Odin Computer Graphics

Last updated

Odin Computer Graphics were a Liverpool-based computer games developer who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a variety of titles for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC home computers.

Contents

History

Odin consisted of Managing Director Paul McKenna; programmers Steve Wetherill, Robbie Tinman, Marc Dawson (now Wilding), Keith Robinson, George Barnes, Tommy Laningan, Derrick Rowson, and Stefan Walker; artists Paul Salmon, Stuart Fotheringham, and Colin Grunes; and musician Keith Tinman. [1] Bernie Duggs and musician Fred Gray are also credited. [2] [3] Fotheringham and Dawson had previously worked for Software Projects. [4] Some other staff members had previously worked for Imagine Software. [5]

Prior to the release of their debut title, Nodes of Yesod , in 1985, Odin had previously released a number of games under the name Thor. [6] Although they developed a couple of in-house titles as Thor, they mainly acquired the publishing rights to homegrown titles from anonymous bedroom programmers. These early titles were mostly regarded as critical disappointments but not commercial failures. When Thor decided to switch to in-house development, Paul McKenna (managing director & owner) thought it appropriate to form a new company, hence Odin Computer Graphics was born.

Nodes of Yesod became an instant critical and commercial success, prompting Telecomsoft (the software division of British Telecom) to offer them a six-figure contract to develop ten games within a 12-month period. While Odin's later games (including Robin of the Wood and Heartland ) were very well received, some later titles failed to live up to expected BT standards. During this period, the warehouse area attached to the Odin studio was used by Telecomsoft as a distribution warehouse and to store thousands of copies of games on their Firebird, Rainbird and Beyond labels.

Just prior to the Telecom deal Odin had secured a major contract with Capcom. They were to develop Robin Hood for coin-operated arcade machines and Capcom's Gun.Smoke for the home computer format. Unfortunately the contracts arrived a day late. Paul McKenna still has the original contracts from Capcom in his possession[ citation needed ].

Odin made a very deliberate attempt to ensure they were mistaken for Ultimate Play the Game, one of the most critically acclaimed game developers of the 1980s. [1] As well as establishing a very similar name (Odin Computer Graphics vs. Ashby Computer Graphics), many of their games were heavily inspired by Ultimate's output (Odin's Nodes of Yesod certainly owes a considerable debt to Ultimate's Underwurlde ). [6] The advertisements for Odin's games, which won many acclaimed awards such as Golden Joystick Awards for best advertising in 1985 and 1986, were reminiscent of 1980s popular print retailer Athena and also bore some resemblance to the highly stylised, airbrushed artwork that graced the adverts for Ultimate's games.

In 1987, Odin finally closed their doors, [6] mainly due to an inability to expand the size of their teams while maintaining the quality that had put the company on the map in the first place. Although they delivered more than all the necessary titles to fulfill their contract, Telecomsoft deemed several of them to be not worthy of release. By this time many of Odin's core programmers and artists had already jumped ship. Several ex-Odin staff initially joined Denton Designs, another Liverpool-based games developer, before going their separate ways.

In 2005, Paul McKenna reformed Odin Computer Graphics Ltd, to develop and produce new titles and convert Nodes of Yesod, Arc of Yesod, Heartland and Robin of the Wood on the Mobile Phone formats.

In 2010, Odin Computer Graphics, Ltd., in conjunction with Uztek Games, Inc., released Nodes of Yesod for the iPhone. A web browser version built with Adobe Flash was also released in the same year.

Games developed

Related Research Articles

Andrew Nicholas Oliver and Philip Edward Oliver, together known as the Oliver Twins, are British twin brothers and video game designers.

<i>The Way of the Exploding Fist</i> 1985 video game

The Way of the Exploding Fist is a 1985 fighting game based on Japanese martial arts developed by Beam Software, by a team consisting of Gregg Barnett, Bruce Bayley, Neil Brennan and David Johnston. Originally developed on the Commodore 64 and published in June 1985 by Melbourne House, ports were made for Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron and Commodore 16.

<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.

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

Ghostbusters is a licensed game by Activision based on the film of the same name. It was designed by David Crane and released for several home computer platforms in 1984, and later for video game console systems, including the Atari 2600, Master System and Nintendo Entertainment System. The primary target was the Commodore 64 and the programmer for the initial version of the game was Adam Bellin. All versions of the game were released in the USA except for the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum versions, which were released only in Europe, and the MSX version, which was released only in Europe, South America, and Japan.

Thalamus Ltd was a British computer game developer that published titles for a number of 8-bit and 16-bit platforms during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telecomsoft</span> British video game publisher

Telecomsoft was a British video game publisher and a division of British Telecom. The company was founded by Ederyn Williams in 1984 and operated three separate labels: Firebird, Rainbird, and Silverbird. The first employee was James Leavey, seconded from elsewhere in BT, who, along with Tony Rainbird, became the driving force behind the company in the early days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CRL Group</span>

CRL Group plc was a British video game development and publishing company. Originally CRL stood for "Computer Rentals Limited". It was based in King's Yard, London and run by Clem Chambers.

<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 to 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.

<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>Nodes of Yesod</i> 1985 video game

Nodes of Yesod is a video game developed and published by Odin Computer Graphics in 1985. The game is similar in style to Underwurlde by Ultimate Play the Game, which was released a year earlier, and Metroid which was released the following year, in 1986.

<i>Graphic Adventure Creator</i> Adventure game creation system released in 1985

Graphic Adventure Creator is a game creation system/programming language for adventure games published by Incentive Software, originally written on the Amstrad CPC by Sean Ellis, and then ported to other platforms by, amongst others, Brendan Kelly (Spectrum), Dave Kirby and "The Kid" (C64). The pictures in the demo adventure, Ransom, were made by Pete James and the box cover art by Pete Carter.

Alligata Software Ltd. was a computer games developer and publisher based in Sheffield in the UK in the 1980s.

<i>Bruce Lee</i> (video game) 1984 video game

Bruce Lee is a platform game written by Ron J. Fortier for Atari 8-bit computers and published in 1984 by Datasoft. The graphics are by Kelly Day and music by John A. Fitzpatrick. The player takes the role of Bruce Lee, while a second player controls either Yamo or alternates with player one for control of Bruce Lee.

<i>Superman: The Game</i> 1985 video game

Superman: The Game is a 1985 video game designed by Fernando Herrera and published in the US by First Star Software for the Commodore 64. For European release, Superman was ported the Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit computers, BBC Micro, and ZX Spectrum.

<i>The Arc of Yesod</i> 1985 video game

Arc of Yesod is a video game by Odin Computer Graphics. It was published in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 and is the sequel to Nodes of Yesod.

<i>Heartland</i> (video game) 1986 video game

Heartland is a platform game for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Commodore 64 released by Odin Computer Graphics in 1986.

<i>Jack the Nipper</i> 1986 video game

Jack the Nipper is a video game by Gremlin Graphics released in 1986 for ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, and MSX. It was followed by a sequel, Jack the Nipper II: In Coconut Capers.

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.

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

Ace is a combat flight simulator video game published for the Commodore 64, VIC-20, and Plus/4 in 1985 by Cascade Games. It was ported to the Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Amiga, and ZX Spectrum.

References

  1. 1 2 "Odin Interview" . Retrieved 15 January 2007.
  2. ↑ "Hypaball - World of Spectrum". www.worldofspectrum.org. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  3. ↑ "Fred Gray - World of Spectrum". www.worldofspectrum.org. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  4. ↑ "I feel a special attachment to Matthew Smith. All the trouble he got into kind of boiled down to me Chris Cannon" . Retrieved 14 September 2023– via PressReader.
  5. ↑ "CRASH 20 - Odin".
  6. 1 2 3 "Odin Computer Graphics - Company - Computing History".
  7. ↑ "Robin of the Wood - Software - Game - Computing History".
  8. ↑ "Commodore User Magazine Issue 36". September 1986.
  9. ↑ "Commodore User Magazine Issue 48". September 1987.
  10. ↑ "Impossible to Display Scan".
  11. ↑ "Commodore User Magazine Issue 48". September 1987.
  12. ↑ Although not an Odin game, Crosswize was produced by former Odin personnel.
  13. 1 2 "Odin Computer Graphics Ltd - The Bird Sanctuary". Archived from the original on 7 May 2017.
  14. ↑ "Lusitania © odin computer graphics (1986)".
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.