Warren Robinett

http://www.warrenrobinett.com/

Interviews:

• http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/ROBINETT.HTM
• http://www.toadstool.net/games/adventure/interview1.htm
• http://thejadedgamer.net/interview_warrenrobinett.shtml

His projects include industrial applications of virtual reality, and such educational software as Rocky's Boots, but he is mostly notorious for writing AtariAdventure.

In the earliest days of Atari, Robinett had just finished writing Slot Racers, and had encountered the original text AdventureGame through his roommate. He decided to try and make a similar sort of game for the Atari, even though the Atari 2600 had no text capability whatsoever. But one could still create puzzles, obstacles, treasures, movable objects and creatures. The resulting game sold more than one million units, and arguably defined a new genre of gaming.

The other, and some would argue primary, pioneering aspect of the game is the creation of the first EasterEgg. Atari programmers at the time were not credited for their work on the box, in the instruction manual, or in the game itself. The programmers were frustrated by this, and eventually most would leave to found their own companies. Long before that happened, Robinett decided to hide his name in the game, in a secret room where it was extremely difficult to find. He made an object with "Created by Warren Robinett" written vertically, and hid it in a room behind a wall. To get through the wall, you had to find an invisible dot object, carry it to the entrance, and bring enough objects into the same room to start the objects flickering. By the time the suits found out about it, Robinett wasn't even working at Atari anymore, and a million cartridges were already in circulation. Other programmers at Atari would go on to hide their initials in such games as Yar's Revenge and Missile Command.

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