The Bitmap Brothers
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| Type | Defunct |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Headquarters | Wapping, United Kingdom |
| Key people | Mike Montgomery, MD Eric Matthews Steve Kelly Mark Coleman Dan Malone Ed Bartlett John Phillips Jamie Barber |
| Products | video games |
| Website | http://www.bitmap-brothers.co.uk/ |
The Bitmap Brothers were a UK based video game developer founded in 1987. The company entered the industry in 1988 with the scrolling shooter Xenon. They quickly followed with the classic Speedball. Prior to becoming the publisher of their own games (under Renegade Software), early Bitmap Brothers titles were distributed by Image Works and Konami.
The Bitmap Brothers released several games on the Amiga and Atari ST, and were one of the most successful companies on those platforms. They became known in particular for releasing games from a variety of different genres that usually came to be regarded as leaders in their respective fields. Their PC games have never matched the sales of their previous Amiga titles, despite garnering positive critical reviews in the press.
They were the first game developers to publicise themselves as rock stars, and were featured in the press posing in dark glasses standing next to the helicopter of Robert Maxwell, the owner of Mirrorsoft, the publisher of a number of their games.
They were also one of the first companies to use licensed music in their games. Xenon 2 Megablast featured music by Bomb the Bass.
In later years the company was best known for its Real-time strategy game Z. The game received rave reviews in the press.[citation needed]
After 2002 the company also released ports of several of their games for both the Game Boy Advance and Pocket PC platforms.
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[edit] Details
The Bitmap Brothers were based in Wapping, East London and were privately owned. The company's MD was Mike Montgomery, who had founded the company together with Eric Matthews and Steve Kelly. Mike Montgomery later went on to take sole control of the business.
Mark John Coleman is a computer graphics developer who frequently worked with the Bitmap Brothers, and along with Dan Malone was responsible for the visual style that became a trademark of a Bitmap Brother games.
Other key staff included Technical Director John Phillips, Business Development Director Ed Bartlett and Creative Director Jamie Barber.
The development team was voted Best 16-bit Programmers of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards.[1] Speedball was also voted best 16-bit Game of the Year overall.
[edit] Legacy
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Parts of this article (those related to section) are outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (November 2010) |
Two former core members of the company — Mike Montgomery and John Phillips — have gone on to found Tower Studios (along with Sensible Software founder Jon Hare), and state their involvement with Bitmap Brothers as having ended in 2004.[2]
Business Development Director, Ed Bartlett went on to pioneer the In-game advertising industry, initially with Hive Partners and then with IGA Worldwide.[3]
After years of silence a news post on the official website announced Speedball 2 Tournament which was released in November 2007 by Frogster Interactive, but failed to achieve the success of previous titles in the franchise.[4]
In October 2010, it was announced that Speedball 2 would be resurrected again, this time for the iPhone and iPad systems, with Vivid Games managing the conversion.[5]
Following this Z was also released for the iPhone and iPad systems with the touch screen of these devices lending itself to a game of this genre.
[edit] Trivia
As a tribute to the greatness of Xenon 2, in particular for the upgradeability of the spaceship between levels in Xenon 2, Alpha Helix honoured the Bitmap Brothers by naming the most powerful weapon in The Last Eichhof, "Xenon 2 Cannon".
[edit] Titles
In chronological order:
- Xenon (1988)
- Speedball (1988)
- Xenon II: Megablast (1989)
- Cadaver (1990)
- Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe (1990)
- Gods (1991)
- Magic Pockets (1991)
- The Chaos Engine (1993)
- The Chaos Engine 2 (1996)
- Z (1996)
- Speedball 2100 (2000)
- Z: Steel Soldiers (2001)
- Speedball Arena (cancelled)
- World War II: Frontline Command (2003)
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=C+VG/Issue092/Pages/CVG09200062.jpg
- ^ www.tower-studios.co.uk/about.htm (archived 2007)
- ^ "engage new worlds | The world´s premier in-game advertising company". IGA Worldwide. http://www.igaworldwide.com. Retrieved 2010-10-13.
- ^ "Speedball2.com". Speedball2.com. http://www.speedball2.com/. Retrieved 2010-10-13.
- ^ Speedball 2 iOS announcement
