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| 08.28.2007Dona Bailey/Centipede
I read the interview with Dona Bailey with great interest, but I was particularly bothered that the entire piece contained not a single nod of credit towards Ed Logg.
The article states "[...]where colleagues didn’t believe she could possibly be responsible for Centipede even after completed it [sic]" which would seem to be (at best) misleading.
Ed Logg is undisputedly the "co-programmer" on Centipede. Ed may indeed be responsible for the bulk of the game and its memorable design features. ('trakball' control, destructible mushrooms, etc.)
Having access to the source code for Centipede (as well as other games written by Ed) for some current projects, I can say without hesitation that LARGE amounts of Centipede were undoubtedly written by Ed. ("LARGE" here is used as a politically correct euphemism for "pretty darn close to everything".)
Indeed, in the original Atari source code you will find a file named "CENTIP.DOC" with the following header information:
PROGRAMMER: ED LOGG
DATE: MAY 13, 1981
Comparison of coding and comment style, formatting, as well as the presence of big sections of code cut-and-pasted from his earlier games would seem to eliminate any doubt (if the documentation file wasn't enough evidence of his direct and significant involvement).
One easy anecdote-- Centipede's high score entry system is copied line for line directly from Asteroids (and earlier game coded by Ed), right down to the comments and branch label numbers.
So please, credit where credit is due. Dona may well be the "creator" of Centipede, but Ed Logg certainly made the implementation a reality.
Best Regards,
Clay Cowgill, Owner
Embedded Engineering, LLC
-Clay Cowgill
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