King Kong (1983)

Chris Roberts sold this, his first game, when he was just thirteen years old! King Kong was a so-called type-in program, i.e. the BASIC code for the game was printed in a magazine and could be typed in and executed by home users themselves. The code was written for the BBC Micro (a computer of the time and famous in the UK). But you could also buy the program on cassette and later even on diskette.

Chris sold the game for the hefty sum of 100 pounds (approx. 160 dollars) to the BBC Micro User magazine, which printed the code a year later in its BBC Micro User - April 1983 - Vol 1 No 2 issue - with a man in a gorilla suit and a Barbie doll on the cover! The game consists of flying a helicopter to rescue women from a skyscraper and then, once they are safe, shooting the giant ape.

Due to an error in the code, there was a correction in the May 1983 issue. In the August 1983 issue the code of King Kong is analyzed for all possible improvements.

Trivia:

Chris father, noticing the younger Roberts' budding interest in programming, quickly signed his eldest son up to an extra-curricular class at Manchester University. Around the age of 12, Roberts began to learn BASIC. Chris Roberts´ teacher of that class became the editor of The Micro User magazine. He remembered that Chris and his friend were in the back of the class trying to make games, so he called up and asked they would like to write a 'game of the month' for the back of the magazine.

Chris Roberts has confirmed that he is NOT the one on the cover in the gorilla costume, so the rumor is false.

Anyone who says, wait a minute, I've seen that before - there was a mini-game called Astromedics for the announcement of the Apollo in 2018 which was similar and a homage to King Kong. You can still play Astromedics today:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/16672-Apollo-To-The-Rescue

Here is the official RSI-Museum video for King Kong

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