Company:Vektor Grafix
| Formerly | Vektor Grafix (1987-1992) |
|---|---|
| Type | Video game developer |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | June 1987 |
| Defunct | 1993 |
| Headquarters | United Kingdom |
Key people | John Lewis Ian Martin Andy Craven |
| Products | Combat flight simulators |
| Parent | MicroProse (1992-1993) |
Vektor Grafix was a British video game developer led by John Lewis and Andy Craven. Vektor Grafix was founded by Craven and Danny Gallagher in June 1987.[1]
History
In June 1987, Andy Craven, who was a former college lecturer, along with Danny Gallagher, formed the computer game developer Vektor Grafix, specifically developing 3D video games.[1][2][3]
Their first releases were home ports of the Star Wars arcade video games, which were best-sellers for Domark.[2] After the success of the games, Gallagher in 1988 left to be a freelance developer, creating Voyager for Ocean Software and Infestation for Psygnosis, leaving Andy Craven to run the company.[3]
The company became a major success developing 3D titles, pushing computer graphics to the limits.[4][5] In 1990, the company begin development on Shuttle: The Flight Simulator, for Virgin Mastertronic, which was released in 1992.[6] In 1991, the company begin development on a flight simulator, Death or Glory, an aerial flight simulator, which was later released as B-17 Flying Fortress.[7]
The Leeds-based company then went on to become a developer of mostly 3D simulation games and was eventually bought by MicroProse in July 1992,[8] becoming their development studio as MicroProse Leeds.[9] The company was dissolved in 1993 as part of the company's financial troubles that led to its sale of MicroProse to Spectrum HoloByte.[10] Many team members, including Ciaran Gultnieks, Mark Griffiths and Ian Martin left to form The Software Refinery to develop Slipstream 5000 and Hardwar for Gremlin Interactive,[11] and Psygnosis' studio in Stroud.[12]
Games
- Star Wars (ports, 1987)
- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (ports, 1988)
- Ring Wars (1988)
- Fighter Bomber / Strike Aces (1988)
- Killing Cloud (1991)
- Shuttle: the Space Flight Simulator (1992)
- B-17 Flying Fortress (1992)
- Dogfight (1993)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Bomber". The One: pp. 89-93. October 1989. https://archive.org/details/The_One_Issue_013/page/89/mode/2up.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Vektor Grafx Interview". Retro Gamer: pp. 24-27. December 2015. https://archive.org/details/retro-gamer-raspberry-pi-buenos-aires/Retro%20Gamer%20149/page/24/mode/2up.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Killing Cloud". The One: pp. 19-20. May 1990. https://archive.org/details/TheOne19Apr90/TheOne/TheOne20-May90/page/n19/mode/2up.
- ↑ "The Thrilling Crowd". The One: pp. 47-48. May 1991. https://archive.org/details/the-one-for-amiga-games-32-1991-05/page/n47/mode/2up.
- ↑ "On the launch pad with Vektor Grafix". Games-X: pp. 36-37. July 1991. https://archive.org/details/Games_X_Magazine_11/page/36/mode/2up.
- ↑ "Doing the Shuttle Shuffle". Raze: pp. 5. January 1991. https://archive.org/details/the-games-machine-pdf-newsfield-magazine-from-high-res-source-600-dpi-source/RazeFromHi03/page/n5/mode/2up.
- ↑ "Sneak Peek: Death or Glory". Games-X: pp. 44. 26 September 1991. https://archive.org/details/Games_X_Magazine_023/page/44/mode/2up.
- ↑ "MICROPROSE BUYS VEKTOR GRAFIX FOR MORE THAN FUN AND GAMES". The Washington Post. 13 July 1992. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/07/13/microprose-buys-vektor-grafix-for-more-than-fun-and-games/e7ef1ec5-7249-4a6a-b44b-5d173d70fbec/.
- ↑ "MicroProse: More than just F-numbers". PC Review: pp. 34-37. June 1993. https://archive.org/details/pc-review-20/page/34/mode/2up.
- ↑ "Spectrum + MicroProse = MicroProse Inc.". GamePro (IDG) (56): 186. March 1994.
- ↑ "Fast Cars, Faster Women". PC Games: pp. 29-30. April 1995. https://archive.org/details/pcgames-09_202012/page/n29/mode/2up.
- ↑ ":: Climax :: Corporate ::". http://www.climax.co.uk:80/Corporate/Corporate.aspx?ArticleID=135.
External links
- Interview with Andy Craven from Crash Magazine
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