Exploring Video Game History: Psygnosis, Sony Studio Liverpool, and Beyond
Take a journey through my world of video games as I look back at three decades of gaming history, including personal insights from industry insiders. Explore with me the early years, going mainstream, and the chapter of start-ups, indies, and VR.
Look out for more trips down memory lane about specific games in the future.
Above: Psygnosis owl reimagined with the help of MidJourney
To make this journey more accessible, I'll divide it into three distinct sections:
Early years: 1992 - 1994
My passion for video and computer games ignited in the late '70s with the Atari 2600 and blossomed through the '80s with the Commodore 64. By the early '90s, I was deeply entrenched in the world of gaming due to my involvement with my friends' 'World of Wonders' consumer mail-order business for computer games. They specialised in importing games from Japan and North America, making them an early participant in the 'grey import' market. One cherished memory from that era was attending the 'Amiga Messe' in Cologne, a popular consumer show where we operated a booth selling games. While the Amiga era has faded, the spirit of the show lives on in 'Gamescom,' Europe's largest consumer video game event.
In early '93, I secured my first full-time industry job at Bomico Distributions GmbH, which later also included Laguna Video Games. Bomico/Laguna served as a distributor for Computer and Video Games, handling the distribution in Germany of games for esteemed publishers like Ocean, Krysalis, Infogrames, Coktel Vision, and Sierra Entertainment. My role as a 'Product Evaluation Specialist' allowed me to play pre-release games and provide qualitative assessments akin to reviews found in popular gaming magazines of that era. It was a dream come true!
Above: Simon the Sorcerer, Adventure Soft, 1993, German localisation: Ralf C Adam
Going mainstream: 1994 - 2009
In 1994, a close colleague at Bomico, Alexander Ganz, was recruited by Psygnosis to lead their German office. This move came after Psygnosis's acquisition by Sony the previous year and the anticipation surrounding Sony's ground-breaking "PlayStation" video game console.
Psygnosis embarked on an expansive journey following the acquisition, and the German office became one of the first international branches. I was familiar with Psygnosis from my Amiga gaming days: Barbarian, Obliterator, Terrorpods, Killing Game Show, Shadow of the Beast, Microcosm, Lemmings - who could forget those intro's, top notch graphics, horrible controls, iconic logo and those wonderful box artworks by Roger Dean). This blog post from Little Bits of Gaming is a great retrospective of Psygnosis in those early years.
Alex showed me a VHS tape featuring early footage of several PlayStation games in development at Psygnosis, including "Wipeout," (a sequence also used in the film "Hackers", featuring Johnny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie), "G-Police," "Assault Rigs," "Krazy Ivan," and "Scavenger" (aka "Novastorm"). That video prompted me to join Psygnosis Germany as Marketing Assistant, marking the beginning of what turned out to be a pretty remarkable 15-year adventure with the company, including my relocation from Frankfurt, Germany, to Liverpool, England, where I continue to reside today.
Above: Wipeout HD, Sony Computer Entertainment, Studio Liverpool, 2008
Start-ups, Indies and VR: 2010 - Present day
My departure from Sony Studio Liverpool in 2009 was motivated by my desire to engage with the burgeoning start-up community in the city. During this period, I became closely associated with various game start-ups and founded some of my own, worked as consultant for independent publishers, and became involved with Starship and later vTime which was an exciting 10-year journey with some very talented people that brought me in close contact with the fascinating world of VR and other cutting-edge technologies.
Above: Setgo logo
I hope that these chronicles of my journey through the gaming industry evoke your own gaming-related memories and offered a small glimpse into the history of video games.
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