From CIA Director to Videogame Designer

On January 5, 1994 -- 17 years ago today -- game publisher Activision announced that it had hired 74-year-old former CIA director William Colby to consult on and direct a series of spy-themed computer games.

"{Colby's} first-hand experience makes him the key to successful one-of-a-kind, true-to-life espionage thrillers,"Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement released to the press that day, promising that the series would have"all the elements of a major motion picture."

According to interviews, Colby was at the time considering lending his expertise to films but, after being introduced to a copy of Activision's Return to Zork, decided to work with the publisher to bring a sense of realism to the videogame medium.

"Any fiction writer can come up with a spy story,"Colby told the long-defunct CD-ROM World magazine,"but I think my contribution is to be the reality check."

The result of this partnership -- which eventually included input from former KGB Major-General Oleg Kalugin as well -- wasSpycraft: The Great Game, a full-motion video adventure that tasks the player with unraveling an international conspiracy and, at several points, choosing among several branching story paths that force the player to deal with the consequences of his actions.

Further titles in the series never materialized, as Colby was found dead two months after SpyCraft shipped, the victim of an apparent boating accident.

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