ENIGMATIC EXCAVATIONS

GAMES ARE OFTEN CANCELLED, AND THIS WAS ESPECIALLY TRUE IN THOSE TURBULENT EARLY YEARS OF THE UK VIDEOGAMES INDUSTRY. MOST DEVELOPERS WOULD EXPERIENCE A FEW, BUT ENIGMA VARIATIONS AND THE OWNERS' SUBSEQUENT COMPANIES HAD MORE THAN THEIR FAIR SHARE. IT'S TIME TO DISCOVER WHY

- WORDS BY RICHARD C HEWISON

Darren Melbourne became studio development director, and head of production at Enigma Variations in Harrogate in late-1992.

Mark Greenshields was the owner and main programmer. Both knew that the company had to adapt to a rapidly changing industry. A deal was struck with Anil Gupta at Anco, which led to Nintendo console conversions for the Tokyo-based company Imagineer. "I'd known Anil back in the early eighties, when he was running a computer shop down in Dartford called Anirog," says Darren. "Unfortunately, his business partner Roger died in a car crash and the company changed to Anco afterwards."

Imagineer wanted NES and Game Boy conversions of Kick Off 2. "At that time Dino Dini had left Anco, and Steve Screech wouldn't have been able to take on the workload, so we were approached," recalls Darren. That opportunity gave Enigma the chance to enter the world of Nintendo. It received development kits from Imagineer under very stringent NDAs, and although the NES was 6502-based, Enigma had to learn the system. "We also had to buy EPROMS, EPROM burners, EPROM erasers... all equipment and processes that we weren't used to," explains Darren.

Mark Greenshields and Richard Naylor travelled to Japan to visit Nintendo, paid from Enigma's fees. "None of this was cheap, and so our £50,000 fee that had felt huge, suddenly wasn't," admits Darren. "Don't get me wrong. We will always be grateful to Anil for giving us the chance to get into console development, but we were very naïve when it came to how much that entry was going to cost us."