Cathryn Mataga

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Cathryn Mataga
Known for Shamus
Founder of Junglevision

Cathryn Mataga (born William Mataga) [1] [2] [3] is a game programmer and founder of independent video game company Junglevision. [4] Under the name William, she wrote Atari 8-bit computer games for Synapse Software in the early to mid 1980s, including Shamus , a flip-screen shooter. [5]

Contents

Career

Mataga designed the game Shamus in 1982, [2] credited under the name William for the Atari 8-bit computers. [1] Much of the game's appeal was said to come from Mataga's sense of humor, such as creating a "grand rendition" of the Alfred Hitchcock theme song in the game's introduction. [6] Mataga followed it with a sequel Shamus: Case II and scrolling shooter Zeppelin .

Steve Hales of Synapse Software, in an interview for the book Halcyon Days , states that he and Mataga convinced company founder Ihor Wolosenko to get the company into interactive fiction. [7]

Mataga developed an interactive fiction programming language known as BtZ (Better than Zork) for Broderbund, in the early 1980s. [3] Mataga worked with Hales and poet Robert Pinsky on the interactive fiction game Mindwheel (1984). [3]

Mataga was one of the programmers working at Stormfront Studios on the original Neverwinter Nights MMORPG. [8] Don Daglow credits Mataga as one of the programmers who proved Daglow's assertion that he could make Neverwinter Nights a success. [9]

Games

References

  1. 1 2 Shamus Manual (PDF). 1983.
  2. 1 2 "The Classic Game Shamus".
  3. 1 2 3 Bateman, Selby (June 1985). "The Prose and the Parser: How Writers See Games". Compute!'s Gazette. 3 (24).
  4. ↑ "Junglevision: Company". Junglevision.
  5. ↑ "Game Designers Just Wanna Be Girls: Interview with Jamie Faye Fenton". Next Generation . June 21, 1999. Then there was the designer of the great 8-bit classic, Shamus, William Mataga. He recently wrapped-up work on a Color Game Boy version of that game and is looking for a publisher. Only he now goes by Cathryn.
  6. ↑ David Small, Sandy Small and George Blank, ed. (1983). "Shamus". The Creative Atari. Creative Computing Press. p.  189. ISBN   978-0916688349.
  7. ↑ Hague, James (March 1997). "Steve Hales". Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers. Dadgum Games. Retrieved 2025-09-15.
  8. ↑ Marks, Robert (2003-01-01). Everquest Companion: The Inside Story. McGraw-Hill Osborne. ISBN   9780072229035.
  9. ↑ Wallis, Alistair (19 October 2006). "Column: 'Playing Catch Up: Stormfront Studios' Don Daglow'". www.gamasutra.com. Archived from the original on May 12, 2012. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  10. 1 2 "Mindwheel: An Electronic Novel". QuestBusters. 2 (3): 11. March 1985.
  11. ↑ Kosek, Steven (July 21, 1985). "Poet Robert Pinsky goes hi-tech to give electronic novel a whirl", Chicago Tribune , p. 33.
  12. ↑ "Pinsky, Robert (Neal)." Contemporary Poets. Gale. 2001. "Pinsky, Robert (Neal) - Contemporary Poets | HighBeam Research". Archived from the original on 2014-06-29. Retrieved 2014-05-21.
  13. ↑ van Looy, Jan (2010). Understanding computer game culture: the cultural shaping of a new medium. Lambert Academic Pub. p. 271. ISBN   9783838332130.
  14. ↑ Marks, Robert (2003). Everquest Companion: The Inside Lore of a Game World. McGraw-Hill. ISBN   9780072229035.
  15. ↑ Charla, Chris (November 2001). "Digital Eclipse's Rayman Advance", Game Developer 8 (11): 42–48.Archived


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