Dan Sunday’s History

Text Originally posted by Zonn Moore on Vectorlist, May 14, 1999.  What follows are email exchanges and a subsequent interview of Dan Sunday, a former Vectorbeam employee.

>In the article was a shot of Larry
>Rosenthal and Dan Sunday at "vectorbeam's engineering computer."

 

Speaking of Dan Sunday, I received some email from him that was pretty
interesting, I've been meaning to post it, so I spent some time and cleaned it
up and here it is.

 

For the record, I've talked with Scott Boden's ex-wife who denies that
Vectorbeam had anything to do with Star Castle, but that Star Castle was written
by Scott Boden.

 

I had always heard that Star Castle was designed by Tim Skelly and programmed by
Scott Boden. Maybe Tim Skelly got his ideas after going over some old Dan
Sunday code?

 

You be the judge...

 

-Zonn

 

H o m e

H i s t o r y

G a m e L i s t

P r o j e c t s

L i n k s

CINEMATRONICS

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Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 20:35:46 -0400
Subject: Vectorbeam history

I found it interesting there is still an interest in the Cinematronics /
Vectorbeam story.

 

My name is Dan Sunday. I was a friend of Larry Rosenthal's, and when he broke from Cinematronics to start Vectorbeam I became his lead (and only)
programmer.

 

Vectorbeam lasted for one year, and was then bought by Cinematronics at which time I left. During the year of VB existence, we (Larry and myself)
designed and programmed the following video arcade games:

 

* Scramble
* Speed Freak
* Tailgunner
* some word game whose name I can't remember
* Star Castle

 

The first three were marketed by VB in that year. The last one, Star Castle,
was not fully completed when Cinematronics bought VB and it. We had the
inner castle rotating rings and bricks working, as well as the attacking
space ships. I don't know who took over the completion of this game, but it was conceived and initially developed by Larry and myself. (There is actually a very amusing story concerning the origin of this game, which I may tell if there is sufficient interest in it).

 

When Larry sold VB, for 2 million dollars, Cinematronics said they would keep me on as a programmer, but it was a big let down for me at the time after helping make VB a winning company and hoping for better.

 

So, you may want to append your history with this info.

 

Regards,

- Dan Sunday

 

 

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 21:20:39 -0500
Subject: Re: Vectorbeam history

Bill: Thanks for passing my info onto Zonn who is interested in some
details. I'll copy you on further info that he has asked about when I
send it to him. As for your question:

 

> Out of curiosity, what happened to Larry? I talked to several people
> from Cinematronics and no one knew what he did after Vectorbeam.

 

I don't know either. After we left Vectorbeam, I decided to move (back)
to the east coast. The night before I left, I had dinner with Larry and
his girl friend at some restaurant in Berkeley. After that I have never
seen or heard of him again. I once tried to find him thru the internet,
and couldn't. One possible lead is that he has a brother "Marty"
(Martin) who used to live in Berkeley. Marty and I worked in the same
lab at UCB, and it was through Marty that I came to know Larry. If you
do find out where Larry (or Marty) is, please let me know, as I would
like to look them up.

 

Best,

- Dan Sunday