[citation needed] She is best known for creating the Atari 2600 vertically scrolling shooter game River Raid (1982) for Activision.

[3] Shaw first used a computer in high school and discovered she could play text-based games on the system.

She also wrote Video Checkers (1980) and collaborated on two titles: a port of the coin-op game Super Breakout with Nick Turner and Othello with Ed Logg (1981).

[5] Co-worker Mike Albaugh later put her on a list of Atari's "less publicized superstars":I would have to include Carol Shaw, who was simply the best programmer of the 6502 and probably one of the best programmers period....in particular, [she] did the [2600] kernels, the tricky bit that actually gets the picture on the screen for a number of games that she didn't fully do the games for.

[8] Shaw left Atari in 1980 to work for Tandem Computers as an assembly language programmer,[9] then joining Activision in 1982.

She has credited the success of River Raid as being a significant factor in enabling her to retire early.

[9] Shaw lives in California and has been married to Ralph Merkle, a researcher in cryptography and nanotechnology, since 1983.