Sensible Software

Early history

Sensible Software was formed in Chelmsford, Essex in 1986 by two former school friends, Jon Hare (A.K.A. Jovial Jops) and Chris Yates (A.K.A. Cuddly Krix). After cutting their teeth for 9 months at LT Software in Basildon, Hare and Yates set up Sensible Software in March 1986.

Sensible initially released games for the ZX Spectrum and later the Commodore 64, clinching market praise with Parallax, Shoot'Em-Up Construction Kit and Wizball (later to be voted 'Game of the Decade' by Zzap64 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 joined the team and Sensible Software became a 3-man partnership. That summer they released Microprose Soccer, their first venture into association football games.

By 1993 there were 6 staff members.

16-bit era

Galway left in 1990 to join Origin Systems in the USA, and over the next few years the company swapped the 8 bit machines for the more powerful Amiga and Atari ST, where games such as Mega Lo Mania, Sensible Soccer, and Cannon Fodder became classics. With the rise of the 16-bit home console market, Sensible released seven number one hit games, winning numerous industry awards in the process. Sensible's games were ported to a wide range of computing platforms, including MS-DOS, the Mega Drive and Super NES.

Decline

While Sensible had a strong presence on the machines that dominated the late 1980s and early 1990s, they never really repeated this success on the newer machines such as the PlayStation that came to prominence in the mid 1990s. Their trademark look of cute 2D characters had slipped out of vogue with the advent of cheap 3D rendering abilities and titles such as Actua Soccer and FIFA turned to 2.5D and 3D gradually shoving the Sensible Soccer series into the sidelines despite Sensible's belated attempt to convert the game to 3D in 1998.

Sensible Golf, a simple golf video game (not a simulation), in classic Sensible style, did not perform well in the market and with most of Sensible's staffing resources having been thrown into a very progressive but politically unreleasable political hot potato of a game called Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll that had initially been signed by Warner International Entertainment and subsequently dropped by their purchasers, GT Software, Sensible's days were looking numbered and the owners were looking for a smooth exit.

Though never finished, this final epic project was discussed in certain sections of the media outside of the game press. It was featured in an Independent on Sunday article in the summer of 1997. Two years later in 1999, the pre-rendered music videos - created for the game with animation by Khalifa Saber - were showcased within a feature piece on Ex Machina, a 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 of the game have never been released, the title was a first person shooter, inspired somewhat by the simplicity of Re-Loaded, a "first generation" PlayStation title by Gremlin Interactive. Jon Hare 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 the game contained themes as controversial as Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll, in an interview with Total Video Game's Derek dela Fuente, Jon did mention that the title had "hit some technical barriers" during its development. Sensible were not known to have worked on the PlayStation hardware before, which may have made getting to grips with the console's problematic 3D libraries a huge issue for the inexperienced team.

Sensible Software was eventually sold in 1999 to veteran UK games publishers Codemasters and since this date Jon Hare has maintained a close working relationship with Codemasters designing many games for them including a variety of updates of both Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder.

Legacy

In 2013 book publishers Read-Only Memory released Sensible Software 1986–1999. This comprehensive retrospective on the entire history of the company was written by renowned Zzap!64 games journalist Gary Penn in conversational style. It features 19 different contributors including extensive interviews with Jon Hare and other Sensibles, plus games luminaries of the era including David Darling (entrepreneur), Dominik Diamond and Peter Molyneux. 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. The historical importance of this book has been recognised by BAFTA who hold copies in both their library in Central London and their historical archive.

Literature