Patrick Buckland is a British

video game programmer A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

and chief executive officer of

Stainless Games Stainless Games is an independent British video game developer based in Newport, Isle of Wight, that is best known for the creation of the ''Carmageddon'' franchise. History Originally named Stainless Software, the company was founded in Au ...

, which he co-founded with Neil Barnden in 1994.

Career

Buckland is a video games pioneer, having been in the industry since 1982.

Crystal Quest

In 1985 Buckland developed one of the first Macintosh games, the shareware title Crystal Raider. A year after the game's release, Buckland decided to work on a follow up,

Crystal Quest ''Crystal Quest'' is an action game written by Patrick Buckland for the Macintosh and published by Casady & Greene in 1987. It was ported to the Apple IIGS in 1989 by Rebecca Heineman. Ports were also made to the Amiga, Game Boy, iOS, and Pal ...

, which would take the gameplay of its predecessor, and add new features. The game ended up ported to numerous other platforms, including the

Apple IIgs The Apple IIGS (styled as II), the fifth and most powerful of the Apple II family, is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Computer. While featuring the Macintosh look and feel, and resolution and color similar to the Amiga and Atari ST ...

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

Nintendo Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same tea ...

Palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

and much later, PC and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

Stainless Software

In 1993, Along with Neil Barnden, Buckland started up Stainless Software "in order to concentrate on games". Among their first clients was Argonaut Games, who contracted the team to work on 3D engine development. Two years later, in 1995, the company landed their first games contract, with British publisher SCi, after pitching a title called "3D Destruction Derby" in 1994. Originally, the game was intended by the publisher to be a licensed

Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian post-apocalyptic Action film, action film series and media franchise created by George Miller (filmmaker), George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It began in 1979 with ''Mad Max (film), Mad Max'', and was followed by thre ...

title, but SCi couldn't get their hands on the licence. Next, in anticipation of a sequel to the cult 1975 film ''

Death Race 2000 ''Death Race 2000'' is a 1975 American science fiction action film produced by Roger Corman, directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine. The film takes place in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, where the murderous Transco ...

'', the game was titled Death Race 2020. The film sequel fell through, and it was decided to just do it without the license. ''

Carmageddon ''Carmageddon'' is a vehicular combat video game released for personal computers in 1997. It was produced by Stainless Games and published by Interplay Productions and Sales Curve Interactive. It was later ported to other platforms, and spawned ...

'' was released in mid 1997 – using the BRender engine – and immediately topped the UK games charts, with other charts worldwide following suit soon after.

VIS entertainment

In 1999 the company was absorbed into Scottish based developer

VIS Entertainment VIS Entertainment Limited (formerly known as VIS Interactive) was a British video game developer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company was founded in 1996 by Chris van der Kuyl and Peter Baillie. In April 2003, VIS Entertainment acquired B ...

. Most notable among the many projects that Buckland worked on as part of VIS was 2001's State of Emergency (video game), which saw him attached to the game midway through development as executive director and design consultant. In 2001 a rally project at VIS for

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

was cancelled, and VIS began restructuring itself. As part of this process, Patrick Buckland spun-off Stainless Games as an independent company again, which was financed by Les Edgar, founder of

Bullfrog ''Bullfrog'' is a common English language term to refer to large, aggressive frogs, regardless of species. Examples of bullfrogs include: Frog species America * Helmeted water toad (''Calyptocephalella gayi''), endemic to Chile *American bullfr ...

and ex-chairman of VIS.

Stainless Games

remains independent to this day, and is based in Newport on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

. The company has released a number of titles, including a port of

, Scrabble 2007 edition,

Red Baron Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

, Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm,

Warlords A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

Tempest Tempest is a synonym for a storm. '' The Tempest'' is a play by William Shakespeare. Tempest or The Tempest may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * ''The Tempest'' (1908 film), a British silent film * ''The Tempest'' (1911 film), a ...

, Battlezone,

Asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

Missile Command ''Missile Command'' is a 1980 shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and licensed to Sega for Japanese and European releases. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game '' Temp ...

Centipede Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , " foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an ...

Millipede Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...

, Novadrome, RISK: Factions, Carmageddon: Max Damage and most notable Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers. He was wholly or partly responsible for the production of

videogame Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedb ...

s such as ''

'', ''

'', '' Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now'', '' Carmageddon: Reincarnation'' and '' Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers''. He also produced a range of non-game software over the years, including AME, a security system used by (amongst others) the CIA and NASA, Crash Barrier, a crash recovery utility for the Macintosh, a Teletext authoring system, CAD software for the marine industry, retail packaging CAD systems, LeLisp for the French government, Structured BASIC or the Apple // and various other software packages.

Games

Games and other major products produced by or including code written by Buckland include *Structured Basic (Apple II) – UMicro *Liberator (Apple II) – Thorn EMI *Submarine Commander (Apple II) – Thorn EMI *

MacCharlie The MacCharlie is a hardware add-on for the Apple Macintosh that was made by Dayna Communications. The name refers to an IBM PC advertising campaign of the time featuring Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp" character. It allows users to run DO ...

(Mac) –

Dayna Communications Dayna Communications, Inc., was a privately-held American computer company, active from 1984 to 1997 and based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It primarily manufactured networking products for Apple Computer's computing platforms, including the Macint ...

*LeLisp (Mac) – ACT Informatique *Crystal Raider (Mac) – Shareware *''

(Mac/Amiga/GS/DS/PocketPC/Palm/Mobile/XBLA) – Casady & Greene/Infinite Ventures/HandsOn/Stainless'' *Telewriter (Mac) – Teletext *Nest (Mac) – ICS *Axxon (Mac) – Axxon *'' Sky Shadow (Mac) – Casady & Greene'' *Crash Barrier (Mac) – Casady & Greene *AME (Mac) – Casady & Greene *'' Crystal Crazy (Mac) – Casady & Greene'' *Mercury (Mac) – Aaron *Medical reference multimedia (PC) – Times Mirror Group *BRender (Mac + PC Demo software etc.) – Argonaut *''

'' (PC/Mac) – SCi *Carmageddon: Splat Pack (PC) – SCi *'' Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now (PC/Mac) – SCi'' *''

State of Emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...

'' (PS2) – Rockstar Games *'' Novadrome'' (XBLA) – Stainless/Disney *'' Pocket Bike Racer'' (Xbox/X360) – Blitz *'' Centipede (XBLA)''/''

'' (XBLA) – Atari *''

'' (XBLA)/''

Asteroids Deluxe ''Asteroids Deluxe'' is a vector graphic multidirectional shooter released in arcades in April 1981 by Atari Inc. as the sequel to ''Asteroids''. It was followed by ''Space Duel'' in 1982 and ''Blasteroids'' in 1987. Key changes in ''Asteroids D ...

'' (XBLA) – Atari *'' Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm'' (XBLA) – Sega *''

'' (XBLA) – Atari *''

'' (XBLA) – Atari *'' Battlezone'' (XBLA) – Atari *''Atari Classics'' (PSP) – Atari *''

'' (PC/PS3-PSN) – Sierra Online *Scrabble (DS/PSP – EA version) – EA *'' Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers'' various versions, 2009-2017 (Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, PS3, PS4, iOS, Android) – Wizards of the Coast *'' Risk: Factions'' (XBLA) – EA *'' Carmageddon: Reincarnation'' (PC) – Stainless Games self-published *'' Carmageddon: Max Damage'' – (PC, PS4 & Xbox One) Stainless Games self-published *''Carmageddon: Crashers'' (iOS & Android) – Stainless Games self-published The above list excludes a number of cancelled projects (some of which were major and near completion), minor contract work, and confidential projects. Crystal Quest received a number of awards when released on the Mac in 1987, as did Carmageddon and Carmageddon II in 1997 and 1998 respectively. Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers broke all sales records on the XBLA platform when it was released in June 2009, although these records were broken again by other titles shortly afterward.

Other interests

In 2013, Buckland was one of a consortium of British individuals who bought the rights back to the sports car manufacturer TVR, from Nikolay Smolensky. The new company, TVR Manufacturing Ltd, is already taking deposits for an all-new vehicle developed in conjunction with

Gordon Murray Ian Gordon Murray (born 18 June 1946 in Durban, Union of South Africa), is a South African-born British designer of Formula One racing cars and the McLaren F1 road car. He is the founder and CEO of Gordon Murray Automotive. Early life Born t ...

and

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...

Personal life

He was born in London and moved to the

at the age of 2. Buckland still lives on the Isle of Wight with his wife and two children and is a direct descendant of renowned geologist/palaeontologist

William Buckland William Buckland DD, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and palaeontologist. Buckland wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named ' ...

and his son, renowned zoologist Frank Buckland.

References

External links

Stainless Games website

"Playing Catch Up: Stainless Games' Patrick Buckland"
Alistair Wallis ''Gamasutra'', 14 December 2006 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buckland, Patrick Year of birth missing (living people) British technology chief executives British video game designers British video game programmers Living people