Hello young lovers
You seem to have arrived at the website of video games designer Colin Jones, author of Slightly Magic and Rock Star Ate my Hamster. Beans may be spilled, but only magic ones.There are a couple of free games to play online, a brief look at my two best games, and details of some of the projects I've worked on for other people.If you're looking for my Goblin and Jester sculptures please click ahead to colin.cymru
Afterwards
Nothing lasts forever, who would want it to?Sometime in the nineties the industry shifted. There were no broken promises, no tearful goodbyes, I simply moved on. I thought I might never experience such creative satisfaction again, I knew the game was up. I was wrong.I had a brief reprise of my games career in around 2016 when I programmed a legacy version of Slightly Magic for my company Potassium Frog. I also got the chance to work with my good friend Mel Croucher again, a legacy version of Deus Ex Machina was the result. I'd like to think I'd helped to preserve a little bit of gaming history.But I really did move on. I became a successful author, wrote a popular Welsh home study course, Cadw Swn, and thrived as a Welsh to adults tutor.Those days also passed. Now you're likely to find me making a sculpture of Punchline the Jester, or The Goblin Grunge. If you're interested you can find out more at colin.cymru
Rock Star Ate my Hamster
This is me unleashed. I'd done some programming for Codemasters and we were getting to know each other. I thought there might be a chance of them being interested in a rock star management game. I didn't know how right I was.They were more than happy to support me financially and creatively and went along with the biting humour wholeheartedly. The game was released on their prestigious Codemasters Gold label and caused quite a stir. Banned from the high street, riding high in the charts, we even made a special competition version for the UK Sun newspaper on their Bizarre page. How strange that was, to change every instance of the spoof newspaper 'The Stun' to 'The Sun', whose showbiz columist was an up-and-coming Piers Morgan. There's a photo of this extremely rare version below. It was a very wierd thing indeed.I think this is the first time I worked with both Chris Graham (graphics) and Allister Brimble (music) and I'm pretty sure I posed a challenge to both of them. I was delighted to read recently though that Chris rates it as his favourite game to have worked on, because believe me he's worked on some classics.
Early Days
I'd finished a degree at the Welsh School of Architecture and was completely at a loss regerding my future. I didn't seem to have one.The south Wales mining industry was being dismantled by a government with different priorities. My hometown was decimated, a way of life was coming to an end. There was no money, jobs or hope. But all things must pass.One day a magical thing, the first of very many. One Boxing Day a friend showed me his new toy. I seem to remember he called it a games console. I had no idea what was to happen.He plugged it into a small tv, slotted in a cartridge and turned everything on. I knew what I saw; cartoons being moved about on a screen under a player's control. I saw the faint outline of a future emerging.What made me think I could do this stuff still puzzles me, but a few months later I sent off a single cassette tape with my first game on it to one software house. I received a contract within a week or so, followed by an advance of £500. Everything changed everywhere, all at once. The future had a new colour, a new feel. To be honest, I felt I actually had a future. From that day on my life has been an utter joy.My first game was I'm in Shock, which Artic Computing released and which did moderately well. 'the moon was the colour of wide frozen shrieks of laughter, the frost line ran down the window - I'm In Shock' I wrote in the sleeve notes.An adventure game 'Paradise in Microdot' piqued the interest of Mel Croucher, who had just finished the groundbreaking Deus Ex Machina. Would I like to handle the C64 version?After this Argus Press Software paid me real good money to write (yes, not a line of programming!) Grange Hill the Computer Game.Then a bit of jobbing programming led to work with Codemasters, and my career moved into another plane. Richard and David Darlling provided the backing for my two greatest computer games, Rock Star Ate my Hamster and Slightly Magic.
Free Games!!!
Bookending my first adventure game (Paradise in Microdot/Microdot Reimagined) with a late team-up with Chris Graham, Cheshire's Cheese Nightmares.Both games appeal to a small minority, but I thought It'd be a shame if they disappeared quite so soon, so feel free to have a little play on me. Mirodot works perfectly fine in the browser, although there may be a few sound cut-outs on Cheshire.
Slightly Magic
I'd finished Rock Star Ate My Hamster, which was hovering around the top of the charts, and was playing with ideas for my next game. As ever, Codemasters were very supportive and I took three ideas to them for a chat.I didn't want to cover the same ground as Rock Star, and was keen to explore more of a Dizzy/Mario style game. An arcade adventure with a shape-shifting trainee wizard seemed to fit the bill. I began with the zx Spectrum version, and although I designed the main Slightly character Chris Graham once again excelled himself with the artwork.
Contact
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