Good Deal Games - Classic Videogame Games INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW
Leonard Herman

Leonard Herman knows games! He is a computer programmer,
and technical writer for numerous gaming publications, and author of
Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames and ABC to the VCS.
He also is very active with NAVA and Videotopia.

MT> Your personal 2600 cartridge collection is nearly complete. How complete is your collection, and what do you perceive to be the real gems of the collection?
LH> I don't think there could ever be a 'complete' 2600 collection because there are so many variables involved. I personally collect only legitimate US released NTSC carts. Of course I do have a number of prototypes and PAL carts that have come my way.

As far as my collection is concerned, I believe I only need two: Spectravision's Mangia which was won on Ebay in 1998 for $300 and Men-A-Vision's Air Raid which went for about $500 last year.

MT> Being one of the few and fortunate individuals that have played them all, what are your favorite 2600 games?
LH> That's a hard one. I like the quest-type games such as Adventure (but NOT the Swordquest series or Raiders of the Lost Ark), Haunted House, and Dark Chambers. I like most of the Starpath games. Of course there are just so many games that its hard to really pick out the favorites.

MT> Please tell us about NAVA?
LH> NAVA stands for North Atlantic Videogame Afficados. It was started a little of four years ago and we meet approximately bi-monthly at Mike Etler's Video Game Connections store in Howell NJ. Most of the premier collectors in the Northeast attend our 'meetings' and we have regular visitors that come from as far as North Carolina and Montreal.

The NAVA regulars are a who's-who in videogame collection. In addition to Mike and myself, regulars include, John Hardie, one of the founders of Classic Gaming Expo and Joe Santulli, editor of Digital Press. Keita Iita was also a regular until he moved to California last year to join VM Labs. Others who attend occasionally are John Dondzilla, author of many new Vectrex games, Keith Feinstein, founder of Videotopia, Dave Stein, veteran classic game collector who is mentioned in Joystick Nation, Tom Keller, one of the operators of the IRC channel #RGVC, and Curt Vendel, curator of www.atari-history.com.

A NAVA 'meeting' is really a get-together of fanatic game collectors. Most of us have spouses who just don't understand our love for these games so NAVA is a way for us to get together with folks who have the same interests. Meetings usually begin at 4PM and end at around 2 in the morning. We've had some that ended for breakfast and then we'd return to the store until daybreak. I stopped doing all-nighters the time I found myself falling asleep on my hour long trip home.

MT> You are very involved with Videotopia, the travelling videogame museum. What have been your contributions?
LH> I acted as an advisor to home games when Keith was starting up. It's a funny story about me and Keith. He contacted me in 1995, shortly after the publication of the first edition of Phoenix. He was living outside of Atlanta and he told me about his vision of Videotopia and would I like to come on as an advisor. As we talked we both discovered that we grew up sbout a block from one another although we didn't know each other. We lived in a huge garden apartment complex in New Jersey. Keith's cousins also lived there and I did know them!

Before Videotopia opened in 1996 in Pittsburgh, Keith returned to New Jersey and I spent a few nights with him at his warehouse. He fixed the machines while I played them. My major contribution was to advise him which home machines he should have on display. I also wrote much of the text that is on display with the home machines. Keith now lives ten minutes away from me and we have become good friends.

MT> Your latest book, ABC to the VCS, contain summaries for almost every 2600 game. You even have reviews for games that are considered lost, such as Snowplow by Sunrise, Rush Hour by CommaVid, and Impossible Game by Telesys. Where did you get the opportunities to play these unreleased games?

(I'm guessing the CES in Chicago)
LH> Actually it's my first book, written in 1983 and 1984 and then updated in 1996. You are correct; I played the games at CES. Fortunately I took notes of each game although they weren't detailed because I had expected the games to be released. The Impossible Game was a different story. It was displayed at my first CES (Las Vegas 1983). The Telesys rep told me that the game would only be released in the Far East. Since I figured I'd never see it again I wrote down the detailed instructions that appear in ABC To The VCS. The Telesys gave me advanced copies of Stargunner and Ram-It and although I asked him for a copy of The Impossible Game, he couldn't give me one.

Last year, while writing my article about Ralph Baer for Games Magazine, I discovered that the Impossible Game is simply a video version of Ralph's electronic game Amaze-A-Tron (which was released by Coleco). I wrote an article about it for Digital Press which hopefully should be available soon.

MT> When you write articles for Videogaming & Computer Illustrated or Electronic Gaming Monthly, do they approach you with a story, or do you submit ideas to them?
LH> Videogaming & Computer Illustrated approached me after I wrote them a letter about something. The published article "Tragic Imagic" was not written by me although it features my byline (and I was paid for it). "The Strategic Scenerio" was my aritcle although it was their idea. The magazine folded two months later.

The folks at EGM wanted to get me involved for some time and I wrote a still-unpublished article about wacky peripherals at their request. When they learened that I was going up to visit Ralph Baer they asked me to do an article about him. I then approached Games Magazine to also do a Ralph Baer article. Although the Game Magazine article was published first, it was actually a follow-up to the EGM article. The EGM article deals with Ralph's videogames and the Games article deals with his Electronic Games (Simon).

MT> Do you have concepts for an article that have not yet seen publication?
LH> This is stuff I can't talk about yet. I'm doing an article for Gamespot and I'm collaborating on a book that I can't get into right now.

MT> Perhaps your greatest accomplishment, is your book, Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames. Many enthusiasts use Phoenix as a true definitive resource. Other than your vast base of personal experience in the field, how did you conduct your research?
LH> Most of the research was done through my notes from CES, my vast collection of classic videogame magazines, and the many many press kits that I had acquired over the years. Unfortunately there wasn't any easily-accessable Internet when I was writing the book.

MT> Recently, Rolenta Press released the 2nd edition of Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames. This update included many new features, as well as covering additional years since Phoenix's first release. Do you consider Phoenix a work in progress, so to speak, and foresee a third edition being released years from now?
LH> I had hoped to issue a third edition this year but that probably won't happen. So far I have only written a chapter on 1997 so I have a lot of writing to do to catch up! However, even if I write the chapters I don't want to issue the book. The 2nd edition was a big breakthrough over the first edition with three additional chapters and over 100 photographs. I don't want the 3rd edition to be the same as the 2nd with extra chapters (and corrections). I'm trying to figure out a way to advance the book in a unique way.

Good Deal Games would like to thank Leonard for helping archive the history
of our favorite hobby accurately, and for spending the time to share with all of us.

E-Mail: Leonard Herman for more info or to order his books