Jonathan Nash [Your Sinclair] |
---|
Involved in writing both AP2
and The Weekly, and has also
put YS2
on-line. (Jonathan's e-mail address is available on the YS2
pages).
Info by:
Jonathan Nash, Philip Kendall, Andrew Crane.
Richard Naylor [Domark producer - Star Wars] |
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Does not run Revolution Software,
despite what this FAQ used to say. May be driving a yellow Ferrari in
the Harrogate area.
Info by:
Ciaran Gultnieks.
Now working for Cisco Information Systems in the Netherlands, supporting
Unix servers. Has a Home Page with his games available on it.
Info by:
Jon Nixon.
Ally Noble [Imagine/Denton Designs artist] |
---|
Project Manager at Rage Software PLC after Denton Designs were bought by Rage.
Info by:
Marc Dawson.
Jon North [Your Sinclair/Sinclair User/Crash] |
---|
From Jon himself:
"I'm still in I.T. I'm a C/C++ contractor. I got out of computing
soon after Zero died because it was getting a bit samey. I got more into my
music - resident DJing, setting up and running a studio, that sort of
stuff. Then about a year ago I taught myself C++ and wandered off to do
that."
(May 2000) "I've gone back into music in my spare time and have put a
few choons out"
Info by:
Jon North.
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Ian Oliver [Realtime Games Software - 3D Starstrike/Starglider] |
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Running Cross Products,
producers of console development tools and now owned by Sega;
an interview with Ian is available here.
Info by:
Ian Oliver.
Andrew Onions [Realtime Games Software - Starstrike/Carrier Command] |
---|
From Andrew:
"I don't really have a web site apart from a front page I use at work
which is basically a list of links to various web sites I use.
www.almighty.creations.co.uk
it's on our work server, www.creations.co.uk,
which is where I work as R&D manager now".
Info by:
Andrew Onions.
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Was managing editor of Crash during 1987-88 and is now an editor at
Eastern Counties Newspapers.
Info by:
Barnaby Page.
Costa Panayi [Vortex programmer - Android/TLL/Highway Encounter] |
---|
Doing some consultancy design work for a children's toys company in the
south of England (believed to be Chicco).
Info by:
Arnt Gulbrandsen, Miguel Melo, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson.
Bob Pape [Activision - R-Type, Rampage, Dragon Breed] |
---|
Did MENSA Puzzles for the PC, but is currently unemployed :-( An
interview with him is available here.
Info by:
Mark A. Jones, Bob Pape via Philip Bee.
Clive Parker [Your Sinclair] |
---|
Writes the 'Net Surgery' section for Practical Internet magazine.
Info by:
Alex Waddington.
Working for Smallworld Cambridge on GIS.
Info by:
Stephen Smith.
Dave Perry [Mikro-Gen - 3 Weeks In Paradise/Stainless Steel] |
---|
Runs Shiny Entertainment (MDK, Earthworm Jim).
Info by:
Chris Wild, Damien Guard.
John Pickford [Binary Design programmer/designer - Max Headroom, Glider Rider, Zub, Amaurote] |
---|
Went on to develop games for the Atari ST and Amiga (for Zippo),
SNES and more recently Nintendo 64 (for Software Creations). Has
started a games company called Zed Two
with his brother Ste Pickford.
Info by:
Ste Pickford.
Ste Pickford [Binary Design artist - 180, Zub, Feud, Amaurote] |
---|
Went on to do graphics for games for the Atari ST and Amiga (for
Zippo), graphics and design for NES and SNES games (including Rare's
Solar Jetman - spiritually a Speccy game!) and more recently design
and direction for Playstation games (for Software Creations). Has
started a games company called Zed Two
with his brother John Pickford. Unfortunately
Ste and John don't own the rights to their old games so cannot give
permission to distribute them, but as Ste says: "We certainly wouldn't
have any objection though.". An interview with Ste is available here.
Info by:
Ste Pickford.
John Pragnell [Domark - Overlords/Orbix The Terrorball] |
---|
Now into VB, C++ & databases and director of East View Systems
Ltd (IT Consultants). Still writing games - the latest being a
'passable' (his description!) soccer game called Simsoc (a PC ringer
for the speccy Football Manager) - see his homepage.
Info by:
John Pragnell.
Don Priestley [DK'Tronics/MacMillian - Popeye, Trapdoor] |
---|
Now living in Ireland and involved in archery; see here for details.
Info by:
Jonathan McCormack.
Dominic Prior [part of Gyron team] |
---|
Previously worked for Smallworld Cambridge on GIS.
Info by:
Stephen Smith, Neil Pawson.
Now at the University of Sheffield, UK (Mechanical and Process Engineering dept).
Info by:
Stephen Smith.
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Was working in the good ol' USA in 1995.
Info by:
Sean Conran.
From Jon himself:
"I'm currently working as an Engineer for an american opto-electronics
company called JDS Uniphase doing wonderfully interesting with active
fibre optic components (yawn).
Although I spent far too many years writing for SU, I also did some
work for ST Update (Focus Mags), Computer Gamesweek (Focus Mags), ACE
(EMAP/Future), and Zero (Dennis). I got around!!"
Info by:
Jon Riglar, Michael Bruhn.
Jon Ritman [Ocean - co-author of Matchday/Batman/Head over Heels] |
---|
Jon Ritman is reading/posting to comp.sys.sinclair
and is the director of a games software company in the UK called Cranberry Source,
where Bernie Drummond previously
worked. Jon is currently (Mar 2000) working freelance as a programmer.
Contrary to previous assertions in this FAQ, he definitely
didn't do a Computer Science degree at UCL
and he and Bernie Drummond wrote only one Gameboy game (Monster Max).
Jon doesn't care if you copy his old games, indeed he thinks it's nice
to think of people still playing the old games. Unfortunately, he
doesn't own the rights to them. However, he has been given verbal
permission by John Woods (one of Ocean's directors) to release them
for free on the net. This covers Match Day, Match Day II, Batman and
Head Over Heels. The status of Batman is uncertain as Ocean no doubt
rented the name for a limited time only. Also see the entry for Richard Turner, below. [How much of this still
applies now that Ocean have been bought out by Infogrames is unknown -
Phil].
An interview with Jon is available here,
and he now has his own Home Page.
Info by:
Vartan Narinian, Peter Watsons, Jon Ritman.
Now Managing Editor of the Console Division at Paragon Publishing
in Bournemouth (publishers of Play, an unofficial Playstation
magazine).
Info by:
Alex Waddington.
Dominic Robinson [Hewson/Graftgold - Flying Shark/Zynaps] |
---|
Previously worked for Psygnosis,
and is now (Dec 1999) running Wayward Design, working on B17 II for
Hasbro.
Info by:
Chris Wild, Ciaran Gultnieks.
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Paul Salmon [Odin artist] |
---|
Paul worked for Odin Computer Graphic and Denton Designs as a graphics artist; he later set up Rebel
City Software. Currently works for BUPA.
Info by:
Stuart Fotheringham.
Sir Clive Sinclair [do I really have to explain?!] |
---|
Still owns and runs Sinclair Research,
which these days is into producing gadgets of all types, including
tiny radios, electric bikes, foldaway bikes, etc. Not on the internet
(doesn't have time). In December 1997, was the guest of honour at the
launch of Stringfellows
web site, where he was described as "the UK's favourite inventor and
entrepreneur", looked very happy, and said "I was honoured to
be asked to launch the site. Especially with all these beautiful girls
around". See also Question 16 of the Frequently Asked Questions list.
Info by:
Damien Burke, Paul White.
Wrote the music for an unfinished version of Tapper with Paul Holmes,
but never actually worked for Elite, despite what this FAQ used to say.
Info by:
Duncan Sinclair.
Mike Singleton [Lords Of Midnight, Doomdark's Revenge etc.] |
---|
Mike Singleton is alive and well and writing Lords Of Midnight
games for the IBM PC. Also ran Curved Logic until they were
wound up in 1998.
Info by:
Chris Wild, Philip Gooch.
Matthew Smith [Bug Byte/Software Projects - Styx/Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy] |
---|
Rumours ranged from him working in some computer store in the
south of England to a motorbike mechanic called Mat living in
a commune in the Netherlands; he mentioned to someone that he "wrote some
video games in the 80's, got burnt out, ended up in a mental
institution". There was a Matthew Smith contributing to
comp.sys.sinclair, but he's not the
Matthew Smith. Or at least that's what he said ;-)
Then, after all that, he reappeared with his own Web Page.
Interviews with him are available here
and here.
Info by:
Stephen Smith, Gilberto Gaudencio, Chris Cannon.
R. T. Smith [CCS - Arnhem, Vulcan] |
---|
From Bob himself:
My last original game was Armada 2525 published in 1991 by
Interstel. Unfortunately they screwed it up completely, and never paid me
for what they did sell. The financial repercussions of this meant that I no
longer had the money to write original titles. I did some odd contracting
work for a few years, most notably the PC version of Kaiser and Traders for
Linel.
In 1994 I came to California to work for Crystal Dynamics. I worked
on Solar Eclipse which was one of the first Sega Saturn games. Last year I
moved to my current position at Alliance Semiconductor, where I am helping
with the design of their 3D accelerator chips. Our main focus is the game
industry, which is why they hired me.
I do miss writing my own games, but I make five times more money now
than when I was doing my own thing. I hope I'll get to write some more games
one day, probably as shareware or freeware.
As regards my old games, I'm delighted that anyone still wants to
play them. I hold all the copyrights (licensing agreements having long since
expired), and am perfectly happy for people to copy them, pass them around,
put them on their web sites etc.
I'm also intending to put up a couple of PC titles (Ancient Battles
and an enhanced version of 2525) on my web site. Just as soon as I get
around to it.
A longer interview with Bob is available here.
Info by:
Bob Smith, Stephen Smith.
Phil South [aka Snouty; Your Sinclair writer] |
---|
Writes for Computer Shopper magazine, mainly about
Amigas but also various enjoyable rantings; an interview with him is available
here.
Info by:
Damien Burke.
David Spicer [Codemasters - Sgt.Seymour/Robotcop/Adidas Championship Football] |
---|
From David himself:
After getting completely p*ssed off with the games industry, I went to
Kent Uni to study VLSI circuit engineering. Once I'd completed my
course, I spent 3 months writing Sparcade [for those who don't
know, this is a very good arcade machine emulator, one of the first
that appeared] with the intention of developing it commercially as
a last "fling" before going into the electronics industry. However,
no software companies were prepared to take it on, all lacking the
foresight to see the imminent flood of interest in retro-gaming.
Nowadays I can be found working as a design engineer for a
semiconductor company. Specifics of my work are tied up in company
confidentiality, but it's enough to say that I'm working on a chip
which is destined for use in consumer video hardware.
[Lastly, Dave mentioned that in order to test the Z80
emulation of Sparcade he coded a SPECCY driver for Sparcade:]
It's almost a full emulation of a Speccy 128, lacking only the ROM and
screen paging. The catch is that there's no facility for loading
snapshots, making it rather useless as an Internet release.
[David WILL NOT send copies of the Speccy Driver for Sparcade to
anyone, no matter what, so don't bug him with emails.]
Info by:
David Spicer via Blood.
Graham Stafford [Design Design programmer - Halls of the Things/Dark Star] |
---|
Worked for Psygnosis, and is now
at Nokia.
Info by:
Andrew Toone, Jon Ritman, Graham Stafford.
Richard Stevenson [Telecomsoft - Bombscare] |
---|
Works for Gremlin Interactive and has
worked on Zool, Euro '96 etc.
Info by:
Stephen Smith.
Garth Sumpter [Sinclair User writer] |
---|
Writes for movie magazine Neon. (This may explain some of the reviews - Damien :-))
Info by:
Stephen Smith.
Angela Sutherland [Ant Attack/Zombie Zombie] |
---|
Angela, Sandy White's ex-partner, owns Perfect
Entertainment (ex Teeny Weeny Games).
Info by:
Jon Ritman, Chris Wild.
Roger Swift [16/48 editor] |
---|
Works for Applied Industrial Systems Ltd. - has issue one of 16/48 in
plastic mounted on his wall!
Info by:
Fergus Paget.
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Rui Tito [Alien Evolution - Gremlin] |
---|
Portuguese, despite what some Spectrum mags claimed. After leaving
the Speccy scene, he founded Titus and Portidata (a Portuguese
software house). Launched Gambys (a PC puzzle game) in 1995, which
apparently has hidden Spectrum subgames in it. Was married with one
son and living in the Algarve.
Info by:
Nuno Barros.
Currently working as a Windows consultant/programmer, and has a
homepage.
Info by:
Miguel Melo, Chris Young, Kevin Toms.
Stephen Townsend [Psion - Chequered Flag] |
---|
Now works at Psion on the Series 3.
Info by:
Stephen Smith.
Richard Turner [Artic Computing director] |
---|
Richard ran Artic Computing, publishers of Jon Ritman's early games.
Artic ceased trading many years ago and Jon thinks that Richard now
sells kitchens for a living and is unlikely to be
chasing people for using those snapshots (Namtir Raiders, Combat Zone,
Cosmic Debris, Bear Bovver and Dimension Destructors), but this is
not certain.
Info by:
Jon Ritman.
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Christian Urqhuart [Ocean - Hunchback/Daley Thompson's Decathlon] |
---|
Went on to work for Imagitec Design, writing Game Gear stuff. Left there to
work for NMS and was involved in RISC for the PC. Left there and now possibly
partner in a shop in Liverpool that sells computer hardware.
Info by:
Andy Noble.
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Martin Wakeley [Tiertex artist - Rolling Thunder/Street Fighter] |
---|
Works for Rare; designed Blast Corps.
Info by:
Leigh Loveday.
Ian Weatherburn [Imagine programmer - Alchemist/Bandersnatch] |
---|
Apparently committed suicide in the early 90's. If so, RIP Ian.
Info by:
Simon Butler via Mark R. Jones.
Steve Wetherill [Denton Designs/Odin programmer - Nodes of Yesod] |
---|
Steve started his programming career at Software Projects where he created Jet Set Willy II. He then
moved to Odin Computer Graphics where he programmed Nodes Of Yesod, Robin Of The Wood, Heartland,
Crosswize and Sidewize. He spent some time working for Denton Designs on an Amiga/ST game called
Gargantuan before forming Eldritch the Cat with Marc Dawson, where he programmed Scrollerball for
Electronic Arts; after which he went on to become the Technical Director of Westwood Studios.
Info by:
Marc Dawson, Stuart Fotheringham.
Martin Wheeler [Virgin artist - Dan Dare 1 & 2] |
---|
Now a freelance game and graphics designer - last published game
worked on was Nihilist on PC-CDROM by Bits Studios, released by
Philips Media. Designed the 3D models and did some of the sound
effects and music tracks on the CD. An interview with him is available
here.
Info by:
Martin Wheeler via Philip Bee.
Vanished for
a while, but is now (June 2001) on the Net at www.sandywhite.co.uk,
including some stuff about Ant Attack.
Info by:
Staffan Vilcans, Philip Kendall.
R. Fred Williams [Codemasters - Dizzy & C.J. games] |
---|
He wrote several of the Dizzy games and both of the CJ games for Code Masters,
and several other things too. You're probably more familiar with the
Big Red name. He may have done some Seymour games, too. He is also an Acorn
enthusiast, and has written just about the nicest version of Sokoban I've
ever seen for RISC OS machines. He only does the odd thing in his spare
time, but he's just converted a Quake file editor, for instance.
Pop along to his web page.
You'll also find a list of things that he's worked on there.
Info by:
Richard G. Hallas.
David Wilson [Your Sinclair] |
---|
Believed to be a public relations person for Electronic Arts. David appeared on Channel 5's "Exclusive" during August 1997 talking about the Internet and on-line gaming.
Info by:
Chris Young.
Now Technical Director for Cyberdyne Systems,
where he has placed a Java version of BattleZone.
Has this to say about his old games: "If anyone's still interested,
you have my permission to redistribute the speccy game, as long as
Quicksilva aren't worried, which, by the look of John Hollis' entry,
they aren't!".
Info by:
Bill Witts.
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