'My accountant said [computer games] would fade out, like skateboarding.' Kevin Toms on how he helped create a genre
Over the last ten years, I've interviewed many of my childhood heroes - those talented coders I used to read about in the pages of Crash or Your Sinclair. But today is different, because back in 1982, not only did Kevin Toms create a smash hit game, he invented a whole new genre.
By the late 70s, Toms had already experienced a brush with computers, creating a simple Battleships game on an early programmable calculator. Then, in the early 80s, he spotted a TRS-80 clone while strolling in Tottenham Court Road."It was called the Video Genie, and it was way cheaper than the TRS-80," he explains."But it still cost £325 [around £1600 today]. My girlfriend at the time said it was a waste of money - I said, no, this is gonna make me money.
Under the hood, the key to Football Manager is its maths and match engine, as Toms explains."It uses the attributes of the teams but with a random element. It's a combination of algorithms and tuning, so in the end, the results are realistic. If a top team plays a bottom team, they'll normally win. But it doesn't always go to plan." In a unique respect, Toms was recreating the glorious uncertainty of football.
As with the ZX81, Sinclair transformed the market again in 1982 with its follow-up, the ZX Spectrum. Blessed with a 'massive' 48K of memory, the release of the popular computer compelled the bricks and mortar stores to take notice of the computer game phenomenon. Toms, still part-time, acknowledges this was another turning point."I finally went full time at the beginning of 1983 - all because of Spectrum orders from WH Smith.
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