Magnetic Scrolls was a British video game developer during the mid 1980s and early 1990s. It was one of two largest interactive fiction game makers of the 1980s.[1] Their primary focus was the development of text adventure games (also known as interactive fiction) on a variety of 8-bit and 16-bit home computer platforms.
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Formed by Anita Sinclair, Ken Gordon and Hugh Steers in 1984,[2] London-based Magnetic Scrolls initially dabbled with development on the Sinclair QL home computer before deciding to take advantage of the emerging Atari ST and Amiga gaming platforms. Having secured a publication deal with Rainbird, a British software label owned by Telecomsoft, they began work producing an ambitious text adventure game that would become The Pawn.
During the mid-1980s, the text adventure market was thriving, although only a very few developers exclusively specialised in the genre. The undisputed giants of the genre were Infocom, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who practically redefined the genre by ensuring the interface (or text parser) never provided a barrier between the player and the fictional elements of the game.
Infocom's dominance of the text adventure market ensured they had very few rivals, especially in the United States. Adventure International, owned by Scott and Lexis Adams, had been an early competitor of Infocom, but they went out of business long before Infocom had hit their stride. Their only other serious competitor was Sierra On-Line, owned by Ken and Roberta Williams, who specialised in light-hearted point-and-click adventure games.
During the early to mid-1980s Level 9 Computing dominated the UK text adventure market. Delta 4 and CRL also produced a number of text adventures that were critical and commercial hits but were never a serious rival to Level 9. Until they were acquired by Activision in 1984, Infocom's titles were something of a rarity in the UK, only usually available as expensive imports.
Magnetic Scrolls immediately took advantage of the considerable gap in the UK market. The Pawn, written by Rob Steggles, was released in 1985, on a wide range of 8-bit and 16-bit platforms, to considerable acclaim. One of the game's biggest selling points, besides the advanced text parser, engrossing story and exquisite packaging, were the high resolution illustrations that accompanied many of the game's locations. Although decidedly antiquated by today's standards, at the time they were considered state-of-the-art. The ZX Spectrum version of the game didn't include graphics.
In 1987, Magnetic Scrolls released two new games. Rob Steggles returned to write The Guild of Thieves, a traditional treasure hunt, while Georgina Sinclair and Michael Bywater wrote the enchanting contemporary fantasy of Jinxter. Both games met with similar critical acclaim as The Pawn.
For their next release, Corruption (1988), Magnetic Scrolls decided to experiment with the boundaries of interactive fiction. Once again written by Rob Steggles, with the help of Hugh Steers, the game was a contemporary thriller that explored corporate corruption and greed. Corruption abandoned the traditional puzzle-solving, treasure-hunting gameplay of many text adventure games, requiring the player to progress by conversing with characters, collecting evidence and working against the clock in order to beat the game. The game came packaged with a cassette tape containing a series of audio conversations. The player would be prompted to play them at specific points during the story, adding an extra layer of depth to the game.
Released towards the end of 1988 was Fish!, a more light-hearted, surreal adventure game, where the player assumed the role of a dimension-jumping goldfish. Written by John Molloy, Pete Kemp, Phil South and edited by Rob Steggles, Fish! would prove to be the last of Magnetic Scrolls' traditional commercial releases.
Myth was released in 1989 through Official Secrets, an adventure gaming club set up by Tony Rainbird after he (and Magnetic Scrolls) parted ways with Telecomsoft. Now based in Hertfordshire, Magnetic Scrolls produced this mini-adventure as a freebie that would be given away to those who signed up to join Official Secrets. The gaming club didn't last long, however, and was quickly assimilated into Tony Rainbird's new Special Reserve company, specialising in mail order computer hardware and software.
Wonderland had been in development at Magnetic Scrolls for some time and was finally released by Virgin Interactive in 1990. Magnetic Scrolls had devised a brand new interface, christened Magnetic Windows, to take advantage of the Amiga and Atari ST's advanced capabilities, as well as Microsoft's new Windows operating system. Incorporating auto-mapping, icons, help functions and separate, resizable windows for graphics and text, Wonderland, written by David Bishop and based on the works of Lewis Carroll, was a deliberate attempt to push the text adventure in a new, hi-tech direction. Magnetic Scrolls certainly succeeded in all their objectives, but the traditional text-based genre had already begun to die out as gamers craved more visually elaborate gaming experiences.
In 1991, Virgin Interactive released The Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol 1, containing new versions of The Guild of Thieves, Corruption and Fish! that took advantage of the Magnetic Windows engine. A second collection, containing their remaining games, was planned but never completed. As a consequence of the dying text adventure market, Magnetic Scrolls ceased publishing in 1992.[2] They were acquired by Microprose later that year. A number of Magnetic Scrolls' staff went on to help develop a 3D role-playing video game entitled The Legacy: Realm of Terror, which was released on the PC to lukewarm reviews, but Microprose didn't capitalise on the Magnetic Scrolls name beyond that.
In the late 1990s, Ken Gordon registered the magneticscrolls.com domain, but so far the accompanying web site remains empty.
Two programmers from Magnetic Scrolls, Doug Rabson and Servan Keondjian later formed the company RenderMorphics which produced the highly-acclaimed 3D Graphics API Reality Lab. In January 1995 another Magnetic Scrolls programmer Steve Lacey joined RenderMorphics and in February of the same year Microsoft acquired the company. Reality Lab became the basis for Direct3D. Doug and Servan are now at Qube Software, which they co-founded with Hugh Steers. Steve remained at Microsoft as the graphics engine lead on Microsoft Flight Simulator. In October 2006, Steve moved to Google. Sadly in 2011 Steve was killed in a car accident
John Molloy currently lives in Florida, USA, working on web based applications.
Phil South lives in Somerset, UK, and works at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
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