Level 9 Computing was a family run software developer and publisher which had become text adventure specialists, creating a succession of popular games for a wide variety of home computers in the early Eighties. However, text adventures were one of the few game genres that became less commercial as home computers became more powerful, so in 1988 Level 9’s Mike Austin turned his attention to the future of the company. He began laying the groundwork for the system that would become known as HUGE (wHoley Universal Game Engine). “We thought that a very graphical interface was really interesting,” explains Mike. “The way we were heading was very much like the way things were being taken forward by Sierra On-Line in America.”
Sierra produced point-and-click graphical adventures including King’s Quest, Police Quest and the adult-themed Leisure Suit Larry for 16-bit computers, and along with Lucasfilm Games it was changing the adventure game market in a radical way. Mike placed an advert in the summer of 1988, looking for new full-time and freelance staff. The developer’s successful recruits included programmer Kerri Cockwell, artist and animator Dicon Peeke and Ken Jarvis, and musician Chris Jenkins who all joined the Austin brothers Mike, Nick, Pete and programmer Mike Bryant. “Creating the new HUGE system took quite a long time, because we were producing something that
