Interceptor, or Interceptor Micros, or Interceptor Software were based in Tadley, Hampshire, England. Richard Paul Jones was the man behind the company and ran it with his dad, Julian. Both of them were featured in a BBC documentary about entrepreneurs. Like Llamasoft, Interceptor kept their game prices a good 30-40% below the prices that the larger software houses charged and this, coupled with their genuine interest in their customers made them a hit in my book. They ran a mailing list/newsletter service and always had their games available for sale (cheaper) at computer shows. They had the right idea :) Interceptor took over the rights to the Automata back catalogue and also owned 'Players' software. A few of the games listed below are not by Interceptor, but are included as they are relevant to an author, or are a conversion to another machine. Interceptor also released the odd game pack - 4 games on a tape for a tenner or something, not very pretty, just in silver ZX-81 printer paper styley, but I only saw these at the shows..
As far as I know, Interceptor didn't have any full-time programmers, all their games came from freelance writers. The main contributors on the Commodore 64 side were Ian Gray, Andrew Challis and Lee Braine. Lee Braines' games were generally 4-way scrollers and he did a great conversion of 'Burger Time'. Andrew Challis wrote the excellent 3-part 'Wallie' series, all of which are colourful (and difficult) games with some cracking music on all by Graham Hansford. Chris Cox did a lot of excellent music for the Commodore 64, he seems to have been mates with Ian Gray who was Interceptors' numero uno coder. Tales of the Arabian Nights was converted to a host of machines, he wrote the *superb* 2-part Karn series (Heroes and Empire) and also the fiendishly difficult China Miner, Get Off My Garden and Quango. When you consider Interceptor also released Crystals of Carus and a couple of excellent titles by Jason Benham I reckon they were right up there. Colourful, musical and addictive games in good packaging - I liked this lot.
Here's a little clip from Spirit Of The Stones..... Spirit of the Stones, written by Ian Gray and Lee Braine. Featuring Lee Braines' 4-way scroller as seen in Frontline and Ian Grays' platform style as seen in China Miner and Arabian Nights. Sold by them to Commodore :)
Now there's something going on here...
Ian & Lees' Commodore characters seemed to re-invent themselves from time to time.
The lads in Mr Benn styley..