The whole world knows the name of Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, which was founded alongside Paul Allen. One might imagine that his path has never been strewn with pitfalls. Yet in 1981, at the age of 26, Bill Gates was looking for partners for his little-known start-up: Microsoft. While negotiating with IBM, a leader in the IT sector, the engineer developed a video game to prove that Microsoft software was powerful and versatile.
Negotiations between the small start-up and the giant IBM were going to be tough, but Bill Gates was not to be deterred. He came up with a crazy idea: to develop a video game. With the help of Neil Konzen, a programmer at Microsoft, the two computer scientists embarked on the task with the crazy wager of programming the software in a single night. The result was Donkey, a rudimentary 8-bit racing game in which the player has to avoid donkeys by moving his vehicle between two tracks. Proud of their project, the two partners presented their demo to IBM representatives. This enabled them to sign an agreement with the multinational and allow Microsoft to develop programmes on the hardware manufacturer’s machines, thereby generating several million dollars from the sale of their software.
But 40 years on, Donkey is considered to be one of the worst titles in the history of video games. Partly because of the simplicity of the project, but also because of the context in which it was created. According to Andy Hertzfeld, a former Apple employee, this production could be described as “the most embarrassing game of all time”. But Donkey was first and foremost a response to a technical need, its aim being to familiarise newcomers with the BASIC programming language available on IBM computers.
Despite its failure, Donkey is recognised for having been developed by the founder of Microsoft rather than for its quality as a video game. Obviously, the title did not generate any financial revenue from its sales, but it did contribute to the fulfilment of the agreement signed with IBM. It was a collaboration that will go down in the history of computing, as it played a key role in Microsoft’s development, generating huge profits for the company. All the more so because it made personal computers popular with the general public. The very existence of this game shows that success is not necessarily guaranteed, even if you are one of the most talented entrepreneurs of your generation.
