Matthew Smith (games programmer)

Last updated
Matthew Smith
Matthew Smith.jpg
Matthew Smith at the Screenplay festival in Nottingham, UK (2005)
Born (1966-01-01) 1 January 1966 (age 57)
Penge, London, England
Occupation Game designer

Matthew Smith (born 1966) is a British computer game programmer. He created the games Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy for the ZX Spectrum, released in 1983 and 1984 respectively. Smith left the games industry in 1988 and later moved to the Netherlands. He has since returned to the UK and has worked on some games as well as appearing at conventions and in documentaries.

Contents

Early life

Smith was born in Penge. His family moved to Wallasey when he was seven years old. [1]

Programming career

1980s

He started out programming when he received a TRS-80 [2] for Christmas in 1979. [1] His first commercial game was a Galaxian clone for the TRS-80 called Delta Tau One. [3] He then went on to produce Monster Muncher on the VIC-20. Smith has said that he wrote Monster Muncher in 3 hours. [4]

He obtained a ZX Spectrum on loan from Bug-Byte Software Ltd. in return for a freelance contract for three games. [1] The first of these was Styx in 1983 for which Matthew received £3,000. [5]

He wrote Manic Miner in eight weeks [6] using a Model III Tandy. [1] It was the first ZX Spectrum title with in-game music. [7] The sequel, Jet Set Willy , took considerably longer to write. [2] Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy were both commercial successes. Smith has stated that Manic Miner was the most enjoyable game to make for him whereas Jet Set Willy was 'seven shades of hell'. [4]

After the creation of Jet Set Willy he started work on The Mega Tree (commonly known as Willy Meets The Taxman), [8] for publication by his company Software Projects. Unlike his previous two hits The Mega Tree was not developed for the ZX Spectrum but the Commodore 64. The project failed to gain traction and was cancelled three months into development. [9] The development disks containing some of the graphics from the unreleased game were eventually auctioned for charity in 2004. [10]

In 1987 adverts began appearing in games magazines for a new game Attack of the Mutant Zombie Flesh Eating Chickens From Mars said to have been programmed by Smith, and due for release by Software Projects. It is reported that Smith was unhappy with the finished product and it was never released. [11]

Departure

Smith closed Software Projects in 1988 without completing any more programs. He lived in a Dutch commune from around 1995 but was deported from the Netherlands in October 1997 and returned to Britain, saying that he had failed to keep his residency papers in order. [4] In the late 1990s, he said he was "surprised and flattered" [12] at the amount of attention and speculation he had attracted on the Internet.

Return to games

In 1999 Smith returned to the UK video game industry by taking a job at Dewsbury-based computer game developer Runecraft.

In 2000, he appeared on a British television documentary programme called Thumb Candy about the history of video games [13] in which, in a brief interview, he discussed Manic Miner and his 1980's career. He has also attended and given talks at retrogaming conventions during this decade.

In 2005, a mobile game was released by Numfum, called Jet Set Racing. Smith was featured in the game as a playable character as 'Matt', being the fastest racer of the game.[ citation needed ]

In 2013, Smith was working on producing a new game with Elite Systems, who have republished his original games on mobile platforms. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ZX Spectrum</span> 1982 series of home computers

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.

Miner Willy is the protagonist in a series of platform games for the ZX Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad CPC and the Commodore 64 home computers. The first two games - Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy were written by Matthew Smith during the early 1980s.

<i>Jet Set Willy</i> 1984 platform video game

Jet Set Willy is a platform video game originally written by Matthew Smith for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published in 1984 by Software Projects and ported to most home computers of the time.

<i>Manic Miner</i> 1983 video game

Manic Miner is a platform video game written for the ZX Spectrum by Matthew Smith. It was published by Bug-Byte in 1983, then later the same year by Software Projects. The first game in the Miner Willy series, the design was inspired by Miner 2049er (1982) for the Atari 8-bit family. Retro Gamer called Manic Miner one of the most influential platform games of all time, and it has been ported to numerous home computers, video game consoles, and mobile phones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beam Software</span> Former Australian video game developer

Krome Studios Melbourne, originally Beam Software, was an Australian video game development studio founded in 1980 by Alfred Milgrom and Naomi Besen and based in Melbourne, Australia. Initially formed to produce books and software to be published by Melbourne House, a company they had established in London in 1977, the studio operated independently from 1987 until 1999, when it was acquired by Infogrames, who changed the name to Infogrames Melbourne House Pty Ltd.. In 2006 the studio was sold to Krome Studios.

Ocean Software Ltd was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European video game developers and publishers of the 1980s and 1990s.

<i>Monty on the Run</i> 1985 video game

Monty on the Run is a computer game created by the software house Gremlin Graphics and released in 1985 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 16, written by Peter Harrap for the ZX Spectrum with the iconic in-game music on the Commodore 64 provided by Rob Hubbard. It is the third game in the Monty Mole series.

<i>Jet Set Willy II</i> 1985 video game

Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier is a platform game released 1985 by Software Projects as the Amstrad CPC port of Jet Set Willy. It was then rebranded as the sequel and ported other home computers. Jet Set Willy II was developed by Derrick P. Rowson and Steve Wetherill rather than Jet Set Willy programmer Matthew Smith and is an expansion of the original game, rather than an entirely new one.

Software Projects was a computer game development company which was started by Manic Miner developer Matthew Smith, Alan Maton and Colin Roach. After leaving Bug-Byte as a freelance developer, Smith was able to take the rights to his recently developed Manic Miner game with him, due to an oversight in his freelance contract. Software Projects was then able to market and publish the ZX Spectrum hit game separately from Bug-Byte. Their logo was a Penrose triangle.

<i>Cauldron</i> (video game) 1985 video game

Cauldron is a video game developed and published by British developer Palace Software in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC home computer. It contains both platform game and horizontally scrolling shooter sections. Players control a witch who aims to become the "Witch Queen" by defeating the "Pumpking"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bug-Byte</span> Video game company active from 1980—1985, famous for Manic Miner

Bug-Byte Software Ltd. was a video game company founded in 1980 in Liverpool, initially producing software for the Acorn Atom and ZX80. Bug-Byte's first hit was Don Priestley's Mazogs which was one of the most successful titles for the ZX81. In 1983, it published Manic Miner, considered to be one of the most influential platform games of all time. The company went into liquidation in 1985 but their name and logo were purchased by Argus Press PLC for use as a budget software label.

Brian Howarth is a British video game designer and computer programmer. He wrote many interactive fiction computer games in the early 1980s in a series called Mysterious Adventures. He was born in Blackpool in 1953.

The ZX Spectrum's software library was very diverse. While the majority of the software produced for the system was video games, others included programming language implementations, Sinclair BASIC extensions, databases, word processors, spread sheets, drawing and painting tools, and 3D modelling tools.

<i>Styx</i> (Spectrum video game) 1983 video game

Styx is a maze shoot 'em up game published by Bug-Byte Software in 1983. It was the first ZX Spectrum game written by Matthew Smith, and the first of his three-game contract with the company. He went on to write Manic Miner in the same year.

<i>Personal Computer Games</i> Defunct British magazine

Personal Computer Games was a multi-format UK computer games magazine of the early/mid-1980s published by VNU.

<i>Chequered Flag</i> (video game) 1983 racing video game

Chequered Flag is a racing video game developed by Psion Software and published by Sinclair Research in 1983. It was the first driving game published for the ZX Spectrum and one of the first computer car simulators.

Addictive Games was a UK video game publisher in the 1980s and early 1990s. It is best known for the Football Manager series of games created by company founder Kevin Toms. The company was originally based in Milton Keynes, England, and later relocated to Bournemouth, in southern England.

Videogame Nation was a UK exhibition looking at the history of British videogames. It showed how videogames have progressed over more than 30 years. Visitors were able to play a wide selection of games including Jet Set Willy, Sensible Soccer, Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto. The exhibition highlighted the key people and companies which have contributed to British gaming since its inception.

Roland was a game character developed in 1984 by Alan Sugar, CEO of Amstrad, and Jose Luis Dominguez, a Spanish game designer. The character was named for Roland Perry, a computer engineer who worked for Amstrad. The idea was to have one recognizable character in a number of different computer games in a bid to have the Amstrad CPC compete with the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Matthew uncaged". Sinclair User. No. 33. EMAP. December 1984. p. 88-92. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  2. 1 2 Graham Taylor (April 1984). "And pigs will fly... Graham Taylor talks to Matthew Smith and Alan Maton of Software Projects". Popular Computing Weekly . Vol. 3, no. 14. p. 12. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  3. ↑ Smith, Matthew (19 July 2009). "Videogame Nation". Urbis (Interview). Manchester. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 "Matthew "Manic Miner" Smith: complete transcript of 2005 interview". 10 August 2010. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  5. ↑ "Retro gamer №117". Issuu. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  6. ↑ Drury, Paul (June 2013). "The Making of Styx". Retro Gamer. No. 117. Imagine Publishing. p. 43.
  7. ↑ "Manic Miner 360: Revisiting a Classic". Eurogamer . 26 July 2012.
  8. ↑ "Interview with Stuart James Fotheringham" . Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  9. ↑ "Desert Island Disks - Stuart Fotheringham". Retro Gamer. No. 34. Imagine Publishing. February 2007. p. 78.
  10. ↑ Burton, Richard (June 2004). "The Mega-Tree Mystery". Retro Gamer. No. 5. Live Publishing. p. 42.
  11. ↑ "Attack of the Mutant Zombie Flesh Eating Chickens from Mars". SpectrumComputing.co.uk. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  12. ↑ "Matthew Smith, interview by Pete Mella". Archived from the original on 27 April 2006.
  13. ↑ Brooker, Charlie (19 February 2009). Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn. ISBN   9780571250141.
  14. ↑ Matthew Smith and Elite join forces for new game, 29 March 2013, retrieved 15 April 2016

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.