   ATARI 2600 ODYSSEY 2 INTELLIVISION COLECOVISION COMPUTERS |
 INTERVIEW WITH: STEVE DEFRISCO  Designed by: Steve DeFrisco  Wing War game designed by: Steve DeFrisco  Designed by: Steve DeFrisco (Unreleased) ABOUT IMAGIC |
I recently caught up with former
Imagic programmer Steve DeFrisco and he was kind enough to take the
time
to answer a few questions for an interview. Steve designed and
programmed the Intellivision hit Tropical
Trouble, as well as unreleased versions of Wing War for the Atari 400/800 home
computers and Shootin' Gallery
for the Intellivision console. Steve also did some additional
programming on the Intellivision White
Water game. CORBIE DILLARD: What made you decide to go work at Imagic? STEVE DEFRISCO: I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Brian Dougherty, one of the founders, when I was finishing up at U. C. Santa Cruz. I had created a demo in assembly on the Atari 800, and they were hiring summer interns. As an intern, I developed Tropical Trouble, and was offered a job at the end of the internship. CORBIE DILLARD: Do you still keep in contact with any of the other Imagic staff? STEVE DEFRISCO: I just reconnected with a few of them, and I've stayed in touch with Mark Klein. CORBIE DILLARD: What is your fondest memory from your days at Imagic? STEVE DEFRISCO: When I started there it was during the first wave of video game programmers almost being treated as rock stars. We could wear cut-offs, t-shirts, and sandals to work! We worked all night, ate out all the time, went on trips together... Of course, the industry dropped right after Tropical Trouble was released. CORBIE DILLARD: You designed Tropical Trouble for the Intellivision console while at Imagic, but you also ported the Wing War game over to the Atari 400/800 home computers. What things were you able to do with the Atari computers that you couldn't do on the Intellivision system? STEVE DEFRISCO: Alan and I came up with the concept for Wing War together. I designed it with the Atari 800 in mind, Alan for the Colecovision. I'm not sure that the Intellivision version was ever anything more than a mocked-up screen shot. The 800 had some great graphics capabilities, and we had a larger cartridge (it was originally designed as a cartridge - I converted it to a floppy version, along with the other games on the Imagic 1-2-3 product) than what was available on the Intellivision. There were some limitations unique to the 800, too. CORBIE DILLARD: Were you allowed to choose which games you wanted to program at Imagic or were they chosen for you? STEVE DEFRISCO: As interns, we generated a bunch of ideas, which were narrowed down to a few, and we programmed those. After that, we were given a little more freedom. CORBIE DILLARD: Of all the games that you worked on while at Imagic, what is your personal favorite and why? STEVE DEFRISCO: Tropical Trouble - it was my first commercial product. CORBIE DILLARD: What other games did you work on during your stay at Imagic besides Tropical Trouble and Wing War? STEVE DEFRISCO: I, Damiano, Sherlock Holmes II, and I made an Intellivision version of Shooting Gallery (Atari 2600) that was completed but never released. I helped fix a few final issues in White Water!, and named Mark Klein's Subterranea. CORBIE DILLARD: How does it make you feel knowing that Imagic games are still widely bought and sold all across the internet, even today, over 25 years later? STEVE DEFRISCO: It's very cool. CORBIE DILLARD: Of all the game consoles and computers that Imagic released games for, did you have a personal favorite? STEVE DEFRISCO: I taught myself to program in 6502 on the Atari 800. I have a tendency to fall for well-marketed products, but the 800 was also a great machine for its time. It taught me a lot about real-time systems that let me be able to handle programming the 2600 a few years later. CORBIE DILLARD: Do you ever still play any of the Imagic games now, just for old time's sake? STEVE DEFRISCO: Occasionally I take out my old systems (Intellivision & Atari 2600) to show my kids. Yeah, I've got kids... CORBIE DILLARD: The Expert's Club Score performance standard for Tropical Trouble is 9 Islands. Be honest, were you ever able to complete 9 islands in the game? : ) STEVE DEFRISCO: Not me - I was a decent player "back in the day" but the testers always out did me. Did anyone ever hit 9 islands? I think the difficulty maxes out on the 8th island - if you made it to that one, I guess it would be possible to make it to 9. CORBIE DILLARD: Do you have any message for the Imagic fans of yours out there that might be reading this? STEVE DEFRISCO: Thanks for playing our games, and hopefully you're having as much fun (and frustration) as we did making them. And remember to go outside once in a while! Steve, let me just say thanks for giving up your personal time to do this interview for the Numb Thumb Club web site. It's very much appreciated by all. - Corbie (Numb Thumb Club) |
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