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Dom Robinson interviews

Dino Dini

The following is an interview with games designer Dino Dini, creator of classics like Kick Off and Goal!, games which made a long-lasting impression on me and fashioned part of my late teens and early 20s as I played the games well into the early hours on my Atari ST with friends and housemates at Keele University between 1990 and 1993. Now the man himself has set up his own software company, Abundant Software Limited and at the time of writing (May 2002), is seeking funding to create a 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 this press release.

1. Who are you? Dino Dini, 5th June 1965, London 2. What got you into creating computer games in the first place and what was your first computer game? Walking into an amusement arcade when I was 7 and seeing games like Snake and Space Invaders. I would not get those games out of by head.

3. What made you choose the football path? Opportunity... ANCO wanted a football game, so I made one.... Kick Off. 4. What is favourite recollection of working on the Kick Off series? When the good reviews started to come in.

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5. I was a big fan of the games, but did you feel any pressure from the competition between the Kick Off series and the Sensible Soccer series? Sensible Soccer took several years before they could compete with me. I only felt pressure when I started working on the sequel to Kick Off 2 and Player Manager. By Sensible Software's own admission, their game was heavily based on mine, so in a sense I ended up competing against myself. 6. What would you like to include in your next football game which you've not yet brought to previous ones? Greater emotional involvement of the game players.

7. Other than something you've been involved in, what's your favourite game of all time? Difficult. Either Elite or Descent 2 & 3. 8. Are there any games you've played that you wish you'd written? Descent 2 & 3. Mainly because I could have improved them. 9. Aside from the plans for the forthcoming football game, what else is on the horizon for you? Helping the industry transform to a more stable and creative business model.

Interview copyright © Dom Robinson, 2002.

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

PC games reviewed by the editor are on: