Doug Palmer joined Beam Software as a programmer and analyst in 1985 after completing a Physics degree at the University of Melbourne. Palmer first worked on the implementation of The Lord of Rings He also worked on Judge Dredd and Street Hassle for the C64. He is best remembered for his work on the design and coding for Samurai Warrior: The Adventures of Usagi Yojimbo. Working with Paul Kidd (story) and Russel Comte (graphics). In 1988 on completing Samurai Warrior Palmer left Beam and the games development industry to do a doctorate in Computer Science at the University of Melbourne. He is currently a research engineer at CSIRO.
At Beam, Palmer was impressed by Alfred Milgrom’s advanced view of software engineering his focus on developing virtual machines and creating object-oriented programming that meant Beam designers had access to tools and and library of pre-existing components to work with. Whilst at Beam Palmer designed and implemented a graphical windowing system library for use in character animation software for the studio. The tool was originally designed as a learning exercise but then turned it to a useful tool.
Reference: “The Making of Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo” Retro Gamer Issue 29, pages 16-19
Other games developed:
The Lord of the Rings (1986), Judge Dredd (1987), Street Hassle (1987), Samurai Warrior: The Adventures of Usagi Yojimbo (1988).
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