receiving fair compensation for their work, specifically, Atari refused to include credits for the developers in their games.  Whitehead and a few other colleagues ([[Alan Miller]], [[David Crane]] and [[Larry Kaplan]]) left and co-founded [[Activision]], the first third-party [[video game developer]].<ref name="dpinterview"/>
 There, with others, he developed a custom VCS development system, that integrated a [[debugger]] and required a [[minicomputer]] to run.  It was used for most of Activision's VCS titles.  He also developed a pioneering "venetian blinds" animation technique, an [[algorithim]] that reused [[Sprite (computer graphics)|sprite]]s several times while rendering, to give the illusion that the system had more than the maximum number of sprites allowed by the hardware.  The "venetian blinds" term refers to a [[Technology demo|demo]] he developed to showcase the technique which showed venetian blinds opening in front of a window (each slat in the blind was the same sprite, "stampted" in a different position).<ref name="dpinterview"/>  This technique is still used extensively today in [[game programming]].