Kevin Toms Blog

Original author of Football Manager computer game

Thinking about Software Star

I was reminded of Software Star today. It was a simple game of managing a software business. It captured some truth, and I played with my son a while ago. That was a strange experience, to play a game you wrote, so long ago, and find out it is still fun to play! And you can remember little about writing it, except the animated chart idea being a good one. Oh, and the thing about Hype versus Honesty, which was a good idea!

February 10, 2010 Posted by Kevin Toms | Addictive Games, Software Star, The 80s | | No Comments Yet

Retro Gamer Interview

I haven’t read it yet, it has not made its way to New Zealand yet, but a “Desert Island Disks” interview with me has just been published in the latest issue of Retro Gamer

Retro Gamer Issue 63

Retro Gamer Issue 63

Doing the interview brought back a lot of memories of those early days, and I still keep remembering new things, some of them funny, some of them interesting, some of them poignant.

I’ll write some up in this blog over time…

April 30, 2009 Posted by Kevin Toms | Football Manager, Software Star, The 80s | | 4 Comments

Software Star

This was a business game I wrote after Football Manager. Simple to play but lots of fun. I remember one person writing to me and complaining, because it was possible to succeed in the game sometimes by using hype. -And when you did that, it was more powerful than honesty in its impact. What they did not like was that hype was more potent than honesty. They felt that was immoral.  My thinking was, it’s just a game, entertainment, but funnily enough, hype when it is believed in real life DOES tend to bring greater results than honesty. Sad but true, I am sure you can think of examples….

March 31, 2008 Posted by Kevin Toms | Games, Software Star, The 80s | | 2 Comments