Unreliable Narrator

Exploring stories in games and the art of telling tales

Sam Barlow discovers an unsung g hero of videogame development

One of the few highlights of my recent self-isolation has been the chance to catch up on mail from readers of this column. I was most intrigued by one letter in particular. It included some torn pages that its sender, one ‘Bob Videogame’, claimed were the index to a biography of a man instrumental in the development of videogame narratives whose legacy had been erased from the history books. As best I can tell this is a work of clever fiction. But, as requested by Bob, and with a new editor’s indulgence, I have printed the index verbatim below.

Axlon, RNG joins, 351

Ballard, J.G., 605

Bushnell, Nolan, meets RNG at tennis

club 129; impressed by RNG, 135 Cambridge, Massachusetts, 187 Congressional Hearings, 482 Cornerstone, 316

Cybertext, Perspectives on Ergodic

Literature, 573

Delamee High School, RNG joins 117; starts lockpicking club, 119; expelled for theft, 124

Doom (game), RNG plays, 491 Dragon Speech, RNG impressed by 456;

RNG quotes, 513

Edge (magazine), 588

Future Wars (game), 419

Game Developers Conference, founded 444; RNG attends, 445; RNG boycotts 611

Granger, Gal, joins lockpicking club, 141; marries RNG, 152; Chuck E. Cheese incident, 246; divorces RNG, 304

Granger, Laura, love of boardgames, 9; first marriage, 10; difficult birth of RNG, 22; second marriage, 24 Granger, Robert Nathan, picky eating, 36; ADHD, 47, appearance, 59, belief in alternate realities, 293; criminal record, 398; pets, dislike of, 409

Granger, Rupert Peter, career, 2;

marriage, 10; early death, 23 Hasbro, cancels Control Vision, 421 Infocom, RNG visits, 211; hires RNG, 212; RNG pitches Ultimate Game to, 223; RNG resigns, 339

Jarvis, Eugene, 168

Kee Games, RNG joins, 164; RNG pitches

Ultimate Game to, 167; fires RNG, 173 Ludology, 585

Mammoth Cave, RNG explores, 71; RNG lost inside, 82;

RNG visions of future self, 94

Moby Dick, RNG adapts for Infocom, 234 Montgomery, Ruth, writes Aliens Among Us 328; RNG corresponds with, 329; prophecies, 331

Multiverse, 435

Murray, Janet, lunch with RNG, 561;

writes Hamlet On The Holodeck, 563 Myst (game), 485

Narratology, RNG supports, 585; RNG

questions 587; RNG supersedes 644 Night Trap (game), RNG cameo in, 468;

controversy, 480 Nonlinearity, of narrative, 640; of

memory, 329; of space and time, 94 Ontological paradox, 434

Origin Systems, 503

Pig, Kentucky, RNG born in, 1;

RNG leaves, 176

Polar Shift, predicted, 386; RNG warns

Spector of, 631

Project NEMO, 363

Quake Engine, RNG licenses, 526 Roberts, Chris, 504

Romero, John, 492

Spector, Warren, meets with RNG, 503, scared by RNG, 550; last person to see RNG alive, 620

Subtext, as game-mechanic, 224 Sunnyvale, California, 126

Swigart, Rob, 340

Synapse Software, 281

Tamara (play), 269

Time Travel, RNG research into, 433 Ultima: Ascension (game), 643 Ultimate Game, visions of, 106; begins development of, 515; shows to Spector, 608; release, 655; suppression of 658; lost, 665 Videogame, RNG changes surname to, 538 Williams, Roberta, 376 Wormholes, 607

Xyzzy, 199

Y2K, 664

Zork (game), RNG plays, 199; suggests

time travel puzzle for, 200

Sam Barlow is the founder of NYC-based Drowning A Mermaid Productions. He can be found on Twitter at @mrsambarlow

A man instrumental in the development of videogame narratives whose legacy had been erased from history