Codemasters is one of the UK's long-running video game studios and was founded by brothers David and Richard Darling way back in 1986. Although both have since parted company with the firm, they've left an incredible legacy which covers a variety of platforms, including the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System.
We were immensely grateful to be able to spend some time with David Darling at the offices of his new company, Kwalee. In the following interview, David talks about how Codemasters became involved with the NES, how it came up with the concept for Micro Machines and how it changed US law with the ground-breaking Game Genie cheat cartridge.
Apologies for the poor sound quality and the interruption of a police siren at one point — the room in which the interview was conducted was very hot owing to the unnaturally balmy UK weather at present, so all the windows had to be left open.
[source youtube.com]
Comments (22)
I'll have to wait til I get home from work to watch the video, but I love Code Masters, especially Micro Machines. Turbo Tournament 96 was easily my most played Megadrive game thanks to the extra controller ports on the cartridge. TOCA Touring Cars and Colin McRae were another two great series of racing games too.
Is he the one not bringing F1 2013 to the Wii U and bringing "F1-Super-Star-something" instead??
@DePapier No, he's not longer with Codemasters.
Cosmic Spacehead was a cool adventure/platformer hybrid on Megadrive
[youtube:l4bGmjF79d4]
@MadAussieBloke Cosmic Spacehead is a brill game; unfortunately it frequently gets marred because of the prequel, Linus Spacehead, and people who believe everything that YouTube videos say.
@Katzii That is why it was better playing consoles & games back in the day... Back when we actually played games instead of viewing other people whine about them
Codemasters always released quality back in the day,or it seemed so at the time.Any Spectrum game that had their name on it I would buy without needing to read any reviews first.The Dizzy games were a huge part of my childhood,I even managed to finish 1,Treasure Island Dizzy.Great times
@MadAussieBloke Never did get to play that and would have completely forgotten about it had you not posted that.Pete Sampras tennis was another quality game from them.Brian Lara Cricket was supposed to be good as well was it not?
@OorWullie yeah I owned BL Cricket on Megadrive... Great game and I can't wait to play Ashes 2013 eventually
To this day, Micro Machines V4 for the PC is the one game I play the most in the multiplayer sessions I do with my friends. A Micro Machines for the Wii U would be a freaking dream.
Okay, 20 seconds in, I have to say he totally reminds me of Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite.
I had Magicland Dizzy, Spellbound Dizzy & Treasure Island Dizzy on the Commodore 64, Codemasters are very good dev's. I still need to pick-up GRID 2 after i finish some PS3 games & Pikmin3 which i'm playing now, GRID was an excellent racer.
Were they part of Galoob? Cause thats who did both the Game Genie and Micro Machines here in the US.
Galoob licensed their products for release in North America.
The Last V8 was epic, and BMX simulator was awesome as well.
@ricklongo I'd never heard of Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite, but I can't say I can't see a similarity
@tovare glad you liked them!
@daviddarling Welcome to the site David, and thanks again for having me in the office. I'll bring a proper microphone next time as the audio on our camera isn't fantastic!
@Damo you're welcome anytime Damien. Really nice to meet you
@daviddarling
did you guys ever finish demon dinosaurs, aka dino racer for the genesis?
@ogo79 what info do you have about it? I remember Dino Racers, I think it was a game we never released. I can't remember Demon Dinosaurs.
@daviddarling
http://www.unseen64.net/2013/07/29/demon-dinosaurs-dino-racer-sega-genesis-mega-drive-cancelled/
did you guys finish it? it would be awesome if you guys released this as long as its around 100% complete. thats the new thing you know. to resurface out of nowhere and let out an unreleased old game, lol
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