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. 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. Her father was a mechanical engineer and worked at the

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

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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'' with Nick Turner and ''Othello'' with Ed Logg (1981). Co-worker

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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 as an

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programmer, then joining Activision in 1982. Her first game was '' River Raid'' (1982) for the Atari 2600, which was inspired by the 1981 arcade game ''

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''. 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. 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. 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. In the same year, she donated her gaming memorabilia, including games, boxes, source code, and designs, to the Strong National Museum of Play.

Personal life

Shaw lives in California and has been married to

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, a researcher in cryptography and

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, 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 Ed Logg, * ''Video Checkers'' (Atari, 1980) * '' Super Breakout'' (Atari, 1981) with Nick Turner * '' River Raid'' (Activision, 1982) Intellivision * '' Happy Trails'' (Activision, 1983) Atari 8-bit family * ''Calculator'' (Atari, 1979) * '' River Raid'' (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