The United Kingdom has a large gaming industry. Main differences from the US are genres (near-lack of FPS and RTS, but also puzzle games) and the high number of games where you can play "bad guys" (gangsters, pirates, or a dungeon keeper).
Besides, British designers tend to games where your influence is only indirect. In Dungeon Keeper, you cannot tell your minions what to do. In Sentinel, moving around is done in a rather roundabout way. And in Archipelagos ah well. I never really figured that game out.
The eighties were dominated by domestic micros, the Acorn BBC, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the Amstrad CPC. The Commodore 64 was fairly popular too, while the Apple ][ was nearly irrelevant. The ports were probably made for the US market only.
Life | 70 | M. J. T. Guy and S. R. Bourne | ||||||
Awari | BASIC | Mancala | 78 | Geoff Wyvill | ||||
Reversi (BBC) | Othello | 81 | Ian Bell | |||||
Stonkers | RTS | 83 | ||||||
Valhalla | Adventure | |||||||
The Great Space Race | 84 | |||||||
Kalah (Talent) | Mancala | Andrew Colin & Mike Masters | ||||||
Acheton | Adventure | IBM 3084 1978 | ||||||
Elite | ||||||||
Animated Strip Poker | Strip Poker | 85 | ||||||
The Fourth Protocol | Adventure | |||||||
Komplex | Arcade |
In the second half of the 80s the Sinclair begins to lose its dominant position. Games are now often developed for the Commodore 64 and ported to the Sinclair afterwards, it used to be the other way round. The Last Ninja never made it to the Sinclair at all.
The Amstrad CPC never gains the importance in its home country that it has in France, but it has become an important secondary platform. And slowly the 16-bit platforms begin to establish themselves, they, too, still mostly as secondariesyet.
Samantha Fox Strip Poker | Strip Poker | 86 | |||||||||
Elite | |||||||||||
Acheton | Adventure | 87 | IBM 3084 1978 | ||||||||
Ayo | Mancala | Daniel J. Bishop | |||||||||
Impact! | Breakout | John Dale & Spiny Norman | |||||||||
Krakout | Breakout | ||||||||||
Nether Earth | RTS | ||||||||||
The Last Ninja | Action | ||||||||||
The Sentinel | |||||||||||
Strip Poker II Plus | Strip Poker | 88 | Anco | ||||||||
TRAZ | Breakout | ||||||||||
Xenon | Shoot-'em-up | Bitmap Brothers | |||||||||
Elite |
1989 saw the first British games released on 16-bit platforms only: Archipelagos and Interphase. Pretty fast, the Amiga became the primary platform, Amiga-centric developers like The Assembly Line and Team17 emerged, and they achieved a mastery on this platform that was unmatched. Arguably, Pipe Mania and Lemmings are the main heritage of the Amiga to the gaming world in general, both of them were UK games.
Like the Apple ][ before it, the Macintosh has remained irrelevant for UK gaming. Few games were ported at all, sometimes the ports are rather bad (Caesar) or were done in the US (Pipe Dream). I have yet to find a UK game that was originally developed for the Macintosh.
Archipelagos | 89 | ||||||||||||
High Steel | Arcade | Mike Jones | |||||||||||
Interphase | Action | ||||||||||||
Pipeline | Puzzle | John Dale & Spiny Norman | |||||||||||
Pipe Mania | NES | Puzzle | |||||||||||
Rick Dangerous | Arcade | ||||||||||||
Xenon 2: Megablast | Genesis | Shoot-'em-up | Bitmap Brothers | ||||||||||
Cadaver | RPG | 90 | Bitmap Brothers | ||||||||||
Lemmings | SNES | Puzzle | |||||||||||
Loopz | NES | Puzzle | |||||||||||
Rick Dangerous II | Arcade | ||||||||||||
Blox | Tetris | Graham Cluley | |||||||||||
Mines | Puzzle | Ian Heath | |||||||||||
Elite | NES | 91 | |||||||||||
Wilf II | Pac-Man | Graham Cluley | |||||||||||
Deuteros | strat | ||||||||||||
Stack Up | Columns | ||||||||||||
Cover Girl Strip Poker | Strip Poker | ||||||||||||
Flip-It | Othello | Adrian Millett | |||||||||||
Alien Breed | Shoot-'em-up | Team17 | |||||||||||
Full Contact | Fighter | Team17 | |||||||||||
Oh No! More Lemmings | PSX | Puzzle | |||||||||||
Chain Reaction | Columns | Paul Margetson | |||||||||||
Phoenix PD Columns | Columns | David Tierney |
While the Amiga had been the main platform since 1989, most games were still ported to the old 8-bit platforms. By 1992, this practice had come to an end. The Atari ST was mostly dropped, too; games were released on Amiga and PC, or on Amiga alone. At the same time, there is a distinct shift in the character of the games. They are now less unique, fit better into the well-known categories.
And from 1992 on, we see the first independent PC games, as yet by freeware and shareware developers only.
Teserae | Tetris | 92 | |||||||
Agony | Arcade | ||||||||
Crime City | Adventure | ||||||||
Caesar | strat | ||||||||
Kye | Puzzle | Colin Garbutt | |||||||
Tiles | Puzzle | Daniel G. Rigal | |||||||
Beneath a Steel Sky | Adventure | 93 | Now freeware | ||||||
Body Blows | Fighter | Team17 | |||||||
Drop 'em | Tetris | Alex Hornby | |||||||
4 Play | Connect Four | Andy Smith | |||||||
Drop-It | Connect Four | Adrian Millett | |||||||
Laserstrike | Puzzle | Kevin Ng | |||||||
Lemmings 2: The Tribes | SNES | Puzzle | |||||||
Mancala (Tower) | Mancala | ||||||||
Wa-Tor | Life | Warren L. Kovach | |||||||
WormWorld | Puzzle | Kevin Ng | |||||||
All New World of Lemmings | Puzzle | 94 | aka The Lemmings Chronicles | ||||||
Interactive Girls | Adventure | ||||||||
Darkmere | RPG | Mark Jones | |||||||
Pipetris | Tetris | ||||||||
Tautology | Shisen-Sho | Reservoir Gods | |||||||
Sidetris | Tetris | Adrian Millett | |||||||
Transport Tycoon | PSX | strat |
1994 had seen the first professional British DOS game, Transport Tycoon. Now, for a short while, DOS becomes the main platform. Due to the late adoption of this platform, practically all the original commercial DOS games from the UK run in SVGA.
Blue Ice | Adventure | 95 | ||||||
Caesar II | strat | |||||||
Transport Tycoon Deluxe | strat | |||||||
3D Lemmings | PSX | Puzzle | ||||||
Lunacy | Puzzle | Kevin Ng | ||||||
Alien Breed 3D | FPS | |||||||
Alien Breed 3D II | FPS | 96 | ||||||
Powball | Breakout | Anthony Hamilton | ||||||
Constructor | PSX | strat | 97 | |||||
Dungeon Keeper | strat |
Since 1998, just like everywhere else, Windows is the dominating platform in UK game development, yes, except for the occasional console title (consoles have always played a greater role here than they have on the Continent), practically the only platform. Even the hobby programmers have dropped DOS to a far greater extent than it has happened elsewhere.
Counter | Othello | 98 | Tony Sewell | ||||
Wetrix | N64 | Tetris | |||||
Rory's Reversi | Othello | 99 | Rory Johnston | ||||
Abomination | strat | ||||||
Dungeon Keeper 2 | strat | ||||||
Street Wars | RTS | ||||||
wMancala | Mancala | K. Shane Harrelson | |||||
Hexagon | Puzzle | 00 | Peter Balch | ||||
Columns (DarkForge) | Columns | Richard Davey | |||||
Tiny Othello | Othello | Stephen Hassall | |||||
Bubbles | SameGame | 01 | James Bunting | ||||
Beach Life | strat | 02 | Virtual Resort: Spring Break | ||||
TinyTris | Tetris | 04 | Ben Hanke | ||||
Locomotion | strat | Chris Sawyer | |||||
Alien Breed Obliteration | Shoot-'em-up | 05 |