Name James Sachs | Role Programmer | |
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4:30 minute interview with James D Sachs in the 2018 documentary "The Commodore Story"
James D. Sachs (born 1949) is a retired United States Air Force veteran, game artist and game programmer.
Sachs was the lead artist on the groundbreaking Amiga computer game Defender of the Crown from Cinemaware (first published in 1986). He is also the author of the Commodore 64 game Saucer Attack, which was heavily pirated. He called it "the Commodore 64 game everyone had, but no one purchased". He is also the author of the CompuTrainer 3D software, Marine Aquarium simulation screensaver SereneScreen Aquarium, and of the user interfaces and start-up animations of the Amiga CDTV and Amiga CD32.
Some time after finishing development of Defender of the Crown, Sachs began working on a video game adaptation of the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea novel. Unable to secure from Disney the rights for a game based on their 1954 film, Sachs instead based his design on the original book by Jules Verne, but was ultimately unable to secure funding.