Patrick Buckland is a British

video game programmer A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

and chief executive officer of

Stainless Games Stainless Games is an independent British video game developer based in Newport, Isle of Wight, best known for the creation of the '' Carmageddon'' franchise. History Originally named Stainless Software, the company was founded in August 19 ...

, which he co-founded with Neil Barnden in 1994.

Career

Buckland is a video games pioneer, having been in the industry since 1982.

Crystal Quest

In 1985 Buckland developed one of the first Macintosh games, the shareware title '' Crystal Raider''. A year after the game's release, Buckland decided to work on a follow-up, '' Crystal Quest'', which would take the gameplay of its predecessor, and add new features. The game ended up ported to numerous other platforms, including the

Apple IIgs The Apple IIGS (styled as II) is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Inc., Apple Computer beginning in September 1986. It is the fifth and most powerful model of the Apple II family. The "GS" in the name stands for "Graphics and Sound" ...

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 ...

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 ...

Palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

and much later, PC and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

Stainless Software

In 1993, Along with Neil Barnden, Buckland started up Stainless Software "in order to concentrate on games". Among their first clients was

Argonaut Games 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 wa ...

, who contracted the team to work on 3D engine development. Two years later, in 1995, the company landed their first games contract, with British publisher SCi, after pitching a title called "3D Destruction Derby" in 1994. Originally, the game was intended by the publisher to be a licensed ''

Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian media franchise created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It centres on a series of post-apocalyptic and dystopian action films. The franchise began in 1979 with '' Mad Max'', and was followed by three sequels: ...

'' title, but SCi couldn't get their hands on the licence. Next, in anticipation of a sequel to the cult 1975 film ''

Death Race 2000 ''Death Race 2000'' is a 1975 American dystopian science-fiction action film directed by Paul Bartel and produced by Roger Corman for New World Pictures. Set in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, the film centers on the murderous Tr ...

'', the game was titled Death Race 2020. The film sequel fell through, and it was decided to just do it without the license. '' Carmageddon'' was released in mid 1997 – using the BRender engine – and immediately topped the UK games charts, with other charts worldwide following suit soon after.

VIS entertainment

In 1999 the company was absorbed into Scottish based developer

VIS Entertainment VIS Entertainment Limited (formerly known as VIS Interactive) was a British video game developer based in Edinburgh. Chris van der Kuyl and Peter Baillie established the company in 1996. In 2003, VIS Entertainment faced financial struggles and ...

. Most notable among the many projects that Buckland worked on as part of VIS was 2001's ''State of Emergency'', which saw him attached to the game midway through development as executive director and design consultant. In 2001 a rally project at VIS for

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

was cancelled, and VIS began restructuring itself. As part of this process, Patrick Buckland spun-off Stainless Games as an independent company again, which was financed by Les Edgar, founder of Bullfrog and ex-chairman of VIS.

Stainless Games

remains independent to this day, and is based in Newport on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

. The company has released a number of titles, including a port of '' Crystal Quest, Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm,

Warlords Warlords are individuals who exercise military, economic, and political control over a region, often one without a strong central or national government, typically through informal control over local armed forces. Warlords have existed throug ...

, Tempest, Battlezone,

Asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

Missile Command ''Missile Command'' is a 1980 shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. Sega released the game outside North America. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game '' Tempest'' from ...

Centipede Centipedes (from Neo-Latin , "hundred", and Latin , "foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', "lip", and Neo-Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, ...

'' & ''

Millipede Millipedes (originating from the Latin , "thousand", and , "foot") are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derive ...

, Novadrome, RISK: Factions, Carmageddon: Max Damage'' and most notable '' Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers.'' He was wholly or partly responsible for the production of

videogame A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, most ...

s such as '' Crystal Quest'', '' Carmageddon'', '' Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now'', '' Carmageddon: Reincarnation'' and '' Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers''. He also produced a range of non-game software over the years, including AME, a security system used by (amongst others) the CIA and NASA, Crash Barrier, a crash recovery utility for the Macintosh, a Teletext authoring system, CAD software for the marine industry, retail packaging CAD systems, LeLisp for the French government, Structured BASIC or the Apple // and various other software packages.

Games

Games and other major products produced by or including code written by Buckland include *Structured Basic (Apple II) – UMicro *Liberator (Apple II) – Thorn EMI *Submarine Commander (port to Apple II) – Thorn EMI * MacCharlie (Mac) – Dayna Communications *LeLisp (Mac) – ACT Informatique *Crystal Raider (Mac) – Shareware *'' Crystal Quest (Mac/Amiga/GS/DS/PocketPC/Palm/Mobile/XBLA) – Casady & Greene/Infinite Ventures/HandsOn/Stainless'' *Telewriter (Mac) – Teletext *Nest (Mac) – ICS *Axxon (Mac) – Axxon *'' Sky Shadow (Mac) – Casady & Greene'' *Crash Barrier (Mac) – Casady & Greene *AME (Mac) – Casady & Greene *'' Crystal Crazy (Mac) – Casady & Greene'' *Mercury (Mac) – Aaron *Medical reference multimedia (PC) – Times Mirror Group *BRender (Mac + PC Demo software etc.) – Argonaut *'' Carmageddon'' (PC/Mac) – SCi *Carmageddon: Splat Pack (PC) – SCi *'' Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now (PC/Mac) – SCi'' *''

State of Emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state before, during, o ...

'' (PS2) – Rockstar Games *'' Novadrome'' (XBLA) – Stainless/Disney *'' Pocket Bike Racer'' (Xbox/X360) – Blitz *'' Centipede (XBLA)''/''

'' (XBLA) – Atari *''

'' (XBLA)/'' Asteroids Deluxe'' (XBLA) – Atari *'' Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm'' (XBLA) – Sega *'' Tempest'' (XBLA) – Atari *''

'' (XBLA) – Atari *'' Battlezone'' (XBLA) – Atari *''Atari Classics'' (PSP) – Atari *''

Red Baron Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a sec ...

'' (PC/PS3-PSN) – Sierra Online *Scrabble (DS/PSP – EA version) – EA *'' Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers'' various versions, 2009-2017 (Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, PS3, PS4, iOS, Android) – Wizards of the Coast *'' Risk: Factions'' (XBLA) – EA *'' Carmageddon: Reincarnation'' (PC) – Stainless Games self-published *'' Carmageddon: Max Damage'' – (PC, PS4 & Xbox One) Stainless Games self-published *''Carmageddon: Crashers'' (iOS & Android) – Stainless Games self-published The above list excludes a number of cancelled projects (some of which were major and near completion), minor contract work, and confidential projects. Crystal Quest received a number of awards when released on the Mac in 1987, as did Carmageddon and Carmageddon II in 1997 and 1998 respectively. Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers broke all sales records on the XBLA platform when it was released in June 2009, although these records were broken again by other titles shortly afterward.

Other interests

In 2013, Buckland was one of a consortium of British individuals who bought the rights back to the sports car manufacturer

TVR TVR Electric Vehicles Limited is a British manufacturer of sports cars. The company manufactures lightweight sports cars with powerful engines and was, at one time, the third-largest specialised sports car manufacturer in the world, offering ...

, from Nikolay Smolensky. The new company, TVR Manufacturing Ltd, is already taking deposits for an all-new vehicle developed in conjunction with

Gordon Murray Ian Gordon Murray (born 18 June 1946), is a successful and influential South African-British former (Formula One) race-car designer, renowned firstly as lead designer for both the Brabham and McLaren Formula 1 racing teams, during 196 ...

and

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for auto racing, automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream Automotiv ...

Personal life

He was born in London and moved to the

at the age of 2. Buckland still lives on the Isle of Wight with his wife and two children and is a direct descendant of renowned geologist/palaeontologist

William Buckland William Buckland Doctor of Divinity, DD, Royal Society, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian, geologist and paleontology, palaeontologist. His work in the early 1820s proved that Kirkdale Cave in North Yorkshire h ...

and his son, renowned zoologist Frank Buckland. Buckland’s father, John Buckland, was a composer and the protege of

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

Awards

Stainless Games was awarded

The King's Awards for Enterprise The King's Awards for Enterprise, previously known as The Queen's Award for Enterprise, is an awards programme for British businesses and other organizations who excel at international trade, innovation, sustainable development or promoting oppor ...

in 2024, which was received by Buckland from Susie Sheldon,

Lord-lieutenant A lord-lieutenant ( ) is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibility o ...

of the Isle of Wight. Patrick Buckland won the Outstanding Individual of Year award at the TIGA awards in 2024 in recognition of his 30 years contribution to the games industry at the head of Stainless.

References

External links

Stainless Games website

"Playing Catch Up: Stainless Games' Patrick Buckland"
Alistair Wallis ''Gamasutra'', 14 December 2006 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buckland, Patrick Year of birth missing (living people) British technology chief executives British video game designers British video game programmers Living people