Danielle Bunten Berry

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Danielle Bunten Berry (born February 19, 1949 as Daniel Paul Bunten , Dan Bunten for short , in St. Louis , Missouri , † July 3, 1998 in Little Rock , Arkansas ) was an American game developer and programmer .

In 1982 Bunten founded the successful development studio Ozark Softscape. In collaboration with the publisher Electronic Arts , Bunten developed some computer games , especially in the 1980s , which are now considered influential and innovative classics. These include in particular the Multiplayer - economic simulation M.ULE (1983), the open world - strategy game Seven Cities of Gold (1984) and the first commercial online strategy game applicable Modem Wars (1988).

In addition to her work as a game developer, Bunten also appeared as a software theorist.

biography

Origin, childhood and education

Main building of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where Bunten studied in the early 1970s

Bunten was born as a boy and grew up as the eldest of six children in a middle-class family in the southern states . Buntens' professional career is also closely linked to her brother Bill. In 1965, the family of Buntens native St. Louis in the US state of Missouri moved to Little Rock, the rather tranquil capital of the US state Arkansas. Bunten spent most of her life in the Little Rock region. Bunten described family life in retrospect in an interview carried out in the mid-1990s, without giving any further details, as “dysfunctional” . In reference to her home state of Arkansas, Bunten jokingly referred to herself as "Arkie" on the same occasion.

In Little Rock, Bunten first attended the monoeducational Catholic High School For Boys and at this private school, founded in 1930, acquired the educational qualifications necessary for university studies in the United States. Bunten then moved to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville to study engineering at the largest university in her home state .

First successes and cooperation with Strategic Simulations

8-bit Apple II home computer

After successfully attending university, Bunten , who had been interested in board games such as Monopoly or Risk since childhood, initially developed mathematical models for the National Science Foundation to map city systems . In her spare time Colorful dealt with the newly emerging 8-bit - home computers and gained his first programming experience when writing text-based adventures , but did not reach the market.

With the business simulation Wheeler Dealers , Bunten succeeded for the first time in 1978 to complete a professional computer game on an Apple II . Wheeler Dealers included simulated auctions in real time and the scope of delivery of the game published by the Canadian publisher Speakeasy Software included a specially developed adapter, with which for the first time up to four players could compete against each other on just one computer. In contrast to the customs of the time, Wheeler Dealers was not offered in an unadorned plastic bag, but in elaborately designed cardboard packaging for a purchase price of US $ 35. Nevertheless, only 50 copies of Bunten's debut work were sold.

Strategic Simulations Inc. logo

However, Bunte's novel game idea caught the attention of Trip Hawkins , who was still head of the marketing department for Apple at the time and was one of the co-founders of Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI). This was followed by several developments for Buntens for SSI, including another economic simulation with Cartels and Cutthroats (1981). Cartels and Cutthroats marks the transition from Buntens' mostly solo hobby developer to a professional game designer working in a team and later served as the basis for the development of the classic MULE .

Founded Ozark Softscape and worked with Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts logo
Atari 800 8-bit home computer

In 1982 Dan and Bill Bunten founded the development studio Ozark Softscape together with other programmers and computer specialists who were friends in their hometown Little Rock. After signing a cooperation agreement with Trip Hawkins, who in the meantime had founded the publisher Electronic Arts , the strategy game Cytron Masters (1982) , which combines chess and science fiction adventure, was developed for the Atari 800 . This was followed in 1983 by the business simulation MULE , which also focuses on a science fiction scenario. A special feature of the game is the simultaneous participation of up to four players, made possible by the four joystick connections of the Atari 800. Around 30,000 copies of MULE were sold.

Bunten then developed the open-world strategy game Seven Cities of Gold , which offers players the option of discovering and exploring the New World or an unknown, computer-generated continent in accelerated real time. You can choose between a peaceful strategy based on trade and proselytizing the indigenous people and a warlike approach. Seven Cities of Gold was also written on an Atari 800 and sold 150,000 times. The game of discovery, based on the historical model of the Spanish conquistadors , represents Bunte's best-selling work and is one of the first examples of edutainment . With its innovative gameplay, Seven Cities of Gold influenced subsequent strategy classics with freely navigable maps such as Pirates! (1987), Civilization (1991) or Colonization (1994) by Sid Meier as well as open world games such as the Grand Theft Auto series (from 1997) and World of Warcraft (from 2004).

The commercially successful Adventure Heart of Africa , published in 1985 exclusively on the Commodore 64 , is also based on the game engine developed for Seven Cities of Gold and is unofficially considered the successor to this strategy classic. Robot Rascals (1986) and Modem Wars (1988), Bunte's first developments that could also run on IBM-PC-compatible computers, on the other hand, failed to establish themselves in the games market and became slow-moving. From Robot Rascals about only 9,000 units were sold. Despite its economic failure, Modem Wars was the first commercial online game to have a lasting impact on the gaming industry. Bunten then left Electronic Arts and switched to US competitor MicroProse .

Switch to MicroProse

MicroProse logo

In consultation with MicroProse co-founder Sid Meier, Bunten first developed the real-time strategy game Command HQ (1990) for her new employer. In 1992 Bunten finally created another strategy game, the turn-based Global Conquest , which for the first time contained a four-player online mode and is considered a pioneering achievement in the field of online games . Global Conquest allowed the player to play against opponents simulated by the computer or against other human players via a modem . It was not until the mid-1990s, however, that online games slowly began to gain acceptance on the market. In 1993, Seven Cities of Gold: Commemorative Edition was a PC remake of the classic Seven Cities of Gold .

Sex reassignment surgery and temporary withdrawal from the gaming industry

Bunten was married three times and had three children, two sons (Daniel and Nicholas) and a daughter (Melanie). After the failure of her third marriage, Bunten decided to undergo gender reassignment surgery at the age of 43 , which was performed in November 1992. From then on, Bunten lived as a woman under the name Danielle Bunten Berry. Berry was her mother's maiden name. Bunten later warned against taking this far-reaching step prematurely and without adequate advice.

After the operation, Bunten retired from the game industry for some time. From the mid-1990s, she then took on several consulting activities in the software industry and in 1997, with the help of the US online game service Mpath Interactive, published her last commercial computer game, another real-time strategy game called Warsport .

Cancer and death

On July 3, 1998, Danielle Bunten Berry died of lung cancer at the age of 49 .

Honors

Honourings and prices

  • In May 1998, Bunter, who was terminally ill with lung cancer and already severely weakened, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the US Computer Game Developers Association for her life's work .
  • In 2009, the US computer magazine PC World named Buntens' business simulation MULE from 1983 as the fifth best computer game of all time.

Dedications

  • In 2000, the American game designer Will Wright dedicated the life simulation The Sims , which was also published by the publisher Electronic Arts and is considered the best-selling computer game in history, to his idol Bunten.

Digital legacy

Buntens personal records are kept at the International Center for the History of Video Games at the Strong Museum in Rochester , New York . Buntens three children run a company under the name Ozark softscape that the preservation and maintenance of Buntens "digital heritage" to this day (Engl. "Digital legacy" ) has prescribed.

Interview 1986

On April 7, 1986, Bayerischer Rundfunk broadcast an interview with (then) Dan Bunten in Bit, byte, bitten , the computer magazine on Zündfunk . Some excerpts:

How would you call yourself? As a programmer?

I'm a computer game programmer, but I prefer to be called a software artist.

How much time does it take to write a game like Heart of Africa ?

Usually a year. This also includes the time for multiple versions, e.g. B. for the Atari, the Commodore and the Apple. In the end, a lot of time is spent on the subtleties (“nice touches”). But the customers especially appreciate them. I sometimes think to myself: You spend months programming the basic idea, which of course matters, and in the end the players are especially happy that the waves sound different on the ship voyage near land than on the high seas.

As a North American, what are you interested in the history of Africa?

Our uncle was a missionary in South America. One day he sent my brother Bill and I a book about the Conquistadores, which we were thrilled about. We then kept dealing with these things. In addition to studying science, I even attended history lectures on Africa. Finally we got to the computer, did a little research and finally got the programming going. But it's a shame that the computer medium is so limited. We had so much knowledge that we wanted to put in. But what are 64 kilobytes or the storage space on a floppy disk? We had to turn back our ideas a lot!

Give an example of a bug.

There are tons of bugs. In the game Mule, if you take your Mule into an equipment store, suddenly an insane noise starts. That was a programming error, a bug, never planned. We were happy about this bug, now the bug is part of the game and as far as I know no one has complained about it.

Let's imagine Monopoly, a game with figures and cards that you can touch and move in three dimensions. In contrast, a film is only two-dimensional, not interactive, but fascinating in its own way. Where does the computer game fit in here?

Each medium has its own strengths and limitations. Books involve you in strangers and actions in a different way than films do. Theater once again different. There is a new medium in the USA: books on cassette. You drive in the car, insert the cassette you bought and hear a story. This is very popular now and works by theatrical and radiophonic means. Some books have changed the world. To compare all of this with computers sounds presumptuous. But one day it will come to the point that computer entertainment will be on an equal footing with the other genres.

Computer games

  • Wheeler Dealers (1978)
  • Cartels and Cutthroats (1981)
  • Computer Quarterback (1981)
  • Cytron Masters (1982)
  • MULE (1983)
  • The Seven Cities of Gold (1984)
  • Heart of Africa (1985)
  • Robot Rascals (1986)
  • Modem Wars , initially planned under the title Dan Bunten's Sport of War (1988)
  • Command HQ (1990)
  • Global Conquest (1992)
  • Seven Cities of Gold: Commemorative Edition (1993)
  • Warsport (1997)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e f g h i Greg Costikyan: Danielle Bunten Berry (1949–1998). In: Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. Retrieved May 17, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g James Hague: Danielle Berry. In: Halcyon Days. Retrieved May 17, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i David Koon: Dani Bunten changed video games forever. In: Arkansas Times. February 8, 2012, accessed May 17, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Winnie Forster: Computer and video playmaker. Utting: Gameplan (2008), p. 58.
  5. ↑ a b c Dominic Berlemann: simulation and documentation of the "New World" in Dan Buntens strategy classic The Seven Cities of Gold. (No longer available online.) In: Paidia. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015 ; accessed on May 16, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.paidia.de
  6. ↑ Neil Randall, "Heart of Africa," In: Compute! Vol. 8, No. 4 (1985), p. 60.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f Winnie Forster: Computer and video game maker. Utting: Gameplan (2008), p. 59.
  8. ↑ Danielle Berry's web diary ( Memento from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ^ Luke Plunkett: A Salute To Dani Bunten, A Transgender Video Gaming Pioneer. In: Kotaku. February 16, 2012, accessed May 18, 2015 .
  10. ↑ The interview was recorded on March 25, 1986 in Munich.
  11. ↑ Boris Schneider, Gregor Neumann: "Pictures at an Exhibition", In: Happy Computer. Volume 6, No. 4 (1988), p. 11.
personal data
SURNAME Berry, Danielle Bunten
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bunten, Dan (nickname); Bunten, Daniel Paul (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American programmer, developer of home computer games
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Louis
DATE OF DEATH July 3, 1998
Place of death Little rock