Don Daglow

Don Daglow (Born ~1953) is an American computer game and video game designer, programmer and producer. He is best known for his game designs in the first two decades of computer and video game history, and for leading development teams on major projects from 1980 to the present. His career in games now spans almost 35 years.

Related Topics:
1953 - American - Computer game - Video game - Designer - Programmer - Producer - Computer and video game history

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In 1971 Daglow was a playwriting major at Pomona College in Claremont, California. A computer terminal connected to the Claremont Colleges PDP-10 had been set up in the dormitory where he lived, and he immediately saw this as a new form of writing. For the next nine years as a student, grad student and grad school instructor he continued to write games. Some of his titles were distributed to Anerican universities by the Digital Equipment Corporation DECUS program-sharing organization, earning popularity in the free-play era of the 1970s college gaming scene.

Related Topics:
1971 - Pomona College - Claremont, California - Computer terminal - Claremont Colleges - PDP-10 - Universities - Digital Equipment Corporation - DECUS - 1970s

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His best known games of this era include:

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• Baseball (1971} -- First-ever computer baseball game, now recorded in the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York
• Star Trek (1972) -- The second of two popular Star Trek computer games widely played in American colleges during this era
• Dungeon (1975) -- The first computer role playing game, based on the then-new Dungeons and Dragons gaming system
• Killer Shrews (1978) A simulation game based on the cult sci-fi film The Killer Shrews.

Daglow continued to create updates and revisions to Baseball and Dungeon through the late 1970's. He created an educational variant on Dungeon in 1979 in an attempt to make rote computer-aided instruction (CAI) programs more interesting to students. He had planned to try to sell the game in the emerging computer game market for the Apple II, but his entry into the video game business intervened.

Related Topics:
1979 - Computer-aided instruction - Apple II

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During the late 1970s Daglow worked as a teacher and graduate school instructor while pursuing his writing career. He was a winner of the National Endowment for the Humanities New Voices playwriting competition in 1975. In 1979 he sold the novelette The Blessing of La Llorona to Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine, and it appeared in the April, 1982 issue.

Related Topics:
National Endowment for the Humanities - 1979 - Novelette - Fantasy and Science Fiction - 1982

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In 1980 Daglow was hired as one of the original five in-house Intellivision programmers at Mattel. As the team grew Daglow was promoted, ultimately to Director of Game Development for Intellivision. His best-known Intellivision titles include:

Related Topics:
1980 - Intellivision - Mattel

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• Utopia, the first sim game or god game (1982). Utopia was a surprise hit and received wide press coverage for its unique design in an arcade-dominated era. The game was named to two different video game halls of fame.
• Intellivision World Series Baseball (1983), the first video game to use multiple camera angles to display the action rather than a static playfield.

He also built the software launch plan for the never-released Intellivision III video game console, an Amiga-like home computer slated for introduction by Mattel in 1984.

Related Topics:
Amiga - Home computer - 1984

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During the Video Game Crash of 1983 Daglow was recruited to join Electronic Arts by founder Trip Hawkins. The start-up had fewer than 50 employees, and Daglow was (along with early EA employees Joe Ybarra and Stewart Bonn) one of three EA producers. He produced 14 games before leaving the company in 1987, including:

Related Topics:
Video Game Crash of 1983 - Electronic Arts - Trip Hawkins - Start-up - Joe Ybarra - Stewart Bonn - 1987

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• Realm of Impossibility (1984)
• Adventure Construction Set (1985)
• Racing Destruction Set (1985)
• Mail Order Monsters (1985)
• Thomas M. Disch's Amnesia (1986)
• Lords of Conquest (1986)
• World Tour Golf (1986)
• Super Boulder Dash (1986)
• Earl Weaver Baseball (1987), again teamed with Eddie Dombrower. One of the earliest EA Sports titles, EWB was later named to the computer game Hall of Fame by Computer Gaming World and GameSpy.
• Patton Versus Rommel (1987)

In addition to Dombrower, Daglow often worked with former members of the Intellivision team during his years at EA, in particular programmer Rick Koenig, artist Connie Goldman and musician Dave Warhol.

Related Topics:
Rick Koenig - Connie Goldman - Dave Warhol

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Daglow spent much of 1987-88 at Broderbund as head of the company's Entertainment and Education Division. Although he supervised the creation of games like the Ancient Art of War series, Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia, Star Wars and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, his role was executive rather than creative. He also took a lead role in signing the original distribution deal for Sim City with Maxis, and acquired the Star Wars license for Broderbund from LucasFilm.

Related Topics:
Broderbund - Ancient Art of War - Jordan Mechner - Prince of Persia - Star Wars - Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego - Sim City - Maxis - Star Wars - LucasFilm

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Looking to return to hands-on game development, Daglow founded game developer Stormfront Studios in 1988 in San Rafael, California. He worked as lead game designer and producer for the first six years of the company's history, and designed or co-designed the following titles:

Related Topics:
Game developer - Stormfront Studios - San Rafael, California

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• Tony La Russa Baseball (1991-1997}, with Mark Buchignani, David Bunnett and Hudson Piehl
• Quantum Space (1989-1991) -- The first original play by email game offered by a major online service
• Gateway to the Savage Frontier -- A Gold Box Dungeons and Dragons RPG for SSI, the game went to #1 on the U.S. game charts in the summer of 1991.
• Treasures of the Savage Frontier -- Gold Box D&D RPG for SSI, the first game where an NPC could fall in love with a player character if he/she fought honorably in the game world.
• Neverwinter Nights (1991-1997) -- The first graphical MMORPG, with programmer Cathryn Mataga
• Stronghold (1993) -- The first 3D RTS game, with Mark Buchignani and David Bunnett

By 1995 Stormfront had placed on the Inc. 500 list of fast-growing companies three times and its growth meant that Daglow had to step back from his design role. Major Stormfront titles created under his supervision over the last ten years include the multi-million selling NASCAR Racing for EA Sports, the award-winning Byzantine for Discovery Channel, Xbox launch title Blood Wake from Microsoft and ' for Electronic Arts, based on the Peter Jackson film from New Line Cinema. As of 2005, more than ten million Stormfront games have been sold.

Related Topics:
1995 - Inc. 500 - NASCAR Racing - Discovery Channel - Xbox - Blood Wake - Microsoft - Peter Jackson - New Line Cinema

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In 2003 Daglow was the recipient of the Classic Gaming Expo Achievement Award for "groundbreaking accomplishments that shaped the Video Game Industry." That same year he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. He also serves on the San Francisco Advisory Board of the IGDA and the Advisory Board to the President of the Academy of Art University.

Related Topics:
2003 - Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences - San Francisco - IGDA - Academy of Art University

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