In this article, I set out to try to find out who wrote Millipede for the Commodore PET. The search begins at Commodore.ca where an entry for the game states, "MILLIPEDE (Nybbles and Bits) (was On-Line Software) ". So at some point can we assume the company operated under at least two labels?
Using this breadcrumb, I went in search of details about On-Line software and found this advertisement. The ad shows three games for the Vic-20 and Commodore PET named Wallbanger, Roadtoad and Millipede. The company advertised in Compute, Commander
We now know that On Line Software operated out of a P.O. Box address in Orcutt, California. They published software for the Vic-20 and Commodore PET and that by 1983 had changed their name from OnLine software to Nibbles & Bits Incorporated. This still left me with the question of, who had written these games? I've always been fascinated with early games, particularly for the PET, that were written in machine language. I ask myself how did they learn 6502 so early on, and reminisce about what it must have been like to be a software creator in the prime days of the Commodore PET. What makes me curious is the absence of any author's credit. If I'd created software
I wondered if the author might have also written games for the Commodore 64. And so I visited Gamebase64 to check my theory that they most likely would have. The results for Nibbles & Bits, Incorporated revealed three results: Chicken Chase, Roadtoad and Zompy Stomp. The company produced Zompy Stomp, a Centipede clone remarkably similar to Millipede on the PET as well as Roadtoad, a Frogger clone for both PET and C64.
The trail of breadcrumbs was finally paying off. I now had the programmer's name for the software: Corkey Wood. It's almost certain that Corkey wrote Millipede for the Commodore PET. The C64 and PET versions are quite similar in appearance aside from the ASCII vs custom character set.
Nibbles & Bits secured a distributor in New Brunswick, Canada by the name of Infosystems Limited.
A review for Chicken Chase as found in The Best Vic/Commodore Software (1984):
The final piece of the puzzle comes from the company data which shows that Nibbles & Bits operated from October 4, 1982 until March 5, 1985. It was run by a Courtland James Wood. Corkey being short for Courtland. I'm now confident that Courtland Wood wrote Millipede and Wallbanger for the Commodore PET. The only thing left to do now was to try to reach out to Mr. Wood. I sent two letters out to the two addresses that returned for his name, both in the Santa Maria area of California. I recieved no reply.
I managed to find a marriage licence issued in 2002 to Courtland Wood and Beverley Di Simone. Courtland was 58 in 2002 which makes him approximately 79 years old today. It could very well be that Courtland is deceased. I found a listing under his old address for a Lindell Wood. My guess is that perhaps the son moved into the home.
If you're out there Corkey, I'd love to hear from you.