TONY WARRINER

Before creating classics like Beneath A Steel Sky and Broken Sword, the Revolution Software cofounder had a chaotic start to his career that saw him working on the infamous World Cup Carnival and programming flight control systems

- Lewis Packwood

Tony Warriner began his career in the mid-Eighties at Artic Computing, then headed by Charles Cecil, and later left with Charles to form Paragon Programming.

When Paragon was wound down, Tony worked on games like the Codemasters-published Death Stalker, as well as doing a brief stint in aviation software, but reunited with Charles in 1990 to cofound Revolution Software alongside Noirin Carmody and David Sykes. Initially based in Hull and later moving to York, Revolution launched a string of point-and-click hits, including Beneath A Steel Sky and Broken Sword. Tony wrote the book Revolution: The Quest For Game Development Greatness in 2023, and is currently working on UrbX Warriors with Stoo Cambridge.

How did you get into games, Tony?

Someone I went to school with got a ZX81, so we started going round to his house to play on this thing. We saw 3D Monster Maze, and we couldn't believe it. I was just hooked, really, from then.

How did you make the leap to writing your own games?

We found a BBC Micro in a storage cupboard at school, and we got permission to use it at lunchtime. All there was with this BBC Micro was the welcome tape, so what else are you going to do with it, apart from write games in BASIC?

How did you go from coding games on your lunch break to doing it for a living?

I was having a very bad time at school, but I was looking at these computers and thinking, “I can do this.” So I dropped out of doing tedious things like revising for exams and I bought myself a Camputers Lynx. I did a couple of BASIC games, and then progressed into learning assembly. Then I saved again and got an Amstrad CPC, and in my last year at school I was doing Obsidian, which was inspired by