Earlier this week, the sad news was shared online that the developer of Trap Door and Popeye for the ZX Spectrum Don Priestley had passed away last Autumn following a short battle with illness.
This has led a number of his fans to take to social media to pay tribute to the developer, including the former Retro Gamer editor Martyn Carroll who posted a celebration of Priestley's life and work.
News of the developer's passing was originally shared three days ago on the ZX Spectrum Facebook group, by a friend of Priestley's named Alan Thorpe. According to Thorpe, he had met the developer through a shared love of archery and said he was "amazed" when he found out that Priestely had created games for the Spectrum, stating that it brought back "a load of happy memories". He described Priestly as a "genius" when talking about the developer's work, and said he was unassuming and "very humble about his achievements".
Priestley had a late start in getting into game development, compared to many of his contemporaries. He was originally a teacher but began learning how to code in 1981 in his early 40s after enrolling both himself and his son in a computer programming course. While his son eventually lost interest, Priestly told Your Sinclair magazine in 1987 that he found himself getting more and more interested in the world of computers, which later led to him creating his own games and selling them to publishers.
His first commercial product was a version of the old computer game Mugwump for the ZX81, under the name The Damsel and the Beast, which he sold to Bug-Byte Software for £75. Joking to Your Sinclair, he told the magazine years later that this was much more than he had expected for the game as he probably would have accepted a fiver for it.
Following The Damsel and the Beast, Priestly went on to work on a bunch of other games for the ZX81, before making the move to port his simulation game Dictator for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and BBC Micro for the developer DK'Tronics. It would be the Spectrum, however, that became his platform of choice, with the developer becoming known for his cartoon-style games like Popeye and Trap Door that featured chunky colourful sprites.
According to a May 1998 interview with Priestley (hosted on the website WorldofSpectrum), this style came about after the UK head of marketing for Popeye at the time — who knew nothing about computers or the limitations of games — demanded that the developer make the sailor look exactly like the character he knew and loved "complete with pipe and [...] an anchor tattooed on his arm."
In 1989, Priestley is reported to have left the video game industry, choosing to go back to the life of teaching. Do you have any fond memories of playing any of Priestley's games? If so, we'd love to hear them.