Jeremy Elliott "Jez" San OBE (born 29 March 1966) is an English game programmer and entrepreneur who founded

Argonaut Software Argonaut Games is a British video game developer founded in 1982. It was known for the Super NES video game '' Star Fox'' and its supporting Super FX chip, and for '' Croc: Legend of the Gobbos'' and the ''Starglider'' series. The company was ...

as a teenager in the 1980s. He is best known for the 1986

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

game ''

Starglider ''Starglider'' is a 3D video game published in 1986 by Rainbird. It was developed by Jez San under his company name Argonaut Software. The game is a fast-moving, first-person combat flight simulator, rendered with colourful wireframe vector ...

'' and helping to design the

Super FX The Super FX is a coprocessor on the Graphics Support Unit (GSU) added to select Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) video game ROM cartridge, cartridges, primarily to facilitate advanced 2D and 3D graphics. The Super FX chip was design ...

chip used in ''

Star Fox ''Star Fox'' is a rail shooter, space flight simulator, and third person action-adventure video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto and developed and published by Nintendo. The games follow the Star Fox combat team of anthropomorphic a ...

'' for the

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...

Early career

San received his first computer, a

TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer developed by American company Tandy Corporation and sold through their Radio Shack stores. Launched in 1977, it is ...

, at the age of twelve in 1978 from his father, who had a career in shipping the belongings of

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

s at the time. San first became interested in video game development at a young age after playing a

multi-user dungeon A multi-user dungeon (MUD, ), also known as a multi-user dimension or multi-user domain, is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-based or storybo ...

(MUD) in the 1970s. Within a year he taught himself

assembly language In computing, assembly language (alternatively assembler language or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence bet ...

for several

microprocessors A microprocessor is a computer processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry r ...

. San founded

as a teenager in high school at JFS as a way to get software consulting jobs with large companies. He worked on security systems with

British Telecom BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

and

Acorn The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...

. In 1984, he started developing his first game, '' Skyline Attack'' for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

, and also co-wrote a book, ''Quantum Theory'', about the

Sinclair QL The Sinclair QL (for ''Quantum Leap'') is a personal computer launched by Sinclair Research in 1984, as an upper-end counterpart to the ZX Spectrum. The QL was the last desktop microcomputer from Sinclair Research aimed at the serious home use ...

. He became a wizard (admin) at Essex MUD, the world's first multiplayer online role-playing game. San's late-1986 game ''

'' for the

and

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

sold hundreds of thousands of copies (earning him £2 per copy in royalties). The money helped launch Argonaut as a larger company that started hiring other people in 1986.

Argonaut growth and decline

In the late 1980s, Argonaut signed a deal with

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

. San attracted Nintendo's attention because Argonaut was the first developer to successfully design 3D modelling on the NES and the

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

. '' X'' was published by Nintendo as the first 3D Game Boy game. San helped develop the first 3D graphics accelerator known as the

chip that made ''

'' (released as ''Starwing'' in Europe) possible on the

. In 1996, Argonaut received external funding from

Apax Partners Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of March 2024, the firm had raised and adv ...

and was listed publicly on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

in 2000. San's stake was reduced from 90% in 1996 to almost 50% post Argonaut Games'

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

(IPO) in March 2000. San also helped found ARC International when it was spun out from Argonaut in 1998 and was its largest shareholder on IPO. San made substantial share sales during the flotation by

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

and Warburg and in 2007 fully exited ARC. Between 1999 and 2002, San funded Codeplay and is currently the majority shareholder. San received an OBE in 2002, the first explicitly awarded for services to the

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

. After announcing a substantial loss in August 2004, Argonaut Group PLC suspended trading of its shares in October and appointed administrators for Argonaut Software Ltd, Morpheme Ltd and Just Add Monsters Ltd—the wholly owned subsidiaries of the PLC. The administrators sold Morpheme and Just Add Monsters back to Jez San and the other founders as ongoing businesses, while Argonaut Software Ltd was eventually liquidated.

Post-Argonaut

In November 2004, Just Add Monsters became

Ninja Theory Ninja Theory Limited is a first-party British video game developer for Xbox Game Studios based in Cambridge, England. Notable games it has developed include '' Kung Fu Chaos'', '' Heavenly Sword'', '' Enslaved: Odyssey to the West'', '' DmC: ...

and continued the development of

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

first-party game '' Heavenly Sword'', which debuted three years later in September 2007. Also in 2004, Morpheme became Morpheme Wireless Ltd for a while before San left, and it was eventually acquired by Eidos/ SCi before being shut down in 2009. After taking a hiatus from the video game industry in 2004, San founded Crunchy Frog Ltd, which in 2005 became online poker company PKR. San served as president, having hired his replacement with CEO Malcolm Graham, formerly of the Ritz Casino and AntFactory. PKR was a 3D online poker site that operated in legal territories in Europe, Asia, and Canada but did not operate in the US, where online gambling was a grey area. In May 2017, PKR went into administration. San was only an investor at the time of its collapse and expressed sorrow at seeing his creation fold. In 2008, San co-founded

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

lication developer and publisher Origin8 with game industry colleague Foo Katan. The company produces

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

and

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

software, and has offices in London. San is a life member of

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

, and was an advisory board member of the GDC and TIGA for several years. San, a former Labour supporter, donated £1,000,000 to the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

in 2025.

References

External links

Jez San entry at MobyGames

Interview with Jez San, 1989
{{DEFAULTSORT:San, Jez 1966 births Living people British video game programmers British businesspeople BT Group people Acorn Computers Officers of the Order of the British Empire Conservative Party (UK) donors