// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Ed Averett an average person: Averett-age?
Ed Averett | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1948 (age 77–78) |
| Alma mater | University of Tennessee |
| Occupations | Video game designer and programmer |
| Employer | |
| Known for | Game designer for the Magnavox Odyssey² |
| Notable work | |
| Spouse | Linda Averett |
Edward B. Averett (born 1948) is an American video game designer, programmer, and electrical engineer from Chattanooga, Tennessee. A former employee of Intel, he developed 25 games for the Magnavox Odyssey² as a freelance developer from 1979 to 1982, more than half of the system's library in North America. He designed and programmed K.C. Munchkin, which was the subject of a landmark court case in video game copyright law. He is also the current owner of the K.C. Munchkin character.
Biography
[edit source]Early life
[edit source]Averett was born in 1948.[1] In 1970, he earned a Bachelors of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He received a Master's degree in electrical engineering from the same university a year later.[2] There he also met his wife, Linda, who went on to work as an operating systems developer for Hewlett-Packard and is now a corporate vice president at Microsoft.[2] The two of them met in a sophomore calculus class and got engaged outside of their college residence hall.[2]
Career
[edit source]By 1977, Averett was a sales representative at Intel, assisting in the development of the Intel 8244 graphics chip that was planned for use in the upcoming Magnavox Odyssey².[3] Following a case of writer's block from the game development team at Magnavox, he offered to develop games for the system to keep the Odyssey² project from shutting down.[4] According to Averett, he believed he could make more money for Intel selling games rather than selling the chips themselves.[4] He quit his job at Intel and offered to be paid for new Odyssey² games in royalties as a freelance developer.[5] Ed, with assistance from his wife Linda, designed and programmed almost all of the games developed for the Odyssey² between 1979 and 1982, 25 in total.[6]
Following the success of Pac-Man, Magnavox commissioned Averett to produce a similar game for the Odyssey².[4] He created K.C. Munchkin, a similar feeling maze game released in 1981.[7] K.C. Munchkin sold more copies in its first two months than all of the previous Odyssey² games combined.[8] This success prompted Philips, Magnavox's parent company, to investment more money into their video game projects.[7] In collaboration with Steve Lehner and Rob Bradford, Averett also created the Master Strategy series, starting with Quest for the Rings in 1981,[9] three video game/board game hybrids released for the Odyssey² which were considered highly innovative by contemporary critics.[10][11]
Atari lawsuit
[edit source]In 1982, Atari Inc., who had licensed the home console rights to Pac-Man from Namco, sued Philips over K.C. Munchkin citing copyright infringement.[12] In the ensuing court case, Averett testified to only having played Pac-Man a couple times before starting on development.[13] Philips won the initial motion but lost on appeal, setting a landmark ruling in video game copyright law.[12] K.C. Munchkin was ultimately pulled from store shelves.[14]
In response to the ruling, Averett developed a K.C. Munchkin sequel titled K.C.'s Krazy Chase released in 1982.[4] He later stated he created the game because "K.C. was my character and I wanted it on record that it was not Pac-Man."[7]
Retirement
[edit source]Averett left the video game industry in early 1983. In later interviews, he said he decided to leave due to early warning signs of the 1983 video game crash and a desire to spend more time with his kids (aged four and six at the time).[4] One of the last games Averett developed for the Odyssey² was Attack of the Timelord.[15] Following the crash, he went on to write educational software for aquariums, schools, and other facilities.[4]
By 2017, Averett had created a follow-up game featuring K.C. Munchkin titled K.C. Returns! released for Windows 8 platforms.[16] As of 2025, the games webpage is defunct and the app is no longer available through the Microsoft Store.
Design process
[edit source]Averett claims that most of the games he designed were pitched to him by Magnavox vice president Mike Staup. Often he was simply given a demographic to hit, such as "boys" or "moms", and would flesh out a design from there.[4] Averett coded all of his games in assembly and programmed all of the graphics in binary by hand. The smaller games on 2 KB cartridges took about two months of development and the larger 4 KB games took about four months. It took an additional two to six months for games to arrive on store shelves. Each game shared about 60% of its code base from one game to the next.[4]
Programming work was also shared with Ed's wife Linda. During development he would hit certain technical problems and ask Linda to give them a shot.[17] According to Linda, she programmed player and enemy movement logic. She said, "It was fun, and it gave me my first real exposure to consumers using computerlike products."[2] According to Ed, "I'd then say it needed to be tweaked and that it would be more fun to do it a certain way and she'd be ready to kill me."[17] Eventually, Ed says he did most of the programming on his own.[17]
Selected works
[edit source]| Year | Game title | Collaborators |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Alpine Skiing! | [1] |
| 1979 | Hockey! / Soccer! | [1] |
| 1979 | Invaders from Hyperspace! | [1] |
| 1979 | I've Got Your Number! | [1] |
| 1979 | Showdown in 2100 A.D. | [1] |
| 1979 | Take the Money and Run! | w/ Linda Everett[18] |
| 1979 | War of Nerves! | [1] |
| 1980 | Alien Invaders - Plus! | w/ Linda Everett[18] |
| 1980 | Blockout! / Breakdown! | [1] |
| 1980 | Casino Slot Machine! | [1] |
| 1980 | Electronic Table Soccer! | [1] |
| 1980 | Pachinko! | [1] |
| 1980 | Pocket Billiards! | [1] |
| 1980 | Volleyball! | [1] |
| 1981 | K.C. Munchkin! | [4] |
| 1981 | Monkeyshines! | [19] |
| 1981 | Quest for the Rings | w/ Steve Lehner[20] |
| 1981 | UFO! | w/ Linda Everett[18] |
| 1982 | Attack of the Timelord! | w/ Linda Everett[15] |
| 1982 | Conquest of the World | w/ Steve Lehner[20] |
| 1982 | Freedom Fighters! | [21] |
| 1982 | The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt | w/ Steve Lehner[20] |
| 1982 | K.C.'s Krazy Chase | [22] |
| 1982 | Pick Axe Pete! | [23] |
References
[edit source]Footnotes
[edit source]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 U.S. Copyright Office.
- 1 2 3 4 Blakely 2023.
- ↑ de Boer 2016, p. 108.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Hague 1997.
- ↑ Green 2000, p. 38.
- ↑ de Boer 2016, p. 109–111.
- 1 2 3 de Boer 2016, p. 110.
- ↑ Dortch 1982.
- ↑ Kunkel & Katz 1982, p. 8.
- ↑ Bechtold 1982, p. 5.
- ↑ Kunkel & Katz 1981, p. 50.
- 1 2 Graham 1999.
- ↑ Atari v. Philips 1982.
- ↑ Dolan 1982, p. 2.
- 1 2 Kunkel & Katz 1983.
- ↑ Thomasson 2017.
- 1 2 3 de Boer 2016, p. 109.
- 1 2 3 Gaydos 1982.
- ↑ Monkeyshines!.
- 1 2 3 Kunkel & Katz 1982.
- ↑ Freedom Fighters!.
- ↑ de Boer 2016.
- ↑ Lehner 1982.
Sources
[edit source]- "Associated Records: Averett, Edward B. 3d 1948-". U.S. Copyright Office Public Records System. Retrieved May 26, 2026.
- Atari, Inc. v. North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp, 672 F.2d 607 (7th Cir. 1982).
- Bechtold, Alan R. (October 1982). "Of Rings, War, and High Finance". The Logical Gamer. Vol. 1, no. 3. Logical Gamer Publications. p. 5.
- Blakely, Amy (2023). "Microsoft Exec Loves Excitement of Ever-Changing Tech". Tennessee Engineer. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Archived from the original on March 9, 2026. Retrieved May 19, 2026.
- de Boer, Sanne, ed. (2016). "Philips Videopac G7000". Videogames Hardware Handbook. Imagine Publishing Ltd. p. 106. ISBN 978 1785462399.
- Dolan, Celeste (April 1982). "Odyssey2". The Video Game Update. Vol. 1, no. 3. Video Take-Out. p. 2.
- Dortch, Chris (February 12, 1982). "Knoxville-based company offers 'Odyssey' to ends of imagination". Kingsport Times-News. p. 28.
- Gaydos, Jeff (Winter 1982). "Behind the Workings of the Mind". Odyssey² Adventure. Vol. 1, no. 1. Ceco Publishing Company. p. 4.
- Green, Earl (September 2000). "Bob "Rosha" Harris: Behind the Odyssey". Classic Gamer Magazine: Volume 1, Issue 5. p. 38.
- Graham, Lawrence D. (1999). Legal Battles that Shaped the Computer Industry. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-56720-178-9.
- Hague, James (1997). "Ed Averett". Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers. Archived from the original on February 14, 2026. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
- Kunkel, Bill; Katz, Arnie (Winter 1981). "Programmable Parade". Electronic Games. Vol. 1, no. 1. Reese Publishing Company, Inc. p. 49.
- Kunkel, Bill; Katz, Arnie (March 1982). "Inside Gaming". Electronic Games. Vol. 1, no. 2. Reese Publishing Company, Inc. p. 8.
- Kunkel, Bill; Katz, Arnie (April 1983). "Attack of the Timelord". Electronic Games. Vol. 2, no. 1. Reese Publishing Company, Inc. p. 40.
- Thomasson, Michael (October 2017). "Ed Averett is KC Munchkin". Old School Gamer Magazine. Vol. 1, no. 1. BC Productions, Inc. p. 22.
Game manuals and materials
[edit source]- Lehner, Steve (1982). Pick Axe Pete!. North American Philips.
- "Freedom Fighters! Front of Cartridge". Moby Games. Retrieved May 26, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Monkeyshines! Front of Cartridge". Moby Games. Archived from the original on September 17, 2024. Retrieved May 26, 2026.
External links
[edit source]- Q&A with Ed Averett at Classic Gaming Expo 2014
- Interview with Ed Averett at The Odyssey² Homepage!