Here at Dr. Dobb's Challenge, we're taking a look at the work which went into creating the original 2D platform games now available for modding.

We'll begin with a look at the concept art for Dr. Dobb's. As a visual incarnation of the celebrated Dr. Dobb's name, this was a task with real importance, falling to the capable hands of concept artist Mac Ko.

The direction for finally conceptualizing Dr. Dobb's, who has been mentioned on the front cover of Dr. Dobb's Journal since the magazine first appeared in 1975 as "Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia: Running Light Without Overbite."

But who is Dr. Dobb's? It might perhaps come as a surprise to find that there is no one man who can lay claim to ownership of the Dr Dobbs name: Although the original title was created by Eric Bakalinsky, the name "Dobb's" was a contraction of Dennis and Bob, based on the names of Bob Albrecht (who edited a newspaper about computer games programmed in BASIC) and Dennis Allison, a computer consultant on the San Francisco Peninsula and instructor at Stanford. [wikipedia]

 Of course, in the intervening years the name has come to take on its own meaning, and as a result the concept of Dr. Dobb's look evolved with the intention of making him look spritely, wise, and a tiny bit like Sigmund Freud! As you can see below, the concept was developed through many stages:

Before the final image of Dr. Dobb's was created from an evolution of the concept on the right (considered to be the most "Dobbsian"):

Dr. Dobb's, we salute you!

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