Mel Croucher

Last updated

Mel Croucher
Mel Wikipedia.png
Born1948 (age 75–76)
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, writer, video game designer
Known forimmersive entertainment pioneer

Mel Croucher (born 1948) is a British entrepreneur and video games pioneer. Originally an architect, he moved into computers and in 1977 launched one of the very earliest games companies, [1] Automata UK, as an extension of his publishing business. He is now credited for setting up "the first games company in the U.K.", [2] celebrated as "the father of the British videogames industry" [3] and presented as "a pioneer in affective computing". [4] His first broadcasts of computer game software were made over AM and FM radio. [1] After the release of the Sinclair ZX81, [5] his label published several games for the early home computer market, including three Computer Trade Association award-winners: Pimania (1982), Groucho (1983, a.k.a. My Name Is Uncle Groucho, You Win A Fat Cigar ), and the groundbreaking [6] "multi-media" title Deus Ex Machina (1984). Croucher has championed immersive entertainment throughout his career as director and producer, mixing audio, video, spoken word, real-world locations and computer-generated effects. He is currently Executive Chairman of the Jeeni streamed entertainment channel.www.jeeni.com

Contents

Career

Croucher has written text books, computer manuals and comedy, and worked as a journalist, writing regular columns like Without Prejudice, The Rubber Room, and the comedy sci-fi serial Tamara Knight for the ZX Spectrum magazine CRASH in the 1980s, [7] as well as columns for various computer magazines since.

Mel Croucher is the author of Zygote in Computer Shopper every month since Issue 1 in 1988 [8] and the Mel's World column and the Great Moments In Computing cartoon strip in the same magazine.

In 2010, Feeding Tube Records, a small label in the United States, released "Pimania: The Music of Mel Croucher", a deluxe vinyl LP album of the music to the Pimania games, as well as tracks from other Automata releases. The album came with extensive liner notes by Croucher and Caroline Bren, as well as a large poster featuring selections from the original Automata print campaigns. A six-album retrospective of his music complete works was released in 2017 by The Games Collector.

In 2012, Mel Croucher reformed Automata as Automata Source Ltd., with leading figures from the video games, online marketing and music industries.[ citation needed ] He produced a reimagination of Deus Ex Machina, starring Sir Christopher Lee, released in 2015 as Deus Ex Machina 2, [9] alongside a 30th Anniversary Collector's Edition of the original game including new graphics and a director's commentary. He collaborated with Christopher Lee on several other games titles, and their game for children was released as Eggbird in the same year.

Mel Croucher is Executive Chairman of Jeeni, the global streamed music service and artist development platform, which he co-founded with Dr Shena Mitchell in 2017. [10]

Video games

Books and journalism

Related Research Articles

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

Manic Miner is a platform 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">Matthew Smith (games programmer)</span> Computer game designer and author of the Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy titles

Matthew Smith 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.

<i>Colossal Adventure</i> 1982 video game

Colossal Adventure is a text based adventure game published by Level 9 Computing in 1982. It was originally released for the Nascom.

<i>Pimania</i> 1982 video game

Pimania is a text-and-graphics adventure game written by Mel Croucher and released by Automata UK in 1982 for the BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum, Dragon 32, and Sinclair ZX81. It was the first real-life video game treasure hunt to be released. It was inspired by the 1979 Kit Williams book Masquerade. Automata gave a prize of a golden sundial worth £6,000 for the first person to solve the various cryptic clues to its location that were hidden within Pimania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atarisoft</span> Brand name by Atari, Inc.

Atarisoft was a brand name used by Atari, Inc. in 1983 and 1984 to publish video games for non-Atari home computers and consoles. Each platform had a specific color for its game packages: video games sold for the Commodore 64 were in green boxes, games for the TI-99/4A in yellow, the IBM PC in blue, and so on.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artic Computing</span> English computer game company, 1980–1986

Artic Computing was a software development company based in Brandesburton, England from 1980 to 1986. The company's first games were for the Sinclair ZX81 home computer, but they expanded and were also responsible for various ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron and Amstrad CPC computer games. The company was set up by Richard Turner and Chris Thornton. Charles Cecil, who later founded Revolution Software, joined the company shortly after it was founded, writing Adventures B through D. Developer Jon Ritman produced a number of ZX81 and Spectrum games for Artic before moving to Ocean Software.

<i>Deus Ex Machina</i> (video game) 1984 video game

Deus Ex Machina is a video game designed and created by Mel Croucher and published by Automata UK for the ZX Spectrum in October 1984 and later converted to MSX and Commodore 64.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bug-Byte</span> Video game company active from 1980 to 1985

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.

Europress was a British magazine and software publisher based in Adlington, near Macclesfield, Cheshire. Their magazine publishing business was previously known as Database Publications. The software division was renamed in 1999 to Actualize.

Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s.

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>My Name Is Uncle Groucho, You Win a Fat Cigar</i> 1983 video game

My Name Is Uncle Groucho, You Win a Fat Cigar is a computer game developed and published by Automata UK for the ZX Spectrum in 1983. Groucho was designed by Mel Croucher who was better known for his later works Deus Ex Machina and ID.

<i>Hunchback</i> (video game) 1983 video game

Hunchback is a video game developed by Century Electronics and published in arcades in 1983. The game is loosely based on the 1831 Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and the player controls Quasimodo. Set on top of a castle wall, the player must guide the Hunchback from left to right while avoiding obstacles on a series of non-scrolling screens. The goal of each screen is to ring the church bell at the far right.

<i>Goody</i> (video game) 1988 video game

Goody is a platform game developed by Gonzalo Suárez Girard and released in 1987 by the Spanish company Opera Soft. The game was released for Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, MSX, ZX Spectrum, and for MS-DOS compatible computers.

Automata UK was a software house which developed and published ZX Spectrum video games between 1982 and 1985. Significant releases included Pimania (1982), My Name Is Uncle Groucho, You Win A Fat Cigar (1983) and Deus Ex Machina (1984).

<i>Snooker</i> (video game) 1983 video game

Snooker is a sports video game published by Visions Software Factory in 1983. The game simulates the cue sport of snooker. It was released for the Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, VIC-20, and ZX Spectrum.

<i>Hercules</i> (1984 video game) 1984 video game

Hercules is a platform video game written by Steve Bak for the Commodore 64 and published by Interdisc in 1984. It was reissued in 1986 by Alpha Omega and ported to the Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, Commodore 16, Plus/4, and ZX Spectrum. Alpha Omega changed its name to The Power House shortly after publishing the game.

<i>Automonopoli</i> Unauthorised computer version of the boardgame Monopoly

Automonopoli, also known as Go to Jail, is an unauthorised computer version of the boardgame Monopoly, released in June 1983 by Automata UK for the ZX Spectrum. Although other two-player Monopoly computer programs already existed, the developer advertised that their Automonopoli was the first with an artificial intelligence strong enough to compete against and defeat human players.

Scetlander was a software publisher which released titles for various 8- and 16-bit home computer systems in the 1980s and 1990s.

References

  1. 1 2 Lean, Tom (2016). Electronic Dreams: How 1980s Britain Learned to Love the Computer. Bloomsbury. ISBN   978-1-4729-1833-8.
  2. ↑ Colin Campbell, The one-hour life of a 1980s video game auteur, Polygon, September 25, 2013
  3. ↑ Dan Wood, The Father of The British Videogames Industry, Mel Croucher – The Retro Hour, episode 50, December 16, 2016
  4. ↑ "What is the future of the Internet? – A Discussion between Emmanuel Legeard and Mel Croucher". Cerebrum. April 2017.
  5. ↑ "Mel Croucher interview - The Spectrum Golden Years". zxgoldenyears.net. Archived from the original on 10 March 2007.
  6. ↑ "Deus Ex Machina (review)". Your Spectrum. No. 10. Dennis Publishing. 1984.
  7. ↑ "Tamara Knight Issue 1". CRASH Online. Newsfield. Retrieved 23 May 2006.
  8. ↑ "Anniversary Update" Computer Shopper Magazine, issue 360, page 8, February 2018, ISSN   0955-8578, accessed 7th Feb 2022
  9. ↑ "Home". deusexmachina2.com.
  10. ↑ "Home". jeeni.com.
  11. ↑ "Devil's Acre » Acorn Books".
  12. ↑ "Deus Ex Machina » Acorn Books".
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.