Sinclair User July 1987 page 93.

Code Talk Matthew Smith

Matthew Smith was the person who, three years ago, created cult classics such as Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy. Now he's back, with Attack of the Mutant Zombie Flesh Eating Chickens From Mars. We tracked down the underground hero in a warren of industrial development units in Liverpool.

Matthew Smith is a funny sort of person. He's very difficult to describe. After Jet Set Willy established him as a major programming talent, he disappeared for nearly three years without trace. Among (wholly unqualified) accusations of chemically induced '60s psychedelia and general physical collapse, the notorious coder responsible for the creation of moderately warped concepts such as Eugene's Lair in Manic Miner vanished. Nothing was heard or seen of Smith for years Attack of the Mutant Zombie Flesh Eating Chickens from Mars has been three years - on and off - in the making and it's every bit as weird as the other Smith creations. Sitting in a Liverpool eaterie, he talked about his decidedly shadey initial encounters with computers, and his unexpectedly refined eating tastes.

VITAL DETAILS What have you been doing since JSW in '84? I've been working on Chickens and also a mega-project. I've got the plot worked out and so far I'm up to Chapter 3 in the novella that's going to come with it. It's set in the 24th century and you'll be able to play the part of anyone in the town where the action takes place. Basically the machines and bombs and things have become intelligent, and don't want to be used for war any more.

Which other programmers do you admire? Bill Hogue from California. He works for Big 5 Software. He wrote Miner 2049'er which inspired Manic Miner to a certain extent, but he also did some fantastic things on the TRS-80, proving that you can still have great games on a computer with lousy graphics. The Spectrum was a dream compared with the TRS. Mike Singleton and Jeff Minter have to get a mention too.

Favourite programs? An old favourite is Ultima II from Microprose. It's a traditional hack and slash role-playing game. Buried Bucks is great too, it was printed in a magazine ages ago, and involves a little helicopter. It's a bit difficult to explain, but it was great.

What arcade games do you score highest on? I don't really play them all that often. I like to watch other people play, as they're often better at them than I am.

Favourite food and drink? I like Italian food - all herbs and spices. Chinese is good too. I can't stand American. I'd like to become a vegetarian, but haven't quite made it yet.

What program would you most like to have written? Cyberun. It's terribly dull, I know, but the graphics are great.

Programming ambition? I really want to get this megagame sorted out. After that I'd like to program the orbit details into my spaceship computer. I want to be a starship captain. Favourite TV show/records/books I like things with spaceships in them. All romantic novels are just soft-porn so I don't bother with them. I like Moody Blues and Pink Floyd's music, anything that's a bit psychedelic. I like Genesis too.

Hobbies? Reading, boogying and riding my bike.

Worst subject at school? English Lit. It was the only exam that I turned up for and failed.

Who did you vote for? Labour (although I'm a Liberal)

Best thing about the Spectrum? It's cheap, and it's got better graphics than the ZX81.

SOFTOLOGY: Styx (BugByte, 1983), Manic Miner (Bug Byte, 1983), Jet Set Willy (Software Projects, 1984), Attack of the Mutant Zombie Flesh-eating Chickens From Mars (Software Projects, 1987)