Derbyshire lad Chris Sorrell has come a long way since pounding the streets of Matlock in the 80s. He's worked with the likes of Millennium Interactive, SCE Cambridge and Radical Entertainment, and has had a hand in creating world-famous video game franchises such as MediEvil and James Pond.
But there's one title which Sorrell remains almost inexorably linked with, more than 20 years after its release: James Pond's second outing, Codename Robocod. Originally released in 1991, this cute, colourful and incredibly playable 2D platformer is one of those unique breed of games which continues to be released in some shape and form right up the present day; the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS both received ports, and last year UK publisher System 3 announced its intention to remaster the game for home consoles and handhelds.
Sorrell is a disarmingly humble and modest individual, and one who doesn't take effusive praise easily. He entered the industry at the tender age of 16, teaming up with programmer Steve Bak after running into him in Alfreton's Gordon Harwood Computers, where he was then gainfully employed. "Steve was looking for a bitmap artist to help on a new game, and I was super keen to get my first break into the industry," Sorrell recalls. "I spent a week putting together a set of example images and was lucky enough to get the contract for the 16-bit editions of Spitting Image, which was based on the popular satirical puppet show of the period. Afterwards, Steve decided to set up Vectordean and in the space of a year, we had worked together on Dogs of War, Fire & Brimstone and Bad Company - for all of which I just provided the visuals."
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