Whatever happend to: ANDREW BRAYBROOK
 

Hi guys
Just asking for a bit of help with some research I am doing. I am researching how war and violence was portrayed in games during the 1980s and 1990s. I just wonder what everybody thinks of Andrew's games, especially Paradroid, Paradroid 90, Uridium and Uridium 2 . I am also a big fan of these games and love playing them. I have checked out Andrew's Wikipedia entry and followed respective links but was wondering if anybody has any old magazine articles and interviews with him lying around, or ever met the big man himself. cheers homies
Pz

I've played Paradroid (C64) very intensively in the 80s, a true classic. But I like his great Rainbow Island Amiga port, Fire and Ice (Amiga) and Uridium (C64) too. High quality games, no doubt.

You find a Zzap interview here:

http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap11/andrew.html

A nice Birth of a Paradroid diary:

http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap3/para_birth01.html

more:

http://www.zzap64.co.uk/mentalprocre.html

cheers your a gent and a scholar

A scholar? :laughing

"schueler", but that doesn't really translate the phrase (generally attributed to Burns, but also rather popular with the Pink Panther ;) :D )

I had to check an urban dictionary. It's a least no insult. A "Thanks mate" is enough. :D

:) thanks matey

Uridium 2 - classic shooter.

I'm not really a huge shoot-em-up fan but its probably a tribute to Andrew's game design that I love both Paradroid and Uridium 2. Its such a shame that somebody of his ability and talent doesn't want to work in the games industry any more - but who can blame him?

Paradroid 90 was a terrific game, but went almost unsold because of the Mirrorsoft collapse. Those Graftgold guys should be shaping the industry, not just fond memories. :(



PS
Steve Turner of Graftgold was kind enough to write a review of Gunship for the AGDB, that might give you some insight into how he viewed game design, I wasn't able to get one from AB.

thanx guys.

i would love to interview Andrew Braybrook. I loved the diaries in Zzap. I remembered reading them when i was a kid. Paradroid 90 and Uridium 2 are perhaps two of my favourite ever games, and I think they have aged really well.
Easy to play, hard to master, and with plenty of twists and turns and little frills to keep you hooked. A modern version for xbox live arcade would be so so so good.
Pz

In Issue 8 of Retro Gamer there was a interview with the founder of Graftgold, Steve Turner. In the interview he talks about the games that he & Andrew worked on together. I don't know whether you've already read the article or not but I've uploaded it here.

cheers mat thats sweet. i only started getting RG at issue 30 ish
nice one bro

After the industry and public switched from home computers to consoles in around 1992, Graftgold had a hard time to follow suit, I think. They were only a few guys and would have to translate O.O.P.S. and get licenses and devkits/hardware. IIRC after Graftgold he got a 'steady job' programming for an insurance company and settled down with his girlfriend.

One wishes that talented, intelligent, and especially, hard-working programmers like him would get faith from the business to develop great stuff. In the 80s there was a wonderful opportunity for young computer people to make something great. After this peak you would also need money (after quitting your hard earned job to get time for developing), and faith in getting the money back, and faith in that your skill and stamina will result in a great product, on top of all your talent! I don't know any grownup that has this faith/time, and it's a lot to ask of any human, even obviously talented and driven coders.

I did most of the art Uridium 2. My RL name is Stephen Rushbrook, and Uridium 2 was may first game in the industry. since then I've worked on 22 games including Carmmageddon 2 and De Blob.

Andrew is a great bloke. Spent many an hour with him after work up the pub, playing pinball and being tortured by the video jukebox. (can also throw a mean juggling hacky-sack!!) but sadly i've lost his contact details.

Hey Andrew!! if you read this get in touch. I believe we could do awesome things with the iPad, and you have been out of the game for two long :) .

stephen.

welcome to EAB :)

Hello and welcome to EAB,
Thanks for Uridium2 I still play it on miggy and have the original still boxed.
It would be awesome to see you guys doing something new - I have the new windows7 phone that links to xboxlive I would love to see stuff on there.
thanks :bowdown

That's what I like of the huge amount of "guests" there are always in EAB... you never know who's there and that can come into in any moment... Perhaps the CUSA people too?

Have you tried contacting ST ?

He still hosts the graftgold.com website so you should be able to get in contact of Andrew through him.

I was lucky enough to interview Andrew about the C64 for issue 106 of Retro Gamer, which also features a making of the Uridium games. Hope to do more articles with him in the near future