Before the likes of Hideki Kamiya,
John Romero and Hideo Kojima
became gaming icons, there were the
Bitmap Brothers – the original game
programming rockstars.
Founded in London in 1987, the
Bitmap Bros swiftly rose to become
the most recognisable figures in
the UK games industry. This was a
deliberate move by co-founders Mike
Montgomery, Steve Kelly and Eric
Matthews, who were tired of publishers
hogging all the publicity. To get
themselves noticed, they sent pictures
of themselves to games magazines,posing in the leather jackets and dark
shades that became their trademark.
The rest, as they say, was history.
And their games were as cool as
their makers’ public personas. While
the Bitmap Bros tried their hand at a
variety of genres, their back catalogue
was united by the Bitmap’s distinctive,
metallic-grey graphical style. They
were also one of the first to use
professional artists for their in-game
music – most famously, their 1989 title
Xenon II: Megablast used the dance track
Megablast, by UK act Bomb The Bass, as
its loading screen music.The Bros’ first effort was this vertically-scrolling
shoot-’em-up where the player could swap between
a craft and a tank on the fly. It was most notable
for being featured on ITV’s Saturday morning kids
show Get Fresh, where contestants would shout
instructions to a blindfolded player over the phone.XENON 1988
Founded 1987
Headquarters Wapping, UK
Years active 1987 - current
Lead platform AmigaClassic Developer The Wapping-based outfit that
made it cool to be a games programmer