Three men make up the pillars of videogame history. One was Ralph Baer, who invented the home videogame console. The other two were Nolan Bushnell & Ted Dabney, the co-founders of Atari and creators of Computer Space, the world’s first arcade videogame. I maintained very close relationships with Ralph and Ted until their deaths, and…… Continue reading THE FINAL CORRESPONDENCES WITH NOLAN
Category: The Game Scholar
THE FINAL CORRESPONDENCES WITH NOLAN – PART 1 – RALPH BAER
The rivalry between Ralph and Nolan was legendary. Ralph invented the first videogame console, the Magnavox Odyssey, which was released in 1972. Working independently, and completely unaware of Ralph, Nolan & Ted created the first videogame arcade machine, Computer Space, which was released in 1971 and was a commercial failure. After seeing a demonstration of…… Continue reading THE FINAL CORRESPONDENCES WITH NOLAN – PART 1 – RALPH BAER
THE FINAL CORRESPONDENCE WITH NOLAN PART 2 – TED DABNEY
In early 2006 I began work on the fourth edition of my videogame history book, Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Videogames. I had a lot of questions about the early days of Atari and I believe I reached out to Nolan Bushnell but if I did, he never responded. So I decided to try…… Continue reading THE FINAL CORRESPONDENCE WITH NOLAN PART 2 – TED DABNEY
MY FATHER’S LEGACY
Although I was never an athlete, I grew up in the shadow of one. My father, Ronnie Herman, was a table tennis player. He didn’t play professionally but he had dozens of trophies that sat atop our dining room breakfront. My father joined the New Jersey Table Tennis Club during the fifties, when it rented…… Continue reading MY FATHER’S LEGACY
KUNG-FU COMBAT 2
Released in July 2021 by Good Deal Games/Homebrew Heaven Kung-Fu Combat 2, my twelfth manual, was the fourth one I did for Good Deal Games. As I did with Pro Golf, Kung-Fu Combat 2 did not mimic a manual design of an established company. The use of the “Chinese” font on the first page and…… Continue reading KUNG-FU COMBAT 2
CIRCUS CONVOY
Released in March 2021 by Audacity Games In early 2020 I had an agreement with Dan Kitchen to do the documentation for his new game Dan Kitchen’s Gold Rush that he was releasing under his own company TikiVision. This was to to be a sequel to his brother Garry’s Activision hit game Keystone Kapers!. I…… Continue reading CIRCUS CONVOY
TOOTING MY OWN HORN
I can’t help tooting my own horn but I just found a hard copy of an email sent to me on January 10, 2000 from Crispin Boyer, my editor at Electronic Gaming Monthly, which at the time was the world’s number one videogame magazine. Crispin stated that they received “loads of positive feedback“ regarding my…… Continue reading TOOTING MY OWN HORN
THE ROAD TO VIDEOGAME HISTORY – Part 5
I don’t know exactly when I decided to begin a third edition of Phoenix. The second edition had three more chapters than the first and perhaps I wanted to do the same for the third. So I researched and wrote three new chapters, 1997-1999. The year 2000 was probably over by the time I completed…… Continue reading THE ROAD TO VIDEOGAME HISTORY – Part 5
THE ROAD TO VIDEOGAME HISTORY – Part 4
Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Home Videogames was a minor hit. It was mentioned in major magazines such as Next Generation and I began receiving letters from people thanking me for writing it. Many of them asked me when I was going to write an updated version of the book since it only went…… Continue reading THE ROAD TO VIDEOGAME HISTORY – Part 4
THE ROAD TO VIDEOGAME HISTORY – Part 3
Based on the responses that I received from readers of The 2600 Connection, I knew that people wanted to read my books. My task was to figure out a way to get them to these readers. The 2600 Connection was a fanzine, an amateur publication that had been produced by a fan of the Atari…… Continue reading THE ROAD TO VIDEOGAME HISTORY – Part 3
The Game Scholar 