Barnstorming

 

Steve Cartwright, who was interviewed in issue 6 of the 2600 Connection, programmed Barnstorming. It was his first game for Activision. He got the job at Activision because he had gone to college with one of the founders, David Crane. There was no such career as a professional programmer at the time, so this was what got Steve "in the door" at Activision.

Cartwright explained how he got the idea for Barnstorming: It happened the first week I started Activision. On my way driving home, I saw a biplane with an advertisement banner. "With this image in mind, he created a horizontally-scrolling game where the player has to fly through a set number of barns and dodge geese and windmills in the shortest amount of time possible. If you happen to miss and pass a barn, then you must fly through an additional barn which gets added at the end of the course. So there are no shortcuts in the course - you have to fly through these barns. Hit the geese with your plane and it will slow your plane down. Since this is a race against the clock, it pays be cautious because every second counts.

Although Barnstorming was a simple game on the outside, it had some special significance due to a special feature that previous games had lacked. Barnstorming was the first game to include a sunset in the horizon. Most games of this time just had drab, boring backgrounds. Incorporating a number of colors - purples, reds, yellows, oranges, and pinks - in the skyline added a nice touch to the game - an impressive display that had not been done before. It was a difficult task for programmers to map a number of colors on a screen at the same time. The code for the sunset effect was also shared with other Activision programmers so they could include it in their games.

Flying Aces: 33.3 or less on game 1 or 51.0 or less on game 2

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