Roger's Blog

Most people in the games industry have a rich history of early influences, and mine began with Pong, the Atari 2600, the ZX81, the Vic-20, and the Commodore 64. I pirated games, played them at friends’ houses, and stoked fierce rivalries between the Spectrum and Commodore. I also keyed in endless lines of code from magazines just to get a game working.

I. Just. Loved. Playing.

Even now, I can hear the music from Thing on a Spring and the sound effects from the Vic-20’s Blitz. If someone says “another visitor” in conversation, my brain immediately finishes it: “Stay a while… staaaay forever” - thanks to Impossible Mission on the C64.

Picking just one game from those early years feels impossible. But to represent that formative time, I want to tell you a story about Scramble.

I discovered Scramble in 1982 while on holiday in Spain. It sat next to an outdoor bar by a pool near Puerto Banús beach on the Costa del Sol. Those trips were magical: waterskiing in the morning, sports during the day, and card games in the evening. We used centimes (coins of the Spanish peseta) to bet, and I squirrelled mine away for one thing: more plays on Scramble.

Compared to home computers, the arcade machine was mind-blowing; better graphics, better sound, better everything. There were no save points, each game was a fresh start. The only reward was entering your initials into the high-score table. Unless someone switched off the machine and they were wiped! To this day I still wonder: Who was GCH, and how did they get a score that high?!

The business model was genius: make it just hard enough that you’d pay to try again, but compelling enough that you had to. It was also beatable... if you kept trying, pouring more coins in. 

That, for me, is where the “compulsion loop” was born: pay, play, fail, try again. Games today are criticised for this as it’s evolved into free-to-play mechanics, but it is not new... earn a thing, upgrade the thing, play again to get more things. It all started with the arcade coin-up.

There were knock-off versions of Scramble on the Vic-20 and C64 - I especially loved Skramble! (complete with legally distinct spelling). It had jerky scrolling, crude graphics, and horrible sound effects... but it brought a version of Scramble home. It was like an early “port” I guess. So much of the industry we know today existed back then in a vastly simple - bordering illegal - form!

Scramble stands out for me more than Space Invaders, Asteroids, or Pac-Man. More than Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy. More than every Llamasoft game, every Atari cartridge. And I played them all. Maybe it was the gameplay. Maybe it was the Spanish sun and the sense of freedom. Either way, it left a mark.

In fact, it’s no coincidence that my company, Deep Etch Games, is named after the speedboat we used on those holidays. Our logo even features that boat on a blue sea - a nod to the blend of childhood joy, family, and games that sparked this whole journey for me.

Let’s be honest, we’re all just big kids, using games to escape to a time when life was simpler and full of wonder. For me, that’s not just nostalgia... it’s a plan - a lifetime in the making.

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That’s the end of the Top 10 Games That Influenced My Career. I hope you’ve enjoyed the mix of insight and nostalgia.

Now it’s time for what comes next — the launch of Wickens, our first game at Deep Etch Games. If you love deckbuilders, I think you’ll love what we’re making.

👉 Sign up to our mailing list below...
👉 ...And support us on Kickstarter below.

Thanks for reading - and to family and friends for being part of this journey.

With thanks: Tessa Webb, Richard Kenton Webb, Wendy Walkden, Chris Walkden, Ian Walkden, Edward Walkden, Max Walkden, Hannah Leigh, Theo Webb, Ezra Webb, Jenny Walkden, Sam Walkden, Abbie Walkden, Andrew Boxall, Derek Wright, Ben Tunningly, Binky the Boxer