Cathryn Mataga

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cathryn Mataga
Known forfounder of Junglevision

Cathryn Mataga (born William Mataga)[1][2][3] is a game programmer and founder of independent video game company Junglevision.[4] Under the name William, she wrote Atari 8-bit computer games for Synapse Software in the early to mid 1980s, including Shamus, the flip-screen shooter video game.[5]

Career[]

Mataga designed the game Shamus in 1982,[2] credited under the name William for the Atari 8-bit family.[1] Much of the game's appeal was said to come from Mataga's sense of humor, such as creating a "grand rendition" of the Alfred Hitchcock theme song in the game's introduction.[6] Mataga followed it with a sequel Shamus: Case II and scrolling shooter .

Steve Hales of Synapse Software, in an interview for the book Halcyon Days, states that he and Mataga convinced company founder Ihor Wolosenko to get the company into interactive fiction.[7]

Mataga developed an interactive fiction programming language known as BtZ (Better than Zork) for Broderbund, in the early 1980s.[3] Mataga worked with Hales and poet Robert Pinsky on the interactive fiction game Mindwheel (1984).[3]

Mataga was one of the programmers working at Stormfront Studios on the original Neverwinter Nights MMORPG.[8] Don Daglow credits Mataga as one of the programmers who made Daglow's assertion come true that he could make the game a success.[9]

Credited games[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Shamus Manual (PDF). 1983.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "The Classic Game Shamus".
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Bateman, Selby (June 1985). "The Prose and the Parser: How Writers See Games". Compute!'s Gazette. 3 (24).
  4. ^ "Junglevision: Company". Junglevision.
  5. ^ "Game Designers Just Wanna Be Girls: Interview with Jamie Faye Fenton". Next Generation. June 21, 1999. Then there was the designer of the great 8-bit classic, Shamus, William Mataga. He recently wrapped-up work on a Color Game Boy version of that game and is looking for a publisher. Only he now goes by Cathryn.
  6. ^ David Small, Sandy Small and George Blank, ed. (1983). "Shamus". The Creative Atari. Creative Computing Press. p. 189. ISBN 978-0916688349.
  7. ^ Steve Hales. "Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers". Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  8. ^ Marks, Robert (2003-01-01). Everquest Companion: The Inside Story. McGraw-Hill Osborne. ISBN 9780072229035.
  9. ^ Wallis, Alistair. "Column: 'Playing Catch Up: Stormfront Studios' Don Daglow'". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b "Mindwheel: An Electronic Novel". QuestBusters. 2 (3): 11. March 1985.
  11. ^ Kosek, Steven (July 21, 1985). "Poet Robert Pinsky goes hi-tech to give electronic novel a whirl", Chicago Tribune, p. 33.
  12. ^ "Pinsky, Robert (Neal)." Contemporary Poets. Gale. 2001. Retrieved May 21, 2014 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3401600586.html Archived 2014-06-29 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ van Looy, Jan (2010). Understanding computer game culture: the cultural shaping of a new medium. Lambert Academic Pub. p. 271. ISBN 9783838332130.
  14. ^ Marks, Robert (2003). Everquest Companion: The Inside Lore of a Game World. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780072229035.
  15. ^ Charla, Chris (November 2001). "Digital Eclipse's Rayman Advance", Game Developer 8 (11): 42–48.Archived

External links[]


Stub icon

This biographical article relating to a video game specialist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

  • v
  • t
Retrieved from ""