David Theurer is a

game designer Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, Wargame (video games), war ga ...

and

computer programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a progr ...

. In 1980, he created the ''

Missile Command ''Missile Command'' is a 1980 shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. Sega released the game outside North America. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game '' Tempest'' from ...

'' and '' Tempest'' arcade games for Atari, Inc., considered two of the major releases from the

Golden age of arcade games The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development, and cultural influence of arcade video games from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The release of ''Space Invaders'' in 1978 led to a wave of shoo ...

. Theurer also designed ''

I, Robot ''I, Robot'' is a fixup collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines '' Super Science Stories'' and ''Astounding Science Fiction'' between 1940 and 1950 ...

'' for Atari, the first commercial video game with 3D filled-

polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of the data, as in design and manufa ...

Early life

David attended Wheaton College in Chicago initially following a path in Chemistry and then Physics, but with two years to go until completion changed once more to Psychology, earning a degree. He has said that earning the degree had helped him create addictive games by using the same techniques originally used on pigeons. David worked for the college data processing center for approximately six months after graduating. After which he found a job as a junior programmer at Bunker Ramo Corporation, a company that built supermarket computer systems. He moved to California and joined

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor Corporation was an United States of America, American Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturer, which specialized in analogue electronics, analog devices and subsystems, formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, ...

in 1976. Six months after joining National Semiconductor a co-worker was hired as Manager of Programmers for Atari Games and subsequently hired David without an interview. Theurer cites ''

Pong ''Pong'' is a 1972 sports video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. It is one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but B ...

'' as his inspiration to become a game designer.

Atari, Inc.

Despite not liking the sport, David's first game for Atari was '' Four Player Soccer''. During the development of ''

'', David regularly had nightmares which involved the bombing of nearby towns. These nightmares continued after the game had been completed although their regularity decreased.The creation of Missile Command and the haunting of its creator, Dave Theurer
By Alex Rubens, August 15, 2013, Polygon The idea for ''Tempest'' was of monsters appearing from a hole in the ground, a scenario from a movie which Theurer had seen as a child. The last game he worked on for Atari Games—credited as a programmer—was APB in 1987. He left in 1990 to work full-time on DeBabelizer, an automated image editor, graphics optimizer, and file converter for Windows and Macintosh. In 2012 Theurer was given the Pioneer Award for his work on Atari arcade games.

Personal life

On the way to fireworks displays at

Moffett Field Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located in an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County, California, United States, between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale. On November ...

on July 4, 1983, Theurer used his

Porsche 928 The Porsche 928 is a front-engine, water-cooled grand touring car, grand touring 2+2 (car body style), 2+2 hatchback coupe manufactured and marketed by Porsche AG of Germany from 1977 to 1995 — across a single generation with an intermedia ...

to chase down a hit-and-run driver who had struck Michael McCully, a 15-year-old boy from Los Altos. Michael suffered a severed spine injury and was paralyzed from the waist down. The driver returned to the scene where the

California Highway Patrol The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is the principal state police agency for the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary jurisdiction, including patrol and Criminal investigation, investigations, over all California Controlled-access highw ...

arrested him for hit-and-run, drunken driving, giving false information to a police officer and driving without a license. David was praised for his efforts by the California Highway Patrol.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Theurer, Dave Atari people Living people People from Fergus Falls, Minnesota American video game designers Year of birth missing (living people) Game Developers Conference Pioneer Award recipients