Chris Crawford on Game Design

Disposition and Conclusion

I finished Wizard in early January of 1980; it took exactly four months from the time I joined Atari to learn the VCS and finish the game. Even by the quick standards of those days, this was considered fast. We sent the program over to marketing and, my dues paid, I set to work on a program for the HCS. About a month later, marketing was ready with their comments.

They liked the game, but it didn't fit well into the product line. Atari had been making the transition from 2K ROMs to 4K ROMs, and the new 4K ROM products were gobbling up all the sales; 2K games just couldn't sell. I had been required to build a 2K game because they weren't sure of the future of 2K ROM games when I started, but by the time I finished, they ...