Interview with creator of River Raid, Carol Shaw
- Transfer
In the late eighties, I saw a game in which you could use a joystick to control an airplane flying over a river and shooting boats sailing along the river. Children stood in line for hours to play it. They asked for money from their parents, and if there was no money, they were ready for days to watch how others play.
As I later learned, this game was called River Raid, and it was created by Carol Shaw in 1982, during her time 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 get started with Activision?
I worked at Tandem for about 16 months, and then I got a call from Activision and asked: "How about working with us?" As soon as I started working at Tandem, I had the potential to go to work at Activision, because Activision and Atari (where she worked earlier - a note from the translator) had an agreement not to lure people from each other.
Do you remember who called you?
I think it was El Miller . It seems like he was impressed by my Checkers game.
Did they find out that your Checkers can beat their Checkers?
Well, I do not know. My program played against a bunch of different other programs, for example, against VideoBrain and the like.
In general, he called me, we talked, and then they offered me an option. I was hinted that this stock option can be quite valuable. Well, but I thought it might be interesting and fun to do 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 during the same period I tried to get an interview at Imagic , which was located in Saratoga, California. But there they said to me: "You have never made a single action game." In general, they did not offer me anything.
Was Imagic only interested in action games?
Well, yes, I think because board games do not sell as well as action games. It was an interesting company, but I don’t think they had big sales. Although Atari also never told us how things are 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, action 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’m thinking of making a space game.” He said: “Something too many space games have become. Try to come up with 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, then you won’t fit in a lot of graphics, so it’s better to use vertical scrolling - more pixels fit in this way.
Well, and yet, 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 painted all this on paper and said to myself: “Oh, if you make it like a mirror image, it will look like a river with islands in the middle.” So I came to the theme of the river.
At first the banks are flat, and then new levels begin, where the river is already branching and here you can move either left or 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 a 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 wasn’t quite logical at all - unless you crashed into the mountains or something like that. In the Atari 800 version, the shores looked like mountains. But in general, it just looked better. It’s better to do what looks good, and not what looks more logical and closer to reality (laughs).
You know, actually it never bothered me. I just thought the plane could crash ...
... crash into the riverbank. And by the way, why are these planes that flew horizontally across the screen and could hit your plane - did not crash into the coast? I don't know (laughs).
I heard that you came up with some unique way to create maps for River Raid. What have you done?
There was only 4 kilobytes of memory, so there was no place to store a large number of graphic images. I just had options for transitions from one width of the river to another width. There were 32 options in total, and I used a pseudo-random number generator to choose what the next width should be.
Someone initially threw me this idea - to use a pseudo-random number generator, but to arrange different objects in the game, and not to create a landscape.
A pseudo-random number generator is when you can ask it a certain number of numbers and it will generate the same numbers every time, right?
Well yes. Basically, if you start from one level, then every time you play this game, it will look the same.
And playing River Raid will be the same every time, right?
Yes, but you have to play for a very long time before what happens before is repeated in the game.
How did you change the difficulty level, how did the game evolve?
I made the river gradually narrow, and then there were less and less fuel tanks. The program monitored at what level you were and depending on this, other objects that you might encounter appeared instead of fuel tanks. In the 800 version, I added tanks that could shoot at you, balloons and more.
So you still had a way to influence the results of a 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 did not change random numbers, but there were just restrictions on the limits of the numbers that we needed. I don’t remember the exact details.
What computer did you use to write the game?
For development, we used a computer company Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) . They worked, of course, slowly - not at all as fast as they are now.
Has anyone else worked on the design of Raid River?
This game was made by one person, while others made suggestions. For example, at first I made each level of the game have its own color. I did everything in bright colors, and they told me: “Just do everything green, it's more realistic.”
How was the matter ... I announced that River Raid was ready, but then the chief designer, founders and others said that perhaps the game needs to be further developed. But it was necessary to fit into these 4 kilobytes of memory, so any changes were quite difficult to make.
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’t remember anymore that maybe it was a change in the background color or I already did this before.
After River Raid was launched, how was it received? Have you read all the reviews for 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 once there I called an elevator in a hotel. The elevator door opened, and it turned out to be a bunch of people from the Activision sales department. They all started to applaud me (laughs).
Because your game has become a hit for Activision?
Yes. They got good bonuses, salaries, and we also got official cars. I was given an Audi 5000 Turbo.
Are you ready to tell 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 large figure, if inflation is not taken into account.
Even by today's standards, it would be good money. And for 1982 - very good. I can say that the premiums were comparable to the annual salary. All in all, it doubled my income, at least for a couple of years.
( According to information from here, Activision’s revenue in 1983 amounted to $ 159 million - note by the translator ).
What was it like working with Activision compared to Atari? Can you describe the atmosphere there?
We had separate rooms, we did not have to share them with someone. There was also a common space where you could talk. I think Activision wanted to make designers like stars, so they put the name of the designer on their games.
Was there something that particularly attracted you?
Yes. The recognition that I received.
And were there other women game designers in 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 time 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 get started with Activision?
I worked at Tandem for about 16 months, and then I got a call from Activision and asked: "How about working with us?" As soon as I started working at Tandem, I had the potential to go to work at Activision, because Activision and Atari (where she worked earlier - a note from the translator) had an agreement not to lure people from each other.
Do you remember who called you?
I think it was El Miller . It seems like he was impressed by my Checkers game.
Did they find out that your Checkers can beat their Checkers?
Well, I do not know. My program played against a bunch of different other programs, for example, against VideoBrain and the like.
In general, he called me, we talked, and then they offered me an option. I was hinted that this stock option can be quite valuable. Well, but I thought it might be interesting and fun to do 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 during the same period I tried to get an interview at Imagic , which was located in Saratoga, California. But there they said to me: "You have never made a single action game." In general, they did not offer me anything.
Was Imagic only interested in action games?
Well, yes, I think because board games do not sell as well as action games. It was an interesting company, but I don’t think they had big sales. Although Atari also never told us how things are 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, action 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’m thinking of making a space game.” He said: “Something too many space games have become. Try to come up with 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, then you won’t fit in a lot of graphics, so it’s better to use vertical scrolling - more pixels fit in this way.
Well, and yet, 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 painted all this on paper and said to myself: “Oh, if you make it like a mirror image, it will look like a river with islands in the middle.” So I came to the theme of the river.
At first the banks are flat, and then new levels begin, where the river is already branching and here you can move either left or 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 a 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 wasn’t quite logical at all - unless you crashed into the mountains or something like that. In the Atari 800 version, the shores looked like mountains. But in general, it just looked better. It’s better to do what looks good, and not what looks more logical and closer to reality (laughs).
You know, actually it never bothered me. I just thought the plane could crash ...
... crash into the riverbank. And by the way, why are these planes that flew horizontally across the screen and could hit your plane - did not crash into the coast? I don't know (laughs).
I heard that you came up with some unique way to create maps for River Raid. What have you done?
There was only 4 kilobytes of memory, so there was no place to store a large number of graphic images. I just had options for transitions from one width of the river to another width. There were 32 options in total, and I used a pseudo-random number generator to choose what the next width should be.
Someone initially threw me this idea - to use a pseudo-random number generator, but to arrange different objects in the game, and not to create a landscape.
A pseudo-random number generator is when you can ask it a certain number of numbers and it will generate the same numbers every time, right?
Well yes. Basically, if you start from one level, then every time you play this game, it will look the same.
And playing River Raid will be the same every time, right?
Yes, but you have to play for a very long time before what happens before is repeated in the game.
How did you change the difficulty level, how did the game evolve?
I made the river gradually narrow, and then there were less and less fuel tanks. The program monitored at what level you were and depending on this, other objects that you might encounter appeared instead of fuel tanks. In the 800 version, I added tanks that could shoot at you, balloons and more.
So you still had a way to influence the results of a 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 did not change random numbers, but there were just restrictions on the limits of the numbers that we needed. I don’t remember the exact details.
What computer did you use to write the game?
For development, we used a computer company Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) . They worked, of course, slowly - not at all as fast as they are now.
Has anyone else worked on the design of Raid River?
This game was made by one person, while others made suggestions. For example, at first I made each level of the game have its own color. I did everything in bright colors, and they told me: “Just do everything green, it's more realistic.”
How was the matter ... I announced that River Raid was ready, but then the chief designer, founders and others said that perhaps the game needs to be further developed. But it was necessary to fit into these 4 kilobytes of memory, so any changes were quite difficult to make.
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’t remember anymore that maybe it was a change in the background color or I already did this before.
After River Raid was launched, how was it received? Have you read all the reviews for 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 once there I called an elevator in a hotel. The elevator door opened, and it turned out to be a bunch of people from the Activision sales department. They all started to applaud me (laughs).
Because your game has become a hit for Activision?
Yes. They got good bonuses, salaries, and we also got official cars. I was given an Audi 5000 Turbo.
Are you ready to tell 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 large figure, if inflation is not taken into account.
Even by today's standards, it would be good money. And for 1982 - very good. I can say that the premiums were comparable to the annual salary. All in all, it doubled my income, at least for a couple of years.
( According to information from here, Activision’s revenue in 1983 amounted to $ 159 million - note by the translator ).
What was it like working with Activision compared to Atari? Can you describe the atmosphere there?
We had separate rooms, we did not have to share them with someone. There was also a common space where you could talk. I think Activision wanted to make designers like stars, so they put the name of the designer on their games.
Was there something that particularly attracted you?
Yes. The recognition that I received.
And were there other women game designers in Activision?
I was the first. They later hired Karl Meninsky .