Douglas E. Smith (28 October 1960 – 7 September 2014), usually credited as Doug Smith, was an American video game designer and programmer best known as the author of the 8-bit game ''

Lode Runner ''Lode Runner'' is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to ''Space Panic'' from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in a ...

'' (1983), considered a seminal work of the 1980s. Smith, of Renton, Washington, wrote his most famous game while an

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

student at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

. He wrote the game on a VAX-11/780 in Fortran with some Pascal and assembly over the course of a summer, where it was played by students who provided feedback and levels. It became a "cult hit" on campus. After his nephew asked to play on 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 ...

he ported it over a 3-day weekend in

6502 The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small te ...

assembly language. He borrowed money to purchase a color monitor and joystick and continued to improve the game. Around Christmas of 1982, he submitted the game to four publishers and quickly received offers. He took the deal with

Broderbund Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits ''Choplifter'', ''Lode Runner'', ''Karateka'', and '' ...

and the game was published in 1983. It was one of the first games to include a level editor. While the game sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the United States, in Japan it sold millions, becoming the first western video game to become a major success in Japan. During the 1990s, he was executive producer of the English-language version of ''

Secret of Mana ''Secret of Mana'', originally released in Japan as is a 1993 action role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the sequel to the 1991 game ''Seiken Densetsu'', rele ...

'' and contributed to the localization of ''

Chrono Trigger is a 1995 role-playing video game developed and published by Square. It was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the first game in the ''Chrono'' series. The game's development team included three designers th ...

''. He was the executive producer of ''

Secret of Evermore ''Secret of Evermore'' is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in North America on October 1, 1995, and in Europe and Australia in February 1996. A Japanese re ...

''.

References

External links

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Douglas E. Smith
at MobyGames
Lode Runner
in HTML5 1960 births 2014 deaths Video game designers Video game artists Video game producers Video game programmers {{videogame-bio-stub