Michael Berlyn death: How did the American video game designer die? Passed away at 73

 

Michael Berlyn death: How did the American video game designer die? Passed away at 73

Michael Berlyn, an American author and video game creator, passed away suddenly at the age of 73. He gained the most fame at Infocom as a member of the text adventure game design team and implementer. Keep reading to learn more about What happened to him and Michael Berlyn cause of death.


Michael Berlyn’s death: What happened to him?

Mike worked for Accolade, where he developed Bubsy the cat to compete with Sonic and continued to develop narrative games. He established the Eidetic company in the late 1990s, which created the spy thriller Syphon Filter for Sony and the original PlayStation.

As per online reports and tributes, it was confirmed that Michael Berlyn a famous video game designer passed away. One of the online tributes reads the following,

Sad to report that my friend and fellow Infocom implementor, Mike Berlyn, has passed away. Mike was the author of Suspended, as well as several other games for Infocom, and many other games pre- and post-Infocom.

Michael Berlyn cause of death

Michael Berlyn’s cause of death has not yet been made public at this time of publication. But according to his Wikipedia page, it was revealed that Berlyn was diagnosed with cancer in September 2014, after which he underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment until at least mid-2015.

As per these statements, we can conclude his cause of death might be due to cancer complications. Although, until we receive formal confirmation, we are unable to confirm any press claims. Michael Berlyn cause of death will be updated on this page as soon as it is known from official sources.


About Fund Donation for Michael

Mike Berlyn Could Use a Little Helping Hand Posted by Jimmy Maher on April 24, 2015

As some of you who read this blog are doubtless already aware, Mike Berlyn was diagnosed with cancer last September. Whilst undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment, he’s also been accumulating medical bills not covered by Medicare.

In short, he needs at least $36,000 to put him in the clear again and let him concentrate on dealing with his illness rather than worrying about money.

If one of Berlyn’s many games touched you or made you laugh at a time when you needed a little boost in your own life, or if you just feel like I do that everyone should have a right to the medical care they need regardless of money, please think about going to the donation page set up by Berlyn’s fellow Infocom alum Dan Horn and contributing whatever feels appropriate and manageable.

And please help to spread the word further via all that “social media” stuff the kids are always talking about these days!


Who is Michael Berlyn?

Michael Berlyn is an American writer and video game designer born in 1949. He is well recognized for his work at Infocom as a text adventure game implementer.

He founded a modest game development firm called Brainwave Creations. The business was established in the middle of the 1980s, and Rebecca Heineman of Interplay and the company are probably best known for co-creating Tass Times in Tonetown.

About Berlyn’s career

Passionate about science fiction, the young Michael Berlyn enrolled in a course on the subject during his studies at Florida Atlantic University.  Not very enthusiastic about the idea of ​​working for someone and much more interested in creative activities, whether written or musical, Berlyn decided to become a writer and bought an Apple II in 1978 to make his job easier.

By dint of indulging in video games between two writing sessions, he wanted to learn how to program them. In six months, he mastered BASIC; in a year and a half, he wrote his first text adventure game, Oo-Topos.

In 1980, he moved with his wife to Aspen, Colorado, where computer shops were desperate for programmers to write software. Michael Berlyn founds his company, Sentient Software, and markets Oo-Topos, as well as Cyborg.

As for his next two games, Gold Rush and Congo, it’s hard to know if they’ve been released or not – there’s no record of them on the web. Sentient’s business was stalling when Berlyn spotted a classified ad for Infocom.

Gaming Career

In three years spent with them, he wrote or co-wrote four games: Suspended, Infidel, Cutthroats, and Fooblitzky. He left in 1985 so that he could work with his wife, [per_718, “Muffy” McClung Berlyn], whom Infocom refused to hire.

The couple wrote the screenplay for Tass Times in Tonetown and directed Dr. Dumont’s Wild PARTI before moving to California, where Michael Berlyn found work at Accolade.

His first contribution was an adventure game, Altered Destiny, followed by an educational game, Snoopy’s Game Club. In 1992, he got into platform games by designing Bubsy, which Accolade sought to promote as the new Sonic. Building on this success, Berlyn joined forces with former colleague Marc Blank to form Eidetic.

Their collaboration on Bubsy 3D, however, was not as fruitful as it was in the days of Infocom: the game, devoid of originality and full of faults, was slammed by critics.

Personal life

Berlyn founded Cascade Mountain Publishing in 1998 to disseminate interactive fiction and ebooks. In 2000, Cascade Mountain Publications closed its doors. Berlyn returned to the video game industry with an emphasis on casual games after this commercial endeavor failed.

Hot Mustard is a “light-jazz” band that Berlyn formed using just his own compositions and performances. Demoralized by this failure, Michael Berlyn then left the video game industry for good. The Berlyn couple now lives in Florida where Mike is marketing new PC and Macintosh products as well as planning a new software company.


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