Derek Brewster | Code Like It's 198x

For nearly four years Derek Brewster was on both sides of the counter. Each month he answered CRASH readers stuck in text adventures, and in the same years the magazine reviewed his own Spectrum games: the 3D space battle Codename MAT scored 93% in the issue that launched his column. When Your Spectrum reviewed his adventure Kentilla, its reviewer decided that it was only fair to mark it the way Brewster marked everybody else’s. At the end of 1987 he left CRASH for Newcastle to help set up Zeppelin Games, a budget publisher that later became the racing-game developer Eutechnyx.

Fast facts

Born: Durham, according to Computer and Video Games in January 1985.
Own label: Neptune Computing, which first published his adventure Velnor’s Lair.
Games: Velnor’s Lair, Haunted Hedges, Starclash, Codename MAT, Kentilla, Jasper, Codename MAT II, Winter Olympiad 88, World Soccer.
In CRASH: the Adventure Trail column, from issue 4 (May 1984) to issue 48 (January 1988), 45 issues in all.
Co-founded: Zeppelin Games, Newcastle, 1987, with Brian Jobling and Martin O’Donnell. Zeppelin later became Eutechnyx.

From a mainframe to the Spectrum

Computer and Video Games made Brewster its “Designer of the Month” in January 1985. It said he first used a computer while studying geophysics at university, where the first game he played was Colossal Adventure on the university mainframe. During his three years there he wrote an adventure of his own, which “he admits wasn’t earth shatteringly brilliant”. He bought a Spectrum as soon as it came out and began writing in machine code, and he told the magazine how long that took to learn: “only one day”, adding, “Machine code is very easy to learn. But you never stop learning.” (Amiga Format later called him “Dr Derek Brewster”.)

His first commercial adventure, Velnor’s Lair, came out under his own label, Neptune Computing, and was then taken on by Quicksilva, which listed it at £6.95. By early 1984 he was writing for Micromega. CRASH reviewed his Haunted Hedges in its first issues, a 3D maze game “marketed by Micromega” with the note “Derek Brewster is Neptune Computing”. Micromega also sold his shoot-’em-up Starclash.

Codename MAT

Brewster’s biggest game went through several names. CRASH reported in April 1984 that he had called it Invasion 2000, that Micromega had code-named it “Hank” “for the sake of calling it something”, and that he had “wistfully told me that Micromega never used his titles”. It came out as Code Name MAT, a space combat game that, CRASH promised, did not just look 3D but “actually works completely in three dimensional space”. CRASH gave it 93% in May 1984, and in a July survey of 3D on the Spectrum called it “probably the most sophisticated 3D game yet”. A sequel, Codename MAT II, came out through Domark in 1985 for the Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC, advertised as “by Derek Brewster”.

In November 1984 CRASH reviewed two new Micromega games in one issue, both by Brewster. Kentilla was an illustrated text adventure and a follow-up to Velnor’s Lair. Jasper was something else: “an all swinging, all singing, all dancing jump, hop and collect game in the tradition of Jet Set Willy”. It scored 91%. Personal Computer Games put a Jasper demo on its Christmas cover tape, and the same autumn invited Brewster to a games contest in its offices with Jeff Minter, Tony Crowther, Kevin Toms and Steve Turner.

The Adventure Trail

CRASH admitted in October 1984 that it had two weak spots, adventure games and strategy games. The first had been solved when “Derek Brewster kindly agreed to write an adventure column”; strategy went to a separate wargamers’ column by Angus Ryall of Games Workshop, and later to Sean Masterson and Philippa Irving. Brewster’s column started in issue 4, in May 1984, with an introduction his readers would see many times:

DEREK BREWSTER has been an ardent adventurer for some time, and not content to merely play the games, he put his programming talents to good effect and produced one of the earlier successful adventures for the Spectrum, Velnor’s Lair.

The first column set out how it would work. Readers sent in their problems, and “if we cannot answer your problem we will ask other readers for suggestions”. It also started a separate Adventure Trail chart, because, Brewster wrote, adventures fared badly in the magazines’ ordinary charts. Brewster rated each game under five headings (Your Spectrum noticed this and turned it on him), and readers’ pleas for help ran in a section called Signpost, later Signstumps.

He used the column for opinions as well as tips. In November 1984 he argued against judging an adventure by whether it was written in machine code. Machine code was more flexible in theory but slower to write, he said, so it was often the adventures that used some BASIC that showed “originality both in display, theme and plot”, and “at a time when the Spectrum has been pushed to its limits, imagination, theme and plot are now the decisive factors”. He wrote about adventures made with Gilsoft’s Quill, and in May 1987 he called Gilsoft’s Professional Adventure Writer “a work of genius”. In June 1987 the column grew into a 17-page Adventure Trail Extra of reviews, tips, maps and letters.

Reviewed by his readers

Brewster’s games kept coming out while he wrote the column. CRASH called Kentilla the work of “our very own Derek Brewster” when Mastertronic’s cheap re-release reached number 10 in its chart in January 1987. Other magazines made more of the double role. Your Spectrum reviewed Kentilla in December 1984 and pointed out that “Mr Brewster writes an adventure column for a certain Spectrum games review magazine, where he gives each adventure a rating under five different headings. It seems fair, therefore, to rate his own adventure in the same way.” One of its three reviewers, still stuck in a ten-location section after three hours, marked it 2 out of 5: “I’d have expected something better from someone who tells people what’s wrong with their adventures.” A second also gave it 2, and the third 4.

Kentilla had a further twist. In April 1988 Your Computer’s adventure column reported that Mastertronic’s budget re-release, “seemingly identical in every respect to the original”, had somehow acquired two fatal bugs: a silver dagger the game would not let the player pick up, and a character who would not help at the moment the player needed him.

Zeppelin Games

CRASH’s January 1988 issue announced the end of the column: “sadly Derek Brewster is leaving CRASH after 45 issues as our guide on the Adventure Trail. The veteran programmer is helping set up a software house and just won’t have the time to write for a while.” In May the magazine reported that he had “left for Newcastle to help set up a new budget software company, Zeppelin Games”. Its first Spectrum games were Frontline and Sabotage at £2.99, and its blue-striped re-release label began “with two Derek Brewster classics”, Codename Mat and Jasper, at £1.99.

According to a 2013 Retro Gamer history of the company, Brewster had met Brian Jobling at Tynesoft, where Jobling was working as a programmer, and the two founded Zeppelin in November 1987. Brewster wrote Tynesoft’s Winter Olympiad 88, which CRASH reviewed in February 1988 as the work of “former CRASH adventure reviewer Derek Brewster”. Amiga Format’s 1992 industry A-Z names the founders as “Dr Derek Brewster, Martin O’Donnell and Brian Jobling”. Zeppelin also re-released Mervyn Estcourt’s Micromega games Deathchase and Full Throttle, Retro Gamer says “through Derek Brewster’s contacts with Micromega”. Retro Gamer also credits Brewster with Speed King 2 for the Spectrum, published by Mastertronic.

The new company was noticed. ACE printed a photograph in March 1988 captioned “Derek Brewster surrounded by the Zeppelin crew”, and in January 1989 CRASH called it “Derek Brewster’s, Tyneside-based Zeppelin Games” when it signed a sales and marketing deal with Digital Inspiration. The reviews were less kind. Your Sinclair wrote in November 1988 that “Derek Brewster’s new label has yet to make much of an impact in chart terms”.

Retro Gamer says Brewster and O’Donnell left Zeppelin in 1989, after which Jobling’s brother Darren joined. One more Brewster game came out on the label: the football management game World Soccer, which Sinclair User reviewed in March 1990, noting that it was “written by someone called Derek Brewster, who Zeppelin describe as ‘former celebrity’”. Zeppelin later became Eutechnyx, a racing-game developer based in Gateshead. Public sources do not record Brewster’s work after 1990.

Sources

Computer and Video Games issue 39 (January 1985), p. 14: “Designer of the Month” (Durham; geophysics; Colossal Adventure; learning machine code; Quicksilva and Micromega).
CRASH issue 1 (February 1984), p. 51, and issue 2 (March 1984), p. 53: Haunted Hedges (Micromega; “Derek Brewster is Neptune Computing”). Issue 2, p. 22, and issue 3 (April 1984), p. 45: the naming of Code Name MAT; Velnor’s Lair.
Computer and Video Games issue 25 (November 1983), p. 2: Quicksilva advertisement listing Velnor’s Lair by Derek Brewster.
CRASH issue 4 (May 1984), p. 3 (contents) and p. 95: the first Adventure Trail (introduction, readers’ problems, the chart). Issue 5 (June 1984), p. 120: Starclash. Issue 6 (July 1984), pp. 27 and 29: the 3D survey.
CRASH issue 9 (October 1984), p. 76: the two weaknesses; Angus Ryall’s strategy column. Mastheads, issues 20 (September 1985) to 48 (January 1988): Brewster as Adventure Editor, with strategy under Angus Ryall, Sean Masterson and Philippa Irving.
CRASH issue 10 (November 1984), p. 98: Jasper review; p. 103: Brewster on BASIC and machine code.
Your Spectrum issue 10 (December 1984), p. 63: Kentilla review.
Personal Computer Games issue 11 (October 1984), p. 138: the programmers’ contest. Issue 13 (December 1984), p. 34: the Jasper demo tape.
CRASH issue 21 (October 1985), p. 67, and Your Spectrum issue 20 (November 1985), p. 18: Domark’s Codename MAT II advertisement. Your Computer, December 1985, p. 41: Codename MAT II for the Spectrum and Commodore 64. Amtix issue 1 (November 1985), p. 41: Codename MAT II review (Domark, £8.95, author Derek Brewster).
ZZAP!64 issue 14 (June 1986), p. 73: Kentilla on the Commodore 64 at £1.99.
CRASH issue 36 (January 1987), p. 116: Kentilla in the budget chart. Issue 40 (May 1987): the PAW review. Issue 41 (June 1987), p. 3: the Adventure Trail Extra.
Your Computer, April 1988, p. 68: the Kentilla re-release bugs.
CRASH issue 48 (January 1988), p. 8: Brewster leaves after 45 issues. Issue 49 (February 1988), p. 96: Winter Olympiad 88 review. Issue 50 (March 1988), p. 31, and issue 51 (April 1988), p. 32: readers’ letters and the editor’s reply on his departure. Issue 52 (May 1988), p. 8: Zeppelin’s first releases and the Brewster re-releases. Issue 60 (January 1989), p. 9: the Digital Inspiration deal.
ACE issue 6 (March 1988), p. 11: the Zeppelin photograph.
Your Sinclair issue 35 (November 1988), p. 89: review of Zeppelin’s 2088.
Sinclair User issue 96 (March 1990), pp. 25–26: World Soccer review.
Amiga Format Special issue 4 (1992), p. 131: industry A-Z, “Zeppelin”.
Andrew Fisher, “In Pole Position”, Retro Gamer issue 119 (October 2013), pp. 62–65: Zeppelin Games (Tynesoft; November 1987; the Micromega re-releases; Brewster and O’Donnell leaving in 1989).
Retro Gamer issue 108 (November 2012), p. 53: Speed King 2.