Interview with the creator of the game River Raid, Carol Shaw
In the late eighties, I saw a game in which you could use a joystick to control a plane flying over a river and shooting ships sailing on a river. The kids stood in line for hours to play it. They asked their parents for money, and if there was no money, they were ready to watch others play all day long.
As I later learned, this game was called River Raid, and it was created by Carol Shaw in 1982, during her work at Activision. At that time she was 27 years old. She gave this interview to Vintage Computing and Gaming in October 2011.
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How did you start working on Activision?
I worked at Tandem for about 16 months, and then I received a call from Activision and asked: “How about working with us?”. As soon as I started working at Tandem, I had the potential opportunity to go to work at Activision, since Activision and Atari (where she had previously worked - a translator’s note) had an agreement not to poach people from each other.
Do you remember who called you?
I think it was El Miller . It seems that he was impressed by my game Checkers.
Did they find out that your “Checkers” can beat their “Checkers”?
Well, I do not know. My program played against a heap of various other programs, for example, against VideoBrain and the like.
So he called me, we talked, and then they offered me an option. I was hinted that this stock option can be very valuable. Well, I thought it might be fun and interesting to play video games again.
What year did you join Activision?
I started working there at the very beginning of 1982, so it turns out they called me in 81st. I must say that at the same time I tried to have an interview at Imagic , which was located in Saratog, California. But there they said to me: “You have never made a single action game.” In general, they did not offer me anything.
Imagic was only interested in action games?
Well, yes, I think because board games don't sell as well as action games. It was an interesting company, but I do not think they had big sales. Although Atari also never told us how things were going. We did not receive feedback.
And what were the prerequisites for the fact that you started working on River Raid?
I thought something like: “Ok, eksh-games. Good.". In fact, Scramble inspired me to create River Raid.
It was a space shooter. And I went to Al Miller and said: "I think to make a game about space." He said: “Something has become too many games about space. Try to think of something else. ”
I wanted to make a shooting game with a constantly moving, scrolling screen. I drew sketches on paper and thought that if you use horizontal scrolling, you don’t fit a lot of graphics there, so it’s better to use vertical scrolling - this is how more pixels fit.
Well, and still, if the player moves in the middle, then the left side of the screen can be made the same as the right, or make it a mirror image of the right half. I depicted all this on paper and said to myself: “Oh, if you do it as a mirror image, then it will look like a river with islands in the middle.” So I came to the theme of the river.
First, the banks are flat, and then new levels begin, where the river is already branching out and here you can move either to the left or to the right - around the island.
At first, the player controlled the boat. But from this boat there was no trace on the water. So my boat didn’t look too good. So I thought, “What about a simple or maybe a jet plane?” It already looked better, and I made a jet plane.
So it was your idea to replace the boat with a jet?
In my opinion, I made a simple airplane, and it seems that someone said that the jet would be better.
Have you ever been able to explain to yourself why a plane crashes into a river bank, because it flies through the air?
Yes, it was actually not entirely logical - unless you bump into the mountains or something like that. In the Atari 800 version, the shores looked like mountains. Well, in general, just the plane looked better. It is better to do something that looks good, and not something that looks more logical and close to reality (laughs).
You know, in fact, it never bothered me. I just thought the plane might crash ...
... crash into the riverbank. And, by the way, why are the planes that flew horizontally across the screen and could hit your plane - did not hit the coast? I don't know (laughs).
I heard that you came up with some unique way to create maps for River Raid. What did you do?
There was only 4 kilobytes of memory, so there was no place to store a large number of graphic images. I had just options for moving from one width of the river to another width. There were a total of 32 variants, and I used a pseudo-random number generator to select which one should be the next width.
Someone originally threw this idea to me - to use a pseudo-random number generator, but to position different objects in the game, and not to create a landscape.
A pseudo-random number generator is when you can give it a certain number of numbers and it will generate the same numbers every time, right?
Well yes. In principle, if you start at one level, then every time you play this game, it will look the same.
And the game in River Raid will be the same every time, right?
Yes, but you have to play very long before the game repeats what it was before.
How did you change the level of difficulty, how did the game develop?
I made it so that the river gradually narrowed, and then became less and less fuel tanks. The program tracked at what level you were and depending on this, instead of fuel tanks, other objects appeared that you might encounter. In the 800 version, I added tanks that could shoot you, balloons, and more.
So did you still have a way to influence the results of the pseudo-random number generator to narrow the river when needed?
Well, there were different algorithms to make the river narrow down to certain limits. I mean, I didn’t change random numbers, but there were just limits on the number of numbers that we needed. I don’t remember exact details.
What computer did you use to write the game?
For development, we used a computer company Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) . Of course, they worked slowly - not at all as quickly as they are now.
Has anyone else worked on the design of the Raid River?
This game was made by one person, while others made their suggestions. For example, at first I made sure that each level of the game had its own color. I did everything in bright colors, and I was told: "Just do everything green, it is more realistic.".
How was it ... I announced that River Raid was ready, but then the chief designer, founders and others said that, perhaps, we still need to finalize the game. But it was necessary to fit into these 4 kilobytes of memory, so it was quite difficult to make any changes.
I asked Al Miller to take a fresh look at my project, and he suggested how to save a few more bytes, make a few changes. I can no longer remember that perhaps it was a change in the background color or I already did it before.
After River Raid was launched, how was it accepted? Have you read all the reviews on your game?
It was, of course, my most popular game. It started right after Christmas in 1982. And then I was at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January.
I remember there once I called the elevator at the hotel. The elevator door opened, and there was a lot of people from the Activision sales department. They all started to applaud (laughs).
Because your game has become a real hit for Activision?
Yes. They got good bonuses, salaries, and we also received official cars. I was provided with an Audi 5000 Turbo.
Are you ready to tell you how much money you made on this game or at least the level of your salary at that time?
Well, no ... (laughs).
It would be interesting to know. This may not be a very big figure, if you ignore inflation.
Even by today's standards it would be good money. And for 1982 - very good. I can say that the awards were comparable to the annual salary. In general, it doubled my income, at least for a couple of years.
( According to information from here, Activision's income in 1983 was $ 159 million - the translator’s note ).
How was it working in Activision compared to Atari? Can you describe the atmosphere there?
We had separate offices, we did not have to share them with anyone. There was also a common space where you could chat. I think Activision wanted to make designers something like stars, so they put the name of the designer on their games.
And there was something that particularly attracted you?
Yes. The recognition that I received.
Were there other women game designers at Activision?
I was the first. They later hired Karl Meninsky .
As I later learned, this game was called River Raid, and it was created by Carol Shaw in 1982, during her work at Activision. At that time she was 27 years old. She gave this interview to Vintage Computing and Gaming in October 2011.
')
How did you start working on Activision?
I worked at Tandem for about 16 months, and then I received a call from Activision and asked: “How about working with us?”. As soon as I started working at Tandem, I had the potential opportunity to go to work at Activision, since Activision and Atari (where she had previously worked - a translator’s note) had an agreement not to poach people from each other.
Do you remember who called you?
I think it was El Miller . It seems that he was impressed by my game Checkers.
Did they find out that your “Checkers” can beat their “Checkers”?
Well, I do not know. My program played against a heap of various other programs, for example, against VideoBrain and the like.
So he called me, we talked, and then they offered me an option. I was hinted that this stock option can be very valuable. Well, I thought it might be fun and interesting to play video games again.
What year did you join Activision?
I started working there at the very beginning of 1982, so it turns out they called me in 81st. I must say that at the same time I tried to have an interview at Imagic , which was located in Saratog, California. But there they said to me: “You have never made a single action game.” In general, they did not offer me anything.
Imagic was only interested in action games?
Well, yes, I think because board games don't sell as well as action games. It was an interesting company, but I do not think they had big sales. Although Atari also never told us how things were going. We did not receive feedback.
And what were the prerequisites for the fact that you started working on River Raid?
I thought something like: “Ok, eksh-games. Good.". In fact, Scramble inspired me to create River Raid.
It was a space shooter. And I went to Al Miller and said: "I think to make a game about space." He said: “Something has become too many games about space. Try to think of something else. ”
I wanted to make a shooting game with a constantly moving, scrolling screen. I drew sketches on paper and thought that if you use horizontal scrolling, you don’t fit a lot of graphics there, so it’s better to use vertical scrolling - this is how more pixels fit.
Well, and still, if the player moves in the middle, then the left side of the screen can be made the same as the right, or make it a mirror image of the right half. I depicted all this on paper and said to myself: “Oh, if you do it as a mirror image, then it will look like a river with islands in the middle.” So I came to the theme of the river.
First, the banks are flat, and then new levels begin, where the river is already branching out and here you can move either to the left or to the right - around the island.
At first, the player controlled the boat. But from this boat there was no trace on the water. So my boat didn’t look too good. So I thought, “What about a simple or maybe a jet plane?” It already looked better, and I made a jet plane.
So it was your idea to replace the boat with a jet?
In my opinion, I made a simple airplane, and it seems that someone said that the jet would be better.
Have you ever been able to explain to yourself why a plane crashes into a river bank, because it flies through the air?
Yes, it was actually not entirely logical - unless you bump into the mountains or something like that. In the Atari 800 version, the shores looked like mountains. Well, in general, just the plane looked better. It is better to do something that looks good, and not something that looks more logical and close to reality (laughs).
You know, in fact, it never bothered me. I just thought the plane might crash ...
... crash into the riverbank. And, by the way, why are the planes that flew horizontally across the screen and could hit your plane - did not hit the coast? I don't know (laughs).
I heard that you came up with some unique way to create maps for River Raid. What did you do?
There was only 4 kilobytes of memory, so there was no place to store a large number of graphic images. I had just options for moving from one width of the river to another width. There were a total of 32 variants, and I used a pseudo-random number generator to select which one should be the next width.
Someone originally threw this idea to me - to use a pseudo-random number generator, but to position different objects in the game, and not to create a landscape.
A pseudo-random number generator is when you can give it a certain number of numbers and it will generate the same numbers every time, right?
Well yes. In principle, if you start at one level, then every time you play this game, it will look the same.
And the game in River Raid will be the same every time, right?
Yes, but you have to play very long before the game repeats what it was before.
How did you change the level of difficulty, how did the game develop?
I made it so that the river gradually narrowed, and then became less and less fuel tanks. The program tracked at what level you were and depending on this, instead of fuel tanks, other objects appeared that you might encounter. In the 800 version, I added tanks that could shoot you, balloons, and more.
So did you still have a way to influence the results of the pseudo-random number generator to narrow the river when needed?
Well, there were different algorithms to make the river narrow down to certain limits. I mean, I didn’t change random numbers, but there were just limits on the number of numbers that we needed. I don’t remember exact details.
What computer did you use to write the game?
For development, we used a computer company Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) . Of course, they worked slowly - not at all as quickly as they are now.
Has anyone else worked on the design of the Raid River?
This game was made by one person, while others made their suggestions. For example, at first I made sure that each level of the game had its own color. I did everything in bright colors, and I was told: "Just do everything green, it is more realistic.".
How was it ... I announced that River Raid was ready, but then the chief designer, founders and others said that, perhaps, we still need to finalize the game. But it was necessary to fit into these 4 kilobytes of memory, so it was quite difficult to make any changes.
I asked Al Miller to take a fresh look at my project, and he suggested how to save a few more bytes, make a few changes. I can no longer remember that perhaps it was a change in the background color or I already did it before.
After River Raid was launched, how was it accepted? Have you read all the reviews on your game?
It was, of course, my most popular game. It started right after Christmas in 1982. And then I was at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January.
I remember there once I called the elevator at the hotel. The elevator door opened, and there was a lot of people from the Activision sales department. They all started to applaud (laughs).
Because your game has become a real hit for Activision?
Yes. They got good bonuses, salaries, and we also received official cars. I was provided with an Audi 5000 Turbo.
Are you ready to tell you how much money you made on this game or at least the level of your salary at that time?
Well, no ... (laughs).
It would be interesting to know. This may not be a very big figure, if you ignore inflation.
Even by today's standards it would be good money. And for 1982 - very good. I can say that the awards were comparable to the annual salary. In general, it doubled my income, at least for a couple of years.
( According to information from here, Activision's income in 1983 was $ 159 million - the translator’s note ).
How was it working in Activision compared to Atari? Can you describe the atmosphere there?
We had separate offices, we did not have to share them with anyone. There was also a common space where you could chat. I think Activision wanted to make designers something like stars, so they put the name of the designer on their games.
And there was something that particularly attracted you?
Yes. The recognition that I received.
Were there other women game designers at Activision?
I was the first. They later hired Karl Meninsky .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/223287/
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