THE BUTLER DID IT...PART ONE Blimey!Here's a first, Simon Butler stuck for words.I've been asked very nicely to do a blog and to be brutally honest I've never done anything like this before so it's all a bit daunting really.Still, (takes deep breath) loads of people do it all the ...Posted by tandemar on Jun 7, 2010 21:13 (Jun 7, 2010 21:13) |
 Blimey! Here's a first, Simon Butler stuck for words. I've been asked very nicely to do a blog and to be brutally honest I've never done anything like this before so it's all a bit daunting really. Still, (takes deep breath) loads of people do it all the time so it can't be that hard. But having said that, loads of people drive cars and that's always remained beyond me so who knows, anything could happen really. Anyway...here we go. Firstly I shall in the proceedings attempt to stay as close to the truth, while endeavouring to keep things as honest and unbiased as possible but also injecting a smidge of Butlerisms into the mix without offending anyone to any great degree. Lord knows, the clouds of Jof-Gate are still to disappear completely. But in my defense, I have never been one to suffer fools gladly, which is strange because for the most part during my "memorable" years in the industry I was one of the biggest, or at least spent a great wodge of my time acting like one. So...here we are. I have asked the powers that be on this here retro thingummyjig what exactly they wish me to waffle on about and have been requested, again I must stress, very politely to put into some semblance of order the exact series of events that got me into games. Are we sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin... Back in 1983, in between acting like a galoot while going through the motions of doing my BA in graphic design at what was then Liverpool Polytechnic and having dreams of moving into the wonderful world of advertising I saw an ad in the Liverpool Echo. "Computer games company seeks artists..." or something along those lines. Sounds fun, I thought, as I was not unaccustomed to spending vast tracts of what should have been educational time in the local amusement arcades throwing what seemed like endless ten pences into any and all machines I could get myself stood in front of. I was about to apply when it was brought to my attention that there were only eight months or so before my three year course was due to finish and it would be time spent well as I would for the first time actually have some form of qualification other than O levels to wave in front of my eternally despairing parents to prove that I was not the shiftless lump that they so obviously considered me to be. Reason never being a logical companion of mine, for once held sway and I decided not to apply for the job but passed the information on to my best friend and oft-times companion in galootishness, one Steve Cain. He applied, was interviewed and found himself as Lead artist at Imagine before you could say Ah Diddums. I called in to see him a few times and while it did indeed look like a fairly interesting and slightly strange, if not wacky (terrible 80's word for which I shan't apologise) I still had my eyes on the prize and my graduation which arrived in the June of 1984. But I get ahead of myself. Once Steve was esconced in the hallowed halls of the soon to be terribly doomed and impecunious Imagine Software he contacted me saying that they needed an artist because there was a deadline de blah de blah. (de blah de blah is a technical term that those in the industry know as "the usual bullshit") I tried to explain that I knew nothing about pixel graphics and while I know that there are probably people today who would state that I still don't I shall merely snort with derision and shrug off such comments while trying desperately to regain my train of thought. Mr Cain pointed out that not only did he have every confidence in me, bless his cotton socks, for they were indeed cotton, he was my friend and I know such things...but he also hastened to add that a monkey could do game graphics at that particular juncture in the industry and having looked at many games in my time, I would add that today those self same monkeys are still hard at it. But I digress...get used to it. So, having met with the powers that be at Imagine; Messers Butler and Lawson who never so much as batted an eye when I named what was at the time a ludicrous and prohibitively high salary for three days work, I soon found myself hidden away in the bowels of the powerhouse of gaming innovation of the fair city of Liverpool. I was then presented with my task; to create all graphics for the BBC version of Pedro's Garden. I shall pause for a second while those among you regain consciousness or fight for breath stolen by the sheer magnitude of such an event. Being facetious is great isn't it? Anyway, I was given some other version of this awesome release to use for reference along with stacks of hand drawn pencil sprites on the always reliable and ubiquitous (good word eh? dead poncey me.) graph paper!!! Where would we have been without graph paper back in the day? Gordon Bennett, the number of hours spent filling in little black squares just doesn't bear thinking about. And to digress once again..BEAR...is it just me or does anyone else ever pause when they need to write this word, when they mean to tolerate, to endure or even...to brook? To me bear is a bear...Pooh or Yogi (showing my age) or something generally large with fur and teeth made to gnaw on lumberjacks or lost tourists. The English Language...gotta love it...but that's another blog for another day. Providing I ever get around to finishing this one. Where was I? Ah yes, Graph Paper. And now that I have grasped the tenous string of thought that remains to me I shall sign off for the evening as there is one final bottle of Becks squirreled away at the back of the fridge, behind a rather large cabbage, and it is calling me from afar. The Becks, not the cabbage. See you tomorrow perchance.... Part 2 |
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Jun 9, 2010 12:34:26 (
Jun 9, 2010 11:34
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