Jeff Minter is an independent English video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and has created dozens of games during his career, which began in 1981 with games for the Sinclair ZX80. Minter's games are often arcade style shoot 'em ups which contain titular or in-game references demonstrating his fondness of ruminants. Many of his programs also feature something of a psychedelic element, as in some of the earliest "light synthesizer" programs including Trip-a-Tron.
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800 and manufactured until 1992. All of the machines in the family are technically similar and differ primarily in packaging. They are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU running at 1.79 MHz, and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips. This architecture enabled graphics and sound more advanced than contemporary machines, and gaming was a major draw. First-person space combat simulator Star Raiders is considered the platform's killer app. The systems launched with plug-and-play peripherals using the Atari SIO serial bus, an early analog of USB.
Jumpman is a platform game written by Randy Glover and published by Epyx in 1983. It was first developed for the Atari 8-bit family, and versions were also released for the Commodore 64, Apple II, and IBM PC.
Zaxxon is an isometric shooter arcade game, developed and released by Sega in 1981, in which the player pilots a ship through heavily defended space fortresses. Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki is also credited for having worked on the development of the game.
Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, known as Zoom 909 in Japan, is a pseudo-3D rail shooter video game released in arcades by Sega in 1982. The game is a forward-scrolling rail shooter where the player controls a spaceship in a third-person perspective, adapting the three-dimensional perspective of Sega's earlier racing game Turbo (1981) for the space shoot 'em up genre. It used the Buck Rogers license, referencing the space battles, though Buck himself is never seen.
Shamus is a flip-screen shooter with light action-adventure game elements written by Cathryn Mataga and published by Synapse Software. The original Atari 8-bit family version is 16K in size and was released on disk and tape in 1982. The game was ported to the Apple II, VIC-20, Commodore 64, TRS-80 Color Computer, TI-99/4A, and IBM PC. Several of these were published by Atarisoft. It was later sold on cartridge by Atari Corporation following the launch of the Atari XEGS in 1987. "Funeral March of a Marionette", the theme song from Alfred Hitchcock Presents, plays on the title screen.
Sirius Software was a video game publisher of Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, and VIC-20 games in the early 1980s. Sirius also developed games for the Atari 2600 which were published by 20th Century Fox Video Games.
Synapse Software Corporation was an American video game development and publishing company founded in 1981. They initially focused on the Atari 8-bit family, then later developed for the Commodore 64 and other systems. Synapse was founded by Ihor Wolosenko and Ken Grant. The company was purchased by Broderbund in late 1984, and the Synapse label retired in 1985.
Anteater is an arcade video game designed by Chris Oberth and released in 1982 by Tago Electronics. The player steers the tongue of the eponymous creature through a maze, retracting it when dangers approach. Though the arcade game was not a hit, it spawned a number of direct clones for home computers; Sierra’s Oils Well became better known than the original. Oberth wrote an Apple II version of his own game for Datamost using a different title.
Aztec is an action-adventure game developed by Paul Stephenson for the Apple II and published by Datamost in 1982. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit family and the Commodore 64. In Aztec, the player enters and explores the recently discovered "Tomb of Quetzalcoatl" in Mexico in search of a jade idol.
SoftSide is a defunct computer magazine, begun in October 1978 by Roger Robitaille and published by SoftSide Publications of Milford, New Hampshire.
Moondust is a 1983 generative music video game created for the Commodore 64 by virtual reality pioneer, Jaron Lanier. Moondust was programmed in 6502 assembly in 1982, and is considered the first art video game. Moondust has frequently been used as an art installation piece in museum exhibitions from Corcoran Gallery of Art's 1983 "ARTcade" to the Smithsonian's 2012 "The Art of Video Games". It has also been used by Lanier and others in papers and lectures as an example to demonstrate the unexpected ephemerality of digital data.
Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user. These computers were a distinct market segment that typically cost much less than business, scientific or engineering-oriented computers of the time such as those running CP/M or the IBM PC, and were generally less powerful in terms of memory and expandability. However, a home computer often had better graphics and sound than contemporary business computers. Their most common uses were playing video games, but they were also regularly used for word processing and programming.
The English Software Company, later shortened to English Software, was a Manchester, UK-based video game developer and publisher that operated from 1982 until 1987. Starting with its first release, the horizontally scrolling shooter Airstrike, English Software focused on the Atari 8-bit family of home computers, then later expanded onto other platforms. The company used the slogan "The power of excitement".
Fred D'Ignazio is an American author, educator, and television commentator. He was in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and is considered to be one of the world's leading pioneers in multimedia-based education. From 1972 to 1976, he was an assistant editor for The Futurist magazine published by the World Future Society. In the 1980s and 1990s he was an associate editor and columnist for COMPUTE! and COMPUTE!'s Gazette and a technology commentator on ABC's Good Morning America. He is also the author of over 20 non-fiction books on science and technology, as well as a series of juvenile science fiction novels.
Cosmic Tunnels is a space-themed action game written by Tim Ferris and published by Datamost in 1983 for the Atari 8-bit family and in 1984 for the Commodore 64. Datamost also sold the game with Cohen's Towers as a "twin pack". It was re-released in 1986 by Databyte in the United Kingdom.
Monster Smash is an action game written by Dave Eisler and published by Datamost in 1983 for the Apple II and Atari 8-bit family. A Commodore 64 port followed in 1984. The Atari version features music written by Gary Gilbertson that was praised by reviewers. An earlier version of the game was published by The Software Farm in 1982 as Monster Mash.
Hal Glicksman is an American curator of contemporary art, educator, and writer.
