STUDIO PROFILE Capstone

Before Capstone, there was IntraCorp. Founded in 1984 by Leigh Rothschild, IntraCorp was a software publisher based in Miami (Florida), selling simple low-budget products in various shops by the late-Eighties. Among its employees, there was programmer Rick Leinecker, introduced to IntraCorp in 1985. His first work for the company, he mentions, was Space Math, an education title released on Atari ST, but he was also responsible for writing Murder On The Atlantic. He has no kind words for the company, “All of the software IntraCorp was publishing back then was total crap, like Business Card Maker and Bumper Sticker Maker.” Then, he recalls, in 1988 Leigh Rothschild managed to obtain the Trump Castle licence to develop a series of casino games, thus creating IntraCorp’s subsidiary Capstone. Initially it employed mostly external developers, to release as many quick and cheap licensed products as possible.

In 1990 Rick worked on one of the first videogames, inspired by the novel . “The work required a lot of research and, as I remember, Clancy wasn’t involved at all. I was actually taking this project over from someone who had a parting of was another title which Rick worked on, “Essentially, I would create various scenes based on what I knew about the TV show and, also, because I grew up in Miami," he tells us. “Again, no involvement whatsoever from the licensor.” Fortunately, Rick does have good memories of another licensed product, , which was based on George A Romero’s 1989 film, which was itself an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. “The team that worked on that was pretty good. I think it was one of the few that turned out very well,” he says.