Appillionaires: Secrets from Developers Who Struck It Rich on the App Store

Chapter 8: Pocket God

If you peered through the window of the Castelnuovo house one afternoon in the fall of 1983 you may have seen a strange sight. You might have witnessed Dave Castelnuovo playing Battlezone on his Atari 2600. Behind him, on the sofa, you would see a representative from Atari. She is taking notes and watching the teenage boy intently.

Earlier in the same year, Atari had announced a Battlezone competition. The two gamers with the highest score would win a trip to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles to take part in a grand playoff. The young Castelnuovo had read about the competition and had been practicing Battlezone for months, racking up the enormous top score of 999,990 — the maximum possible in the game. Today was the day of reckoning: Atari had sent out a team of investigators to double-check the scores submitted to Atari Club Magazine. Castelnuovo was on their list, one of the top ten Battlezone gamers.

The Internet was unheard of in the 80s and there was no way for the Atari 2600 to store the high scores the gamers had achieved. Instead, Castelnuovo had sent a photograph into the magazine to show his score. Now, to verify his achievement, Castelnuovo would have to play the game in front of the Atari representative and demonstrate his ability. While the Atari representative scribbled notes, the boy set up his videogame console. This was it. This was his chance to prove himself to Atari — at that time, king of videogame companies — and win a trip to ...