Oklahoma Today Winter 1983-1984 Volume 34 ... - Digital Collections

Enterprise Square3 Own
CAPTAIN VIDEO
0nce school lets out, it's not uncommon for kids to show up
at Enterprise Square, plunk down $2.50 and walk straight
past the Remarkable Supply Shop and the Heartbeat Rotunda
and music and the fun of the game, then they get interested and
want to learn about the subject so that they can do well."
All the games are programmed on Apple I1 Plus computers
without even looking around.
Instead, they head for the Economics Arcade to try their skills,
with additional hardware for music and game controls. The
programs were written in BASIC and Assembler languages.
not at PacMan and QXbert and Robotron but at Economy Ma- The first game the team came up with was Oil Tycoon, a
chine and Lemonade Stand and Oil Tycoon. Economy Q&A. natural for this pan of the country, according to North. It was the
Lawnmower. Protect Your Rights. Inflation. Housebuilder. game taken on tour when money was being raised to build
Video games with a message. The message is the economic Enterprise Square.
lesson Enterprise Square was built to sell young people on. The The most difficult game for the group, technically, was Protect
games are the work of a computer-design team led by David Your Rights, and the one they worked hardest on was Economy
North, a computer science instructor at Oklahoma Christian Machine. Lemonade Stand resembles games found in commer-
College. Working with North to mix the medium with the cial arcades. ("We did lots of research in various game arcades,"
message were Don Leftwich, says North, laughing.) The fast
Ken Parker, Tom Stafford and
Bill Goad.
According to North, working
as a group was more of an advantage
than the handicap
David Noh worked wirh a ream of computer whizzes to come up with
video games fhut do mon dun jwt eat quarten.
est game to design was Lawnmower,
thought up, start to finish,
in one day.
As North explains it, the difficulty
came not in thinking up
"work by committee" can often
be. "I've always believed two
games but in thinking up games
that could meet the set criteria
heads were better than one, and and still be interestingly and
in designing this type of thing, graphically displayed.
the more viewpoints you have, "We came up with several
the better," he says. "We had which just didn't work out at all
lots of discussions about what because they wouldn't fit within
we thought should happen in the limitations you have when
each game and how it should be working with a computer," he
done. Naturally we all didn't get says.
exactly what we wanted each When the arcade first
time, but we probably got better opened, no one on the design
games because we could use the team was sure which games
best from each person." would be hits. "I haven't been
Several criteria had to be kept able to determine myself that
in mind. There needed to be one is much more popular than
some "fire-and-shoot" types to the others," North says now,
attract people with good manual "but then I haven't tried too
dexterity and some games that hard. Probably Drilling for Oil,
relied on understanding and in- Lawnmower and Lemonade
telligence for people who like to Stand.. . . Every day I've been
use their heads. over there they all seem to be
lhere had to be games that full up."
were difficult and games that The young Americans who
were easy, and they had to ap- pay to play the games from 3 to
I peal to a wide age range. And 6 p.m. have already learned one
Ibecause of Enterprise Square's of the lessons Enterprise Square
theme, they all had to deal with set out to teach: Since commerbusiness
and economics. cia1 arcades charge a quarter a
"Hopefully, they're fun to game and the average play is
play too," says North, who adds only a few minutes, $2.50 for
C
I
that the group probably pro-
C
three hours of battling Inflation
grammed in more "game" than and Protecting Your Rights
"school." "But the lessons are looks like a sound investment.
all there," he says. "If you can
entice the players with colors By Burnis &go