Patrick Ketchum

**Patrick Ketchum** is the former president of Cyberdreams and one of the designers behind *Dark Seed*.

## Biography

### Early Life

Ketchum was born in San Diego in 1954, and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 13. In the early 1970's he took an interest in photography, going to various concerts to take photographs of such performers as Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, and Bob Dylan.

### Game Publishing

In 1980, Ketchum was president of the gaming company DataSoft Inc. Within three years, the company had a staff of fifty people, had opened up a second office in Northern California, had seen a 400% increase in sales, and were the first third-party software company to sell through Toys-R-Us and J.C. Penney's. DataSoft released home computer versions of games such as *Pac Man*, *Pole Position*, *Dig Dug*, and *Zaxxon*. While there, Ketchum stressed the importance of quality programmers and staff in a company, saying that that leadership in the home-computer software market was not possible without "the ability to take a licensed property or concept and turn it into a top-notch, high-quality program with lots of playability." In 1984, Ketchum sat in as a judge for an amateur game design contest held by *St. Game*. Ketchum also admitted in a 1983 interview that while he isn't a game programmer, "I enjoy the sales and marketing aspects of the business. I like to deal with people and I'm good at negotiating."

   DataSoft was later sold to the Gillette Company. In the mid-1980's, Ketchum owned shares for Sullivan Bluth Interactive Media, and was directly responsible fo the home versions of the Don Bluth animated games *Dragon’s Lair* and *Space Ace.*

In 1990, Ketchum founded Cyberdreams together with Rolf Klug. Ketchum took on the role as president, while Klug was the CEO. Though a "company" on paper, it was extremely small: it consisted at the time only of Ketchum as president, and John Krause, who had been hired on as programmer. Mike Dawson was hired straight out of college as designer, producer, and writer, bringing the number of employees up to three.

In 1992, the three men collaborated to work on *Dark Seed*, which would be the very first game for the young company. Ketchum made the decision to cast Mike Dawson as the main character of the game, both with his original name and his looks and voicework. This was partially because he enjoyed Dawson's takes during his initial use of himself just for "filler" in the game's early stages, but Dawson also believes that this may have been owing to budget restraints: "If I played the part, we wouldn’t need to hire (and pay) a real actor." Ketchum also made the decision early on to get H.R. Giger involved in the design of the game - mostly to get his name attached to it. Dawson saw this as a "shrewd move" to "differentiate the small company from more established developers," since by attaching a high profile artist to the project, he could "not only to use their art, but to leverage their celebrity". Over $600,000 were invested into *Dark Seed*, much of which was believed to have been "soaked up by the big-name endorsement of H.R. Giger".

During Ketchum's continued tenure at Cyberdreams, he would see the publishing of other games, including *CyberRace*, *Dark Seed II*, and *I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream*. As with *Dark Seed*, big names were attached to these successful projects. (Syd Mead, Giger again, and Harlan Ellison, respectfully.) Harlan Ellison would later give thanks to Ketchum in the acknowledgements of his 2014 book *Slippage: Previously Uncollected, Precariously Poised Stories.*

In 1996, Ketchum sold his share of interest in the company to Klug. This was largely due to an "internal shake up" by investors who wanted to take the company in the direction of third party publishing. The company would only last one more year before being dissolved.

### Later Life

After leaving Cyberdreams, Ketchum returned to his original passion of photography. He traveled to London, where he trained under veteran photographer Francis Looney. He returned to the States in 1999 and settled in Palm Springs, where he has continued work as a professional photographer. He currently does this through his own company, Ketchum Photography.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 https://www.ketchumphotography.com/test
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.atarimagazines.com/v2n5/profiles.html
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 https://archive.org/details/cuamiga-magazine-036/page/n41/mode/2up?view=theater
4. ↑ *InfoWorld*, March 28, 1983, pg. 39
5. ↑ https://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/softline\_3.4.pdf
6. ↑ https://opencorporates.com/companies/us\_ca/C1573282
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 https://www.gamedeveloper.com/pc/playing-catch-up-i-darkseed-i-s-mike-dawson
8. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Slippage/2sQqAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
9. ↑ https://www.mobygames.com/company/cyberdreams-inc
10. ↑ https://www.ketchumphotography.com/