People

External links to updates and resources regarding those video game legends...

	Matthew Smith Matthew Smith wrote Manic Miner in 1983 and Jet Set Willy in 1984. After that, the MM/JSW community never heard of him (except for odd snippets such as he'd moved to Holland and changed his name to Matthew from Earth) until 1999, when he moved back to England and set up his own website, which now appears to be no longer online:...[MORE]
	Jeff Minter (Llamasoft) Founded in 1982 by Industry Legend Jeff Minter, Llamasoft has dedicated itself to bringing some of the most unique and enjoyable gaming experiences to the world for nearly a quarter of a century. In addition to purveying adrenaline pumping titles, such as Tempest 2k, Tempest 3k, Gridrunner++ and Llamatron, Llamasoft has pioneered the Light Synthesiser genre and continues to push the boundaries of this exciting technology today. Please feel free to mosey, amble, stroll and peruse your way through our site...[MORE] Also...YakYak - Llamasoft baanter and moosings - It's like Deliverance with Sheep
	David Crane David Crane is one of the most successful designers of entertainment software in the world. His award winning video games, led by Pitfall!, Ghostbusters, A Boy and His Blob, and Amazing Tennis are acknowledged as some of the most innovative and popular in the interactive entertainment industry. Crane, a founder of Activision in 1979, has consistently produced superb products, as evidenced by his worldwide sales of over 10 million games and wholesale revenues near 200 million dollars. Prior to his days at Activision, Crane was employed at Atari, where he wrote such hits as Outlaw, Slot Machine and Canyon Bomber. He was also instrumental in the design of the Atari 800 computer's operating system...[MORE]
	Peter Liepa Creator of Boulderdash. Boulderdash, aka Rockford, originally released in 1984, is a classic series of computer games for the Apple II, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Atari 400/800 home computers, and later ported to the NES, Acorn Electron, PC, Amstrad CPC, and many other platforms. It was created by Peter Liepa and Chris Gray and published by First Star Software, which still owns the rights to the game. Boulder Dash on the C64. "Rockford" himself is shown standing 'on' the lower brick wall, beside a diamond , some two thirds to the right.The hero of the game, whom the player has to control, is the brave prospector "Rockford". He has to dig through caves collecting gems and diamonds, while avoiding dangerous creatures of various types as well as obstacles like falling rocks and the problem of being trapped behind mountains of gems or piles of rock...[MORE]
	Ultimate (Play The Game) Between 1984 and 1986, when games were getting big and the software world became an industry, the most famous, most praised and most successful software house was Ultimate Play The Game - but the programming stars of Atic Atac and Knight Lore were secretive and gave no interviews. In 1986 Ultimate began to fade, and by 1987 it had virtually disappeared. But under a different name Ultimate was working on a new project - and could soon be back at the front of the next revolution. A few months ago, former CRASH Editor ROGER KEAN was asked by Ultimate to hear the inside story on its history and future.....[MORE]
	Psyclapse & Bandersnatch (Brattacas - The Fall of Imagine) A look at the crash of Imagine Software as seen through the eyes of a film crew. Depending on when you read this article, you may be about to see, have seen or maybe missed, a fascinating program on BBC2 television (December 13th at 8.00pm) in the Commercial Breaks series about Imagine Software Limited. The Liverpool software giant crashed out during the summer after a life of a little over 18 months, during which time it produced more hype than any other software house before. The company appeared to bask in self-created publicity, much of which was very clever, and it seems appropiate that its death should also have been as well recorded for posterity by the media it sought for its promotion, as had its successes in life. As things turned out, the BBC film crew got a rather different story to the one they had conceived, but much of the material shot for Commercial Breaks cannot appear in the finished programme, because it falls outside the scope of the series format...[MORE]
	Ocean Ocean Software (or Ocean Software Ltd. and sometimes Ocean of America, Inc. but generally only referred to as Ocean) was one of the biggest European video game developers ever. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods in Manchester. Ocean manufactured dozens of games for a variety of systems such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amiga, PC, and video game consoles such as the NES and SNES...[MORE]
	Imagine (the name of the game) Imagine Software was a British video games developer based in Liverpool which existed briefly in the early 1980s, initially producing software for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20. It was founded in 1982 by former members of Bug-Byte and produced several very successful games before running into financial trouble in late 1983. The company achieved nationwide notoriety when it was filmed by a BBC documentary crew while in the process of going spectaularly bust early the following year...[MORE]
	Archer Maclean Over the past fourteen years, Archer MacLean has created five titles that have been converted into twenty-one different versions for machines as diverse as the Commodore 64, Amiga, PC, and Super Nintendo. What's most impressive is that he wrote thirteen of those entirely by himself--all the code, all the graphics, all the sound. Eleven of those games have been number one hits. A genuine game superstar in the UK, Archer MacLean has been featured in numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and on TV. In the States, he's primarily known for "Dropzone" for the Atari 800 and "International Karate" for the C64, both of which are considered classics for their respective machines... [MORE] I wrote a barmy letter to Archer once, demanding a job! This would be quite charming and understandable if I was a callow youth but it was 2 years ago and I was 31! I never expected a job or to hear from him but he wrote back and sent a signed copy of Dropzone to me. What an absolute gent! That is a true story!
	Andrew Braybrook He invented Uridium in 1832 after renouncing the periodic table and a long suffering bout of gout. Some of that may not be true. Andrew Braybrook loved programing for Amiga and the C64, but after the fall of Commodore and the rise of the PC, he didn't want to work on the PC. Andrew quit game programming in the middle of the 90's and joined an insurance company...[MORE]
	Rob Hubbard No relation to the old mother, this is the legendary tunesmith of the SID. For those people who have already experienced the music of Rob Hubbard, absolutely no introduction is necessary, but for the benefit of those people who haven't - Rob Hubbard is the most famous musician you have never heard of. During the home computing boom of the mid-late eighties, Rob Hubbard quite literally became a superstar in the computer games industry with his innovative music for the Commodore 64. Rob Hubbard began his career as a programmer writing educational software and even a game, both of which apparently didn't work out very well. It was the positive reaction he received from the music he wrote for the educational software that prompted him to specialise purely in music...[MORE]
	Chris Huelsbeck Chris Huelsbeck was born 1968 in Kassel/Germany. He found himself dedicated to music at a very young age and started some piano lessons. At 14 he got his first computer, the legendary Commodore 64 were he started to learn programming. Some years later he won the first price in a computer-music contest in a famous German computer magazine. This was the beginning of his career as a professional composer for computer- and videogame soundtracks. Since 17 years he has written music for over 70 software titles incl. Gianna Sisters, Turrican and the latest title "Star Wars Rebel Strike" for Nintendo Gamecube...[MORE]
	Microgen Mikro-Gen programming is done in a large room over a high street shop in Bracknell. The approach is made from the back to save visitors embarrassment if their friends should spot them dropping in on the wallies. The rutted grass track is surrounded by dilapidated huts of the type erected by wally gardeners on suburban allotments...[MORE]
	Bob Wakelin Bob Wakelin is a talented illustrator who has been producing a lot of different artwork for the entertainment industry over the years, for example as a comic artist for Marvel Comics and as an album cover designer. For computer gamers he is probably best known for being the most prolific producer of cover, inlay and advertisment artwork for computer games in the 80's and early 90's. His work was used for many a classic game, mostly for the label Ocean and their sub label Imagine...[MORE]
	Dan Bridge Well, this is me, the guy responsible for the site. By day I run a database development consultancy but at night I don my cape and take to the streets of Gotham city to fight crime and protect the innocent. Actually, some of that may be about Batman. If you've got a similar project you're welcome to use any of the scripts this site uses - just drop me a line.

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