Carol Shaw (born 1955) is one of the first female game designers and programmers in 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. , ...

. She is best known for creating 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- ...

vertically scrolling shooter ''

River Raid ''River Raid'' is a vertically scrolling shooter designed and programmed by Carol Shaw and published by Activision in 1982 for the Atari 2600 video game console. Over a million game cartridges were sold. Activision later ported the title to th ...

'' (1982) for

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 ...

. She worked 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 ...

from 1978 to 1980 where she designed multiple games including ''

3-D Tic-Tac-Toe 3-D, 3D, or 3d may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Relating to three-dimensionality * Three-dimensional space ** 3D computer graphics, computer graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data ** 3D film, a ...

'' (1978) and ''Video Checkers'' (1980), both for the Atari VCS before it was renamed to the 2600. She left game development in 1984 and retired in 1990.

Early life and education

Shaw was born in 1955 and was raised in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

. Her father was a mechanical engineer and worked at the

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Departme ...

. In a 2011 interview, she said she did not like playing with dolls as a child, but learned about

model railroading Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale. The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, t ...

from playing with her brother's set, a hobby she continued until college. Shaw first used a computer in high school and discovered she could play text-based games on the system. Shaw attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and graduated with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1977. She went on to complete a master's degree in Computer Science at Berkeley.

Career

Atari, Inc.

Shaw was hired at

in 1978, straight out of her Master's, to work on games for the Atari VCS (later called the 2600) with an official job title of Microprocessor Software Engineer. Her first project was ''Polo'', a promotional tie-in for the

Ralph Lauren Ralph Lauren, ( ; ; born October 14, 1939) is an American fashion designer, philanthropist, and billionaire businessman, best known for the Ralph Lauren Corporation, a global multibillion-dollar enterprise. He has become well known for his co ...

cologne. The game reached the prototype stage, but Atari chose not to publish it. Shaw's first published game was ''3-D Tic-Tac-Toe'' for the Atari 2600 in 1978. She also wrote ''Video Checkers'' (1980), and collaborated on two titles: a port of the coin-op game ''

Super Breakout ''Super Breakout'' is a sequel to the 1976 video game '' Breakout'' released in arcades in September 1978 by Atari, Inc. It was written by Ed Rotberg. The game uses the same mechanics as ''Breakout'', but allows the selection of three distinct g ...

'' with Nick Turner and ''Othello'' with

Ed Logg George Edward "Ed" Logg (born 1948 in Seattle) is a retired American arcade video game designer, first employed at Atari, Inc. and later at Atari Games. He currently resides in Los Altos, California. Career Logg was impressed with the Atari 26 ...

(1981). Co-worker Mike Albaugh later put her on a list of Atari's "less publicized superstars": Shaw worked on several projects for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

of home computers. With Keith Brewster, she wrote the '' Atari BASIC Reference Manual''. She developed the programmable ''Calculator'' application published by Atari on diskette in 1979.

Activision

Shaw left Atari in 1980 to work for

Tandem Computers Tandem Computers, Inc. was the dominant manufacturer of fault-tolerant computer systems for Automated teller machine, ATM networks, banks, stock exchanges, telephone switching centers, and other similar commercial transaction processing applicati ...

as an

assembly language In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence be ...

programmer, then joining Activision in 1982. Her first game was ''

'' (1982) for the Atari 2600, which was inspired by the 1981 arcade game ''

Scramble Scramble, Scrambled, or Scrambling may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * ''Scramble'' (video game), a 1981 arcade game Music Albums * ''Scramble'' (album), an album by Atlanta-based band the Coathangers * ''Scrambles'' (album) ...

''. The game was a major hit for Activision and personally lucrative for Shaw. Shaw also wrote '' Happy Trails'' (1983) for the

Intellivision The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel, Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. I ...

and ported ''River Raid'' to the

and

Atari 5200 The Atari 5200 SuperSystem or simply Atari 5200 is a home video game console introduced in 1982 by Atari, Inc. as a higher-end complement for the popular Atari Video Computer System. The VCS was renamed to the Atari 2600 at the time of the 5200' ...

. She left Activision in 1984.

After games

In 1984 Shaw returned to her former employer, Tandem. She took early retirement in 1990 and subsequently did some voluntary work including a position at the

Foresight Institute The Foresight Institute (Foresight) is a San Francisco-based research non-profit that promotes the development of nanotechnology and other emerging technologies, such as safe AGI, biotech and longevity. Foresight runs four cross-disciplinary pr ...

. She has credited the success of ''River Raid'' as being a significant factor in enabling her to retire early. In 2017, Shaw received the Industry Icon Award at

The Game Awards The Game Awards is an annual awards ceremony honoring achievements in the video game industry. Established in 2014, the shows are produced and hosted by game journalist Geoff Keighley, who worked on its predecessor, the Spike Video Game Awards, ...

. In the same year, she donated her gaming

memorabilia A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

, including games, boxes,

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

, and designs, to the

Strong National Museum of Play The Strong National Museum of Play (known as just The Strong Museum or simply the Strong) is part of The Strong in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1969 and based initially on the personal collection of Rochester native Margaret ...

Personal life

Shaw lives in California and has been married to

Ralph Merkle Ralph C. Merkle (born February 2, 1952) is a computer scientist and mathematician. He is one of the inventors of public-key cryptography, the inventor of cryptographic hashing, and more recently a researcher and speaker on cryonics. Contribution ...

, a researcher in

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

and

nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal o ...

, since 1983.

Works

Atari 2600 * ''

3D Tic-Tac-Toe 3D tic-tac-toe, also known by the trade name Qubic, is an abstract strategy board game, generally for two players. It is similar in concept to traditional tic-tac-toe but is played in a cubical array of cells, usually 4x4x4. Players take turns pla ...

'' (Atari, 1978) * ''Othello'' (Atari, 1978) with

, * ''Video Checkers'' (Atari, 1980) * ''

'' (Atari, 1981) with Nick Turner * ''

'' (Activision, 1982) Intellivision * '' Happy Trails'' (Activision, 1983) Atari 8-bit family * ''Calculator'' (Atari, 1979) * ''

'' (Activision, 1983) port from 2600 to Atari 8-bit and 5200 Unreleased * ''Polo'', Atari 2600 (Atari, 1978)

References

External links

Carol Shaw's games
at Atari Age
Center for Computing History

Carol Shaw Papers 1960-2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Carol 1955 births Atari people Living people American video game designers American video game programmers Women video game designers Women video game programmers University of California, Berkeley alumni The Game Awards winners