Twilight was a British

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

based in

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

History

Twilight was founded by Stuart Cook, Mark Mason, Jason McGann, Andy Swann, and Peter Tattersall. They worked together at Enigma Variations, a studio based in

, where they mostly created games based on licensed properties in short timespans. In 1989, Mason was fired, leading Cook, McGann, Swann, and Tattersall to leave the company in early 1990. The five founded Twilight on 1 May 1990. While trying to come up with a company name, Tattersall began humming the

theme music Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

of ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described ...

'', leading them to settle on the name "Twilight". He also created the company's logo, taking inspiration from Roger Dean with the aim of making it easily representable on a

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 ...

. The company rented its first office in a mid-terrace house on Mayfield Grove in Harrogate. Its first game was ''Delta Charge'', a port of ''

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

'' from the Commodore 64 to 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. ...

, released by

Thalamus Ltd Thalamus Ltd (also known as Thalamus) was a British computer game developer that published titles for a number of 8-bit and 16-bit platforms during the late 1980s and early 1990s. History Genesis ''Thalamus Ltd'' was created in 1986 as an in-hous ...

. Throughout 1990, Twilight attracted projects from multiple publishers, including several titles from licensed properties for Hi-Tec Software. Having hired Mark Barker, Wayne Billingham, Dave Box, Noel Hines, Rob Holman, Andy Severn, Martin Severn, and James Smart, the company operated with two development teams, one working for

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data bu ...

platforms while the other began exploring games for

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two ...

platforms. Twilight ultimately moved into proper offices within Harrogate. In 1994, shortly after finishing '' Alfred Chicken'' for the

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

, McGann and Tattersall left Twilight to form Hookstone. Twilight subsequently agreed to transfer the rights to ''Alfred Chicken'', which McGann had conceived, to Hookstone. Swann also left the company around this time. In the following years, Cook and Mason continued to run the company, which saw a significant decline in development projects. Following the cancellation of ''Frog Dude'' and a game in the style of ''Fantasy Quest'' for Telstar, Twilight struggled with the transition to 3D video games. Cook and Mason paid off and fired all staff, and the company was ultimately shut down in 1997.

Games

*'' Delta Charge'' (1990, Thalamus Ltd) *'' Ruff & Reddy in the Space Adventure'' (1990, Hi-Tec Software) *''

Atom Ant Atom Ant is a cartoon ant and superhero, created by Hanna-Barbera in 1965. Atom costarred in '' The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show'' (sharing top billing with Secret Squirrel) on Saturday mornings. In syndication, Atom Ant aired alongside '' The ...

'' (1990, Hi-Tec Software) *'' Plotting'' (1990,

Ocean Software Ocean Software Limited was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European video game developers and publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and was based in Manchest ...

) *'' Yogi Bear & Friends: The Greed Monster'' (1990, Hi-Tec Software) *''

Rod Land ''Rod Land'', known in Japan as , is a 1990 platform game originally developed and published in arcades by Jaleco. Gameplay The player(s) control one or two fairies called Tam and Rit armed with a magic wand (rod). Following the concept of T ...

'' (1991, Sales Curve Interactive) *''

Quick Draw McGraw Quick Draw McGraw is the protagonist and title character of '' The Quick Draw McGraw Show''. He is an anthropomorphic white horse wearing a red Stetson cowboy hat, a red holster belt, a light blue bandana, and occasionally spurs, he was origina ...

'' (1991, Hi-Tec Software) *''

Darkman ''Darkman'' is a 1990 American superhero horror film directed and co-written by Sam Raimi. The film stars Liam Neeson as scientist Peyton Westlake, who is brutally attacked, disfigured, and left for dead by ruthless mobster Robert Durant ( La ...

'' (1991, Ocean Software) *'' WWF WrestleMania'' (1991, Ocean Software) *'' Mega Twins'' (1992) *''

Bonanza Brothers (sometimes written ''Bonanza Brothers'') is a 3D computer graphics, 3D-style, 2D computer graphics, 2D side-scrolling Stealth game, stealth action game developed and released by Sega in 1990. It is one of the earliest arcade games powered by t ...

'' (1992) *'' Video Kid'' (1992,

Gremlin Graphics 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 ...

) *''

Cool World ''Cool World'' is a 1992 American Adult animation, adult Live-action animation, live-action/animated hybrid fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi and written by Michael Grais and Mark Victor. Starring Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne and Brad Pitt, ...

'' (1992, Ocean Software) *''

Yogi's Treasure Hunt ''Yogi's Treasure Hunt'' is an American animated television series, and the fifth entry in the ''Yogi Bear'' franchise, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Featuring Yogi Bear and various other Hanna-Barbera characters, it premiered in synd ...

'' (1993) *''Frog Dude'' (cancelled) *'' Alfred Chicken'' (1993)

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite magazine , title=The Making of: Alfred Chicken , first=Stuart , last=Gipp , magazine=

Retro Gamer ''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering Retrogaming, retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' ...

, issue=215 , date=29 December 2020 , publisher=

Future Publishing Future plc is a British publishing company. It was started in 1985 by Chris Anderson. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History 1985–2012 The company was founded by Chris Anderson a ...

, pages=70–73 {{cite magazine , title=Studio Profile: Enigma Variations , first=Richard , last=Hewison , magazine=

, issue=243 , date=16 February 2023 , publisher=

, pages=44–49 {{cite magazine , title=Studio Profile: Twilight , first=Richard , last=Hewison , magazine=

, issue=244 , date=16 March 2023 , publisher=

, pages=46–51 1990 establishments in England 1997 disestablishments in England Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game companies disestablished in 1997 Video game companies established in 1990 Video game development companies