Robert A. Whitehead (born November 1, 1953) is an American
video game design
Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...
er and
programmer
A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software.
A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
. While working for
Atari, Inc.
Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry.
Based primarily around the Sunny ...
he wrote two of the nine
Atari Video Computer System
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocesso ...
launch titles: ''
Blackjack
Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...
'' and ''
Star Ship''. After leaving Atari, he cofounded third party video game developer
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
, then
Accolade
The accolade (also known as dubbing or adoubement) ( la, benedictio militis) was the central act in the rite of passage ceremonies conferring knighthood in the Middle Ages. From about 1852, the term ''accolade'' was used much more generally to ...
. He left the video game industry in the mid-1980s.
Career
Whitehead attended
San Jose State University
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...
and received a
BS in Mathematics.
[Interview with Bob Whitehead](_blank)
from DigitPress.com
Whitehead worked for
Atari
Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
in the late 1970s developing games for the
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...
(or VCS for video computer system). There, he developed several games, including a VCS implementation of
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
, a feat many other programmers considered impossible for the system.
He and his co-workers
David Crane,
Larry Kaplan
Larry Kaplan is an American game designer who was the co-founder of Activision.
Kaplan studied at the University of California, Berkeley from 1968 through 1974 and graduated with a degree in Computer Science.
He started at Atari, Inc. in Augus ...
, and
Alan Miller became informally known as the "Gang of Four", a group of developers who felt inadequately compensated for their work despite being collectively responsible for 60 percent of the company's profits from VCS cartridge sales.
Whitehead is sometimes credited as co-author, together with the rest of the Gang of Four, of the operating system for the
Atari 400/800 computers. It has been however clarified both by Al Miller
and by Whitehead himself that he was not involved in the OS development, although he took part in developing applications for the computers.
Eventually the Gang of Four, disgruntled by the management's decline to provide more recognition and fair compensation to the developers, decided to leave Atari and start their own business. Whitehead together with Miller, Crane and Kaplan co-founded
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
, the first third-party video game developer, in October 1979.
There, with others, he created a VCS development system with an integrated
debugger
A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program used to software testing, test and debugging, debug other programs (the "target" program). The main use of a debugger is to run the target program under controlled conditions that permit the pr ...
and
minicomputer
A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller general purpose computers that developed in the mid-1960s and sold at a much lower price than mainframe and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors. In a 1970 survey, ...
-hosted
assembler
Assembler may refer to:
Arts and media
* Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler
* Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe
* Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of A ...
. It was used for most of Activision's VCS titles. He also developed a "venetian blinds" animation technique: an
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...
that horizontally reused and vertically interlaced
sprites several times while rendering each frame, to give the illusion that the system had more than the maximum number of sprites allowed by the hardware.
In 1984, he and other founders of Activision became disillusioned with their company. Their
stock
In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...
had dwindled in value and morale was low. They thought that diversification to the
home computer market — such as with the
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...
— was the key to success. He left Activision with Alan Miller (another co-founder of Activision), and they founded
Accolade
The accolade (also known as dubbing or adoubement) ( la, benedictio militis) was the central act in the rite of passage ceremonies conferring knighthood in the Middle Ages. From about 1852, the term ''accolade'' was used much more generally to ...
. Soon after, Whitehead left the
video game industry
The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide.
The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstream. , ...
for good.
Whitehead left in order to "give back to God and spend time with 'the fam'". After leaving Accolade, Whitehead says he helped with "low income families, getting non-profit religious start-ups going,
ndspending time in the garden."
In a 2005 interview,
[Digital Press Interviews](_blank)
/ref> Whitehead said of the contemporary state of the industry:
Games
Atari 2600
* ''Home Run
In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...
'' (Atari)
* ''Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
'' (Atari)
* ''Blackjack
Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...
'' (Atari)
* ''Casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
'' (Atari)
* '' Star Ship'' (Atari)
* '' Video Chess'' (Atari)
* ''Boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
'' (Activision)
* ''Stampede
A stampede () is a situation in which a group of large animals suddenly start running in the same direction, especially because they are excited or frightened. Non-human species associated with stampede behavior include zebras, cattle, elephants ...
'' (Activision)
* ''Chopper Command
''Chopper Command'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in June 1982. It was written by Bob Whitehead.
Gameplay
In ''Chopper Command'', the player controls a military helicopter in a desert scenario pr ...
'' (Activision)
* ''Private Eye
''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satire, satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely r ...
'' (Activision)
* ''Skiing
Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IO ...
'' (Activision)
* ''Sky Jinks
''Sky Jinks'' is a vertically-scrolling, air racing-themed video game developed by Bob Whitehead for the Atari 2600 video game console, and published by Activision in 1982.
Gameplay
In ''Sky Jinks'', the player pilots a low-flying Seversky XP-41 ...
'' (Activision)
Commodore 64
* '' 4th & Inches'' (Accolade)
* ''HardBall!
''HardBall!'' is a baseball video game published by Accolade. Initially released for the Commodore 64 in 1985, it was ported to other computers over the next several years. A Sega Genesis cartridge was published in 1991. ''HardBall!'' was follow ...
'' (Accolade)
Notes
References
External links
*
Whitehead's library of work for the Atari 2600
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitehead, Bob
Video game designers
Video game programmers
Living people
Atari people
1953 births
Game Developers Conference Pioneer Award recipients