An Interview with Bill Kendrick

Grilled by Scott Tirrell

Yeah, pretty much.  I also spent tons of cash (although probably not as much as some people) at the old "Space Station" arcade where I lived. My brother Dean actually got me into computers.  We started out with Pong, then a 2600, then he got a Timex Sinclair 1000.  When he got his Commodore 64, he handed the TS1000 to me.  About a year later, I got my 1200XL.

What has drawn you to Atari computers and, more specifically, Atari 8-bit computers?  Did you ever have the desire to upgrade to Atari's later 16-bit models of computers?

I think brother and mom picked the XL for me because I "showed some interest" in an Atari (800XL, I believe) at a department store.

To be honest, I was just playing around with it.  It was in BASIC and I tried to make a little program.  (Looking back, that's pretty incredible for a little 7 or 8 year old, especially back then!)

Sufficed to say, I was pretty annoyed at the machine, since it didn't like my use of "A$".  Little did I know you needed to DIMension them in Atari BASIC.  I, of course, wasn't UNHAPPY when I actually GOT an Atari though! :)

I never got into the ST's because I never really had any exposure to them. Also, from all I've seen and heard, I'm more interested in Amigas anyway.

Has anyone ever told you that you should be writing game software for popular consoles or PCs "where the money is"?  What is rewarding about writing games for 8-bit computers and X-Windows?

Oh yeah, of course.  Even I tell myself that.  To me, it's not really the "reward" of the 8-bit and X-window as it is a familiarity.  That and I don't have access to a good PC to develop on. :)

With the Atari 8-bits, I always loved the idea of making something "obsolete" do cool stuff.  (Not that I'M particularly good at it. :) )

You state that you would like to work in the games industry.  If you could work for any video game company, which one would you choose? Why?

No idea.  Probably a small company developing PlayStation games or something.  The big corporate places like Broderbund and Mindscape (two places nearby) kind of scare me.  I want a place where you can shoot rubberbands at the boss, y'know?

What console interests you the most in the market today?  What is your favorite next generation game on the market?  What is your favorite classic game?

PlayStation.  Somehow the graphics look "prettier" than the Sega. The N64 kind of annoys me, although I haven't had TOO much play time on it. Also, PSX seems to be doing best so far.  That always helps.

My favorite next-gen games include Tekken II, Twisted Metal I and II and WipeOut and WipeOut XL.  Tekken is the reason I got my PlayStation. My PlayStation is the reason I got the other four.  There are other good games out there too, but these seem to have the most playability. Games with randomness always have a much longer shelf-life than those that are always the same bad guys in the same place every time you play.

My favorite old-school game has to be Galaga.  By far.  Oh, and Sinistar, but I'm really bad at that one.  Funny... Sinistar was the first game I got for my PlayStation (one of the Williams Classics discs).

As a writer of classic-style games, do you feel vindicated by the resurgence of retro-gaming?  Do you think older games offer something more than the flashier games of today?

Of course I feel vindicated.  I've been saying lately "retro?  what're they talking about?  I've been playing this stuff the whole time!"

And, as many many many others have said, older games are just more playable.  And of course there's something interesting about their more abstract graphics which lets your imagination flow.  Even if it's subconsciously.

What are your thoughts on Atari's later offerings on the video game market?  For example, the 7800, the Lynx and the Jaguar.  What are your feelings on the reasons they failed?

Lynx kicks major butt.  I can't believe that little weenie, 4-color, doorbell for a soundcard piece of junk GameBoy is STILL AROUND!!!

I borrowed a friend's Lynx once back in high school.  Sometimes I miss having one. :)

As for the 7800, I actually have one, but haven't done much with it. I got it to play Galaga, but found it wasn't nearly as good as even the Nintendo NES version.  Ah well, at least I've got a backup in case the old 2600 ever dies. :)

Now, the Jaguar... I'm still planning on getting one of those. Why?  Well, there IS something about the name "Atari" being stamped on it, but mainly I just want to try out all of those games I've heard so many raves about.

Do you have a "dream project" that you would work on given unlimited resources.  In other words, what game would you most want to do, or project, if you had no financial restrictions?

Oh, something like Myst for the 8-bit.  (Not that I've played Myst much or even particularly like it.. it just seems like such a simple project, minus the graphics.)

I want to see an updated version of Star Raiders.  SRII was pretty pathetic.  Great graphics, but the game play was trash.

Hmm.. I want to see more GameLink II or other Network-based games. Maybe a simple Doom clone?

I would need lots of resources for any of these, though... I'd have to pay people to do the code for me.  I hate to admit it, but I STILL don't know 6502 assembly.

What are your thoughts on the current arcade offerings?

How many car and fighting games do we need?  I'm sure next we'll see a car game where you get out of the car and beat up your opponents.  Or your car will transform into a robot and ... you get the picture. :)

There are a few good games.  I can't really think of any off hand, except Tekken II and Daytona USA.  (He says, after knocking car and fighting games!)

Would you be interested in creating coin-op games?  As a designer, what do you see as being the major differences between coin-op and home games?

Yes yes yes yes yes yes.

To me, the difference between a coin-op and a home game would be resources.  More RAM, more speed, larger screen, more interesting interfaces (steering wheels, skis, etc.)

Also, you'd write for that one machine.  No worrying about incompatibilities with some piece of hardware, no upgrades.  Once it's done, it's done. I like projects like that.

Are you self-taught at HTML?  Your pages are very well done :-).  What tools do you use for web development?
Note: Go to http://zippy.sonoma.edu/kendrick/ to see Bill's pages.

Yes I am.  Thanks!  My tools are my eyes, my hands, my C code and good old emacs text editor!

What would your dream computer be?  Would it be a powerful Intel  or do you see there being nicer alternatives?

<cough> Intel?  Only for when I want to run the software everyone else runs.  I want some kind of gigantimungous Sun workstation.

Do you have any future Atari development plans?

Go back and finish some things.  Do more housekeeping at the UMich FTP archive.  Maybe get together with some of those demo-coding guys from Europe and ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING.

Who is the programmer/designer that you admire most and why?

Boy, another tough one.  I really respect the late Jay Miner, the guy behind a lot of the Atari 8-bit and the Amiga chipset. I also idolize Bill Wilkinson.  He wrote Atari BASIC and had a great column in Compute! magazine.  I was so happy when I found out he was on one of the BBSes I had gotten on to and actually got to say "hi" to him!  (This was the early 90's).

What are your thoughts on current video gaming?  Has it grown stagnant or is it making progress?

Yes and yes.  It's stagnant in that there aren't many new ideas. But, it's difficult.  I know I can't think of anything interesting to write that isn't just some other idea recycled, in some way or another.

But at the same time, the Internet, media and the current game market is doing good for the game industry.

And if it suddenly dies at some point (like back in the mid 80's) I'll be devastated, but at least I've got a few other useful skills.