Who were the best developers and where did they come from?

[gilgamesh]

Originally Posted by Jon Hare

The interviews, the images and the music take you back to that moment in time when video games really were the new rock 'n' roll and the British development scene was on top of the world.

I've found this quote here. But is it true?

[lordofchaos]

I would say there is some evidence for this, around the early 80's Britain did dominate alot of the 8-bit market in terms of output, but like all things that go up eventually they must come down, after the Micro market burst in the UK other countries soon caught up and refined their buisness models.

A good source for this period is "Micro Men" from the BBC.

[ Show youtube player ]

Some British 80's/90's game developers that deserve an honorable mention:

David Braben/Ian Bell - Elite.
Codemasters - Lots, most famous for Dizzy Series.
Thalamus - Creatures games, Hawkeye, Delta etc.
Psygnosis - Beast Games, Lemmings, Armour Geddon(s)....
Sensible Software - Wizball, Cannon Fodder, Sensi Soccer...
Team 17 - Worms, Alien Breed, Project X etc
Core Design - Chuck Rock games, Banshee, Darkmere...
Bitmap Brothers - Chaos Engine, Speedball(s), Gods...
Gremlin Graphics - Zool(s), Lotus Series, Disposable Hero..

[s2325]

Codemasters made one bad game - Championship Jet Ski Simulator for Amstrad CPC: http://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/champio..._simulator.htm There are invisible single pixel size barriers and you can stuck with other player under bridge forever.

[CodyJarrett]

Also Graftgold, Bullfrog, Tony Crowther, Archer MacLean, Mike Singleton...

[Mrs Beanbag]

Not British, but I've never seen a bad Factor 5 game.

[JudasEZT]

Originally Posted by Mrs Beanbag

Not British, but I've never seen a bad Factor 5 game.

Thats what I was going to tell..

British scene were the best,.. but all of them got astonished with Factor 5,.. and specially with Turrican 2. Andrew Braybrook got really impressed, and Braybrook was someone.

Infact Im really surprised that with all the dozens of British companies no one came with something like Apydia.

Marketing made Amiga games unfocused.

[clauddio]

Originally Posted by Mrs Beanbag

Not British, but I've never seen a bad Factor 5 game.

Factor 5 were the best amiga' games developers by far

[Predseda]

I say Bitmap Brothers. And so the flamewar was born...

[Sektor 83]

My favourites were: Factor 5, Psygnosis, Core Design, Gremlin Graphics and Team 17... in no special order!

[Dastardly]

Originally Posted by Predseda

I say Bitmap Brothers. And so the flamewar was born...

Of course it depends on how you define "best", but I have to agree

[moijk]

While I think the UK scene were pretty much the major one in europe, how did it fare in other markets - like USA and Japan?

[Mrs Beanbag]

Was there much of an Amiga market in Japan? Most of the European games still seemed designed for NTSC screen sizes, so I guess there was an intention to export across the Atlantic.

The Bitmap Brothers were a good cross-platform developer, but they never really pushed the Amiga to its limits for the sake of the Atari ST version, which is a shame. Still, Xenon II is one of my all-time favourite games. Xenon I on the other hand... I think we can see their output gradually improve in quality over the years.

Psygnosis's output was very inconsistent, however. Some games were technically excellent (if a tad on the difficult/frustrating side), others were a little of an embarrassment. I mentioned Blood Money elsewhere, a way over-hyped game in my opinion, especially cringeworthy in the presentation (the bit of the intro with the spaceship flying through the asteroids was the best bit, they should have made the whole game like that, but the opening credits with the sampled speech sounded like it was done in someone amateur's back bedroom for a PD game, and the "cram loads of vocal samples in" style of the music). Although I must admit I have something of a soft spot for Menace, maybe because it was one of the first games my Dad bought for the Amiga.

[Photon]

I would say Germany, Denmark and Sweden reached the highest technical quality among the developers active during the Amiga game boom. However, a good developer can also be one that makes a fun and well play-tested game. In that department I would say the UK rules supreme by the sheer number of decent technical quality developers who actually had it as a profession, many of them coming from 8-bit. USA was sadly absent from 1989 onwards, already having moved on to PC and consoles, or I should say moved on from home computers. I think I have two games made in the USA that I play, Zany Golf and F/A-18 Interceptor, and ... that's it.

If you want namedropping from the UK developers I would say the already famous names: David Braben, Andrew Braybrook, Archer Maclean, John M. Phillips, Geoff Crammond (off the top of my head). Of these, Braybrook made the most quality Amiga games, with Braben and Crammond following, with Braben and Braybrook staying loyal to the Amiga after 1992 unlike basically all other UK developers.

Remember that the buzz we enjoy from the good old times can be present-day buzz. No Amiga magazines and no hype campaigns from wealthy game companies today, but if you really want to you can be an internet detective and find out who's working on what. If the interest in the developers is there, it can yet become enjoyable and intriguing "buzz".

[Predseda]

In fact I adored Graftgold most for their programming perfection. I dont like Fire and Ice or Virocop much, but they still are programmed brillantly. Paradroid 90and Rainbow Islands are excellent and Uridium 2 is just a masterpiece. So shame there were so few games from Graftgold for Amiga

[desiv]

Where was Discovery Software from?
Hybris and Battle Squadron were pretty great... IMHO

desiv

[gilgamesh]

I googled that for you.

Discovery Software was only the publisher. Both games were done by Denmark's Martin Pedersen and Torben Larsen of Cope-Com.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by gilgamesh

I googled that for you.

Discovery Software was only the publisher. Both games were done by Denmark's Martin Pedersen and Torben Larsen of Cope-Com.

Dang it! ;-) Thanx
I googled it quickly, but didn't go far enough.. Stopped at Discovery..

So, Denmark it is...
I seem to remember (hazily) some other developers from Denmark...
And those above games were top notch...

So, the UK rocks, but you have some competition!! :-)

desiv

[kamelito]

No the French were the best
Eric Chahi, Paul Cuisset, Pierre Adane, Fernando Velez, Frederic Raynal (maybe not on AMIGA), Yves Grolet, Francois Lionet...
Kamelito

[dlfrsilver]

Pierre Adane was a serious king coder. A very talented guy and a kind of amiga guru guy

Thierry Levastre and Philippe Dessoly (in particular him) got diplomed of Beaux-Arts Academy ; Philippe is even a prom major from the said academy. He was by the way the only guy autorised by go nagai himself to draw Grendizer (Goldorak robot in french) character and even moldering die cast figurines, as well as Leiji's matsumoto's Captain Harlock character.

Paul cuisset and all the guys at delphine were some of the most awesome guys of the industry, heh flashback was amiga first, and it sold to so many copies

[TCD]

This one: http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?N_ref_artist=385 ?