Laura Nikolich was a pioneer in the early video game world. She worked on the very first Spider-Man video game that was released back in 1982. Today it takes thousands of people to work on a single video game. She worked by herself and did it while pregnant with her first son Evan. It took six months to create the game. Laura was the fifth programmer hired at Parker Brothers back in 1981. She was also the fourth hired to work on the Atari 2600 games. She passed away on July 4th, 2024. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family.
Back in 2018 I had a chance to interview her. She was so kind and It was a privilege to talk to her and tell her how much I loved the game when I was a kid.
Here is the podcast version of that interview
Here is some gameplay from the game.
Also here is the classic commercial advertising the game.
Blip magazine also had a John Romita penciled comic dedicated to promoting the game. Check it out.
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Boy, I do have some nice memories of playing this – and now having the opportunity to hear from the game designer how it came to be and its legacy… What a treat.
That was a great talk, Brad; thanks for that.
And may she rest in peace.