Digital Image Design (DID) was a British

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

founded by Martin Kenwright and Phillip Allsopp in 1989. It was originally based in

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

in England. The company specialized in aircraft simulator games, mostly published by

Ocean Software Ocean Software Ltd was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European video game developers and video game publisher, publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and wa ...

. DID expanded following the release of '' TFX'', ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

'', and '' EF2000'', and subsequently moved offices to

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

. During this period, the technology from one of its products was spun off into a military laser designation simulator and they would also produce professional flight simulators for customers such as the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

and

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

. After being taken over by

Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Bec ...

, key members of staff including Kenwright and Mick Hocking left to form

Evolution Studios Evolution Studios Ltd. was a British video game developer based in Runcorn, Cheshire. The company was founded in 1999 by Martin Kenwright and Ian Hetherington, following the purchase of their studio Digital Image Design's publisher Ocean Softwa ...

together with

Ian Hetherington Ian Hetherington (June 1952 – 14 December 2021) was a British businessman who co-founded computer games developer Psygnosis. Biography He was a co-founder of Psygnosis, a company that developed computer games. Along with Jonathan Ellis, Hethe ...

from

Psygnosis Psygnosis Limited (known as SCE Studio Liverpool or simply Studio Liverpool from 1999) was a British video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher headquartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool. Founded in 1984 by Ian Hether ...

. The company was subsequently sold to

Rage Games Limited Rage Games (formerly Rage Software) was a British video game developer. Formed in Liverpool in 1992, its video games were marked by an emphasis on graphical effects with arcade gameplay. Rage's first title '' Striker'' sold more than one mi ...

. After the demise of Rage Games Limited, a company named Juice Games appeared in the same Warrington office, with some key members of staff. Juice Games later became THQ Digital Studios UK.

Games

* '' F29 Retaliator'' (1989) * ''

RoboCop 3 ''RoboCop 3'' is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Fred Dekker and written by Dekker and Frank Miller. It is the sequel to the 1990 film ''RoboCop 2'' and the third entry in the ''RoboCop'' franchise. It stars Robert Bur ...

'' (1991) * '' Epic'' (1992) * '' TFX'' (1993) * ''

'' (1994) * '' EF2000'' (1995) * '' EF2000: TACTCOM'' (1996) * '' F-22: Air Dominance Fighter'' (1997) * ''

F-22 Total Air War ''F-22 Total Air War'', also known as Total Air War or by its acronym TAW, is a combat flight simulation video game developed by Digital Image Design and published by Infogrames United Kingdom in 1998. It simulates the F-22 Raptor fighter aircra ...

'' (1998) * ''Lethal Encounter'' (unreleased) * ''

Wargasm ''WARGASM'' (or ''War Ground Air Special Missions'') is a 3D shooter / real-time strategy game developed by Digital Image Design and published by Infogrames for Microsoft Windows in 1998–1999. Gameplay The game uses the 3Dream engine to proc ...

'' (1998) * ''

Eurofighter Typhoon The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo ...

'' (2001) * '' Eurofighter Typhoon: Operation Icebreaker'' (2002)

References

External links

* Runcorn Video game companies established in 1989 Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Cheshire {{UK-videogame-company-stub