MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Eugene Jarvis

> I've just seen this from Dave Spicer:
> Ref: http://www.fizyka.umk.pl/~jacek/zx/faq_old/whereis2.html#SPICER
>
> From David himself:
> After getting completely p*ssed off with the games industry, I went to Kent Uni to
> study VLSI circuit engineering. Once I'd completed my course, I spent 3 months
> writing Sparcade [for those who don't know, this is a very good arcade machine
> emulator, one of the first that appeared] with the intention of developing it
> commercially as a last "fling" before going into the electronics industry. However,
> no software companies were prepared to take it on, all lacking the foresight to see
> the imminent flood of interest in retro-gaming.
>
> Which is very interesting, because Dave and I exchanged many, many dozens of emails
> during 1995/1996, and I offered to financially back him (and I specifically mentioned
> quite large sums of money. e.g. well over $50,000) so that he could take his emulator
> commercial.
>
> He just wasn't interested. The licensing of games was too difficult, he said. Going
> commercial was going to be too painful and too much hassle and something he just
> didn't want to do. He never mentioned he was talking to "software companies" ....
> Maybe this was later ? He also never told me he was "p*ssed off with the games
> industry". But, even in his emails, I could feel a definite resistance there .... I
> just never knew what or why ! LOL !
>
> It's funny that he is slinging off that "no software companies were prepared to take
> it on, all lacking the foresight to see the imminent flood of interest in
> retro-gaming", when he had a solid financial backer (me) and he could have used my
> money to take his emulator commercial himself and (mostly) avoid having to deal with
> the "games industry" he was so "p*ssed off with".
>
> Anyway 17 years later and looking back, I'm kinda glad he didn't take me up on my
> offers. Way too many pirates, the rise of the free emulators, the almost complete
> lack of interest from the game companies in such projects (until much later), etc,
> and let's face it, Dave's heart just wasn't in going commercial.

Hmmm, I remember you offering to back a commerical venture. To be frank, a wad of cash was never going to do it and what I needed was the backing of a company able to secure a suitable licensing deal. If I'd taken your money, you would've probably ended up out of pocket with nothing to show for it.

The attempts to go commercial mentioned above predated any of my releases by a considerable time period. The first demo of Sparcade (then untitled) was pimped to various companies in the summer of 1995 and there was a distinct lack of interest from all of them. I remember Electronic Arts missing the point completely by saying they were "only interested in original titles".

Later, when Sparcade was doing well, there there were several enquiries from interested companies, all of which came to naught. The one that really annoyed me was Williams because it became evident they were talking to me about games they'd already comissioned from Digital Eclipse. I believe it was a case of the left hand not knowing what the right was doing rather than any deliberate attempt at deception.

If I'd gone with a backer post-release, it would've been with a company in the UK whose MD was a fan of Sparcade. They had the resources to do it, but by that stage I was more interested in developing my career in the electronics industry.

>He also never told me he was "p*ssed off with the games
> industry".

Again... you need to go further back. I was writing lousy budget games in the early 90s and grew to hate every minute of it. I quit in '92, only briefly returning to knock out a couple of early PC games for Codemasters.

Edited by Dave Spicer (07/19/12 04:24 PM)