Emerald Software Ltd
Encyclopedia
Emerald Software was a video game publisher
founded in 1988 by two UK entertainment executives - David Martin of Martech
, and Mike Dixon who previously worked with EMI
and worked as the company CEO.
The company was headquartered in a three-storey Georgian house ("Washington Lodge") in Wilkin Street, Waterford
, Ireland
.
The company had varying fortunes and failed in 1991, with the few remaining staff having worked without pay for the final few months in an attempt to keep the company going.
- with some from University College Dublin
and others with no formal computer training.
At its peak, Emerald Software employed 17 programmers and 5 graphic artists. These people were spread across 5 departments, loosely split to cover each of the supported development platforms and graphic art - with two additional personnel in Administration and Human Resources.
The developers were:
The artists were:
, IBM PC
, Atari ST
, Commodore 64
, ZX Spectrum
and Amstrad CPC
systems.
Development for Amiga and Atari ST games was carried out using Manx C
, and Motorola 68000
Assembly language
. As both Amiga and ST were 68000 based machines, games were typically authored on the Amiga and then ported using an in-house authored porting / remote-debug / development environment; this allowed the code to be edited on the more capable Amiga, then transmitted to the ST and remotely executed/debugged from the Amiga. The development system was written by Brian Kelly and was based on Lattice C. Graphics and sound routines required re-authoring, but in many cases this was straightforward.
The Amiga games did not run on top of Workbench / AmigaOS - but on a custom-written tiny OS (KOS) with a proprietary disk format which offered higher data capacity per diskette, as well as helping to impede casual copying. This was written by Brian Kelly (the K in KOS).
Development for Spectrum and CPC games took place on a commercially available cross-assembler development environment (PDS) hosted on an IBM PC clone which was electronically connected to a Spectrum. This allowed the game to be authored on the stable PC environment (complete with disk backup), then "blasted" directly into the Spectrum memory to allow for immediate testing. Developing in this manner allowed for significantly higher development speeds than could be achieved by native development on the Spectrum.
As both ZX Spectrum and CPC 464 were Zilog Z80
based machines, CPC versions were usually ported versions of the Spectrum games, with the graphics display on the more-capable CPC reconfigured to be close to that of the more primitive Spectrum. Z80 development was primarily run by Damian Scattergood. The team developed a graphics display system for the CPC 464 that emulated the Spectrum screen layout which meant graphics routines could be ported quickly. Damian also developed his own macro programming language that meant that code could be compiled and shared instantly across both platforms. Z80 development was actually done on a PC where the code could be edited and complied quickly, and then was ported via RS232 direct onto the Spectrum and CPC machines for testing.
s (Vigilante for example) or original movie tie-ins
(The Running Man
) but there were also some original game concepts (eg Phantom Fighter):
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
founded in 1988 by two UK entertainment executives - David Martin of Martech
Martech
Martech Games Ltd was a video game publisher active between 1982 and 1989.Martech was formed by David Martin and brother-in-law John Barry, initially under the name Software Communications Ltd under partnership with a firm of exporters. They were initially based at Bay Terrace, Pevensey Bay, East...
, and Mike Dixon who previously worked with EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
and worked as the company CEO.
The company was headquartered in a three-storey Georgian house ("Washington Lodge") in Wilkin Street, Waterford
Waterford
Waterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
The company had varying fortunes and failed in 1991, with the few remaining staff having worked without pay for the final few months in an attempt to keep the company going.
The people
The company was mostly populated by graduates or placement students from the then-named Waterford Regional Technical CollegeWaterford Institute of Technology
Waterford Institute of Technology is a state funded third-level educational institution situated in the city of Waterford, Ireland. The Institute has six Schools and 16 Departments....
- with some from University College Dublin
University College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
and others with no formal computer training.
At its peak, Emerald Software employed 17 programmers and 5 graphic artists. These people were spread across 5 departments, loosely split to cover each of the supported development platforms and graphic art - with two additional personnel in Administration and Human Resources.
The developers were:
- Michael Murphy
- Brian Kelly
- Frank Somers
- Billy NewportBilly NewportWilliam "Billy" Newport is an Irish software engineer working for IBM since 2001. Newport holds the title of IBM Distinguished Engineer. He is one of the main engineers of IBM WebSphere Software. Newport currently leads the design of the IBM WebSphere eXtreme Scale product as well as various...
- Brian Gorman
- Robert Healy
- Martin Murphy
- Robert (Sean) Rogers
- Paul Kelly
- Damian Scattergood (Mr Z80)
- Jonathon Brogue
- Niall Whelan
- Aidan Troy
The artists were:
- Martin Ahearne
- Clare Scott
- Paul McLaughlin
- Mark Cushen
- Jer O'Carroll
Development
The company authored games for the Commodore AmigaAmiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
, Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
and Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
systems.
Development for Amiga and Atari ST games was carried out using Manx C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, and Motorola 68000
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
Assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
. As both Amiga and ST were 68000 based machines, games were typically authored on the Amiga and then ported using an in-house authored porting / remote-debug / development environment; this allowed the code to be edited on the more capable Amiga, then transmitted to the ST and remotely executed/debugged from the Amiga. The development system was written by Brian Kelly and was based on Lattice C. Graphics and sound routines required re-authoring, but in many cases this was straightforward.
The Amiga games did not run on top of Workbench / AmigaOS - but on a custom-written tiny OS (KOS) with a proprietary disk format which offered higher data capacity per diskette, as well as helping to impede casual copying. This was written by Brian Kelly (the K in KOS).
Development for Spectrum and CPC games took place on a commercially available cross-assembler development environment (PDS) hosted on an IBM PC clone which was electronically connected to a Spectrum. This allowed the game to be authored on the stable PC environment (complete with disk backup), then "blasted" directly into the Spectrum memory to allow for immediate testing. Developing in this manner allowed for significantly higher development speeds than could be achieved by native development on the Spectrum.
As both ZX Spectrum and CPC 464 were Zilog Z80
Zilog Z80
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog and sold from July 1976 onwards. It was widely used both in desktop and embedded computer designs as well as for military purposes...
based machines, CPC versions were usually ported versions of the Spectrum games, with the graphics display on the more-capable CPC reconfigured to be close to that of the more primitive Spectrum. Z80 development was primarily run by Damian Scattergood. The team developed a graphics display system for the CPC 464 that emulated the Spectrum screen layout which meant graphics routines could be ported quickly. Damian also developed his own macro programming language that meant that code could be compiled and shared instantly across both platforms. Z80 development was actually done on a PC where the code could be edited and complied quickly, and then was ported via RS232 direct onto the Spectrum and CPC machines for testing.
List of games
The company produced a number of games during its brief existence, to somewhat mixed reviews. These were largely ports of existing arcade gameArcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
s (Vigilante for example) or original movie tie-ins
Tie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...
(The Running Man
The Running Man
The Running Man is a science fiction novel by Stephen King, first published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982 as a paperback original. It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books...
) but there were also some original game concepts (eg Phantom Fighter):
- The Deep, (19881988 in video gaming-Events:*June — Nintendo releases the last issue of "Nintendo fun club news";*July — Nintendo releases the first issue of Nintendo Power magazine.-Notable releases:*January 8, Konami releases Super Contra....
) - Phantom FighterPhantom Fighteris a video game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989 in Japan, and in April 1990 in the United States. The Japanese version is based on the 1985 film, Mr. Vampire . As a kung-fu master, the player must fight through eight towns filled with Kyonshi...
, (19881988 in video gaming-Events:*June — Nintendo releases the last issue of "Nintendo fun club news";*July — Nintendo releases the first issue of Nintendo Power magazine.-Notable releases:*January 8, Konami releases Super Contra....
) - The Running Man, (19891989 in video gaming-Notable releases:* October 3, Brøderbund releases the Prince of Persia game, the first in a series of games, noted for its advancements in animation....
) - Vigilante, (19891989 in video gaming-Notable releases:* October 3, Brøderbund releases the Prince of Persia game, the first in a series of games, noted for its advancements in animation....
) - Michael Jackson's MoonwalkerMichael Jackson's MoonwalkerMichael Jackson's Moonwalker is the name for several unrelated video games, all based on the film of the same name created by U.S. Gold and Sega in 1989 and 1990 that incorporate the personage of and were co-developed by Michael Jackson himself...
, (19891989 in video gaming-Notable releases:* October 3, Brøderbund releases the Prince of Persia game, the first in a series of games, noted for its advancements in animation....
) - Fallen Angel, (19891989 in video gaming-Notable releases:* October 3, Brøderbund releases the Prince of Persia game, the first in a series of games, noted for its advancements in animation....
) - Treasure Trap, (19901990 in video gaming-Notable releases:*Bonk's Adventure is released for NEC's TurboGrafx-16 and is the first US appearance of Bonk, the mascot of the TurboGrafx-16.*February 12 — Nintendo releases the NES game Super Mario Bros. 3 in North America...
)
Trivia
- The well-respected intro sequence for the Amiga version of 'The Running Man' occupied practically one full 800k diskette of the two diskette set. Running in a continuous loop till interrupted, it featured digitized voice, music and video sequences from the film, and so was often left running in computer stores as an Amiga feature demonstrator.
- The date of the first Emerald Software Christmas Party (December 21, 1988) coincided with the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 103Pan Am Flight 103Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
; the breaking news on the hotel televisions had a somewhat sobering effect on all concerned. - Graphic Artist Jer O'Carroll went on to animate Lara CroftLara CroftLara Croft is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Square Enix video game series Tomb Raider. She is presented as a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic British archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world...
for EidosEidos InteractiveEidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
. - Phantom Fighter developer Billy Newport is now at IBM working as an architect for Java middleware and founded Trackpedia, a web site for driving enthusiasts.
- Damian Scattergood went on to develop other computer games as a freelancer programmer such as Superted the search for spot. He then joined SYMANTEC where he was development manager for Norton Commander for Dos/Windows. He then took on responsibility for translation tools development and localization manager for products such as pcAnywhere, Norton Ghost, Winfax, Visual cafe and other utilities. Damian is now Managing Director of STAR Translation Services in Dublin, Ireland. He is also founder of LocalizationWorks a jobs site for localization professionals.
- Niall Whelan left Emerald after one year to join Claris Ireland a subsidiary of Apple Inc. and subsequently worked in localization roles for a number of US based companies including Informix, Davidson & Associates aka. CUC Software (Games localization for studios such as Blizzard, Knowledge Adventure, Sierra Online) and is now Director of Localization with Ariba Technologies Ireland Ltd.