My name is Dave Rolfe, and I was the primary developer of Beamrider. I'm writing to give you a short history of Beamrider and me (the two are, of course, inseparable).

I made the transition from amateur software designer to professional software designer in 1977, when I graduated from Caltech. Being a professional is desirable, because it means that people pay you money, in theory if not in practice. After graduating, I worked for a couple of tiny little companies. You can make a difference at a small company, instead of being just another cog in a large machine -- but be warned that working for a tiny little company sometimes pushes the monetary rewards back into the realm of the theoretical. It turned out that this company where I worked was asked to help Mattel build some games for a new game unit. So I visited Mattel and found that their hardware was impressive (for that time), but the software was non-existent. And so I proceeded to develop, from scratch, the protocols and software environment and initial line of games to support what would eventually become the Mattel Intellivision.

Between the late 1970's and the mid-1980's, I worked in many areas of game development. After setting up the basic method of Intellivision game design, and writing the Intellivision operating system (the "Exec"), I went on to create four other Intellivision game cartridges and to supervise other apprentice game programmers. I also programmed games for other platforms, including the Atari 2600 and Colecovision, and some of my games were ported to still other game machines. I developed small games, such as prototypes for the Mattel handheld units, and big games, including two arcade games, "Star Fire" and "Fire One". ("Star Fire", released in 1979, was the first arcade game to maintain a high score table which accepted and displayed the name of the winning player. Sometimes I wonder whether this might be my personal contribution to our planet's culture. Not exactly on the level of world peace, but I suppose it's something.)

The funny thing is, despite all of the game work I've done, I have never thought of myself a "game person". I am a computer person at heart, and I see games as merely something you can do with a computer. So in the Beamrider days, I was very grateful to be working with Tom Loughry, who is the best game person I've ever known. You'll find Tom's personal history of Beamrider somewhere nearby. It was Tom who came up with the original inspiration for Beamrider, and I'd run screaming to him whenever I needed to kick around a development question about what was "fun".

Beamrider for the Atari VCS

And there were many questions as the game of Beamrider was fleshed out. First the basic game scenario was created: There was a moving matrix of beams with a 3-D perspective. The player controlled his base unit on the bottom (near side) of the screen. The enemy spacecraft appeared at the top (distant side) and then scurried towards the player while dodging left or right across the beams. With that structure in place, the tweaking began. A good strategic balance between the player and the enemy had to be decided upon. How much freedom of motion should the player have? How fast should the enemies move to attack? At what point does the player feel challenged, and at what point is the challenge overwhelming?

In an initial version of Beamrider, the player ship was flanked by two pods, one on each side, effectively making the player 3 beams wide. We thought it would be satisfying to control a big ship, but it turned out that it was a sitting duck for enemy fire. We decided to change to the smaller and more maneuverable craft that you find in the released game.

There was also much focus on how the enemy craft would attack the player. Tom advocated fixed attack patterns, which would allow the player to watch the enemy and get some sense for the general shape of what he might do next. I favored dynamic computer-generated attack sequences, but experiments upheld Tom's view. In essence, the fixed attack patterns gave the enemy a veneer of intelligence, while simultaneously allowing the player to learn about the smart enemy and then outsmart him. So I spent countless hours developing a series of attack patterns, and then rating and sorting them, so as to present them to the player starting with the easier attacks, and later (if he or she survived), serving up the more vicious stuff.

Then I had to invent the other nasties that would show up as the game progressed, just to make life more interesting for the player. First there are the straightforward traps, such as rocks that would simply fall and could be easily dodged. Then we move on to a series of trickier pitfalls, such as "bounce bombs" (which bounce along the beams) and "trackers" (which try very hard to fall right on the player) and finally "zig bombs" (which zig (or zag) in such a way as to make the player dodge and then, just when it appears the bomb has been sidestepped, dodge again). Those zig bombs could be quite nasty until you got the hang of them!

When Beamrider was originally released, customers were encouraged to join the Activision "Beamriders". If a player scored 40,000 points or more and reached at least sector 14, he or she could send in a picture of the TV screen showing the score and receive an official emblem like the one shown above. Photos and letters poured in to Activision, and I liked to read these when I visited the main office. I recall one thankful letter from a man telling of how he had conquered Beamrider and the next day he went in to work and was promoted. There was, it would seem, a connection between these two events, and I sincerely hope that you will have a similar experience when you master the game.

NOTE: I'm sorry, but they tell me that the offer to join the Beamriders is no longer valid! The charter Beamriders have, like a well-known starship captain, been retired. There is as yet no next generation, so please do not send correspondence regarding this offer. At this point in time, you can only become an unofficial Beamrider-in-exile.

Since the late 1980's, I have worked as a freelance consultant developing software for the IBM PC world. I was a principal programmer for Lotus HAL and Lotus Magellan, and I helped move Lotus 1-2-3 into the graphical era. I have also consulted for Stac Electronics, updating portions of their Stacker disk compression software for the Windows and Windows 95 environments. I'm pleased to report that I am still breathing and ambulatory as of this writing, and I invite you to visit my web page at:

I hope you have enjoyed this little lesson in history. See you on the beams!