“Rewind riiiiight back to 1985.” begins Jon Hare, the original 8-bit rock star and hard code junkie, “We’d just done our first games for the Specturm, and we used to joke about doing this game called Drugged Out Hippy. The idea was that you played this guy who had several different drug addictions, and you had to keep them all going by running around picking magic mushrooms, drinking, smoking dope, that kind of thing. It was going to be a graphical adventure type game, like Mario – exploring, picking things up, that kind of game. Probably for the Spectrum or Commodore 64.”
 

Being a game addicted thirty-something like myself, who wandered into the vast and inescapable marshlands of responsible sometime in their late 20s, I know what you’re thinking: I’d totally play that game!
 

And as much as we wish it’d been there, proud in its double-cassette box on the shelves of the Computer Store, we know it would never have been allowed. The long line of conscientious objectors who’ve stalked videogames since the beginning would have kicked the Hippy to death before he’d popped a single ‘shroom. In retrospect, this sad truth is what would ultimately bring Sensible Software down from within, though the company can hold its head high knowing it made every effort to supply the disenchanted, mature gamer with a fix that would keep them tripping through clouds of diamonds for a long, long time.
 

This was still ten years before Jon and his long time hacker friend Chris Yates (who founded Sensible together in 1986) would attempt to create a genuine and unabashed adult themed game, however, but the years of joking about how the tragic fringes of society might squander their dole money on licentiousness and drug abuse generated a wealth of potential back story for just such a title. While not actively pursued, the idea refused to lay dormant, until idle banter organically evolved into a fully fleshed game premise.
 

 

“Somewhere between Drugged Out Hippy and Sex’n’Drugs’n’Rock’n’Roll, we actually put together a proper game design about this stuff. We had a story about this guy who had his drug habits and borrowed about two grand from some Hell’s Angels to buy some band gear and a van so he can get his band around, and he’s got two weeks to pay it back before they kick the shit out of him! So, he had to somehow make this money really really quick, while still maintaining his drug habits!”
 

But this wasn’t a company built on lofty dreams of digital self-abuse and the seedy, nocturnal grunge-rock lifestyle. Let’s face it; if the developers actually thought this game could fly, they probably wouldn’t have called the company Sensible Software. Nonetheless, the core premise of placing the player at the helm of a real life rock band, struggling in the gutter of the music industry, feeding a destructive drug habit and scoring extra points for nailing drunk chicks would have created the kind of media dust storm that sells games through sheer, antagonistic hype. You and I would definitely have bought it, but as Jon explained, the sectarian market simply wouldn’t have tolerated such a title.
 

“We soon realised we could never make this game commercial. It was on the fringes of what was legal, and also, most people wouldn’t have been able to relate to the world of playing in a band. A real band, that is, playing in shitty pubs and not getting anywhere. We decided the best way was to do it was show something that people would want to identify with, which is a band that starts out his way, but suddenly becomes an overnight success! Even if it’s a lot less realistic, it’s a story people actually hear more often and get’s to the interesting stuff more quickly.