There are people who come and go throughout history that, even if their time is brief, make a big impact. We often call them visionaries, geniuses, tide changers. One only must crack a history book of their choosing to find them, or now days, just use Google. Galileo and Madame Curie revolutionized science. Charlemagne and Ghandi changed the way religion was viewed. DaVinci and Berthe Morisot in art are considered legends in their fields. Video games are no different. We hold Sid Meier and Hideo Kojima as some of the most influential designers of today.
But there are also the forgotten. And recently, a bittersweet bit of gaming history has surfaced after decades of being lost. Some people are familiar with Tracey Cullinan. We’ll forgive you if you’re not, as he was active in the early 1980s. He was a genius in his time, working with computers and programing when he was just a wee tyke.
Tracey Cullinan’s life and loss
By the time he was in his early teens, Cullinan’s had started the Superior Software. The company produced custom programs for business in Los Altos, California. He gained the attention of Atari and was invited to be a part of the Youth Advisory Board at 14. As part of the board, he and other members gave advice on how Atari’s home computers ran.
At the age of 15, Cullinan was interviewed by “The Today Show” as a young entrepreneur. During that segment, he revealed he had developed a computer game for the Apple II called Glutton. The game’s premise is simple: the player is a shooter, whose sole job is to keep the Glutton from eating junk food like candy, cupcakes and soda. So, by shooting the bad food, the Glutton will be left with only healthy foods for it to consume.
“I’ve tried to sell Glutton to some of the companies that market game software to computer owners, to companies such as Broderbund and Sirius,” Cullinan said. “But I haven’t been successful yet.” Sadly, Cullinan did not see his game published. He died at the age of 18 from brain cancer in 1986. And Glutton appeared lost. Until last week.
A team effort finds a reward
In an unexpected thread of tweets posted on Jan. 14, 2022, by Kay Savetz (@KaySavetz), Atari historian and a host of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast, Glutton came back to life. He tweeted that Cory Cullinan, the younger brother of Tracey, had contacted Savetz and sent him the only copy of Glutton, on an old floppy disk. Thus began the journey to restore a young developer’s only legacy.
Unfortunately, the disk was unreadable. “I popped it into the Applesauce disk reader, and … the data was a mess. I washed the disk media in the sink — same problem,” related Savetz. Thankfully, the gaming world can be amazing. He reached out to John Keoni Morris (@DiskBlitz), who was able to determine that the data was good, just hidden behind “tricky copy protection.”
From there, the disk went to @a2_4am, who works to preserve and archive historical software from the 1980s and ’90s, especially for the Apple II. Savetz said that within 20 minutes of receiving the data, @a2_4am had recovered the game.
“Thanks to a team of experts, the loving little brother is so, so happy to see screenshots from his big brother’s game,” Savetz said. Not only has a piece of gaming history been restored, but players can experience Tracey Cullinan’s Glutton for the first time when Total Replay, a massive Apple II game collection from @a2_qkumba.
A parting thought: with such talent gone from the world too soon, I have to wonder how Tracey’s brilliance would have impacted games and the industry as a whole. It is bittersweet as I said earlier that we are getting Glutton now, and I truly hope his legacy will live on for a long time to come.
