Welcome to my first Quick Bits article. As I don’t have too much time at the moment, which my lengthier articles demand, I’ve decided to do some short and quickly written articles. This one is an update from an old post I did 4-5 years ago.

While Chuck Bueche is probably best known for having co-founded Origin Systems and from his involvement in the Ultima series, he did his first own game Brainteaser Boulevard!, a Frogger clone, in 1981 after having been introduced to computers by his university roommate Richard Garriott. Brainteaser Boulevard! was picked up and published by California Pacific Computer Company in 1981, the same company that had published Garriott‘s Akalabeth and the first title in his Ultima role-playing series.

Chuck Bueche’s first game, Brainteaser Boulevard!, published by California Pacific Computer Company in 1981, the same company which picked up Richard Garriott’s Akalabeth.

in 1982 Bueche completed his second published title, a compilation of four games called Laf Pak, released by Ken and Roberta Williams‘ On-Line Systems, later Sierra On-Line, for the Apple II home computer. Bueche programmed all four games, and all were more or less typical of the day, with roots in the classic arcade games.  The compilation included Creepy Corridors, a maze game that ended up with its own release from SierraVision (Sierra’s arcade label at the time), and Apple Zap, Space Race, and Mine Sweep, three very simple arcade games.
The compilation wasn’t very successful and not many copies were sold. To use Bueche’s own words “Some of the games could have been better“.

Chuck Bueche’s second published title Laf Pak, a compilation of four arcade games, published by On-Line Systems in 1982.
A couple of different floppy labels, including the classic On-Line Systems gold label, exist, this being the white label

Bueche went on to create Lunar Leeper, the Atari 8-bit port of Jawbreaker and Jawbreaker II, all published by now Sierra On-Line under its short-lived SierraVision arcade label.

In 1983 Bueche headed off with Richard Garriot, and along with Richard’s older brother Robert and their father Owen founded Origin Systems.

Bueche made several appearances in the Ultima series of games as the court jester Chuckles.