YOU ASK THE QUESTIONS

NORTHWAY: How did you compare yourselves to the US companies of the day and were you looking at markets outside the UK?

We were working mainly on British machines, based around the Z80 processor, and British gaming culture in the Eighties was very different to American culture. You look at some of the American companies, like Brøderbund and Big Five Software, they were very flashy in terms of presentation but the gameplay could be bland. Nowadays, all games are the bloody same, but back then in the UK we were trying to do different things. It wasn’t just about writing a game – it was about moving things on and doing stuff we’d never done before. We never targeted the US market but thinking about it, Software Projects was massive in Germany and Scandinavia. We had a German distributor called Hergan Shmergen. That’s the God’s honest truth!

PSJ3809: Any stories about Matthew Smith that you can share?

No [laughs]. I didn’t do that much partying with him and his mates because they were over on the Wirral, so I missed the famous toga party. We did go to this club Stairways a lot and we’d go to Milos, this heavy metal pub-cum-club, in a basement in St John Precinct. We had some good nights out in Liverpool, though to be honest, I can’t remember most of them.

ELY: Does it bother you that most people associate Software Projects with Matthew Smith and his games and little else?

No. Every company needs a mascot and every company should be known for something. And to be fair, if it wasn’t for Matthew, Software Projects wouldn’t exist.

MERMAN: Is there a project you regret not finishing?

No. Everything pretty much got released whether it was finished or not [laughs].