Archer Maclean RIP

[SeanR]

It’s on twitter.

[strider]

Very sad news. Archer was a lovely bloke and wrote some cracking articles for us over the years.

[Swainy]

Found out about this yesterday and came as a big shock. Having met the man he came across really well, had plenty of great stories about what him and Jimmy White got up to while they were promoting Jimmy Whites Whirlwind Snooker. Plus he created IK+ which is one of my favourite games ever. 

[MarkN]

Loved his games. Dropzone made Defender actually accessible. Will be giving that a pop later. IK+ - how many hours did I spend playing that? I still actually remember buying the Snooker game from a shop in Hull. It's one of those random memories that just stuck. Me coming out of the game shop and opening a far larger than necessary carboard box with very little in it other than a manual and a floppy disk (with a great game on it).

 

I actually worked on one of his games, and met him briefly. When I was at Big Red Software we helped port Dropzone to the SNES, and I tweaked some of the graphics to make them a little nicer. Funny story actually. A colleague (who was far better than me at pixel art) had a go at redrawing the sprites for the main character, and did a beautiful job. I can still picture it in my head - a really nice chunky stylised little chap that would have worked brilliantly. Archer came along and said nah - I just wanted the originals tidied up a bit, and accepted everything I'd done instead (a little bit of anti-aliasing on the scenery IIRC, and the odd tweak to make things a little cleaner).

[Vimster]

That's genuinely sad. Many a happy hour playing Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker and Archer Maclean's Pool on the Amiga amongst others.

[yakumo]

That is sad, I will always associate him with Jimmy White's 'Whirlwind' Snooker. Though mine was a cracked copy at the time, I did buy an official version after my brother formatted the disk to my dismay with his homework.

 

EDIT: He did International Karate + too, also great memories deflecting those dang iron balls.

[Plissken]

IK+ is an all time classic. Many happy hours were spent on that. RIP Archer.

[Wiper]

Damn what a loss Loved Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker (1 & 2) and Dropzone.

[geldra]

Ah shit man, sad news indeed. 
 

Loved Dropzone, that explosion when you lose a life.
 

And IK+, again, masterful SFX. So playable. Loved all the little touches in the background and stuff. Same with the balls in Jimmy’s if you left the game alone for a few mins. 
 

RIP

[Clipper]

Oh man that gave me a tear in the eye and a lump in my throat, loved his work.
 

Such good memories of dropzone Ik+ and snooker as well as mercury on the psp years later.

 

im going to fire up the Amiga tonight 

 

Rest in Peace

[elyuw]

I’m ready sad about this, he wasn't prolific but created some absolute masterpieces. RIP Archer. 

[Anne Summers]

What happened to him? He can't have been old at all.

[Steven]

RIP - many hours spent dying in Dropzone and screaming at mates playing IK.

[Swainy]

39 minutes ago, Anne Summers said:

What happened to him? He can't have been old at all.

He had been battling cancer since 2018. He was only 60.

[Sureshot]

Very sad news. Like others have mentioned, played a hell of a lot of IK+ back in the day. Truly one of the greats. RIP

[MarkN]

Just remembered he went into arcade cabinet restoration, and provided Jeff Minter with a beautiful Tempest cabinet on a birthday or on a game release - thing of beauty.

 

Actually - fucking hell - my memory! Blitz Games got him to make an original Pac Man cabinet when we worked on Pac Man World 3. It was so lovely. I wonder what happened to it...

[Nathan Wind]

Shit one this  

 

 

[Goose]

This is crap news. He made some of the best games I've played. And his love for arcade machines and the like was amazing

 

A sad loss.

[bradigor]

Sad news. I just started a new playthrogh of Mercury last week. Loved so many of his games 

[SeanR]

I just remembered, my mate brought up dropzone as proof of the Atari 8-bits superiority 

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropzone?fbclid=IwAR2qGS8_An8HyNt7SKk-zBxb8i9_0klEmxJLHAh_hJlZdILmefUjCSHOzMo

 

 

[Anne Summers]

13 hours ago, MarkN said:

Just remembered he went into arcade cabinet restoration, and provided Jeff Minter with a beautiful Tempest cabinet on a birthday or on a game release - thing of beauty.

 

 

@jon_cybernet and I played on this when we went to visit Jeff in Wales a few years back. 

[Monkeyspill]

That’s sad.

 

I was a big fan of his Commodore 64 stuff, then later the snooker and pool sims he made.

 

 

[crocked]

Gone too soon. Rest in peace. IK+ was one of my favourite games on the Amiga. Jimmy whites snooker was great as well and I liked the little touches he added in like the pants falling down in IK+ or the balls making faces in Jimmy Whites. He brought a cheeky personality to the games so you felt he really cared.

[aidey6]

I loved IK+ and Dropzone even though I was rubbish at the latter

 

As others have said, such a sad loss 

 

[MattyP]

Sad news. His games will live on. Played a lot of Dropzone, IK and Jimmy Whites Whirlwind Snooker. 

 

Might be time to dig out that C64 emulator and fire up Dropzone when I get back home.

 

RIP 

[Unofficial Who]

34 minutes ago, MattyP said:

Sad news. His games will live on. Played a lot of Dropzone, IK and Jimmy Whites Whirlwind Snooker. 

 

Might be time to dig out that C64 emulator and fire up Dropzone when I get back home.

 

RIP 

 

I've played Dropzone on both C64 and Atari 800 emulators, the Atari one is the one to go for. Just has the edge over the C64 version. It was Archer's preferred version back in the day as well.

[MattyP]

2 hours ago, Unofficial Who said:

 

I've played Dropzone on both C64 and Atari 800 emulators, the Atari one is the one to go for. Just has the edge over the C64 version. It was Archer's preferred version back in the day as well.

Never owned an Atari unfortunately but remember that back in the day... So the Atari one it will be!

[mwaawm]

Very sad news....JWWS, IK+, Archer Macleans Pool.... Great gifts to us gamers.

[merman]

I loved meeting and talking to Archer at retro events over the past twenty years, and had the pleasure of interviewing a few times either on his own or as part of a panel. A genuinely nice guy and an incredibly talented programmer.

[Gregory Wolfe]

This one hurt, I never met him. If I could pay him the sincerest compliment I can muster, he was like the Jimmy White of computer programming, the peoples' champion.

 

RIP champ.