Codemasters founders awarded CBE

 

Gallery

By Stuart Turton

Posted on 16 Jun 2008 at 10:09

David and Richard Darling, founders of British game studio Codemasters, have been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

The two were made Commanders of the British Empire for developing Codemasters into one of the worlds leading game developers, with a string of acclaimed titles under its belt.

The studio began life in 1986 producing a host of "simulator games" for the much-beloved ZX Spectrum, with many of them daubed with endorsements from the company itself - a practice which brought it ridicule from the gaming press.

Their work on the Spectrum would ultimately lead them to create the Dizzy series of games, which featured a giant egg in boxing gloves that solved puzzles, and are now regarded as classics.

The brothers continued to court controversy by producing games for Camerica, which produced unlicensed games for the Nintendo Entertainments System. Unlike many of their brethren, the Darlings continued to keep Codemasters relevant, producing acclaimed titles such as Overlord, Colin McRae Dirt and the recent online Lord of the Rings game.

The brothers sold the company in 2007.