Carla Meninsky is a former video game designer and programmer active during the early years of the

Atari VCS 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- ...

. Along with

Carol Shaw Carol Shaw (born 1955) is one of the first female game designers and programmers in the video game industry. She is best known for creating the Atari 2600 vertically scrolling shooter ''River Raid'' (1982) for Activision. She worked for Atari, Inc ...

(creator of ''

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 ...

'' and ''

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 ...

''), Meninsky was one of three female engineers at

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 ...

to develop video game cartridges. She later became an intellectual property lawyer.

Background

Meninsky's mother was a programmer and Carla learned programming in high school, but she switched from

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

neuropsychology Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology often focus on how injuries or illnesses of t ...

and

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...

modelling at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. Given her artistic bent, Meninsky was particularly interested in vision and eventually veered back toward programming and a lifelong dream of creating

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

tools. She began her college career at Stanford studying math but eventually switched to psychology because it sounded more exciting. She learned basic Fortran in high school from her mother, who was a programmer, and through this built an interest in computer animation.

Atari, Inc.

Meninsky joined Atari after graduating from Stanford University with a degree in psychology. 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- ...

she wrote the racing games ''

Indy 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indianap ...

'' and ''

Dodge 'Em ''Dodge 'Em'' is a driving-themed maze game programmed by Carla Meninsky and published in 1980 by Atari, Inc. for the Atari VCS (later renamed to the Atari 2600). Similar to Sega's 1979 '' Head On'' arcade game, ''Dodge 'Em'' is played on a singl ...

'' (similar to the 1979 '' Head On'' coin-op from Sega), a 1981 port of Atari's ''

Warlords A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

'', and the 2600 version of ''

Star Raiders ''Star Raiders'' is a first-person space combat simulator for the Atari 8-bit family of computers. It was written by Doug Neubauer, an Atari employee, and released as a cartridge by Atari in March 1980. The game is considered the platform's kille ...

'' (originally designed by

Doug Neubauer Doug Neubauer is an American integrated circuit designer, video game designer, and programmer best known for the logic design on Atari's POKEY chip and designing and programming the 1979 video game ''Star Raiders'' which became the killer app f ...

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, ...

). She later worked on a port of ''

Tempest Tempest is a synonym for a storm. '' The Tempest'' is a play by William Shakespeare. Tempest or The Tempest may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * ''The Tempest'' (1908 film), a British silent film * ''The Tempest'' (1911 film), a ...

'' that was never released, but prototypes exist.

Law practice

Meninsky worked for

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

(EA) and other game publishers and eventually started her own successful contract programming company. In the course of writing contracts and seeing

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

rights being ignored by some companies, she became interested in intellectual property law. Meninsky graduated from

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

Law School and now practices intellectual property law. As an EPIC Public Interest Opportunities Program Fellow, Meninsky testified before the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

in 2002.

References

Publications

External links

Carla Meninsky
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meninsky, Carla Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Living people Atari people American computer programmers American video game designers American video game programmers Electronic Arts employees Intellectual property lawyers Stanford University alumni Women video game designers Women video game programmers