Bob Whitehead

Summary

Bob Whitehead worked for Atari in the late 1970s, developing games for the Atari 2600. Eventually, he and others felt they were not getting enough recognition for their work. Whitehead and some other colleagues ( David Crane, Alan Miller and Larry Kaplan) left Atari, and co-founded Activision, the first third-party video game developer. (A third-party video game developer is a company that produces games for a console that is the intellectual property of another company)

Whitehead developed the “Venetian blinds” animation technique, a technique that reused sprites (a 2D or 3D image or animation) several times. To give the illusion that the system had more than the maximum number of sprites allowed by the hardware.

In 1984, he and Alan Miller co-founded Accolade. However, soon after the founding of Accolade, Whitehead left the video game industry for good. Ironically, Accolade was later acquired by Infogrames, which later changed its subsidiarie's names to Atari Inc

Software Highlights from Credited Titles

Bob Whitehead's first video game work that SPOnG is aware of is the 1981 title, "Skiing" (Atari 2600/VCS) as Programmer.

Bob's most recent involvement was as Lead Programmer on the 1987 release "4th & Inches" (C64).

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Related Titles

Private Eye (Atari 2600/VCS)

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am the great French Inspector Pierre Touche. And you? Well, enough with the formalities. Frankly I need your help.

"I am in the throes of five phenomenal cases. Five mysteries with a central theme: Henri Le Fie ... more >>

Chopper Command (Atari 2600/VCS)

You're piloting a helicopter gunship, flying cover for a truck convoy of medical supplies through enemy territory.

Suddenly, your long-range scanner shows squadrons of enemy aircraft closing in on your position.

You throw the control stick ... more >>

Sky Jinks (Atari 2600/VCS)

What a beautiful day for the World Championship of Air Races. But, alas! Your mortal enemy, dastardly Dumont Doolittle, has cunningly arranged for a hot air balloon rally to float directly across your flight path.

Don't let Dumonts high jinks ... more >>

View complete softography >>

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