Goodbye Balrog
Remembering John Wilson of Zenobi Software
We pay tribute to John ‘The Rochdale Balrog’ Wilson, the founder of the adventure company, Zenobi Software
John Wilson, the founder of Zenobi Software and a prolific author of adventure games, sadly passed away on 31 May at the age of 74. Also known by his nickname ‘The Rochdale Balrog’, John had previously worked in the RAF and the building trade before moving into computer games in his late 30s. Having had experience of writing adventure games for other publishers, he founded Zenobi Software in 1985 as a way of distributing his own works and eventually those of others. Zenobi ceased publishing new games in 1997, but many of them remain fondly regarded by fans of adventure games to this day, and John himself has been a popular figure in the adventure game community. A number of John’s friends have come forward to pay tribute to him as both a creator and a friend.
“I first encountered John when I was reviewing adventure games for magazines like Your Sinclair,” says
Mike Gerrard. “I loved his daft sense of humour, and that he made adventure games funny. We would write to each other from time to time and I was always pleased when a new Zenobi game turned up in the post. You never knew what to expect with a game from John, but they were always good. I also liked the way he supported other people, and was keen to publish other adventure writers on his Zenobi label, once it got established. I never met him but I know I’d have enjoyed his company. Rest in peace.”
“I have known John for over 35 years, and collaborated on one text adventure with him and wrote another solo effort published in the late-eighties on the Zenobi label,” says Richard Hewison. “John was a huge computer game fan, but loved text adventures and during his Zenobi years he wrote and published so many games, keeping the genre going when most more commercial companies had long since abandoned them. Zenobi won awards and had an underground following who enjoyed his off-kilter sense of humour. His collection of ‘single-room’ adventures are a great example of John’s dedication to the adventure cause, and he will be missed.”
“I was shocked and saddened to hear of the news of John’s sudden passing away,” says David Ledbury. “For a long time, in the early Nineties, John Wilson’s company – Zenobi – which was one of the leading lights in the home adventure scene, regularly
passed review copies and tips of his latest releases for my long-running Spectrum and SAM Coupé fanzine
ZAT. John later worked with members of the SAM Adventure Club who found inventive ways to use the games he released, to make more usage of some of the SAM Coupé facilities – bringing Zenobi games to more fans. Many SAM adventurers benefitted from his support. The adventure scene has lost a landmark figure – although with more adventure releases coming out, for more and more systems, his legacy will still continue for some time to come.”
“I loved John very much, I am shocked and saddened to hear of his death,” says Chris Ainsley, author of Adventuron. “John was the first user of Adventuron, and will always be
‘The Adventuron One’ to me.” John considered himself retired when he and Chris began to talk, but eventually created further adventures as well as ports and remixes of past work. “We corresponded hundreds of times, and for a good period of my life he was my best friend. I lived to please him, and whilst I can’t speak for John, I know he loved to show me what he was doing,” Chris continues. “I’m not related to John, I have never physically met John, but I shall treasure his memory forever. I grew to love him as if he were family. He had a gift of instant familiarity, not just with me, but with everybody. He wasn’t a perfect person, but he made you love him. He was an old rogue and a child at heart. I will miss him dearly. There will never be another.”
Shaun Mcclure first met John while he was a young artist creating loading screens for Spectrum games. “What differed with John was that I think he knew that my home life was quite difficult to say the least and I needed a sort of father figure to just basically ‘talk bollocks’ with – about girlfriends and so on, the music I had just bought – looking back it must have been the most cringey adolescent stuff ever, but we struck up this pen pal correspondence that only sometimes involved me doing graphics for John, and the rest was general chat. It was about three letters a week. He’d tell me about his own things and catrelated stuff and often tell me that some of the bands I liked were either good or ‘utter derivative shite’ on little pages that were about a quarter the size of A4, all handwritten.” The work Shaun did for John ultimately helped to launch his career. “He recently made a sequel to Alien Research Centre, and as a bridge back to the past I did a ‘loading screen’ for it. And I’m glad I did. It sort of completed the circle of development with him after all of these years. Rest in peace John!”
Our thoughts are with John Wilson’s friends and family.