Jeff Pritchard
This profile is yet to be completed. Contribute what you know and help to complete the Archive.
John De Margheriti
John De Margheriti has been a significant contributor to the Australian games development industry both as a games developer and in fostering the local industry. He co-founded Micro Forté studios in 1985. Their first game “Arnies America’s Cup Challenge” or “The Official America’s Cup Sailing Simulation” was designed for the Commodore 64 and was distributed internationally by Electronic Arts.
John Passfield
“Halloween Harry” was the last game that the schoolboy Passfield published in the 1980s, although he wrote many more, including a Star Trek Text Adventure. Passfield was also responsible for “Jaruu Tenk”, “Flight of the Amazon Queen” and “Brainiversity” properties. At Krome he co-created the “TY the Tasmanian Tiger” series.
John Reidy
John Reidy was one of the four founders of Micro Forté in 1985 as they launched their studio to create “Arnies America’s Cup Challenge” for the Commodore 64 and Amstrad. Reidy worked on the technical side of memory and graphics for the game.
Matthew Hall
Matthew Hall started programming games at the age of seven, and his game designs from the 1980s were produced before he turned fourteen. Hall designed for the Commodore 64, but his magnum opus, “The Jewels of Sancara Island”, was created in class at Edenhope High School, on the school’s Microbee. Hall later went on to be employed at Australian developers Tantalus Interactive and Big Ant Studios. His varied career includes positions as Programmer, Designer, Artist, Associate Producer, Producer and Chief Technical Officer.
Neil Brennan
Brennan was responsible for the sound in all Beam Software games, composing much of it himself, from his arrival in 1983 till his departure in 1988.
Nickolas Marentes
Nickolas Marentes began programming his TRS80 Model 1 as a schoolboy in 1980. Wanting to create commercial grade games, he set up his own software company ‘Fun Division’. In 1984, Marentes’ upgraded to the Tandy Color Computer. Marentes wrote many games for the Tandy line.
Paul Holland
Holland has extensive experience in managing creative industries organisations in the private and public sector. He has been a Board Chair, Company Director, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager, Executive Producer, Project Manager, Interactive Media Designer, Software Developer, Consultant, Lecturer and Teacher.
Pauli Kidd
Beams Software’s first non-programmer designer, Kidd was lead designer and producer on a number of Beam’s games of the 1980s including the post-apocalyptic action RPG Doc the Destroyer (1987), and the side scrolling adventure Samurai Warrior the Adventures of Usagi Yojimbo (1988). Kidd contributed to numerous micro computer games including the Exploding Fist series, Street Hassle(1987) and the idiosyncratic Aussie Game (1987-1990). She also worked on Beams new NES titles such as Airwolf (1988) based on the kids TV show of the eighties, and The Punisher (1990).
Philip Mitchell
Mitchell is most celebrated for the complex parser he created for The Hobbit. He named the parser INGLISH and it was far more sophisticated than the two word commands that supported by the popular Scott Adams Adventure series. Mitchell’s parser allowed for complex commands to be typed in. Featuring a vocabulary of 800 words, it supported combinations of nouns verbs and adverbs.
R Sharples
Nothing is known about the authors of Emu Joust. The game was originally released by Mytek but when that company collapsed, it was snapped up by Microbee. Was it the work of a budding coders teaching themselves to program? Or made by two school boys who played Joust in the arcades and wanted a version they could play any time?
Roger Keating
Roger Keating is one of the two original founders of Strategic Studies Group (SSG). In 1979 Keating wrote and produced his first computer game called ‘Conflict’ for the Apple II. The game was picked up by the American strategy games company Strategic Simulations, Inc and published as ‘Computer Conflict’. Over the last twenty years Keating has been involved with the production of over 50 computer games
Ron Harris
Ron Harris was a Brisbane-based engineer. According to Vaughan Clarkson, he worked shift work on ABC TV transmission. Outside the hours of his ABC roster, he apparently ran (?) Microbee’s national publishing arm, Honeysoft. Harris’ contribution to “Hoards of the Deep Realm” was as a mentor on microcomputer programming and the industry in general.
Rosanne Gare
Rosanne Gare, originally a teacher, was appointed to set up the software division within Jacaranda Wiley, and oversaw and contributed to the development of many notable games particularly for the educational sector.
Ross Williams
Ross Williams was part of a small Western Australian company that designed software for the Exidy Sorcerer. After developing Grotnik Wars for the Sorcerer, Williams later ported Grotnik Wars to the Microbee, and started his own company, notably named Grotnik Software. Grotnik Software produced a number of games for the Microbee, including Bunyip Adventure (1984), Grotnik Wars(????) and Link (1985).
Russel Comte
This profile is yet to be completed. Contribute what you know and help to complete the Archive.
Stephen Lewis
Stephen Lewis was one of the four founders of Micro Forté in 1985 with John De Margheriti, Steve Wang and John Reidy. Lewis was originally the artist/programmer on the team when in 1985 they made their first game Arnies America’s Cup Challenge (1986) also known as the Official America’s Cup Sailing Simulation.
Steve Fawkner
Steve Fawkner began distributing his own games in the 1980s at games conventions such as Arcanacon and Fanasticon. From 1983 Fawkner recalls making about a game a year which he would give away each year at the various local game conventions. Over the years his games got more polished and his game “Warlords” had real commercial quality. Publishers ´SSG helped him refine and polish the game and it was immediately successful. Fawkner founded Infinite Interactive and designed four more games and a number of expansion packs in the “Warlords” series.
Steve Luckett
A self-taught programmer, Luckett worked on several games including Goldfields, Vote 1, Zoopak, Bush Rescue, Kraken: A deep-sea quest , Crossing the Mountains, Maths Bingo, Clockwise: Time activities for the whole primary school, and Desert Quest.
Steve Wang
Steve Wang co-founded Micro Forte and BigWorld. Games that Wang has worked on include: “Demon Stalkers” (1987), Electronic Arts, Inc.; “Fire King” (1989), SSG Strategic Studies Group Pty Ltd.; “The Official America’s Cup Sailing Simulation” (1986), U.S. Gold Ltd.
Stuart Richie
In 1982 Stuart Richie was student at the University of Melbourne doing a dual degree in linguistics and computer science. He was hired by Alfred Milgrom to consult on the design of the parser for The Hobbit.
Tim Hartnell
Tim Hartnell, an Australian journalist, became internationally renowned in the 1980s for his popular books on microcomputing. With Trevor Sharples, Hartnell co-founded the UK-based Sinclair Users Club, editing the club magazine, and was the editor of “ZX Computing” when in launched in the summer of 1982. In 1981 he started the publishing company Interface Publications, with Sue North. As a writer and editor he is distinguished by his ability to engage readers with his enthusiasm and wit.
The Hobbit
“The Hobbit” was one of the first major games produced in Australia, and is considered a classic text adventure. In 1985, it was voted number 1 in Sinclair User’s ‘Top 50 Spectrum Software Classics’.
Trevor K Jacob
Author of Goldfields, an education game. Also author of the education books. In the beginning: A perspective on traditional Aboriginal societies(1991) and co-author of Southland: The Maritime Exploration of Australia, Volumes 1-2 (1987) – both published by the Ministry of Education, WA.
Vaughan Clarkson
Vaughan Clarkson started writing games when he was a schoolboy. Clarkson got a Microbee, which is the system he wrote “Gridfire” and “Hoards of the Deep Realm”. “Gridfire” sold somewhere in the vicinity of 1,700 copies. Clarkson recalls to make things work in “Hoards of the Deep Realm” he pushed the capabilities of the Microbree to its limit.