Archer MacLean

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Archer MacLean is a British computer games programmer. His best known titles are International Karate and its sequel, IK+, which he developed for the Commodore 64 but were ported to other systems. He is also know for his series of snooker and pool games, which commenced with Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker in 1991.

Touches of humour are a running theme in his games — IK+ has a secret mode in which the players' trousers fall down as well as several hidden effects activated by typing four letter swear words. Whirlwind Snooker features effects when no shot is played for a while, including flies buzzing around the screen and 'Made In England' signs emerging from the balls.

In a recent survey, his favourite home computer music was IK+ and International Karate.^{[citation needed]}

Maclean's most recent title is Mercury for the PlayStation Portable.

His current activities in games development are unknown, after having left Awesome - the studio he helped found and establish - in July of 2005[1]. The reasons for his departure have never been made known and he has seemingly not granted any interviews since. Whether MacLean has effectively retired from professional games development is open to question. Given his experiences with unethical publishers in the past, combined with his preference of working alone or with very small teams, one could speculate that if he does return to making games; it could well be an XNA or eDI title.