Brian Beuken (doing things not involving computers)
Over the years, it has to be said I've written a lot of games, on a lot of systems. I tended to work mainly on ports and conversions from one system to another, so my chances of a big hit were always dependant on how the source material did. But I did work on a number of big selling well reviewed games. The simple fact is though that hit or miss, big sales or not, every project was a means to pay the mortgage, and clear off the debts. Freelancing is always a hand to mouth existance but it does give a degree of freedom that I liked. Regular wages though, in a company that would last 3-5 years was always welcome.
Here's a very incomplete and out of order sample of some of the games I worked on over the years. It's saying something that I have actually forgotton exactly how many games I've done, and also all the different targets(SKU's) I ported them too. For brevity, I've only posted one of the target systems, but frequently I would do multiple versions at the same time, often without credit.
I also had a strange habit when I was young of hiding my name from credits and using the name Fiz as some kind of pretentious pseudonym. It was my 3 letter arcade high score handle...yeah I remember arcades:D
I'll try to add more as I remember/come across cover images for them.
I also did quite a lot of work as a producer or PM for different companies, but adding them here would make this page pretty huge so I'll leave them out.
Froglet
Texas Ti99/4a
Not quite the 1st game I wrote, but probably the 1st where I started to feel I knew what I was doing, written with my dear friend Ian Martin, who passed away a few years later. We were Ti99 fans and wanted to play more games, later we imported and sold games and bought absurdly expensive hardware. Happy days!
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Rollaball
Amstrad CPC
When TI stopped making computers, I set up my own company and switched to Amstrads, this was one of the 1st games I did
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The Moors Challenge
Amstrad
Basically a simple but playable version of Othello, I have to confess I copied a lot of the logic from a Ti99 game Timeless had released before, but I got it all working well on the CPC and was pleased with it.
The Royal Quest
Amstrad
This was a text adventure Ian and I did on the Ti99 as well, and I ported to the Amstrad. I can't find a cover pic but here's my company ad that was in the back pages of the games mag at the time. We made the tapes to order.
Rockford
Amstrad CPC
One of my favourite games, a blatent Boulderdash clone but with nice graphics. There were 10 themes each with 4 levels, split over 2 games.
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Championship Baseball
Amstrad
Ported from the Commodore version, this was quite a fun game at the time, but Amstrad was a UK system and Baseball just isn't as popular there.
DJ Puff's Volcanic Eruptions
Amstrad Spectrum PC
Fun little Platformer, for which I developed a cross platform system for that let me do 3 platforms at once, but didn't get a lot of interest from publishers but was cool to do.
Apprentice
Spectrum Spectrum 128
My last ever Spectrum project and it was a stunner! Sadly though, just as I finished it, and it got great previews in the press, the publisher decided the Speccy was dead and it was dropped...I...was...gutted!
The RugRats Movie
GBC
My Last title for Software Creations, this created a 2D Platform game engine that was used in a lot of other games by them afterwards.
Ninja
Amstrad
My First game for Icon design, ported from an Atari version that was a big seller for Mastertronic
Yie Ar Kung Fu
Spectrum 128
I'm associated with Yie Ar KungFu on the Amstrad and Spectrum 48, but in fact I only wrote sprite systems and did graphics on those versions. The 128K however was all mine, and done for Imagine to sell with the new machine.
Poker Face Paul's Poker
Game Gear/GameBoy
One of a series of card games I did on GG and GB, this was pretty fun. I also did Poker Face Paul's Gin, same image on cover, different header.
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Edd The Duck
Amstrad Spectrum
Aimed at very young kids this was surprisingly popular and even earned me a few bob in royalties, but whoever did the levels(not me) accidently neglected to add a 20th star on one level making it impossible to finish :(
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Stir Crazy Featuring Bobo
Spectrum
Cute little game,a selection of simple mini games, featuring a French comic character, one of the oddest Probe commissions I had!
Ken Griffey Jr's MLB
Game Boy
A Monster hit, I was very happy with this, it was a tough challenge to squeeze into a mono GB but it went on to be one of the best selling handheld sports games ever.
Ken Griffey Jr's Slugfest
Game Boy Color
The success of MLB meant a sequel on the updated Color version and a few more coders doing some excellent menu work. This also did well.
NHL 95
Game Boy
Another big seller in the US, but almost nothing in Europe. The first of a number of NHL games I did, with Super GameBoy features on some, porting from the SNES version which was a bigger game which somehow I had to fit into a GB.
NHL 96
Game Boy
I can't recall if this was the last I did, I do recall making a start on 97 or 98, but being utterly broken by the demand to put more content into the same Rom space and being unable to complete. It almost drove me insane.
Micro Machines 2
Game Boy
Another game I am associated with but of course it was just a port, but a good one I was very pleased with the result and it sold very well.
Micro Machines 1&2 Twin Turbo
GameBoy Color
Talking of squeezing things into small Rom spaces, this was a nightmare, trying to fit 2 different projects by 2 different coders in to the space reserved for 2 game...but the result was amazing!
Dr Who Top Trumps
DS
Co-written with one of my old employees this was a mad mashup of Top Trumps and SciFi Nerdgasm.
How to Pass Your Driving Test
DS
I never did many 'serious games', it's not a concept I like much, but the mortgage was due, and it was actually a nice company to work for so it was more than fun than it seems.
Peter Pans PlayGround
DS
I'm Sorry... I really am..I had no control over the design of this, none..It is truely shocking and terrible, and was one of a series of very fast turnover games I did for a cheap budget. I probably should deny all knowledge..but best I just confess. I did the Phoenix Games Story games. Forgive me!
SqueeBalls Party
DS
A nice little DS party game, don't think it sold very well but was nice to do.
Cosmic Clean Up
Vita/IOS
Written on the very nice Playstation mobile platform which sadly never took off, this was also ported to IOS, but even though my name is on the credits for that, I honestly didn't write a line of the IOS version.
Adventures of Pinnochio
DS
Another of the Phoenix story games. The idea was actually quite nice, I wrote an engine to play the games and they dropped in new graphics and video, to get different kids games. Should have been a winner but the content was just so dire. I don't know how many they did..but I'm sorry!!
Sharkeys Moll
Spectrum Amstrad
This started life as a jungle warfare 1st person shooter called Operation Shark, but the similarities to Oceans Operation Wolf were too obvious so it was quickly reskinned as a 20's Gangster game.
Rastan Saga
Amstrad
Another big game that was well received, though in truth it was a hard gig, the CPC just wasn't big enough or fast enough to really do justice to the classic arcade game, we badly overrun the time/budget just trying to squeeze the monster in.
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Troll
Amstrad CPC
This was a very odd game, I remember when I was coding it, I had no idea how to play it, it never made sense to me but the designer always seemed to be happy with it
Can't find the details
various
I can't find images for many games, and my memory is not great on some! I do have a vague memory, of doing a CJ platform game(pictured I think), but can't recall which one and on what platform. Probably on PC
Also from feeble memory:
VoidRunner on CPC
Arcade Classics a compilation of small games including lunar lander, where I "invented" trigonomtry.
Mazeman on Ti (a pacman clone)
Menu Mayhem on PC(CGA graphics)
Hunt the Wampus on Ti99/4a (this was the 1st)
There were a couple of Disney themed education games I did for Eldritch the cat, but they had money issues and couldn't pay.I stopped work, but a couple were released, Goofy's railroad something?
Tools
Various
I tend to write tool for specific games, but as I realised I was doing similar things on each project I needed a few utilities
Grafiz A utility to convert graphics/tilemap screens that was my goto tool.
MapEd very unimaginative name, but part of my GB/GBC toolchain for platform games
Multitool A small debugger & disassembler, containing the target downloader for Multiface interfaces, allowing us to press a button, and download compiled code to run and debug.
The Fallen
Various
Return of the Tiger My first attempt a GB project for Gremlin, but it was overscoped and I tried to make the GB do too much scrolling and it ended up being unworkable and canned
Wolfenstien 3D on GB. Software Creations let me noodle about for a few months with an idea I had to get a ray casting game like Wolfenstien on an old GB mono, I got the core tech up and running, but when it was shown to Nintendo, they were dis-interested and the project cannned.
Crazy Golf on DS. This was a sad project for me, I was asked to use an engine supplied by the client but it just didn't fit, so I rewrote it all again with my own code, but the workload was horrific and the time frame immovable. I overran and it was canned. It really was looking great, I wish I'd finished it.
Poker Face Paul's gin
Game Gear
And here is the Gin version of the Poker Face Paul series.This was actually a nice game, the exec producer was a massive fan of the game and was rich enough to basically afford to get this made for his own pleasure.
Caesars Palace 2
Game Boy Color
A compilation of various casino based gambling games I did some (or all, I can't recall) of the card based games, probably got the job because of the Poker Face Paul gigs.
DJ Puff
Amstrad/Spectrum
I just got reminded I did another DJ Puff platform game on the CPC, I also did the Spectrum version as well, apparently its quite a rare game now as it was near the end of Codemasters 8bit days and not many were made.