Vektor Grafix was a United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

-based computer game development company

Video game developer

A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...

 led by Andy Craven, and taken over by MicroProse

MicroProse

MicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...

 in 1992. The company was based in the city of Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, and after the takeover became MicroProse's Leeds development studio.

Vektor Grafix was founded by Andy Craven and Danny Gallagher in 1986

1986 in video gaming

-Events:-Notable releases:*Namco releases Sky Kid Deluxe, Hopping Mappy, Toy Pop, The Return of Ishtar, which is the sequel to Tower of Druaga, Genpei Tōma Den, and Rolling Thunder....

, and their first release was a port of the Star Wars arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

 for the ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...

, Amstrad CPC

Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...

, The BBC Micro and Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

 home computer

Home computer

Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...

s, published by Domark

Domark

Domark Software was a video games software house based in the United Kingdom. The name was derived from the given names of its founders, Dominic Wheatley and Mark Strachan...

. A DOS

DOS

DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...

 version followed (published via Broderbund in the USA), and this was quickly followed by a port of The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (arcade game)

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is the sequel to the vector graphics Star Wars arcade game. It was released by Atari Games in 1985 as a conversion kit for the original game. As in Star Wars, the player takes the role of Luke Skywalker in a set of familiar battle sequences in a first-person...

.

Vektor went on to become a leading developer of 3D simulation games, and was eventually purchased by MicroProse in 1992.

Games

• Star Wars (1987)
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
  Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (arcade game)
  Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is the sequel to the vector graphics Star Wars arcade game. It was released by Atari Games in 1985 as a conversion kit for the original game. As in Star Wars, the player takes the role of Luke Skywalker in a set of familiar battle sequences in a first-person...
  
  
• Ringwars
• Fighter Bomber
  Fighter Bomber (video game)
  Fighter Bomber is a combat flight simulator developed by Vektor Grafix and released in 1989 by Activision UK for several platforms.-Gameplay:...
  
   (aka: Strike Aces)
• Fighting Soccer
• Shuttle: the Space Flight Simulator
• B-17 Flying Fortress
• Killing Cloud

External links

• Interview with Andy Craven from Crash Magazine
  Crash Magazine
  Crash Magazine is a French independent magazine published every trimester that can be found in all major press stores.It was founded in 1998 by Frank Perrin and Armelle Leturcq; Art critics before publishing Crash, Perrin and Leturcq had previously published an art review known as “Blocnotes”...