Mabel Addis

Mabel Addis (born May 21, 1912 in Monunt Vernon , New York (state) , † August 13, 2004 in Purdys (New York) ) was an American writer , teacher and game designer. She was the first computer game writer and the first computer game designer .

life and work

Addis was born as Mabel Holmes to James Holmes and Mabel Wood. In 1929 she graduated from Brewster High School and studied art history with a minor in psychology at Barnard College . She graduated in 1933 and then earned a Masters degree in Education from Columbia University . In 1935 she taught at a small rural one-room school. Two years later, she moved to Hyatt Avenue School before finally moving to the Katonah-Lewisboro School District in 1950, where she taught until she retired in 1976. She was very active in her areas of expertise, working on history and book committees in the school district. She wrote articles, started an oral history collection, and co-authored local Katonah history books. She pioneered the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services and IBM for five summers, helping develop the computer game The Sumerian Game . The Sumerian Game began as an IBM project. William McKay worked as a programmer, but she developed it into a computer game with a story with a writing commitment, making it the first computer game writer and the first computer game designer. An educational game for elementary school students, The Sumerian Game was so ahead of its time that it even included the first cutscene of a game using an audio tape synchronized with a projector. The game tasked the players with managing the resources of the ancient Sumerian city-state of Lagaš . After Addis showed it to a group of sixth grade students, an improved version of The Sumerian Game was released in 1966. The final version of the game was probably completed in 1967 and was not only used for teaching purposes, but also caused a sensation in the relevant professional world. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Addis was president of the Somers Historical Society and chair of the museum committee. An avid traveler, she shared her experiences through slide shows with many regional organizations. She married Alexander L. Addis in 1942, who died in 1981, and married Gerard Mergardt in 1991, who died in 1995. After her death, her daughter Alexandra A. Johnson Monnens gave all of her mother's notes to the Strong Museum of Play . These notes contain only the first third of the 1964 version of The Sumerian Game, and no full copies of the game exist.

Web links

• Obituary to Mabel Addis Mergardt
• Remembering Mabel Addis, the first video game writer, on International Women's Day
• Project Sumerian Game: Digital reconstruction of a game as a simulation of a model
• Mabel Addis Oral History Collection
• Raiders Of The Lost Game - Ibm: The Sumerian Game
• Three Women Who Shaped Modern Gaming