Gabriel Baum
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Gabriel Baum is an British American executive best known for leading the in-house Intellivision game development team at Mattel Electronics, later known as the Blue Sky Rangers.[1] Earlier in his career at Thorn EMI, he managed development of two early language-learning programs for the Atari 8-bit computer family: Conversational French and Conversational Spanish.[2][3]
Career
[edit]Thorn EMI
[edit]At Thorn EMI, through its EMI Audio Visual Services Ltd. subsidiary, Baum managed development of two early home-computer language tutorials published by Atari for the Atari 8-bit family: Conversational French (1980) and Conversational Spanish.[4][5] He is also credited as a co-author of Conversational Spanish.[6]
The series, later expanded to include Conversational German and Conversational Italian, combined on-screen text exercises with audio playback from the Atari Program Recorder cassette drive.[4] Baum began work on the German edition but left Thorn EMI before its completion.[4]
Mattel Electronics
[edit]After leaving Thorn EMI, Baum joined Mattel Electronics as head of the Intellivision Programming Group, which was renamed Video Applications Software Programming (shortened to Applications Software) by the end of the year.[4] Baum initially reported to Richard Chang within the Design and Development (D&D) department. In April 1982, Applications Software officially broke away from D&D to become an independent group. Until that time, all Intellivision software had been developed externally by APh Technological Consulting and Baum replaced Chang as Mattel Electronics' representative at video game development meetings with APh. Once the console became commercially successful, Mattel sought to bring a significant portion of game development in-house. The original development team consisted of Don Daglow, Rick Levine, Mike Minkoff, and John Sohl, together with Baum as manager.[7]
To prevent Atari from recruiting Mattel programmers, the company kept developers’ identities and work location secret. In a June 1982 TV Guide feature, writer Howard Polskin coined the term “Blue Sky Rangers,” inspired by the team's "Blue Sky Meetings," brainstorming sessions for new game ideas. The nickname endured.[8] He also preserved the anonymity of the members of the Mattel development group by assigning code names to individuals, thus Baum became "Hal" in the article.
Most of the early games are based on traditional real-world concepts such as sports, with an emphasis on realism and depth of play but there were exceptions. In June 1982, Baum forwarded programmer Keith Robinson's proposal to Mattel's executive staff to convert Data East's Disco No. 1, an arcade game in which a male character trapped female dancers, into an "almost identical game with different graphics that avoid both the sexist aspect and the disco themes." This became Thin Ice, programmed by Julie Hoshizaki, with a penguin replacing the original protagonist. Under Baum, who was by then Vice President of Application Software, the team expanded from five members to about 110 developers by 1983, including development subsidiaries in Nice (France) and Taipei (Taiwan) with Daglow leading Intellivision game development and Minkoff overseeing other Mattel platforms.[7][9] Baum instituted weekly "Goldenrod" meetings, named for the yellow project-tracking charts that listed each cartridge's start date, size, and three parallel timelines (Applications Software, Graphics, and Marketing).
In October 1982, Baum presented the proposed game lineup for the planned Intellivision III hardware upgrade, including Basketball II, Mission X, Thin Ice, Air Battle, and Mystic Castle. The project was cancelled in 1983 because of delays and increased competition from ColecoVision.[10] Earlier, in January 1982, Baum had announced an internal competition for the best magic-themed game concept, which contributed to the development of Thunder Castle.[11]
In May 1983, after a magazine editorial advocating designer credits on game cartridges circulated among Mattel programmers, Baum forwarded it to fellow senior management with a memo supporting the practice. He argued that public recognition would improve retention rather than encourage employee poaching.[12] Later that month, after considerable internal debate, Mattel announced that future game packaging would credit design teams and that developers would receive a share of royalties. The Intellivision and Atari 2600 M Network versions of Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man became the first Mattel cartridges to include such credits.[12]
The Blue Sky Rangers continued releasing major titles, including BurgerTime and the 3-D glasses game Hover Force, but the video game crash of 1983 sharply reduced sales, and Mattel Electronics shut down in 1984.[7]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Sharp Shot".
- ↑ https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/chapter-pdf/2478089/c005300_9780262380553.pdf
- ↑ Mason, Graeme (May 27, 2019). "40 years on, celebrating the Mattel Intellivision". Eurogamer.net.
- 1 2 3 4 "Gabriel Baum: Atari Conversational French and Spanish — interview". April 17, 2020 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ "S5E01 Atari Conversational French". December 18, 2018.
- ↑ L. G. Alexander, Dennis Stockton (August 7, 1980). "Atari's Conversational Spanish manual" – via Internet Archive.
- 1 2 3 "Intellivision History 1979 to 1984".
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130514001153/http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/people/tvguide.html
- ↑ Fulcher, Robb (December 18, 2014). "Intellivision is back".
- ↑ "Intellivision III".
- ↑ "Thunder Castle".
- 1 2 "Masters of the Universe®: The Power of He-Man".
Further reading
[edit]- Intellivision: How a Videogame System Battled Atari and Almost Bankrupted Barbie, MIT Press, 2024