Bill Williams (game designer)

Bill Williams (ca. 1960–1998) was a game designer, programmer, and author. Williams' games for the Atari 8-bit computers and Commodore Amiga are admired for their unique and imaginative design concepts, beautiful graphics, innovative sound and music, and skillful implementation.

He left games to attend the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.^[1]

Williams died from cystic fibrosis in 1998, at the age of 38.^[2]

Game Design

Bill Williams' first published game was Salmon Run for the Atari 8-bit computers, published by Atari Program Exchange in 1982. He then authored two titles for Synapse Software: Necromancer and Alley Cat. Alley Cat was started by another programmer, John Harris,^[3] who abandoned the project.

He then moved to the Amiga, designing and programming Mind Walker, Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, Pioneer Plague, and Knights of the Crystallion. Pioneer Plague was notable as the first Amiga game to make full use of Hold-And-Modify mode for the in-game graphics.

Near the end of his game development career he wrote Monopoly for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Bart's Nightmare for Super NES. Williams was disappointed with the way the last game turned out, calling it "Bill's Nightmare."

Writing

Williams wrote the book, "Naked Before God: The Return of a Broken Disciple", published by Morehouse Publishing in May, 1998. It imagines himself as a disciple of Jesus with cystic fibrosis in the present day, trying to understand his struggles with CF and diabetes, and Jesus's message.

External links

• Biography
• MobyGames's rap sheet for Bill Williams
• Essay on Bill Williams' game development career which also explores his game Necromancer

References