Danielle Bunten Berry
Encyclopedia
Danielle Bunten Berry born Daniel Paul Bunten, and also known as Dan Bunten, was an American
game designer and programmer
, known for the 1983 game M.U.L.E.
(one of the first successful multiplayer games), and 1984's The Seven Cities of Gold
.
as a junior in high school. He acquired a degree in industrial engineering
in 1974 and started programming text-based computer games as a hobby. In 1978, Bunten 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 three titles for SSI, Bunten, 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 Bunten's first game for EA, originally published for the Atari 8-bit family
because the Atari 800 had four controller ports. Bunten later ported it to the Commodore 64
. While its sales — 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
.
Bunten wanted to follow up M.U.L.E. with a game that would have been similar to the later game Civilization, but after fellow Ozark Softscape partners balked at the idea, Bunten followed with The Seven Cities of Gold
, which proved popular because of its simplicity. By the time the continent data were stored in memory, there was little memory left for fancy graphics or complex gameplay. The game only had five resources. It was a hit, selling more than 150,000 copies.
The follow-up game, Heart of Africa
, appeared in 1985 and was followed by Robot Rascals
, a combination computer/card game that had no single-player mode and sold only 9,000 copies, and 1988's Modem Wars
, one of the early games played by two players over a dialup modem
.
Bunten departed EA for Microprose
, and was reportedly given a choice between doing a computer version of the Avalon Hill
board game
Civilization
or a version of Axis and Allies
. There are claims that Sid Meier
talked Bunten into doing Axis and Allies (which became 1990's Command HQ
, a modem/network World War II
game), while Meier did Civilization, which went on to become one of the best-selling computer games of all time. Bunten's second and last game for Microprose was 1992's Global Conquest
, a 4-player network/modem war game. It was the first 4-player network game from a major publisher.
After a third failed marriage, Bunten, who had until then been living as male, transitioned to living as a woman. Bunten underwent sex reassignment surgery
in November 1992 and afterwards kept a lower profile in the games industry. Bunten later regretted having surgery, finding that it was not the "ultimate turn-on" she had been looking for.
A port of M.U.L.E. to the Sega Genesis was cancelled after Bunten refused to put guns and bombs in the game, feeling it would alter the game too much from its original concept. In 1997, Bunten shifted focus to multiplayer games over the Internet
with Warsport, a remake of Modem Wars that debuted on the MPlayer.com
MPlayer game network.
Less than a year after the release of Warsport, Bunten was diagnosed with lung cancer
(presumably related to years of heavy smoking). She died on July 3, 1998. At the time, she was working on the design for an Internet version of M.U.L.E..
In 2000, Will Wright dedicated his blockbuster hit The Sims
to Bunten's memory.
In 2007, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
chose Bunten to be inducted into their Hall of Fame.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
game designer and programmer
Game programmer
A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebase for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines all of which fall under the umbrella term of "game programmer"...
, known for the 1983 game M.U.L.E.
M.U.L.E.
M.U.L.E. is a seminal multiplayer video game by Ozark Softscape. It was published in 1983 by Electronic Arts. It was originally written for the Atari 400/800, and was later ported to the Commodore 64, the Nintendo Entertainment System and the IBM PC Jr. Japanese versions also exist for the...
(one of the first successful multiplayer games), and 1984's The Seven Cities of Gold
The Seven Cities of Gold (game)
The Seven Cities of Gold is an adventure game created by Dan Bunten and published by Electronic Arts in 1984. The player takes the role of a late-15th century explorer for Spain, setting sail to the New World in order to explore the map and interact with the natives in order to win gold and please...
.
Biography
Bunten was born in St Louis, Missouri, and moved to Little Rock, ArkansasLittle Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
as a junior in high school. He acquired a degree in industrial engineering
Industrial engineering
Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...
in 1974 and started programming text-based computer games as a hobby. In 1978, Bunten sold a real-time auction game for the Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
titled Wheeler Dealers to a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
software company, Speakeasy Software. This early multiplayer game required a custom controller, raising its price to USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$35 in an era of $15 games sold in plastic bags. It sold only 50 copies.
After three titles for SSI, Bunten, who by then had founded a software company called Ozark Softscape
Ozark Softscape
Ozark Softscape was a computer game programming team consisting initially of Dan Bunten, Bill Bunten, Jim Rushing, and Alan Watson.-History:The company was based out of Little Rock, Arkansas and had profound success with a few of their early titles...
, caught the attention of Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
founder Trip Hawkins
Trip Hawkins
William M. 'Trip' Hawkins III is a Silicon Valley American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company and Digital Chocolate....
. M.U.L.E.
M.U.L.E.
M.U.L.E. is a seminal multiplayer video game by Ozark Softscape. It was published in 1983 by Electronic Arts. It was originally written for the Atari 400/800, and was later ported to the Commodore 64, the Nintendo Entertainment System and the IBM PC Jr. Japanese versions also exist for the...
was Bunten's first game for EA, originally published for the Atari 8-bit family
Atari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...
because the Atari 800 had four controller ports. Bunten later ported it to the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
. While its sales — 30,000 units — were not high, the game developed a cult following and was widely pirated
Copyright infringement of software
Copyright infringement of software=The copyright infringement of software refers to several practices which involve the unauthorized copying of computer software. Copyright infringement of this kind varies globally...
. The game setting was inspired by the novel Time Enough for Love
Time Enough for Love
Time Enough for Love is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published in 1973. The work was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973 and both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1974.-Plot:...
by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
.
Bunten wanted to follow up M.U.L.E. with a game that would have been similar to the later game Civilization, but after fellow Ozark Softscape partners balked at the idea, Bunten followed with The Seven Cities of Gold
The Seven Cities of Gold (game)
The Seven Cities of Gold is an adventure game created by Dan Bunten and published by Electronic Arts in 1984. The player takes the role of a late-15th century explorer for Spain, setting sail to the New World in order to explore the map and interact with the natives in order to win gold and please...
, which proved popular because of its simplicity. By the time the continent data were stored in memory, there was little memory left for fancy graphics or complex gameplay. The game only had five resources. It was a hit, selling more than 150,000 copies.
The follow-up game, Heart of Africa
Heart of Africa
Heart of Africa is an adventure game for the Commodore 64 and unofficial sequel to The Seven Cities of Gold. Created by Ozark Softscape and published by Electronic Arts in 1985, it casts the player as an adventurer searching for the Lost Tomb of Pharaoh Ankh Ankh in Africa during the late 19th...
, appeared in 1985 and was followed by Robot Rascals
Robot Rascals
Robot Rascals is a scavenger hunt video game by Ozark Softscape and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in 1986 for various home computers of the era, including the Apple II, Commodore 64 and DOS.-Summary:...
, a combination computer/card game that had no single-player mode and sold only 9,000 copies, and 1988's Modem Wars
Modem Wars
Modem Wars is a 1988 Real-Time Tactics game developed by Ozark Softscape and published by Electronic Arts for the IBM PC and Commodore 64 platforms.-Summary:The first multi-computer online game...
, one of the early games played by two players over a dialup modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
.
Bunten departed EA for Microprose
MicroProse
MicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...
, and was reportedly given a choice between doing a computer version of the Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
Civilization
Civilization (board game)
Civilization is a board game designed by Francis Tresham, published in Britain in 1980 by Hartland Trefoil , and in the US in 1981 by Avalon Hill. The game typically takes eight or more hours to play and is for two to seven players...
or a version of Axis and Allies
Axis and Allies
Axis & Allies is a popular series of World War II strategy board games, with nearly two million copies printed. Originally designed by Larry Harris and published by Nova Game Designs in 1981, the game was republished by the Milton Bradley Company in 1984 as part of the Gamemaster Series of board...
. There are claims that Sid Meier
Sid Meier
Sidney K. "Sid" Meier is a Canadian programmer and designer of several popular computer strategy games, most notably Civilization. He has won accolades for his contributions to the computer games industry...
talked Bunten into doing Axis and Allies (which became 1990's Command HQ
Command HQ
Command HQ is a real-time strategy world domination game. It was released in 1990 by MicroPlay software and was created by acclaimed designer Dan Bunten...
, a modem/network World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
game), while Meier did Civilization, which went on to become one of the best-selling computer games of all time. Bunten's second and last game for Microprose was 1992's Global Conquest
Global Conquest
Global Conquest is a computer game developed by Microplay Software in 1992 for the PC/MS-DOS.-Plot:Global Conquest is a strategy game where the object is to discover territories and conquer the world through strategy and management of military and economic resources.The game always involves four...
, a 4-player network/modem war game. It was the first 4-player network game from a major publisher.
After a third failed marriage, Bunten, who had until then been living as male, transitioned to living as a woman. Bunten underwent sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery is a term for the surgical procedures by which a person's physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble...
in November 1992 and afterwards kept a lower profile in the games industry. Bunten later regretted having surgery, finding that it was not the "ultimate turn-on" she had been looking for.
A port of M.U.L.E. to the Sega Genesis was cancelled after Bunten refused to put guns and bombs in the game, feeling it would alter the game too much from its original concept. In 1997, Bunten shifted focus to multiplayer games over the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
with Warsport, a remake of Modem Wars that debuted on the MPlayer.com
MPlayer.com
Mplayer, referred to as Mplayer.com by 1998, was a free online PC gaming service and community that operated from late 1996 until early 2001. The service at its peak was host to a community of more than 20 million visitors each month and offered more than 100 games...
MPlayer game network.
Less than a year after the release of Warsport, Bunten was diagnosed with lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
(presumably related to years of heavy smoking). She died on July 3, 1998. At the time, she was working on the design for an Internet version of M.U.L.E..
Effect on the game industry
Although many of Bunten's titles were not commercially successful, they were widely recognized by the industry as being ahead of their time. On May 7, 1998, less than two months before her death, Berry was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Computer Game Developers Association.In 2000, Will Wright dedicated his blockbuster hit The Sims
The Sims
The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity...
to Bunten's memory.
In 2007, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences , founded in 1996, is a non-profit organization that promotes computer and video game entertainment with the annual D.I.C.E. Summit event, where its Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony has been held annually since 1998...
chose Bunten to be inducted into their Hall of Fame.
Quotations
- "No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had spent more time alone with my computer.'"
- "Being my 'real self' could have included...more femininity in whatever forms made sense. I didn't know that until too late and now I have to make the best of the life I've stumbled into. I just wish I would have tried more options before I jumped off the precipice."
External links
- Danielle Bunten Berry profile at MobyGamesMobyGames-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...
- A tribute to Berry by Greg Costikyan
- A tribute to Berry from GamasutraGamasutraGamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
- A list of Berry's games
- Dani Bunten Berry Memorial Site
- Dani Bunten Berry named to the Academy of Interactive Arts