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On Sat, 17 Jan 2004, Bryan Roppolo Boulder wrote:
> Do you remember all the systems Mattel's M-Network was porting to?
> Knowing that APh did many of the M-Network ports, I thought I would ask.
I remember that besides the Intellivisions around the office, we had Atari VCS, Commodore Vic20 and Commodore 64, and I think I remember a Colecovision. I don't remember what brand name Mattel was using for games to particular systems (I didn't even remember M-Network until you mentioned it, and then I went to the web to find that it was the brand name they used for their Atari games--I didn't recall that they used a separate brand for that!).
We also had prototypes for the next-generation Intellivision. That was cool. That's what I worked on for most of my year there--writing "Tomb of Horrors" (based on the D&D "Tomb of Horrors" module) for that.
I don't specifically remember any games for the Colecovision, so that may have been there for research purposes. Same for the Commodore 64. We were working on games for the Commodore Vic20.
> I have talked with a few people who say there were TI-99/4A ports by
> the M-Network (which were influenced by the people that came from TI
> over to Mattel in 1983), but TI locked them out in 1983 along with
> other 3rd party manufacturers. Do you remember the TI-99/4A work done
> at APh for the M-Network?
I don't remember any TI work.
> Another thing I would love to hear about are any names from APh that I
> might be able to run down and contact for even more info. I seem to
> have found a Hal Finney, but got no response
If you remember him, > his web page is at http://www.finney.org/~hal/ complete with picture.
> I think his e-mail is hal@finney.org if you feel like dropping him a line.
That's too bad Hal didn't respond. He was *the* Intellivision software guru. For the next generation Intellivision, when the hardware guys would decide to make a major change to the way the new graphics system would work, while the rest of us were still trying to absorb the new specs, Hal would make a few tweaks, and his code would work.
Other names you might look for that I can remember:
Glen Hightower
Alan Blanchard
Glen owned the company. Alan was, if I recall correctly, one of the main hardware guys. Some Intellivision programmers:
Brian Leahy
Kathy Doughty
Dan Dickerson
You might also check into people associated with Chesire Engineering. They were a bunch of people from APh who had a dispute with Glen over something and split off to form Chesire, just before I started at APh. I think several of them had been involved in Intellivision stuff.
> Anyway, it should be interesting to hear from you about your time at
> APh and the people / projects you remember. What all did you do while at APh?
> Can't wait to hear back from you!
In my year there, I recall working on the following:
1. My "trivia" game. New programmers were given the Intellivision docs, and then told to go design and write a game to learn the system. Just something easy, on the level of an Atari VCS game (that sounds like a slam at Atari, but it isn't--the Intellivision hardware and the software in the ROM simply made it easier to write games for it, and so someone doing a learning game should indeed be able to match the standards of commercial Atari games).
This typically took 2 to 4 weeks. My "trivia" game was called "Thistle Command". You had a pot of haggis, and Scottsmen came flying down to steal your haggis. To defend you haggis, you had special throwing kabers you tossed at the Scotts. I didn't have an office, so was working on a table in a hallway, and I remember people walking by, seeing my trivia game, and shaking their heads as they watched my Scottsmen explode when the kabers hit them, and walk away muttering "this guy is sick".
Someone once put together a cartridge with about 10 of these trivia games on it. It was a lot of fun.
2. My supervisor, Eric Nickell (not sure about the spelling) (not sure about the spelling of any names I've given you!), was one of the ones leaving APh.
I never got the full story, but I think it was related to the dispute that led to the formation of Chesire, although he did not go to Chesire. I took over maintaining a game he had developed: Treasure of Tarmin. He had finished the game, so all I had to do was fix one bug that had been found in the first release that Mattel wanted to fix before they made more cartridges (some item that was behind a wall was positions wrong and could be seen below the wall).
3. I then went to work on "Tomb of Horrors" for the next generation hardware. This got to the point where you could walk around the dungeon, pick up objects, view monsters. I don't recall if there was any combat or not.
4. When the video game boom busted, and it was clear that the next generation system wouldn't happen, I was switched to working on "Tomb of Horrors" for the Vic20.
That's what I was working on when I got laid off.
Hope this helps.
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--tzs
