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Everyone dreams at working at a major game developer. It’s something all kid gamers wish for, and many adult gamers strive to make it a reality. Sometimes though, destiny comes knocking quickly, and when it does you have to run with it and never look back. That’s what happened to Doug Lanford, who went for an interview for a game tester job at Sega on a whim. Four years later, he was a programmer with a bright future ahead of him.
Sega-16 recently had the chance to talk with former Iguana mainstay Jools Watsham. During his tenure at the company and later at Acclaim itself, Watsham worked many different titles in a variety of positions as an artist and producer, among other things. He was also involved with quite a few Genesis titles, like Aero the Acrobat, NBA Jam, and NFL Quarterback Club.
Fans of video game music from the ’90s know Matt Furniss’ music well. He scored dozens of games for consoles like the Genesis, Master System, PlayStation, and computers like the Amiga and Spectrum. As both composer and converter of game scores, Furniss has a lot of history working with soundtracks from some classic games.
Many animators of the 16-bit era had a special love for the Genesis and its user-friendly hardware. With it, they were able to make some incredibly fluid games that still look beautiful today. Mike Dietz, as the director of animation for both Virgin Interactive Entertainment and Shiny Entertainment, shares that sentiment. Dietz was involved with such classics as Disney’s Aladdin, Cool Spot and the Earthworm Jim series, and he recently chatted with us about his time with the Genesis.
Several years ago, Sega announced a Playstation 2 sequel to its VectorMan games. Video was shown, and the game seemed on track for a 2004 release. Then, it was canceled without warning, and little was heard from it again. That all changed last month when the game’s former lead production designer released some concept art, and we just knew we had to talk to him.