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Darling Brothers, UK Indie Game Devs, Upgraded to CBE
scriptedfun writes "The BBC reports that David and Richard Darling, the brother tandem who founded Codemasters back in the mid-'80s from their bedroom, were recently made Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for their 'services to the computer games industry.' Their story is definitely inspiring for modern-day independent game developers." Naming such honorees annually is one of the perks of being Queen.
And yet, I can't name a single Codemasters game off the top of my head.
Pity she ain't a human being.
Most honourees, even those who disagree with the concept of hereditary monarchy (the majority), just go along with the whole deal.
Partly because it's not worth making a fuss over within the context of modern, laser-guided wrongdoings, but mostly for the improved ability to secure last-minute restaurant reservations.
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
Now you've done it, giving the Spectrum two mentions in one post.
I can feel the urge to re-awaken the old 'spectrum vs Commodore 64' argument rising.
Must....resist...
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
Firstly of course the award is not decided by the Queen. She is a constitutional monarch, and all such decisions are in theory made by minsters. Even they don't make most of the minor ones, delegating it to committees. This level of award confers such rights as your daughter being able to marry in St. Pauls Cathedral (the one Princess Di got married in), but little else. I'd also take exception to the notion that game development in the UK or elsewhere is a desirable career. It is so badly paid that it cannot be offshored to India because Indians won't work for that little. EA games and several other firms have been prosecuted for violations of minimum wage laws. Game developers are treated with a contempt that I have not seen in any industry (I've been a chemist, worked in banking, education, IT, journalism, night clubs and most recently headhunting), and none treat their staff so badly. Even the one nude model I know gets more respect from her employers.
Dominic Connor,Quant Headhunter
I was always a fan of Codemasters back in their Spectrum days (come on, it's time for a new generation of Dizzy games) so when someone from the company came to my university to give a talk on working for Codemasters I went along to see if I could be persuaded. Rather than selling the idea to me though, it really put me off. The gist of the talk was that Codemasters weren't interested in producing good games, only games that sold well. The guy actually said that the company wasn't interested in people who wanted to work on producing good games. I understood the point in principle, but the emphasis on commercialism ensured that I never even considered applying to them.
The Darlings are actually a musical group living in a shotgun shack in the hills near Mayberry.
The queen doesn't know anything.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I can see it now, in about 5 years a bunch of natural light evading geeks lined in front of the Queen:
(To the first one)
"Please accept this MBE for fragging 50 players in under a minute without taking damage"
"Thank you, Ma'am"
(To the second one)
"Please accept this MBE for pulling off a 53 hit combo in Street Fighter IV"
"Thank you, Ma'am"
(To the third one)
"Please accept this MBE for obtaining 100% completion in GTA V"
"Thank you, Ma'am"
etc.
Summation 2
(Actual Spectrum Screenshot)
I move to nominate David Braben and Ian Bell
MP3 Search Engine
It's actually the Honours Committees that puts together the list of people to be honored and they are guided by guidelines set up by the Prime Minister.
Spindizzy is not a Codemasters game, you are thinking of Dizzy. Spindizzy was a Marble Madness clone from Electric Dreams Software.
[Slashdot poster #1] "What could be possibly be more pathetic than _____?"
[Slashdot poster #2] "Apart from whining about it on Slashdot, you mean?"
Where _____ could be any of:
(i) Apathy to gradual loss of freedom;
(ii) RIAA's abuse of the courts;
(iii) Bribery of political officials;
(iv)
(v) Profit!
Oh look lol a meme lol, it's witty because it lacks originality.
If there's one thing many nerds are sorely lacking, it's.. well.. any sort of ability outside their narrow field of vision. Including the ability to analyse the wider impact of their decisions, which is why they're the grunts and not the management. And why, despite all their grandstanding, they're fairly easy to keep in check, and they have a rather shocking respect for power structure and authority. They can be as sycophantic as any petty bureaucrat in local government, as willing to kneel for that little morsel of favour.
Which is why I've been (-1, Troll)'d - I veered off the party line.
Actually, the GP AC (not me) has a point. If these titles were *only* ever awarded to people who actually have made enough of an impact to deserve them, then yes, they'd be something you could respect (just like you respect, say, a Nobel prize); but in reality, 95% of those having them got them for no other reason than having been born as part of the so-called nobility and aristocracy.
It's quite frankly insulting to everyone else that a life of hard, dedicated work will most likely not be enough to get the recognition that someone else gets simply because of who their parents were - simply because they're a member of the "network", so to speak.
Not that I'd turn down such an award myself, not at all, but I don't see these things as anything more than the occasional breadcrumb dropped from the tables of the rich elite.
So their games have been upgraded to run on the PS3?
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
"There ... I have this project for you ... I'm convinced you can't do it!" ;-)
Are you sure the majority of Britons disagree with a hereditary monarchy? I'd like to see at least a poll to back that up
Nothing to see here.
Must be a mushy atmosphere, where they work. "Hello Darling", "Bye, Darling", "We should add some blood and gore here, Darling".
Of course I don't have proof, that would be against the entire spirit of internet-based debate. But I was getting at a wider truth about the UK- There are many reasons to hate every country, the UK included, but one of the things I love is the progressive egalitarianism prevalent in the thinking classes; Announce at any formal social function that you are religious/believe in astrology/are pro-life/etc., and watch as the rest of the room politely get as far away from you as possible. Brilliant.
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
DO any poll thats not just in the mail/sun and it will be something like 20% get rid, 10% keep, 70% dont give a shit.
Given that shes not even the one who chooses who to give the awards to its not really an issue here. I personally would like to get rid of her, but there is some benefit to separating out your purely political honours to those given by 'the country' and while not perfect (i mean you can buy either apparently), it does In theory stop gordon or tony knighting all his mates.
Still if it were up to me the government should sack all the monarchy, reposes anything that they can use to make the country some money, then use it to cut our taxes, shame I dont trust any government to do that.
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
When I saw the title of TFA I thought it was about John and Michael Darling
I personally expect that most Britons would be apathetic to the idea of monarchy; and those receiving honours would perhaps be less so.
Nothing to see here.
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
Manners are a social construct that allows you to be much more nuanced in conveying the message 'fuck off'. This allows the true, high-end 'fuck off' to hit much harder than your diluted, one-size-fits-all insult. Manners rule.
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
I can see it now...Her Majesty reclining on the leatherette sofa with a bejewelled micro-switched joystick, playing Dizzy on her Amiga...
Oh, wait. It's not the Queen who picks people for the honours list, it's the honours committee. Truth be told, the Queen will probably have never heard of them, won't know who they are when she confers the honour and won't ever know.
To your more expansive ideas...about why people, through their actions, seek approval from others, and why this is a bad thing: What is it,exactly, that you've been smoking? People have been doing this for centuries, if not millennia.
According to WP (uncited), Codemasters were formed in 1985, and Mastertronic in 1983; but I certainly know that Mastertronic were releasing games in 1984. (In fact, having scanned the WP article for this comment, I find that apparently (uncited, again) the Darling brothers supplied many of the early Mastertronic games before going on to form Codemasters).
(*) Interestingly, I've seen no evidence that an equivalent segment existed in the US. Although the 8-bit market there was (AFAIK) mainly disc-based by that time, and Mastertronic did release some of their stuff over there on disc, you never hear Americans discussing it, which implies that it didn't really have the same success or cultural importance it did here- I mean, anyone who grew up in the UK during the 1980s had some Mastertronic/Codemasters/Firebird/etc games. Anyway, this might be because this was around the same time that the NES started doing really well in the US (**)- cartridge-based consoles being pretty unsuited to Mastertronic's business model- but I assume that the C64 market was still in reasonably good shape then.
(**) This contrasts with the UK, where (although the NES sold moderately (***)), the games market remained overwhelmingly computer-based until the early 1990s, when the Mega Drive (Genesis) and SNES started doing really well.
(***) Actually, the NES wasn't even dominant in its 8-bit console niche- it was outsold by the Sega Master System here, strange though that might seem (****) to the Americans or Japanese.
(****) How many levels of nested footnotes are too much?
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If I was a British citizen I'd take this opportunity to refuse the title as a protest against the USA-like paranoid police state UK is morphing itself into.
Not that being a somewhat famous changes anything in the politicians minds, but the message would reach a much wider audience among the public.
For those thinking "huh?"
http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/letters38.htm
http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/letters42.htm
Scroll down a bit.
When they were just starting out. They sort of ripped off my cousins company by getting a load of stuff out of them and not paying. Years later they sent him the cheque with interest after meeting up on Facebook
another Roadkill on the Information Superhighway
I can tell you don't go to many formal social functions. I, on the other hand, do and believe me that the majority of the 'thinking classes' (an amusing notion in itself) are nowhere near as closed-minded and discriminative as you seem to be, sir.
Pirate Party UK
I think you overestimate the size of the Royal Family's assets. Is what amounts to uprooting the foundation of the country worth a fiver's reduction in your tax burden (just think, you could buy yourself a newspaper and a burger with that!)?
Pirate Party UK
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
Codemasters is the company that made the Game Genie adaptors.
I met the Darling brothers, albeit very briefly, at a computer show back in the 80s. I was just a little kid trying to pitch a game I'd written for the Spectrum, with hopes of making it rich like those guys. The game was actually quite fun, but it was just a little strategy thing, hardly the sort of thing Codemasters would release. Worst of all, it was written in Basic (though I didn't tell them that!) Unsurprisingly, they didn't seem too impressed.
I have a bit of a history of trying to use Basic for entirely unsuitable tasks. I once made it onto a release in the Atari ST demo scene with a little thing I wrote with a friend in STOS Basic. Luckily I saw the error of my ways and learnt C and assembly language in the end... although it took an unhealthy obsession with OS development to finally persuade me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Woman
Not off topic. She did not get married in St Paul's Cathedral.
You sir, have provided a wonderful tagline for my sig file. "Of course I don't have proof, that would be against the entire spirit of internet-based debate.", shall now be attached to all future communications, and possibly a t-shirt.
Especially with the Megadrive (Genesis) cartridge coming with an extra 2 controller ports built in for some 4 player action, but something rings a bell, i'm sure you caould have 8 people playing??
Each person using one end of the controller as accel was always on, all you had to do was turn left or right in this mode.
Who said they were tolerant?
I appreciate that people can think whatever they like, but whether it's for their own good (e.g. the mentally ill, religionists...) or for a wider societal cause (pro-lifers, the far-right....), there's never been a better time to refuse to spare idiots one's ridicule.
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
good games for girls