History of Video Games in Ireland

JackoWacko18 · 11-11-2019 12:34pm #1

I'm thinking of doing a project on the history of video games in Ireland, but I need help, other than Wikipedia, is there any good websites that have information on video games in Ireland, on its sales, impact, popularity, history and advertisement, and on its reception to non gamers

Retr0gamer · 11-11-2019 1:48pm

Feck all written about it. Theres a few game studios here stretching back to the 8-bit micros but unlike the UK were coding was part of the education system, Ireland was way behind in this regard.

As for history, popularity and impact, well its very close to the UK so not that interesting a topic. PS1 apparently had the biggest install base per population in Ireland outside of Japan but then that might be a spiel that the Sony marketing told all European markets and I doubt it was far off the UK either.

As for non gamer perception, very nebulous, good luck finding anything on that that's actually documented and not newspaper scare stories.

Not sure you've thought this project through. Look for a more narrow focused topic with a lot more information on it. Game devs in Ireland in a specific era etc would be better and far more realisic

Grumpypants · 11-11-2019 2:55pm

Atari had their European HQ Limerick in the early 80's.

Popcap were prob the biggest name but got shut down a good few years ago.

Larian Studios (Divinity original sin and Baulders gate) & Romero Games (John made the original Doom, Brenda has Empire of sin coming soon). Have games in active development.

Stop moaning ffs · 11-11-2019 2:57pm

Probably off topic but maybe not but I know Dublin city center had loads and loads of arcades and even before game systems took off. Your folks maybe couldn’t afford to get you a Nintendo so you’d spend your pocket money in town on Saturday in the arcades.

Spear · 11-11-2019 3:29pm

Cinemaware and Gremlin Graphics both had a studio here back in the 80's/90's:

https://www.gremlinarchive.com/index.php/2016/05/23/gremlin-ireland-history/

Somedaythefire · 11-11-2019 3:31pm

PlayerUnknown would be a big recent one. PUBG obviously wasn't developed in Ireland but PU has an interesting backstory.

Grumpypants · 11-11-2019 3:50pm

Havok are an Irish company. Almost every game has their physics engine in it.

Retr0gamer · 11-11-2019 3:51pm

Speedfreaks was developed in Ireland, nice story there about how to get thrown under the bus by Sony.

Dave Perry who worked for Virgin Interactive and then formed Shiny before working on GaiKai which was bought out by Sony and is I think what PS Now is built on.

JimBurnley · 11-11-2019 4:44pm

Grumpypants wrote: »

Atari had their European HQ Limerick in the early 80's.

Popcap were prob the biggest name but got shut down a good few years ago.

Larian Studios (Divinity original sin and Baulders gate) & Romero Games (John made the original Doom, Brenda has Empire of sin coming soon). Have games in active development.

I know someone who worked at PopCap. EA takeover was the end of them here as far as I remember.

lynchtp · 11-11-2019 5:00pm

Boards.ie itself was created as a Quake forum.
The boards about page used to talk about it but no longer...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boards.ie has a little bit

Grumpypants · 11-11-2019 5:03pm

JimBurnley wrote: »

I know someone who worked at PopCap. EA takeover was the end of them here as far as I remember.

They paid a stupid amount for them. Back when people thought mobile gaming was going to be the next big thing and mobile studios were way over valued. I think it might have been over a billion dollars.

Robert ninja · 11-11-2019 5:46pm

JimBurnley wrote: »

I know someone who worked at PopCap. EA takeover was the end of them here as far as I remember.

I was at their offices when that takeover was happening. My manager sounded so excited when he said they were going to get access to so many new customers. I had no idea it was EA at the time (they were still making a mobile version of PlantsVZombies). Sad thinking of it now, their offices had such a nice atmosphere and work ethic.

gizmo · 11-11-2019 6:19pm

In terms of general resources, GameDevelopers.ie have a number of elements on their site which may be of use, including a Timeline, Map and the contents of their now archived forum which should contain information along the lines of what you're looking for.

There's also Imirt which should also have some potentially useful resources on their site.

In both cases, there are contact forms which you could use to see if someone could point you in the direction of more data.

H3llR4iser · 13-11-2019 12:31pm

For some interesting stories from a gamer's perspective, you might want to give a look at CruachanKeith's channel - he's frankly the only "retrogaming" Irish youtuber I know of.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCttHdBWM78o4qmYdGXanW_g

Some of his recollection about the time are interesting - coming from a different country, it's quite fun to compare what my experience being a gamer in Italy during the 80s and 90s compared to here.

Actually, he might be reading this channel as well.

Polar101 · 13-11-2019 1:09pm

Grumpypants wrote: »

Larian Studios (Divinity original sin and Baulders gate)

I thought they are from Belgium, what is the Irish connection?

History of Video Games in Ireland

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