THE MAKING OF WARHAMMER SHADOW OF THE HORNED RAT

IN THE KNOW

» PUBLISHER: MINDSCAPE

» DEVELOPER: MINDSCAPE

» RELEASED: 1995

» PLATFORM: WINDOWS, PLAYSTATION

» GENRE: REAL-TIME STRATEGY

Picture the following scene. It’s 1995 and Wonderwall is blasting out of the speakers in your dad’s Ford Fiesta. As he pulls into the car park around the corner from your local Games Workshop, you excitedly recount your pocket money for the fifth time since you left home, hoping that you’ll have enough for a box of skeletons to beef up your army. Stepping through the front door, you’re greeted by the telltale scents of adhesive, paint and body odour. Two portly gentlemen in Hawkwind T-Shirts are arguing over what it says on a tape measure while several kids sit at a table, painting up space marines.

Few things are more nostalgic to the geeky, British kid of the Nineties than Games Workshop. Even as early as 1995, it was the old boy in the tabletop miniature gaming industry, having cut its teeth in the mid-Seventies importing what is arguably the only tabletop miniatures, was in its fourth incarnation when in 1994, a handful of representatives from Mindscape’s design team pitched a novel idea to the company.