FLQ: The Frontline Quiz!

1. Bertie the Brain, built in 1950 by the Canadian engineer Josef Kates, was a 13-foot-tall computer that allowed users to play an electronic version of what game against it? The game has for centuries been played using pen and paper.

2. Shortly after Bertie the Brain came OXO, a similar game built by A.S. Douglas at the University of Cambridge. Players could interact with the computer by selecting a position on a grid using the digits 0-9. What now-obsolete (but near-ubiquitous until the 1990s) technology did players use to make their choices?

3. In 1962, Spacewar! became one of the first widely distributed computer games across American universities, prompting two engineers, calling themselves Syzygy Engineering, to develop Computer Space, an arcade version of the game. Its commercial success led to Syzygy incorporating as a company under what now-legendary name?

4. The Magnavox Odyssey, created by Ralph Baer in 1972, was one of the first gaming consoles that users could connect to their televisions and play games on. While it was successful in its own right, it became even more so after Allan Alcorn, Atari’s first employee, modified the Odyssey’s table tennis demo into what path-breaking game, for which Atari had to make its own cabinets?

5. Nolan Bushnell borrowed the name Atari for his company from his fondness for which ancient board game, in which it refers to a state where a player’s pieces are at risk of being removed from play? Google has used this game in more recent times to showcase artificial intelligence capabilities.

6. Breakout (1976) was one of Atari’s last games based on transistor-transistor logic (TTL) before it migrated to microprocessors. The engineer in charge of developing the game was challenged by a co-worker to build the game using as few TTL chips as possible. Who were these two one-time Atari employees who went on to become legends in their own right?

7. One of Nolan Bushnell’s pet projects was Pizza Time Theatre, created with a vision to make arcade games more family-friendly. While building an animatronics show for the first venue in San Jose, CA, Bushnell discovered that a costume he had bought was that of a rat, not a coyote. This rat became the company’s mascot, and since then, the company itself has taken the mascot’s name. It is one of the last American businesses to still use floppy disks for its animatronics. Which company/chain is this?

8. After struggling to break into Japan, Atari sold distribution rights to Namco, which entered game development shortly after. Galaxian, a space-themed shooter, was their first commercial success in 1979. As a follow-up, Toru Iwatani was tasked with developing a game that would attract female players. He developed a maze-based game with simple gameplay and bright colours and a main character inspired by a pizza missing a slice. What game did Iwatani create in 1980?

9. In 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi started a business that made playing cards called hanafuda. The Japanese government had banned playing cards except those produced by Yamauchi. The name he gave his company has disputed origins, though the “place allowed to make hanafuda” comes closest. Which company is this?

10. In 1981, Nintendo started renting a warehouse in Tukwila, Washington, as office space. When it was late in paying rent, the landlord barged into the office of the president, Minoru Arakawa, and yelled at him. Believing the man to resemble a character in a new game under development, Arakawa decided to name the character after him. Which famous character is this, who was just called Jumpman until then?