News - Trip Hawkins to be inducted into AIAS Hall of Fame
Posted by
Ron Kimberly
at 04:24:51 AM EST on 2.1.2005.
Today, February 1, at the Green Valley Ranch Resort in Las Vegas,
Trip Hawkins will join a group of elite pioneers in the video game industry as he is inducted in to the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.
Trip Hawkins may not be a name most people are familiar with, so a bit of history is necessary. Back in the late 80s Mr. Hawkins left his job at Apple to pursue his dream, video games, and helped incorporate the industry giant known as
Electronic Arts. At first, times were tough, with the death of the
Atari and all. However, Trip refused to collapase under pressure, and decided to develop based on his true love: football. Yes, Trip Hawkins is one of the key people responsible for the enormously popular
Madden football series. During the 90s Hawkins decided it was time to move on, and left EA to form
3DO. During this time Hawkins worked to advance the video game industry by focusing on 3d graphics, multimedia capabilities, optical disc mass storage, and liberal licensing models. Also while at 3DO Hawkins helped launch one of the first online massively multiplayer games with graphics,
Meridian 59 (which has an awesome theme song, by the way). Currently Hawkins can be found at the head of
Digital Chocolate, whose focus lies on the growing mobile gaming market.
Trip Hawkins's lifetime accomplishments have garnered enough support from his peers to become the 8th person selected for AIAS Hall of Fame induction. Previous inductees are:
Peter Molyneux,
Yu Suzuki,
Will Wright,
John Carmack,
Hironobu Sakaguchi,
Sid Meier, and
Shigeru Miyamoto.
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gamecrazy 2.1.2005 at 05:26:57 PM
Don't forget Will Wright. He is one of the few figureheads who can still actually play the games that he is developing. The difference between him and Peter Molyneux giving presentations at E3 was that Will actually played the game for the crowd while Peter had a Project Lead playing while he talked to the press.
Not saying Will is better than Peter, just that Will Wright has stayed close to his roots even when he makes his clothing out of $100 bills.
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svendawg 2.1.2005 at 02:42:55 PM
It's hard to properly say just how much EA changed things when they first opened up back in the 80s. But to deny that Trip was a key player in the development of gaming is pretty obtuse.
He belongs with the rest of the names on that list. Although I will admit that Sid and Shiggy deserve to be on a higher tier than the other guys. :)
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red 2.1.2005 at 12:21:17 PM
Ummmm not deserving.... the guy friggin founded EA... the largest games publisher in US and according to some analysts the world. Not to mention his accomplishments with Apple computer prior to his work at EA. I read an interview with him about his induction, and he was pretty humble about it... he gave alot of credit to miyamoto. He also gave credit to nintendo for creating the modern console bussiness model, which is something few people in the industry ever say publicly.
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gamecrazy 2.1.2005 at 12:19:11 PM
I've followed this guy from Music Construction Set through the 3D0 and even met him at E3 a few years ago. He is one of the tannest men I have ever seen and was always smiling. As for being an a**hole, I couldn't comment on that, but as with most people in the business of $$$, I don't doubt it.
Personally, I loved the 3D0 when it came out. It was a solid piece of machinery (at least the model that was made by GoldStar) created by the guys who were responsible for the Atari Lynx: RJ Mical and Dave Needle.
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aerobica 2.1.2005 at 11:16:33 AM
I also remember hearing about how he loved baseball. I guess that's why High Heat Baseball was the only good game that 3DO ever put out.
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drumlord 2.1.2005 at 10:14:06 AM
I got the press release. I wanted it reported on GAF pretty much because I knew people would be upset with it. Is that evil of me? :P
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aztec triogal 2.1.2005 at 08:39:23 AM
Yea, for a little insight on this guy, he was an ass***e. He was a greedy vulturic moron that had no love for the people who worked for him, just money and great endeavors. He loved, if nothing else, his ideas. However, he didn't care who or what was sacrificed to make those ideas come to life. Not only that, his ideas, half the time, were completely moronic.
Even Madden, a great success, took about 5 freaking years to get off the ground! After the bird finally flew, they just released the same game the following year with updated stats! The guy isn't a genius, he's a clown.
That doesn't change the fact that I appreciate GAF reporting on this and so evenhandedly too. That's just my personal opinion about the man.
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kryian 2.1.2005 at 04:26:31 AM
He doesn't really sound deserving to me, but then again, what do I know?
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