Tim Skelly (February 10, 1951 – death reported March 2, 2020) was a

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

and

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 f ...

who developed arcade games for Cinematronics from 1978 until 1981. He designed a series of pure action games using black and white

vector graphics Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display ...

. One of his early games, '' Rip Off'', was the first arcade game with two-player cooperative play. '' Star Hawk'', '' Rip Off'', ''

Armor Attack ''Armor Attack'' is multidirectional shooter designed by Tim Skelly and released in arcades by Cinematronics in 1980. It was licensed to Sega in Japan. The vector graphics of ''Armor Attack'' present combat between the player's jeep and enem ...

'', and '' Star Castle'' were all later ported to the

Vectrex The Vectrex is a vector display-based home video game console–the only one ever designed and released for the home market, developed by Smith Engineering. It was first released for the North America market in November 1982 and then Europe an ...

home system. After leaving Cinematronics, he worked briefly for

Gremlin A gremlin is a mischievous folkloric creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft and later in other machinery and processes and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widel ...

before becoming an independent contractor with

Gottlieb Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an American arcade game corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. History The main office and plant was located at 1140-50 N. Kostner Avenue until the early 1970s when a new modern plant and office was lo ...

. His first game for Gottlieb was the esoteric '' Reactor'', and he had it written into his contract that he would get a credit on the title screen for designing the game. Previously, programmers had occasionally sneaked their names into their games as

easter eggs Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tra ...

, and Berzerk designer Alan McNeil's signature was on every cabinet, but ''Reactor'' was the first coin-op to have the designer's name appear in-game with the manufacturer's blessing. Skelly also designed two other games for Gottlieb, ''Insector'' and ''Screw Loose'', which were never released. Later he worked for Incredible Technologies, then Microsoft Research. In 1983, a book of video game cartoons by Tim Skelly was published as ''Shoot the Robot, then Shoot Mom''.

Games

Design and/or programming

*'' Star Hawk'' *'' Sundance'' *''

Warrior A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have be ...

'' *'' Rip Off'' *''

'' *'' Star Castle'', design *'' Reactor'' *'' Trivia Master'', programming, graphic design *''

BattleTech ''BattleTech'' is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2001, which was in turn acquired by Topps in 2003; and published since 2007 by Catalyst Game Labs. The tradema ...

'', software and hardware design for original game center in Chicago

Other roles

*''

Tail Gunner A tail gunner or rear gunner is a crewman on a military aircraft who functions as a gunner defending against enemy fighter or interceptor attacks from the rear, or "tail", of the plane. The tail gunner operates a flexible machine gun or a ...

'', producer, cabinet art *''

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a 1992 platform game developed by Sega Technical Institute (STI) for the Sega Genesis. It follows Sonic as he attempts to stop Doctor Eggman from stealing the Chaos Emeralds to power his space stationnamed The Death Egg. Like the first ''S ...

''. design advisor, art director *'' Slick Shot'', graphic design *'' Golden Tee Golf II'', artwork *'' Golden Par Golf'', artwork

Unreleased games

*''

War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was i ...

'' *''Insector'' *''Screw Loose''

References

Video game programmers 1951 births 2020 deaths {{videogame-bio-stub