Atari's Mike Jang

https://arcadeblogger.com/2024/02/13/ataris-mike-jang/

by speckx • 2 years ago

237 15 2 years ago

The design of the Star Wars cabinet stands out as the single most immersive game experience in my life. It fired my imagination. I was always bad at that game but while playingit I was a Starship Pilot! But I could clock Missile Command so I learned to play it with my feet sitting on a stool. It's not sad news for me that Mike has died, we all do, and seemed to have lived a full life. Thanks for giving some insight into it.

DonHopkins• 2 years ago

I vividly remember once visiting Atari Cambridge Research Labs with my friend Devon, and seeing a Star Wars cabinet with a huge bus of ribbon cables coming out of it and going to a Lisp Machine.

It left a huge indelible impression on me (as a committed “Star Wars Freak” who collected all the trading cards in elementary school and can still perform a great Chewbacca impression), although I never got to actually play that.

I did later have the console version of Star Wars in my garage in Mountain View though, but never owned a cabinet like the one at Atari Cambridge Research Labs, or a Lisp Machine to go with it!

I just found Bill St. Clair’s LinkedIn account and resume that mentions it:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wwstc/details/experience/

  Lisp hacker, Atari Cambridge Research Lab
  1984 - 1984 · Less than a year
  Symbolics Lisp Machine code to use a Star Wars arcade game as a graphics output device,
  6805 code loader, 3D turtles, maze game (jsMaze.com was my second try at this).

https://web.archive.org/web/20160315014835/https://lisplog.o...

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bill-stclair

https://billstclair.com/

That sounds like the most amazing job in the world! And it confirms that I was not just dreaming.

He also hacked lots of Lisp at places like Computer Interactive Services, Thinking Machines, Apple Computer, Digitool, Shaker Computer & Management Services, ITA Software, and Closure Associates.

Anybody remember what was up with that?

This document mentions lots of other cool stuff with Lisp Machines at Atari Cambridge Research Lab, but not the Star Wars machine:

https://tcm.computerhistory.org/CHMfiles/Atari%20Research%20...

But I can’t manage to find any more information about it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18803966

DonHopkins on Jan 2, 2019 | parent | context | favorite | on: How Atari created the Star Wars arcade game (2017)

I saw an Atari Star Wars cockpit at Atari Cambridge Research Labs, with a huge mess of cables draping out of it, hooking it up to some other equipment.

Here are is a video playlist from Cynthia Solomon with demos of other cool stuff they did at Atari Cambridge Research, with Alan Kay, Margaret Minsky, David Levitt, Gumby, and other amazing people:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR2CwKculBU&list=PL850B65ECB...

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.games.video.classic/c/WQ62u7...

Don Hopkins, Dec 8, 1992, 6:23:20 AM

en...@cs.montana.edu (Jacob Cormier) writes:

Hasn't anyone here played Star Wars, the arcade game?!? It's the best! If I ever see that at an arcade again, I will whip out my credit card and buy it on the spot! I had a version for my Commidor64, but it was garbage.

My housemate brought home a Star Wars machine one day, and it became an important part of our lives. A very well designed game! After you blow up the Death Star, there's just enough time for bong hit.

-Don

Richard Stueven, Dec 8, 1992, 10:31:28 PM

In (an earlier article), (someone) wrote (something like) "In Star Wars, after you blew up the Death Star, there was just enough time for a bong hit."

In article 75...@ultb.isc.rit.edu, tjg...@ritvax.isc.rit.edu () writes:

What is the bong hit in Star Wars?

Heh, heh. :-)

gak

Richard Stueven g...@wrs.com attmail!gakhaus!gak 107/H/3&4

082349872349872• 2 years ago

I could clock Missile Command

I saw reentry vehicles doing their thing once in my life, and all I could think was that the flipping parallel lines in the sky looked way too much like melonfarming Missile Command.

ticklemyelmo• 2 years ago

It fired my imagination. I was always bad at that game but while playingit I was a Starship Pilot!

"Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada."

Yeah, he designed THAT cabinet too.

bigboy12• 2 years ago

Pure genius. Tonight I am very sad.

cmsonger• 2 years ago

Rest In Peace.

I was a pre-teen when I first learned to program on a TRS-80 Model 1. I was, at the time, an expert in BASIC and Z80 assembly.

At the same time I was asking my parents for quarters to play space invaders. And that's where I feel this article.

These are the shoulders I stood on. There were people who made that first generation of video games and personal computers. I benefited from their work. Their work launched me into what has been a great career.

But they are aging out and dying. Their work was foundational. And, at least to me, inspirational.

videotopia• 2 years ago

You'll probably enjoy the Ted Dabney Experience Podcast:

https://www.teddabneyexperience.com/

jnaina• 2 years ago

Rest in Peace. Atari was the singular inspiration in my teen years, both the video games and the home computers.

Ad Astra, Mike. Thanks for all your great work.

taco-hands• 2 years ago

I always feel sad reading about the passing of folks who, frankly, were complete trail-blazers! Mike Included.

The first time I came across a Star Wars cabinet, I was hooked. I remember my nervous excitement just sitting in it. You absolutely nailed it Mike!

LightBug1• 2 years ago

A big part of my youth. Thanks, Mike. RIP.

xbar• 2 years ago

Thanks Mike for coloring and shaping so much of what I call my own imagination. I never knew how much I have lived in debt to you.

Rest in peace.

mycologos• 2 years ago

I never played any of the arcade games he designed, but the photos of them making nice physical objects for people to enjoy are inspiring.

Stuff like this always tempts me into thinking about picking up making furniture or something, but man the space and equipment requirements don't seem workable without moving to a way bigger house.

sgt• 2 years ago

I had never heard his name until today. But boy, I just read a bit about him and visited his Facebook page. Such a talented individual!

keepamovin• 2 years ago

Valé, Mike Jang. A part of history.

dingosity• 2 years ago

Oh man. The picture of that Starship-1 cabinet took me back to 1979? 1980? at the amazing arcade at the Forum 303 Mall. I didn't know Mike Jang and just assumed that each cabinet was designed by whichever team members they could scrounge up at the time. In retrospect, it seems the Atari Coin-op "style" existed because of Mike's consistent, cohesive team. He will be sorely missed.

Atari's Mike Jang

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