Carol Shaw
Carol Shaw | |
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.jpg) Shaw in 1983 | |
| Born | 1955 (age 70–71) |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley (BS, MA) |
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Carol Shaw (born 1955) is an American video game designer and programmer. She is one of the earliest women to work as a programmer in the commercial video game industry.[1][2] While at Atari, Inc. from 1978 to 1980, she designed Atari VCS titles including 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe (1978) and Video Checkers (1980).[1] She is best known for the Atari 2600 vertically scrolling shooter River Raid (1982), published by Activision.
After leaving game development in 1984, Shaw returned to Tandem Computers and took early retirement in 1990. In 2017, she received the Industry Icon Award at The Game Awards.
Early life and education
[edit]Shaw was born in 1955 and was raised in Palo Alto, California.[3] Her father was a mechanical engineer at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In a 2011 interview, she said she had not enjoyed playing with dolls as a child and had learned about model railroading from her brother's set, a hobby she continued until college.[3] She also said she had shown aptitude in mathematics throughout her childhood.[4]
Shaw first used a computer in high school, where she discovered text-based games. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, earning a BS in electrical engineering and computer science in 1977 and an MS in computer science the following year.[3]
Career
[edit]Atari, Inc.
[edit]Immediately after completing her master's degree in 1978, Shaw was hired at Atari, Inc. as a Microprocessor Software Engineer working on games for the Atari VCS (later renamed the 2600).[3] Her first project was Polo, a tie-in for the Ralph Lauren cologne, which reached prototype but was not published.[5]
Shaw's first published game was 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe (1978). She subsequently wrote Video Checkers (1980) and collaborated on a port of Super Breakout with Nick Turner and on Othello with Ed Logg (1981).[6] Atari co-worker Mike Albaugh later included her on a list of the company's "less publicized superstars":
I would have to include Carol Shaw, who was simply the best programmer of the 6502 and probably one of the best programmers period....in particular, [she] did the [2600] kernels, the tricky bit that actually gets the picture on the screen for a number of games that she didn't fully do the games for. She was the go-to gal for that sort of stuff.[7]
Shaw also worked on titles for the Atari 8-bit computers. With Keith Brewster she wrote the Atari BASIC Reference Manual,[8] and she developed the programmable Calculator application released by Atari on floppy disk in 1981.[9]
Activision
[edit]
Shaw left Atari in 1980 to work for Tandem Computers as an assembly language programmer,[10] and joined Activision in 1982.[3] Her first game there, River Raid (1982) for the Atari 2600, was inspired by the 1981 arcade game Scramble.[3] The game was a commercial hit and remained profitable enough that Shaw later credited it with making her early retirement possible.[3]
She also wrote Happy Trails (1983) for the Intellivision and ported River Raid to the Atari 8-bit computers and Atari 5200.[10] She left Activision in 1984.
After games
[edit]
Shaw returned to Tandem Computers in 1984 and took early retirement in 1990, after which she volunteered with nonprofit organizations including the Foresight Institute.[3]
In 2017, Shaw received the Industry Icon Award at The Game Awards.[11] The same year, she donated her gaming memorabilia, including games, boxes, source code, and designs, to the Strong National Museum of Play.[10]
Personal life
[edit]Shaw lives in California and has been married to the cryptographer Ralph Merkle since 1983.[12][3] The couple are signed up for cryopreservation with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.[13]
Works
[edit]Atari 2600
[edit]- 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe (Atari, 1978)[14]
- Othello (Atari, 1978) with Ed Logg[15]
- Video Checkers (Atari, 1980)[16]
- Super Breakout (Atari, 1981) with Nick Turner
- River Raid (Activision, 1982)[17]
Intellivision
[edit]- Happy Trails (Activision, 1983)
Atari 8-bit computers
[edit]- Atari BASIC reference manual (Atari, 1979–1981)[18]
- Atari Calculator (Atari, 1979–1981)[9]
- River Raid (Activision, 1983) — port from the 2600 to the Atari 8-bit and 5200
Unreleased
[edit]- Polo, Atari 2600 (Atari, 1978)[5]
Publications
[edit]- "Finding Aid to the Carol Shaw Papers, 1960–2017" (PDF), Carol Shaw Papers, Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, January 31, 2022 – via Strong Museum
- Shaw, Carol; Brewster, Keith (1979). BASIC Reference Manual (draft). Sunnyvale, California: Atari, Inc.
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Suellentrop, Chris (August 19, 2014). "Saluting the Women Behind the Screen". The New York Times. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
- ^ Newman, Michael Z. (2017). Atari Age: The Emergence of Video Games in America. MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/10021.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-262-33818-9. [page needed]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Edwards, Benj (October 12, 2011). "VC&G Interview: Carol Shaw, The First Female Video Game Developer". Vintage Computing and Gaming. Retrieved September 11, 2024.
- ^ "Carol Shaw". Atari Women. March 13, 2019. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
- ^ a b "Polo". AtariProtos.com.
- ^ Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
- ^ Spicer, Dag (November 12, 2012). "Mike Albaugh Interview" (PDF). Computer History Museum.
- ^ "Compute!'s First Book of Atari". Retrieved September 11, 2024.
Carol Shaw, Keith Brewster. BASIC REFERENCE MANUAL. draft, Atari, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (1979)
- ^ a b "Calculator". Atari Mania.
- ^ a b c Marie, Meagan (2018). Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play. Dorling Kindersley. p. 27. ISBN 978-0241395066.
- ^ Alexander, Jem (December 8, 2017). "Carol Shaw awarded 'Industry Icon' honour at The Game Awards". Develop. Retrieved December 8, 2017.
- ^ "Ralph C. Merkle". ralphmerkle.com. Retrieved January 28, 2024.
My wife is Carol Shaw
- ^ Taya Maki (2022). "Notable Women in Cryonics" (PDF). Cryonics. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
- ^ "Atari 2600 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe", Atari Mania
- ^ "Atari 2600 Othello", Atari Mania
- ^ "Atari 2600 Video Checkers", Atari Mania
- ^ "Atari 2600 River Raid", Atari Mania
- ^ Shaw, Carol (April 18, 1980). Atari BASIC BNF – Backus–Naur Form (Inter-office memo). Atari.
External links
[edit]- Carol Shaw's games at Atari Age
- Carol Shaw at the Centre for Computing History
- Carol Shaw Papers 1960–2017
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