Warren Robinett | |
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 Robinett in 2015 | |
| Born | Joseph Warren Robinett Jr. (1951-12-25)December 25, 1951 (age 73) Springfield,Missouri, US |
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| Occupation | Interactive computer graphics software designer |
| Known for | Adventure (Atari 2600) Rocky's Boots (Apple II) |
Joseph Warren Robinett Jr. (born December 25, 1951)[1] is an Americanvideo game designer. He is most notable as the developer of theAtari 2600'sAdventure and as a founder ofThe Learning Company,[1] where he designedRocky's Boots[2] andRobot Odyssey. More recently he has worked onvirtual reality projects.
Robinett graduated in 1974 with aB.A. fromRice University,[1] with a major in "Computer Applications to Language and Art".[1][3] After graduating from Rice University, he was aFortran programmer forWestern Geophysical inHouston,Texas.[3] He received an M.S. fromUniversity of California, Berkeley in 1976, and went to work atAtari, Inc. in November 1977.[1][3]
His first effort at Atari wasSlot Racers for the Atari 2600.[4] While he was working on it, he had discovered and played Crowther and Woods'Colossal Cave Adventure at theStanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and decided that a graphical video game version "would be really cool".[3] However, with 128 bytes ofRAM and 4096 bytes ofROM, Atari'sAdventure was a much simpler program, and with only ajoystick for input, the set of "commands" was necessarily brief.[3]Adventure was a hit upon its 1979 release, and it eventually sold a million copies.[2]
Atari designers at the time were not given credit for their games, because Atari feared having to bargain with well-known designers.[2] In response to this, Robinett placed a hidden object in the game that would allow the player to reach a hidden screen which displayed the words "Created by Warren Robinett," hence creating one of the earliest knownEaster eggs in a video game, and the first to which the name "Easter egg" was applied.[2][3]
Robinett then wrote theBASIC Programming cartridge, finishing bothBASIC Programming andAdventure in June 1979, and quit Atari.[3]
He foundedThe Learning Company[1] in 1980, and he worked on several educational games there, includingRocky's Boots andRobot Odyssey for theApple II.[2] The Learning Company was acquired by Softkey in 1995 for US$606 million.[5]
He has since worked onvirtual reality projects forNASA[3] and theUniversity of North Carolina.[1]
In 2016, Robinett announcedThe Annotated Adventure, a book describing the design and implementation ofAdventure for the Atari 2600.[6] In 2018 Robinett stated that the initial book was being split into two books:The Annotated Adventure focusing on the technical aspect of the game andMaking the Dragon focusing on the political story. As of December 2022 only the table of contents has been made public.
Robinett'sAdventure Easter egg is a plot element in the2011 novel and2018 filmReady Player One.[7]
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