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Danielle Bunten Berry
Danielle Bunten Berry (born Daniel Paul Bunten, February 19, 1949 – July 3, 1998), was an American game designer and programmer, known for the 1983 game M.U.L.E., one of the first influential multiplayer video games, and 1984's The Seven Cities of Gold.
In 1998, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Computer Game Developers Association. In 2007, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences chose Berry as the 10th inductee into its Hall of Fame. In 2009, she was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.
Berry was born Daniel Paul Bunten in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas as a junior in high school. She was the oldest of six siblings. While growing up in Little Rock, Berry's family did not always have enough money to make ends meet, so Berry took a job at a pharmacy. She also held a leadership role with the Boy Scouts.
According to Berry, one of her fondest childhood memories involved playing games with her family. She was quoted as saying, "When I was a kid, the only times my family spent together that weren't totally dysfunctional were when we were playing games. Consequently, I believe games are a wonderful way to socialize."
While attending the University of Arkansas, she opened up her own bike shop called Highroller Cyclerie. Berry acquired a degree in industrial engineering in 1974 and started programming text-based video games as a hobby. After she graduated from college, she was employed by the National Science Foundation, where she created urban models before starting a job at a video game company.
In 1978, Berry sold a real-time auction game for the Apple II titled Wheeler Dealers to a Canadian software company, Speakeasy Software. This early multiplayer game required a custom controller, raising its price to USD$35 in an era of $15 games sold in plastic bags. It sold only 50 copies. After creating a football game to play with friends at work, Berry submitted it Strategic Simulations, which the company ended up publishing in 1981 as Computer Quarterback.
After producing three titles for Strategic Simulations, Berry, who by then had founded a software company called Ozark Softscape, caught the attention of Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins. M.U.L.E. was Berry's first game for EA, originally published for the Atari 8-bit computers because the Atari 800 had four controller ports. Berry later ported it to the Commodore 64. While its sales of 30,000 units were not high, the game developed a cult following and was widely pirated. The game setting was inspired by the novel Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein.
Along with the success of M.U.L.E., Berry also had close ties with the games Robot Rascals, Heart of Africa, and Cartels & Cutthroat$. Throughout her career, she was involved in the creation of 12 games, 10 of which revolved around multiplayer compatibility. The only two which did not have a multiplayer focus were The Seven Cities of Gold and Heart of Africa.
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Danielle Bunten Berry
Danielle Bunten Berry (born Daniel Paul Bunten, February 19, 1949 – July 3, 1998), was an American game designer and programmer, known for the 1983 game M.U.L.E., one of the first influential multiplayer video games, and 1984's The Seven Cities of Gold.
In 1998, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Computer Game Developers Association. In 2007, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences chose Berry as the 10th inductee into its Hall of Fame. In 2009, she was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.
Berry was born Daniel Paul Bunten in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas as a junior in high school. She was the oldest of six siblings. While growing up in Little Rock, Berry's family did not always have enough money to make ends meet, so Berry took a job at a pharmacy. She also held a leadership role with the Boy Scouts.
According to Berry, one of her fondest childhood memories involved playing games with her family. She was quoted as saying, "When I was a kid, the only times my family spent together that weren't totally dysfunctional were when we were playing games. Consequently, I believe games are a wonderful way to socialize."
While attending the University of Arkansas, she opened up her own bike shop called Highroller Cyclerie. Berry acquired a degree in industrial engineering in 1974 and started programming text-based video games as a hobby. After she graduated from college, she was employed by the National Science Foundation, where she created urban models before starting a job at a video game company.
In 1978, Berry sold a real-time auction game for the Apple II titled Wheeler Dealers to a Canadian software company, Speakeasy Software. This early multiplayer game required a custom controller, raising its price to USD$35 in an era of $15 games sold in plastic bags. It sold only 50 copies. After creating a football game to play with friends at work, Berry submitted it Strategic Simulations, which the company ended up publishing in 1981 as Computer Quarterback.
After producing three titles for Strategic Simulations, Berry, who by then had founded a software company called Ozark Softscape, caught the attention of Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins. M.U.L.E. was Berry's first game for EA, originally published for the Atari 8-bit computers because the Atari 800 had four controller ports. Berry later ported it to the Commodore 64. While its sales of 30,000 units were not high, the game developed a cult following and was widely pirated. The game setting was inspired by the novel Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein.
Along with the success of M.U.L.E., Berry also had close ties with the games Robot Rascals, Heart of Africa, and Cartels & Cutthroat$. Throughout her career, she was involved in the creation of 12 games, 10 of which revolved around multiplayer compatibility. The only two which did not have a multiplayer focus were The Seven Cities of Gold and Heart of Africa.