Activision Gamemaker
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| Original author(s) | Garry Kitchen |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Activision |
| Initial release | 1985 |
| Platform | Commodore 64, Apple II, IBM PC |
| Type | Game creation system |
Garry Kitchen's GameMaker is an IDE for the Commodore 64, Apple II, and IBM PCs, created by Garry Kitchen and released by Activision in 1985. The software is notable as one of the earliest all-in-one game design products aimed at the general consumer, preceded by Broderbund’s The Arcade Machine in 1982. Two add-on disks are available for the Commodore 64 version: Sports, and Science Fiction. These include sprites, music, and background elements for loading into GameMaker.
To demonstrate the versatility of the program, the package includes several demonstration files. Among them are a demo sequence featuring animated sprites and music, a recreation of the David Crane classic Pitfall!, and a birthday greeting.
GameMaker is divided into five tools, each of which consists of a graphical interface controlled with the joystick:
The programming language used by GameMaker is reminiscent of other early programming languages like BASIC, but with several proprietary and tightly integrated graphics and sound facilities.
Rather than enter the language via keyboard, GameMaker uses a novel contextual menu-based system. The user selects possible instructions, and then customizes the active objects of the instruction, such as variable names or numbers.
Some limitations of Gamemaker are imposed by the Commodore 64 architecture, some by the software itself:
Computer Gaming World called GameMaker "excellent".COMPUTE's! Gazette called it "a thorough, complete package that makes it relatively easy to design arcade games that actually work."
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