Steve Wetherill: Video Game Developer

Train Your Squad with Dosh from Your Wad How I built Projectyle (working title Scrollerball) at Eldritch The Cat for Electronic Arts, a three-player future-sports game on Atari ST and Amiga, 1989–90.

Founding Eldritch The Cat, a broke summer in Spain, and a first deal with Electronic Arts How I co-founded the studio Eldritch The Cat and signed with Electronic Arts in 1988 to build Projectyle (working title Scrollerball) for the Atari ST and Amiga.

A reckoning in London, too many projects at once, and the company born from the wreckage I join Liverpool studio Denton Designs, finish Crosswize, build Foxx Fights Back on the ZX Spectrum, and found Eldritch the Cat.

The contract, the VIC-20, and the getaway car.

Chasing the raster, glimpsing the future, and a critical disagreement.

Ten games in twelve months, Bertie Big Boy, and the Forbidden Amigas.

A reskin, some side quests, and the second album problem.

A Crash Smash, business trousers, and a dubious charge.

In trouble with the law for stealing my own trousers Locked out of my own house, I break back in with a van and my boss, and the police turn up for entirely the wrong crime.

“The cavemen didn’t need paintbrushes.”

A hosiery factory, an earthquake, and the interview that started it all.

Shoveling slag, eating pig lips, and a theft.

A computer no one could touch, a lift that never stopped, and the Z80 chip.

Sheffield steel, Barnsley coal, and a very unstable compound.

In December 1993, just before Christmas, we arrived in Las Vegas after a flight from Heathrow with a connection in Seattle.

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!

Part 3 of the Eldritch The Cat story.

A Big Change Of Plans!

Manic Miner to Command & Conquer with Steve Wetherill - The Retro Hour EP322 Check out the link below for a wide-ranging interview I did with Dan and Ravi at the Retro Hour podcast!

The music was composed using a MIDI keyboard (don’t remember which one, but it was a Yamaha) hooked up to an Atari ST running the Quartet software.

GENESIS OF AN ELDRITCH CAT OR TWO And so it came to pass that Stairways Nitespot for the Homeless did beckon them forth from the seclusion and safety of Software Projects, and they did partake of the wine, and they did partake of more wine, and they did p…

In this third developer diary update for Nodes of Yesod: ZX Spectrum Next, I’ll talk about progress on the coding and tools side, and give a preview of progress on the art side.

How did Sidewize accomplish the “raster-chasing” required to update the display 50 times per second?

This week I posted a poll on Twitter to find out which of the three presented graphics styles people would prefer for Astro Charlie, the protagonist in Nodes of Yesod, on the ZX Spectrum Next.

A ZX Spectrum Next, in its natural habitat A quick progress report on Nodes of Yesod for the Spectrum Next.

Following on from the Odin Computer Graphics Part Two post where I mentioned Sidewize, I thought I’d delve into a little more detail on the construction of the Sidewize scrolling backdrops.

The ZX Spectrum Next in the flesh!

Here’s my entry for a Z80 coding competition I entered just a few years ago, in 2016!

Manic Miner Amstrad CPC - Title Screen A quick follow-up to my Software Projects post - in January 2021 Retrogamer Magazine published a brief Q&A I did with Graeme Mason about Manic Miner on the Amstrad CPC.

Nodes of Yesod on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum ca. 1985 This is an interview I did with El Mundo Del Spectrum (original link in the Spanish language) in 2012.

Eldritch The Cat team circa 1990.

As noted in the earlier post on EA Air Hockey, all in-game graphics were created in 3DS Max as 3D models and then rendered into 2D images and sprites.

Note: This article was originally published in two parts on Gamasutra (now Game Developer) in 2007 and may be found here.

Note: this article expands upon material I provided for the RetroGamer #129 article on Heartland.

Check stevewetherill.com for more!

Check stevewetherill.com for more!