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Sensible Software was a British software company founded by
Jon Hare Jon "Jops" Hare (born 20 January 1966) is an English computer game designer, video game artist, musician and one of many founder members of the early UK games industry as co-founder and director, along with Chris Yates, of Sensible Software, on ...
and Chris Yates which was active from March 1986 to June 1999. It released seven number-one hit games and won numerous industry awards. The company used exaggeratedly small sprites as the
player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters tha ...
s in many of their games, including ''
Mega Lo Mania ''Mega-Lo-Mania'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Sensible Software. It was released for the Amiga in 1991 and ported to other systems. It was released as ''Tyrants: Fight Through Time'' in North America and ''Mega Lo Mania: Jikū ...
'', ''
Sensible Soccer ''Sensible Soccer'', often called ''Sensi'', is an association football video game series which was popular in the early 1990s and which still retains a following. It was developed by Sensible Software and first released for Amiga and Atari ST ...
'', ''
Cannon Fodder Cannon fodder is an informal, derogatory term for combatants who are regarded or treated by government or military command as expendable in the face of enemy fire. The term is generally used in situations where combatants are forced to fight agains ...
'' and '' Sensible Golf''.


History


8-bit era

Sensible Software was formed in
Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...
, Essex in 1986 by two former school friends,
Jon Hare Jon "Jops" Hare (born 20 January 1966) is an English computer game designer, video game artist, musician and one of many founder members of the early UK games industry as co-founder and director, along with Chris Yates, of Sensible Software, on ...
and Chris Yates. They worked for nine months at LT Software in
Basildon Basildon ( ) is a town in Borough of Basildon, the borough of the same name, in the county of Essex, England. It had a recorded population of 115,955 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. In 1931, the town had a population of 1,159. ...
, and started Sensible Software in March 1986. Sensible initially released games for the
ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...
and later 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 ...
, clinching market praise with ''
Parallax Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different sightline, lines of sight and is measured by the angle or half-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to perspective (graphica ...
'', '' Shoot'Em-Up Construction Kit'' and ''
Wizball ''Wizball'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter written by Jon Hare and Chris Yates (co-founders of Sensible Software) and released in 1987 for the Commodore 64 and later in the year for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. Versions for the Amiga and ...
'' (later voted Game of the Decade by ''
Zzap!64 ''Zzap!64'' is a computer games magazine covering games for computers manufactured by Commodore International, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazi ...
'' magazine). At the time, the pair's output was well known among gamers for its high-quality and offbeat sense of humour. In 1988
Martin Galway Martin Galway (born 3 January 1966, Belfast, Northern Ireland) is one of the best known composers of chiptune video game music for the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum. His works include '' Rambo: First Blood Part II'', '' Comic Bakery'' and ...
joined the team, making it a three-way partnership. In mid-1988, it released '' Microprose Soccer'', its first venture into
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
games. By 1993 there were 6 staff members.


16-bit era

Galway left in 1990 to join
Origin Systems Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres of video games ...
in the US, and over the next few years the company swapped the 8-bit machines for the more powerful 16-bit
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 ...
and
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 ...
systems, where games such as '' Wizkid: The Story of Wizball II'', ''
Mega-Lo-Mania ''Mega-Lo-Mania'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Sensible Software. It was released for the Amiga in 1991 and ported to other systems. It was released as ''Tyrants: Fight Through Time'' in North America and ''Mega Lo Mania: Jikū ...
'', the ''
Sensible Soccer ''Sensible Soccer'', often called ''Sensi'', is an association football video game series which was popular in the early 1990s and which still retains a following. It was developed by Sensible Software and first released for Amiga and Atari ST ...
'' series and the ''
Cannon Fodder Cannon fodder is an informal, derogatory term for combatants who are regarded or treated by government or military command as expendable in the face of enemy fire. The term is generally used in situations where combatants are forced to fight agains ...
'' series became classics all over Europe, especially in the UK where various Sensible games were number one for 52 weeks of the three-year period between June 1992 – 1995. With the rise of the 16-bit home console market, Sensible's games were ported to a wide range of
computing platform A computing platform, digital platform, or software platform is the infrastructure on which software is executed. While the individual components of a computing platform may be obfuscated under layers of abstraction, the ''summation of the requi ...
s, including
MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
, the
Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...
and
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 ...
.


32-bit era

Though Sensible had a strong presence on the 8-bit and 16-bit machines that dominated the late 1980s and early 1990s, this success was not repeated on the 32-bit machines such as the
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
prominent in the mid 1990s. The trademark look of cute 2D characters had slipped out of vogue with the advent of cheap 3D rendering abilities and games such as ''
Actua Soccer ''Actua Soccer'' (''VR Soccer'' in North America) is a sports video game developed and published by Gremlin Interactive for MS-DOS, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn. The game features a variety of teams and leagues to choose from, including national ...
'' and ''
FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...
'' turned to 2.5D and 3D gradually shoving the ''
Sensible Soccer ''Sensible Soccer'', often called ''Sensi'', is an association football video game series which was popular in the early 1990s and which still retains a following. It was developed by Sensible Software and first released for Amiga and Atari ST ...
'' series aside though belatedly converting the game to 3D in 1998. ''Sensible Golf'', a simple
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
video game (not a simulation), did not perform well in the market and with most of Sensible's staffing resources having been thrown into ''Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll'', a game that had initially been signed by
Renegade Software Renegade Software was a UK-based games publisher, founded in 1991 by the Bitmap Brothers. Initially, the Bitmap Brothers used the new label to publish their own games, after they had become dissatisfied with the practices of publishing compani ...
(a
Time Warner Interactive Time Warner Interactive (TWI) was a video game developing and publishing division within WarnerMedia, Time Warner. It was formed in 1993 after Time Warner acquired a controlling interest in Atari Games, which was already partly held by Time Warne ...
subsidiary) was dropped by their purchasers,
GT Interactive Atari, Inc. is an American video gaming company based in New York City, and a subsidiary of the Atari SA holding company. It is the main entity serving the commercial Atari brand globally since 2003. The company currently publishes games based o ...
(best known for
Doom II ''Doom II'', also known as ''Doom II: Hell on Earth'', is a 1994 first-person shooter game developed and published by id Software for MS-DOS. It was also released on Mac OS the following year. Unlike the original '' Doom'', which was initi ...
,
Duke Nukem 3D ''Duke Nukem 3D'' is a 1996 first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed by 3D Realms and published by FormGen for MS-DOS. It is a sequel to the platform games ''Duke Nukem (video game), Duke Nukem'' and ''Duke Nukem II'', published ...
, Quake and
Unreal Tournament ''Unreal Tournament'' is a 1999 first-person shooter game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. The second installment in the '' Unreal'' series, it was first published by GT Interactive in 1999 for Windows, and later released on the P ...
), the owners were looking for a smooth exit. Though never finished, this final project was discussed in certain sections of the media outside of the game press. It was featured in an ''
Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...
'' article in mid-1997. Two years later in 1999, the pre-rendered
music videos A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
– created for the game with animation by Khalifa Saber – were showcased within a feature piece on ''Ex Machina'', a TV show covering the CG animation scene on .tv. Another cancelled game that was being developed during this final development period was a PlayStation action game titled ''Have a Nice Day'', also known as ''Office Chair Massacre''. Though screenshots have never been released, it was a
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
, inspired somewhat by the simplicity of '' Re-Loaded'', a first generation PlayStation game by
Gremlin Interactive Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, later Gremlin Interactive Limited and ultimately Infogrames Studios Limited, was a British software house based in Sheffield, working mostly in the home computer market. Like many software houses established i ...
.
Jon Hare Jon "Jops" Hare (born 20 January 1966) is an English computer game designer, video game artist, musician and one of many founder members of the early UK games industry as co-founder and director, along with Chris Yates, of Sensible Software, on ...
has spoken about the project in various interviews, but has never discussed the game's content and gameplay features in depth. Aside from the likelihood that it contained themes as controversial as ''Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll'', in an interview with ''Total Video Game''s Derek dela Fuente, Hare mentioned that the game had "hit some technical barriers" during its development. Sensible Software was sold in 1999 to veteran UK games publishers
Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer and former publisher based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts and managed under the EA Sports ...
and since this date Hare has maintained a close working relationship with Codemasters, designing many of its games, including a variety of updates of both ''Sensible Soccer'' and ''Cannon Fodder''.


Legacy

In 2006, the Sensible Software game ''Sensible World of Soccer'' was entered into a Games Canon of the ten most important video games of all time by
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. It was the only game developed in Europe to make the list, which also included ''
Spacewar! ''Spacewar!'' is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. It was written for the newly installed DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the ...
'', ''
Star Raiders ''Star Raiders'' is a space combat simulator video game created by Doug Neubauer and published in 1980 by Atari, Inc. Originally released for the Atari 8-bit computers, Atari 400/800 computers, ''Star Raiders'' was later ported to the Atari 2 ...
'', ''
Zork ''Zork'' is a text adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson (programmer), Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company ...
'', ''
Tetris ''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...
'', ''
SimCity ''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game franchise originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, '' SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and was followed by several sequels and many other spin-off ''S ...
'', '' Super Mario Bros. 3'', ''
Civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...
'', ''
Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (1934–2020), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitche ...
'' and the ''
Warcraft ''Warcraft'' is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of six core games: '' Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', '' Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'', '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos ...
'' series. In 2013, the book ''
Sensible Software 1986–1999 Read-Only Memory is a British publisher of art books on topics of video game history and video game culture, culture. Following a resurgence of interest in 1980s and '90s British video game development, the company crowdfunded and produced fou ...
'' was released. This comprehensive retrospective on the history of the company was written by ''
Zzap!64 ''Zzap!64'' is a computer games magazine covering games for computers manufactured by Commodore International, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazi ...
'' games journalist Gary Penn in conversational style. It features 19 different contributors including extensive interviews with Jon Hare, plus luminaries of the era including David Darling,
Dominik Diamond Dominik Paul Diamond (born 31 December 1969) is a Scottish television, radio presenter and newspaper columnist. He is best known as the original presenter of Channel 4's video gaming programme ''GamesMaster'', as host of ''The Dominik Diamond B ...
and
Peter Molyneux Peter Douglas Molyneux (; born 5 May 1959) is an English video game designer and programmer. He created the god games '' Populous'', ''Dungeon Keeper'', and '' Black & White'', as well as ''Theme Park'', the ''Fable'' series, '' Curiosity: Wh ...
. Chris Yates declined to be interviewed for the book. Half art book and half retrospective analysis, the book is the first of its kind to cover the creative, business and technical issues that shaped the whole era of early games development in the UK and Sensible Software in particular. In 2020, the
Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...
issued a series of postage stamps celebrating great British computer games with ''Sensible Soccer'' commemorated as a first-class stamp.


Games


References


External links


Sensible Software
at
MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

Sensible Software interview with Jon Hare
{{Sensible Software 1986 establishments in England 1999 disestablishments in England Companies based in Chelmsford Defunct companies of England Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Golden Joystick Award winners Software companies of England Video game companies established in 1986 Video game companies disestablished in 1999 1999 mergers and acquisitions