Argonaut is one of the most fascinating British development studios to come out of the 1980s. Founded by teenager Jez San in 1982, the company was primarily an outlet for his own programming talents, with Starglider (1986) and Starglider 2 (1988) establishing the studio as something of an expert in the realm of 3D graphics.
This would eventually lead to Argonaut working with Nintendo on the seminal SNES classic Star Fox, as well as the Super FX chip which made the game possible.
In later years, Argonaut would produce titles like Croc, Red Dog, Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone and Alien Resurrection before sadly going under in 2004.
If you've ever pondered what Argonaut's Colindale office looked like when it was at the height of its creative powers, then wonder no longer; former staffer Scott Butler has discovered some raw video footage which was originally used in the TV programme Focus on Britain: Computer Games.
Bulter has posted his find on Facebook, saying:
Randomly found rush footage of Argonaut Software at the Colindale office in North London in the early 90's from a TV show called "Focus on Britain: Computer Games".I'm guessing this is around 1991 or 1992 (as I have a Ren and Stimpy t-shirt on and a Ren toy on my desk from working on the SNES game Ren & Stimpy: Fire Dogs).
Included in this video are Stephen Thompson, [Krister Wombell], Sam Littlewood and Nick Halstead!
Check me out at the 3 minute mark, trying to be all serious and professional for the cameras, around 18/19 years old!
Regarding the date, the video upload says July 1993, and the Starwing poster in the video would back that up.
Jez San recently let slip that Croc is being remastered for a new era.