IN THE KNOW
» PUBLISHER: OCEAN
» DEVELOPER: DIGITAL IMAGE DESIGN
» RELEASED: 1991
» PLATFORM: AMIGA, ATARI ST, PC
» GENRE: ACTION
DEVELOPER HIGHLIGHTS
F29 RETALIATOR (PICTURED)
SYSTEM: AMIGA
YEAR: 1989
WRC: WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION 2
YEAR: 2001
MOTORSTORM
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION 3
YEAR: 2006
As intrigued journalists crowded around an Amiga monitor, Martin Kenwright loaded a preview of the RoboCop 3 game with some trepidation. Martin and his team at Digital Image Design had just spent a year crafting a movie tie-in that rebelled against the trend of somewhat staid, half-hearted computer games that had tended to accompany new Hollywood releases. They’d pushed at boundaries by engineering true 3D graphics, adjustable camera angles, movie-like cutscenes and various gameplay styles into one game. But had they overreached?
Looking around the press event and reading the room, Martin realised he need not have worried. “The music started and they were all looking at the screen saying, ‘It’s like watching a movie,’” he recalls proudly. was built on the impressive technical groundwork laid earlier in the story of Digital Image Design. Martin recounts to us that he cofounded the company after beginning his career as a “kid making games in a council house bedroom” who was encouraged into coding by a maths teacher. After going into freelance computer-game. Released by publishing powerhouse Ocean Software, it was a commercial and critical success.
