ANTIC Interview 40 - Doug Carlston, Br0derbund

Doug Carlston, Broderbund CEO

Doug Carlston was co-founder and CEO of the software publisher Broderbund.

Broderbund published many hits across several platforms, including Bank Street Writer, Print Shop, A.E., Choplifter, Lode Runner, Karateka, Spelunker, David's Midnight Magic, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.

This interview occurred March 5, 2015.

LINKS

AtariMania.com's List of Br0derbund Games

Teaser quotes:

"So we thought it'd be funny to call it Br0derbund and put a slash through the O. Caused all kinds of grief."

"There was a competition between us and a number of other companies like Sierra Online and Sirius Software to see how many [products] we could get on the best seller list at the same time. I think maybe the best we ever did was something like 6 products out of 30."

"It was kind of a game: we had very talented engineers in-house who loved to try to put copy protection on, and sometimes carried it to unfortunate lengths."

"I drove across the country and back over 5 weeks and sold about $15,000 worth of software, and often ended up staying at the homes of the people who owned the little computer stores. I would just look up a name of a computer store in every town I went through and zigzag across the country."