Sure you've all
USED the '1-UP' and everybody
likes the '1-Up' when
they get one, but did you ever
stop to
think about things like: Who
invented
it? What was the first
game to
give one?
Martin A. Feldhausen is the
man credited with coming up for the
idea of the 1-Up, or
"Extra Life" as it was called.
Actually, he originally had called it "Additional
Nicenessness," but his
girlfriend at the time
suggested "Extra Life" instead.
So how did this man's idea come to be? Well
apparently Nolan Bushnell, who later went on
to found
Atari, was a former
coworker and
friend of his in the early 1970s!
Feldhausen had come up with the idea over a few
drinks around 1975, but had almost
forgotten about it three
years later when Bushnell called him up to talk more about
"...this 'Extra Life' idea."
Feldhausen actually flew out to Atari to help them put the idea in their next game:
Asteroids (released in 1979). Some 23 years later, this game is
honored as a
classic,
and Martin Feldhausen attributes a
great amount of the
success to his "Additional
Nicnessnesses." Sadly, he never received any
royalties for his idea since Bushnell
decided that extra lives were simply a marketing
gimmic that decreased
profit by 1/3
(8.33 cents) for each life given away.
Side
note: The extra life isn't the only thing Mr. Feldhausen contributed to
video
games! He also takes credit for:
- Suggesting "rectangular paddles" for the original Atari
- Games that use stereo sound
- The concept of a "Flight Simulator"
Fascinating.
Much research for this node was gathered from the gamespy.com article "An
Interview with the Man Who Invented the Extra Life" written by Dave Kosak.