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THEARTOF COMPUTER GAME fll7€2V^TU RREEFFLLEECCTTIIOONNSS OOFF MFlji^Mtli^ AA MMAASSTTEERR GGAAMMEE DDEESSIIGGNNEERR Chris Crawford I THE ART OF COMPUTER GAME DESIGN Digitized by the Internet Archive 2014 in https://archive.org/details/artofcomputergamOOchri THE ART OF COMPUTER GAME DESIGN Chris Crawford Osborne/McGraw-Hill Berkeley, California Published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill 2600 Tenth Street Berkeley, California 94710 U.S.A. For information on translations and book distributors outside of the U.S.A., please write to Osborne/McGraw-Hill at the above address. THE ART OF COMPUTER GAME DESIGN Copyright ®1984 by McGraw-Hill. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976. no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, with the exception that the program listings may be entered, stored, and executed in a computer system, but they may not be reproduced for publication. 1234567890 DODO 89876543 ISBN 0-88134-117-7 Judy Ziajka, Acquisitions Editor Paul Jensen, Technical Editor Richard Sanford, Copy Editor Judy Wohlfrom, Text Design Yashi Okita, Cover Design TRADEMARKS The capitalized trademarks are held by the following alphabetically listed companies: PREPPIE! Adventure International TEMPEST Atari, Inc. MISSILE COMMAND RED BARON PONG STAR RAIDERS SPACE WAR ASTEROIDS CENTIPEDE BATTLEZONE CAVERNS OF MARS YAR'S REVENGE MAZE CRAZE DODGE 'EM BREAKOUT SUPERBREAKOUT CIRCUS ATARI WARLORDS AVALANCHE NIGHT DRIVER SUPERMAN HAUNTED HOUSE EASTERN FRONT 1941 SCRAM ENERGY CZAR COMBAT EXCALIBUR ADVENTURE CRUSH. CRUMBLE, AND CHOMP Automated Simulations LEGIONNAIRE Avalon Hill BLITZKRIEG WATERLOO AFRIKA KORPS TANKTICS APPLE PANIC Broderbund Software GALAHAD AND THE HOLY GRAIL Douglas Crockford TEMPLE OF APSHAI EPYX MATCH RACER Gebelli DOG DAZE Gray Chang DEADLINE Infocom ROOKY'S BOOTS The Learning Company PAC-MAN Namco MONOPOLY Parker Brothers ALI BABA AND THE FORTY Quality Software THIEVES DOWNHILL Mark Reid CROSSFIRE Sierra On-Line Systems JAWBREAKERS MOUSKATTACK THE WIZARD AND THE PRINCESS TIME ZONE WAR IN THE EAST Simulations Publications BATTLE FOR GERMANY RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR COMPUTER BISMARK Strategic Simulations COMPUTER AMBUSH COMPUTER NAPOLEONICS CHICKEN Synapse Software DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS TSR Hobbies SPACE INVADERS Taito America, Inc. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am deeply indebted to Madeleine M. Gross for her painstaking and thorough criticisms of this book. In many cases she invested greater efforts into her criticisms than I had put into my original thoughts. She strove to restrain my wild hyperbole and place my arguments on a firmer foundation of rigorous logic. The logical consistency and reliabil- ity in this book I owe to her; the speculative flights of fancy must be laid my at doorstep. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chris Crawford began amateur game designing in 1972,but it was not until 1978 that he offered his first game, TANKTICS, to the public. It became the first commercially available wargame. In 1979 Crawford joined Atari, Inc., as a game designer and began a prolific career. He is the author of ENERGY CZAR (1980), SCRAM (1981), TANKTICS EASTERN FRONT LEGIONNAIRE (1978, 1981), (1981, 1983), (1982), EXCALIBUR (in press), and GOSSIP (in press). In addition to game design, he is also the editor and primary author ofDe Re Atari, a tutor- ial guide to the Atari home computers, as well as the author of more than 20 magazine articles. Still in the vanguard of game design, he now leads the Games Research Group at Atari, Inc.