Apex Computer Productions was the brothers

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Seco ...

and Steve Rowlands,

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

based

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

s and programmers on the Commodore 64 in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They programmed in pure assembly language and their earliest commercial release was '' Cyberdyne Warrior'', a platform shooter, for Hewson in 1989. Soon after, they entered a relationship with

Thalamus The thalamus (from Greek θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter located in the dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of the forebrain). Nerve fibers project out of the thalamus to the cerebral cortex in all direction ...

, the game publishing arm of

Newsfield Newsfield Publications Ltd (also known as Newsfield) was a British magazine publisher during the 1980s and early 1990s. Newsfield Publications Ltd was founded by Roger Kean, Franco Frey and Oliver Frey in 1983. Based in Ludlow, Shropshire, Newsf ...

, who published their next game, Retrograde.

Thalamus relationship

After ''Creatures'', Apex began work on the sequel '' Creatures II: Torture Trouble'', still developing on the Commodore 64. In a startling coup—since Thalamus were associated with a rival magazine publisher in Newsfield, the home of ''

ZZAP!64 ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazi ...

'' — ''

Commodore Format ''Commodore Format'' was a British magazine for users of the Commodore 64 home computer. It was published on the third Thursday of every month. All 61 issues were produced by Future plc. These came towards the end of the machine's commercial life ...

'' (Future Publishing) secured the rights to serialise the development of the game, which again proved very popular. ''Creatures II'' was received favorably by the critics. ''Creatures II'' focused more on the popular torture screens than on the side-scrolling platforming of ''Creatures''. Thalamus collapsed shortly after the publication of ''Creatures II'', as the Commodore 64 had started to wane in popularity. Apex then decided to publish for themselves.

Solo

Mayhem in Monsterland ''Mayhem in Monsterland'' is a 1993 platform game for the Commodore 64. Its titular hero, "Mayhem", is a yellow triceratops blessed with the gift of speed. His goal is to return his world from sad to happy, ridding the world of monsters along t ...

'' was their swan song. Platformers had become very popular, with ''

Sonic The Hedgehog is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformer ...

'' and ''

Super Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game ''Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for th ...

'' on the consoles. ''Mayhem'' was a game fashioned after ''Sonic'', though mostly a direct descendant of ''Creatures''. ''Mayhem in Monsterland'' was given a "perfect" 100% score when reviewed by ''

'' magazine.https://commodoreformat.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/cf38_nov1993.jpg This proved controversial both because the game contained bugs (not all stars could be collected on all levels), and because the Rowlands brothers had close ties with the magazine, documenting the development of the game in game diary features.

Games

*'' Cyberdyne Warrior'' ( Hewson, 1989) *'' Retrograde'' (

Thalamus Ltd The thalamus (from Greek θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter located in the dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of the forebrain). Nerve fibers project out of the thalamus to the cerebral cortex in all directions, ...

, 1989) *''

Creatures Creature often refers to: * An animal, monster, or Extraterrestrial life, alien Creature or creatures may also refer to: Film and television * Creature (1985 film), ''Creature'' (1985 film), a 1985 science fiction film by William Malone * Creat ...

'' (Thalamus Ltd, 1990) *'' Creatures II: Torture Trouble'' (Thalamus Ltd, 1992) *''

'' (Apex, 1993)

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web, url=http://www.itproportal.com/2011/05/09/museum-computing-launches-bedroom-coding-day/, title=Museum of Computing launches bedroom coding days, author=Staff Writer, publisher=ITProportal, date=9 May 2011, accessdate=28 January 2012 {{cite web, url=http://punto-informatico.it/2623809/PI/News/vita-oltre-morte-del-c64.aspx , title=La vita oltre la morte del C64 , date=15 May 2009 , author=Fabrizio Bartoloni , accessdate=28 January 2012 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111221074302/http://punto-informatico.it/2623809/PI/News/vita-oltre-morte-del-c64.aspx , archivedate=21 December 2011 Video game development companies Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom