How to use the demo online
- Raise the blinds: up arrow key
- Lower the blinds: down arrow key
There is no score, no goal and no way to win. Pull the blinds up and you see a sunset outside the window. That is all it does.
The story behind the demo
Activision was founded by programmers who had left Atari. One of them, Bob Whitehead, had come up with a display trick for Video Chess that fitted more objects on one row than the hardware normally allowed, and it became known as the “Venetian blinds” technique. Atari accused the new company of taking this and other secrets with them. According to AtariAge, David Crane answered the lawyers’ questions by showing them this demo, a picture of actual Venetian blinds. Atari was not amused and went ahead with its lawsuit, which it lost.
The demo did not go to waste: its sunset was reused as the background of Barnstorming. It first reached the public on the Activision Anthology collection, where it is listed as an unreleased technology demo.
Similar pages to explore next
- Barnstorming – the Activision game that reused this demo’s sunset
- Video Chess – the game where the real “Venetian blinds” trick first appeared
- Color Bar Generator – another 2600 program that is a tool, not a game
- Freeway – David Crane’s Activision game about getting a chicken across a busy road