Ciaran Gultnieks
Moby ID: 13414
Biography edit · view history
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.
Credited on 7 games
Displaying most recent · View all
| Hardwar (1998, Windows) | Developed by |
| Slipstream 5000 (1995, DOS) | Programming |
| Air Duel: 80 Years of Dogfighting (1993, DOS) | Game Designer |
| Killing Cloud (1991, DOS) | Vektor Grafix system development |
| Strike Aces (1989, Commodore 64) | Designed by |
| Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1988, Atari ST) | Programming by |
| Star Wars (1987, ZX Spectrum) | Programmed by |
[ full credits ]
Frequent Collaborators
People- 5 games with Ian Martin
- 5 games with Derrick Austin
- 4 games with Mark Griffiths
- 4 games with Andy Craven
- 2 games with David Whittaker
- 2 games with Martin Calpin
- 2 games with Simon Short
- 2 games with Dominic Robinson
- 2 games with James North-Hearn
- 2 games with Alastair Swinnerton
[ 163 more people ]
Companies
- 5 games with Vektor Grafix Ltd
- 2 games with Software Refinery, Ltd., The
- 2 games with Square Enix Limited
- 2 games with Infogrames Studios Limited
- 2 games with Hit Squad, The
- 2 games with Bandai Namco Entertainment UK Ltd.
- 1 game with Activision Publishing, Inc.
- 1 game with Activision Blizzard UK Ltd.
- 1 game with Midway Games West, Inc.
- 1 game with Accolade, Inc.
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