Vektor Grafix Ltd

Overview

As the name implies, this UK team concentrated mostly on games using mathematical methods of drawing screen displays. It was founded in June 1987 by former musician Andy Craven and Danny Gallagher.

It was one of the notable studios writing for Activision's Electric Dreams label. One month after the formation the studio was landed a contract to do the Spectrum, Commodore and BBC Micro conversions of Star Wars. This was done by a development team of three people, as the founders hired 16-year-old programmer Ciaran Gultnieks. With a good result, the company received the contract to port Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back as well. Gallagher had already left for Ocean by then, but Derrick Austin, Bill Pullan, and Ian Martin joined the team. While working on the Empire project John Lewis also arrived, taking the role of company director and Gallagher's 50% share of the company.

After that, the vector graphics were abandoned and the team moved on to an advanced 3D system of graphics. The company established a new sub-company Sprytes Ltd to create core systems for a wide array of games and platforms, and Muzik Ltd to do the same for music and sound effects.

The first game to use the new graphics system was Strike Aces (Fighter Bomber in Europe) in 1989. After developing a number of original games the studio was acquired by Microprose in 1992. It then became Microprose's internal Leeds development studio.

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