Chris Roberts' First Game (September 29, 2011)

[Bandit LOAF]

Ladies and gentlemen, look at Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Pix--of Pix's Origin Adventures has made an astonishing discovery about Wing Commander's prehistory: Chris Roberts' first game, printed in the April 1983 issue of BBC Micro User. It's an arcade game called King Kong based on the famous movie. The player flies a helicopter which must rescue captive women and then shoot the great ape. Roberts wrote the game when he was just 14 years old. It was released as BASIC code printed in the magazine which you could type in and then play. You can read more and even try the game itself here.

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Original update published on September 29, 2011

 

[ELTEE]

I find the way the article is written is interesting - a neat window into the industry at that time. Funny that there's no mention of who created the game or what the background is at all.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Heh, hardly an industry at all at the time--Chris was a teenger writing games in his free time. (He tells me he was paid 100 pounds for this game.)

I'm not sure why he isn't credited--apparently other writers in the same magazine were.