Ciaran Gultnieks

Developer BIO

In 1987, Ciaran joined startup company Vektor Grafix, and soon after began work on the Sinclair Spectrum conversion of the Star Wars coin-op machine. This was followed up by Amstrad CPC and PC versions. The next game was a conversion of The Empire Strikes Back on several platforms, followed by Ringwars for the Spectrum.

Still at Vektor Grafix, Ciaran was lead programmer for the PC version of Fighter Bomber (Strike Aces in the USA) and a key member of the team responsible for Vektor's game engine, the 3D engine used in all their releases. Games released using this engine included B17 Flying Fortress, Shuttle and Killing Cloud.

Vektor Grafix was bought by Microprose and became their Leeds development studio. Following this, Ciaran was lead programmer on the PC version of Dogfight : 80 Years of Aerial Warfare, which was followed up by an Amiga/ST conversion.

In 1993, Microprose, recently purchased by Spectrum Holobyte, closed their UK satellite development studios, including Leeds, and Ciaran, along with colleagues Mark Griffiths and Ian Martin, set up a new development company, The Software Refinery.

The Software Refinery worked on several arcade projects, but their main output was the two PC games Slipstream 5000 and Hardwar, both published by Sheffield-based Gremlin Interactive.

Websites

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Games Credited

Hardwar (1998), Gremlin Interactive Ltd.
Slipstream 5000 (1995), Front Street Publishing, Gremlin Interactive Ltd.
Air Duel: 80 Years of Dogfighting (1993), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Killing Cloud (1991), Image Works, Konami, Inc.
Strike Aces (1989), Activision (UK) Limited
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1988), Domark Software, Inc.
Star Wars (1987), Domark Software, Inc.