The following is an interview with games designer Dino Dini,creator of classics like Kick Off and Goal!, games which made along-lasting impression on me and fashioned part of my late teens and early20s as I played the games well into the early hours on my Atari ST withfriends and housemates at Keele University between 1990 and 1993.Now the man himself has set up his own software company, Abundant SoftwareLimited and at the time of writing (May 2002), is seeking funding to createa new game and is also looking for moral support from the online community.
His website also contains a new World Cup Trading Game. More details,plus a link to the website, can be found in thispress release.
- Dino Dini, 5th June 1965, London
- Walking into an amusement arcade when I was 7 and seeing games likeSnake and Space Invaders. I would not get those games out of by head.
- Opportunity… ANCO wanted a football game, so I made one…. Kick Off.
- When the good reviews started to come in.
- Sensible Soccer took several years before they could compete with me. Ionly felt pressure when I started working on the sequel to Kick Off 2 andPlayer Manager. By Sensible Software’s own admission, their game washeavily based on mine, so in a sense I ended up competing againstmyself.
- Greater emotional involvement of the game players.
- Difficult. Either Elite or Descent 2 & 3.
- Descent 2 & 3. Mainly because I could have improved them.
- Helping the industry transform to a more stable and creative businessmodel.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.