Game Developers during the Golden Age of Computer Gaming (1979 - 1992) were truly renaissance men and women.  This was especially true in the beginning when only one person wrote an entire game.  Developers had to be programmers, artists, musicians and story tellers.  It was rare to find somebody with so much talent in so many disciplines, which is why early computer game developers deserve so much kudos.  It is true that technological limitations meant that programmers didn't need to be artistic virtuosos, but it also meant that they had to work very hard to get acceptable results.   Today's games are made by teams of artists, writers and programmers who specialize in their crafts, albeit with much better results, but the Golden Age developers had to do much more with much less.  Later during the Golden Age, individual developers gave way to small teams, but the lead developer or designer was still the key that turned a simple game into a masterpiece.

These pages are devoted to the greatest developers/designers of the Golden Age.  In order to be included here, an individual or development team must have at least five games nominated for GOTCHAs and must have at least one GOTCHA winner.  This is an exceptionally difficult task, which is why there are so few honorees.  Even publishers (which have the benefit of working with many developers) have a hard time matching this feat, so these developers are truly legends in the gaming industry.

One final note, there are many great Golden Age developers who are not on this list: Scott Adams, The Bitmap Brothers and Steve Meretzky just to name a few.   They will receive their honors through their games that have won GOTCHAs.  This section is reserved for those few that have produced such a long string of greats that they deserve additional recognition.  If you feel that a worthy Golden Age developer has been overlooked, you should make sure that their games have been nominated for a GOTCHA, and let us know if we've overlooked their work.