Pete Cooke

Pete Cooke (born 1956) is a British computer games programmer, best known for his work published in the 1980s for the 8-bit home computers, especially the ZX Spectrum.

His software was often recognisable in its use of a point and click GUI. As most Spectrum users did not own a mouse the pointer was manipulated by keyboard or joystick.

Cooke's games were often innovative. For example, Tau Ceti (released 1985) featured a form of solid 3D graphics but was also set on a planet with day and night cycles with dynamically drawn shadows. Micronaut One (released 1987) was set inside futuristic biocomputers with the player controlling a microscopic craft attempting to clear the tunnels of an insect-like life form called Scrim. This game also used fast-moving 3D graphics as well as featuring an enemy that went through a realistic (if speeded-up) life-cycle, beginning each level as eggs and progressing to larvae and eventually adult Scrim which would then lay more eggs. Even Cooke's more straightforward games, like the 1988 shoot 'em up Earthlight, featured their own complexities and technical gimmicks.

As well as these games, Cooke programmed the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions of Stunt Car Racer and also released a game for the 16-bit Amiga and Atari ST in 1990 called Tower of Babel.

He worked at Leicester College as an IT lecturer and he teaches students how to create computer games using Microsoft XNA.

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