Christian H. "Chris" Oberth (died July 16, 2012) was a

game programmer A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface ...

who created early titles for the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

family of personal computers, handheld electronic games for

Milton Bradley Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased by Hasbro in 1984, and ...

, and games for coin-operated arcade machines published in the early 1980s. Though not a hit in arcades, Oberth's 1982 ''

Anteater Anteater is a common name for the four extant mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue") commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together with ...

'' for

Stern Electronics Stern is the name of two different but related arcade gaming companies. Stern Electronics, Inc. manufactured arcade video games and pinball machines from 1977 until 1985, and was best known for '' Berzerk''. Stern Pinball, Inc., founded in 1999 ...

was an influential concept, cloned by a number of developers for 8-bit home computers, including

Sierra On-Line Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, ...

as ''

Oil's Well ''Oil's Well'' (a pun on "all's well") is a video game published by Sierra On-Line in 1983. The game was written for the Atari 8-bit family by Thomas J. Mitchell. ''Oil's Well'' is similar to the 1982 arcade game ''Anteater'', re-themed to be abo ...

''. The following year he wrote his own home version as '' Ardy the Aardvark'' (

Datamost Datamost was a computer book publisher and computer game company founded by David Gordon and based in Chatsworth, California. Datamost operated in the early 1980s producing games and other software mainly for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and Atari ...

, 1983). Oberth's first commercial games, '' Phasor Zap'' (1978) and '' 3-D Docking Mission'' (1978) for the Apple II, were published by

Programma International Programma International was one of the first personal computer software publishers. Established in the late 1970s by David Gordon, it published a line of approximately 300 game, programming utility, and office productivity products for the Appl ...

, a company which also published games from future arcade game designers Bob Flanagan and Gary Shannon as well as rejecting the first effort from Mark Turmell. His next thirteen Apple II games, in addition to ''Phasor Zap'' and ''3-D Docking Mission'', were published by

The Elektrik Keyboard The Elektrik Keyboard was a computer and musical instrument store located on North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, Illinois in the 1970s and 1980s. In the late '70s it added personal computers to its lineup, and began publishing Apple II computer softwa ...

, a musical instrument and computer store in Chicago where Oberth was head of the computer department.

Games

References

Video game programmers 2012 deaths {{videogame-bio-stub