Sheffield has always been a fertile breeding ground for the UK videogames industry. Former Software Invasion cofounder David Vout moved to the Steel City in the late-Eighties facing an uncertain future. The solution to his dilemma turned out to be elementary

WORDS BY RICHARD C HEWISON

» Nick Kimberley, Jason Heggie, Richie Turner, Paul Tankard, David Vout and a Dalek.

Having been in business with his brother Simon for several years as the independent 8-bit developer and publisher Software Invasion, a seismic change came about at the end of the decade, as David Vout explains. “Software Invasion was winding down and my father was in Sheffield. He was diagnosed with cancer, so I went up there to be with him.”

Sadly, David’s father passed away a few months later, and David was uncertain what to do next. “I took a temporary job at a friend’s greengrocers,” says David. “I was meant to be driving deliveries, but I ended up stocking shelves. I lasted a week.”

That experience proved to be a motivation, spurring him to do something more creative, using his past programming and publishing experience. “I recorded clips of all the games I’d made onto a compilation video tape and took it into Krisalis Software in Rotherham, and sat in a room with Tony Kavanagh, Sean Hollingworth, and Pete Hislop.”

Krisalis employed David as a Commodore 64 programmer and he became part of a small team of developers, including fellow coder Nick Kimberley, artist Jason Wilson and musician and sound effects specialist Matt Furniss. “We worked well together and produced Klax, Space Harrier 2 and helped out on other titles including Toobin’,” says David.

However, management changes within Krisalis created friction, to the point where Nick, Jason, and David decided to set up a new development team for hire, calling themselves 221b Software Development. “I think the name came about because we liked the idea of Sherlock Holmes and his address being well known to the right type of people,” recalls David. “We talked about going to London for a photoshoot at the Baker Street tube station. It never happened, and the name did cause a few problems because the wrong type of people started calling us 22lbs!”

GAMES TO DISCOVER

THE JETSONS AMIGA, 1991

■ A TV cartoon licensed game with faithful graphics designed with younger players in mind.

THE BLUES BROTHERS C64, 1991

■ A fun platformer nicely converted for the Commodore 64 with a suitably Blues Brothers vibe.

HEROQUEST C64, 1991

■ 221b’s interpretation of the Milton Bradley board game went down well with reviewers.

PREDATOR 2 C64, 1991

■ This entertaining shooter based on the movie sequel was a frenetic and challenging conversion.

ALCATRAZ AMIGA, 1992

■ A split-screen two player Green Beret and Ninja Warriors mash-up which played surprisingly well.

DALEK ATTACK PC, 1992

■ BBC TV’s Time Lord jumped, dodged and shot his way through yet another Dalek invasion of Earth.