Alan Miller 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 who was the co-founder of the video game company

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 ...

Career

Miller studied

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

at 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 ...

, graduating in 1973. Miller joined

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 ...

in February 1977 and was one of the first four Atari 2600 game designers. His 2600 titles include ''

Surround Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to sur ...

'', '' Hangman'' and ''

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

''. With others, he co-authored the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

for the Atari 400/800 computers in late 1978 and early 1979. His last game for Atari, ''Basketball'', was one of the first

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * R ...

games for the Atari computers. Miller did not work on any Atari 2600 cartridges during his last year with Atari. In late 1979, Miller left Atari with three other programmers, 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

Bob Whitehead Robert A. Whitehead (born November 1, 1953) is an American video game designer and programmer. While working for Atari, Inc. he wrote two of the nine Atari Video Computer System launch titles: ''Blackjack'' and '' Star Ship''. After leaving Atari, ...

. They were disillusioned and disappointed with Atari's refusal to give them screen credit for any of the games they worked on. With music industry executive,

Jim Levy Jim Levy was a music industry executive before he became the founding chief executive officer for Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing busin ...

, they formed

, the first independent video game developer and publisher. Activision rapidly grew to US$159 million in revenue in 1983, its third year of sales. Miller acted as Vice President of Product Development and designed several of the company's first games. Among his games designed while with Activision are ''Checkers'', ''

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

'', ''

Ice Hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

'', ''

Starmaster ''Starmaster'' is a video game written for the Atari 2600 by Alan Miller (game designer), Alan Miller and published in June 1982 by Activision. The game is similar to Atari 8-bit family game ''Star Raiders''. ''Starmaster'' was not ported to ...

'' and ''

Robot Tank ''Robot Tank'' is a 1983 video game for the Atari 2600 similar in design to Atari's '' Battlezone'' arcade game, and more so to its 2600 port. It was written by Alan Miller and published by Activision. Gameplay The player remotely controls a ...

''. Miller experimented with implementing a 3D display for the game Checkers but due to technical limitations of both the Atari 2600 and television sets of the era, the idea was dropped. Miller and Whitehead thought that diversification to other platforms, such as the home computers like 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 essential for success.Bob Whitehead interview
from DigitalPress Activision was resistant to this idea, so he and Whitehead left Activision in 1984 and together formed the game publisher

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 ...

. While with his new company, he designed only one game, ''

Law of the West ''Law of the West'' is a 1985 graphic adventure set in the American Old West developed by Accolade for the Commodore 64, Apple II, and Nintendo Entertainment System. It was one of the company's launch titles and the only game from Accolade ...

'' for the

. Miller started as Vice President of Product Development but in a few years rose to Chairman and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. After ten years at Accolade, Miller left in 1994. Accolade hit hard times and in 1999 was purchased by

Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Bec ...

, which later changed its subsidiaries' names to

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., ...

, Atari Europe, Atari Australia, and Atari Japan respectively. In September 2001, Miller rejoined David Crane at Crane's company, Skyworks Technologies, a leading developer of custom branded online games (

advergame An advergame is a form of advertising in video games, in which the video game is developed by or in close collaboration with a corporate entity for purposes of advertising a brand-name product. While other video games may use in-game advertising (s ...

s) for

Fortune 100 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along w ...

companies, where he served as Vice President of Business Development for four years.

Click Health

In 1997, Miller co-founded Click Health, a pioneering publisher of health education games for children with

asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, cou ...

and

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

. The games were made available for

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

consoles and IBM PCs. Miller served as Chairman and CEO. Clinical trials of the company's games demonstrated significant effectiveness. In a clinical trial with pediatric diabetes patients at

Stanford University Medical Center Stanford University Medical Center is a medical complex which includes Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children's Health. It is consistently ranked as one of the best hospitals in the United States and serves as a teaching hospital for the ...

and

Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser P ...

, children who played the company's diabetes game, ''

Packy and Marlon ''Packy & Marlon'' is an educational platform video game developed by WaveQuest and published by Raya Systems for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was designed to improve self-care behavior in children with Diabetes mellitus type 1. Th ...

'', experienced a 77% reduction in urgent care visits over six months, compared to children in the control group who were given a standard video game to play. The company's anti-smoking game, '' Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon'', is an interactive exhibit in the Health Odyssey Museum at the

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

headquarters in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, played by thousands of children each year as they tour the museum. Unable to find significant interest in distribution of the effective games through health care providers, insurers, and government agencies, Click Health closed its doors in September 2001.

References

External links

Photo of Alan Miller
accepting an award for developing the first third-party video game development company at the 2003 GDC
second photo
*
Miller's library of work for the Atari 2600
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Alan American video game designers Video game programmers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Atari people Game Developers Conference Pioneer Award recipients