Sensible Software
| Private (defunct) | |
| Industry | Video game industry |
| Genre | Software house |
| Fate | Acquired by Codemasters |
| Founded | 1986 |
| Founder | Jon Hare and Chris Yates |
| Defunct | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Chelmsford, England |
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Key people
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Jon Hare, Chris Yates |
| Products | Video games |
Sensible Software was a software house active during the 1980s and 1990s, from the United Kingdom.
The company was well known for the exaggeratedly small sprites used for the player characters in many of their games, including Mega Lo Mania, Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder and Sensible Golf.
Sensible Software was formed in Chelmsford, Essex in 1986 by two former school friends, Jon Hare (A.K.A. Jovial Jops) and Chris Yates (A.K.A. Cuddly Krix). After cutting their teeth for 9 months at LT Software in Basildon, Hare and Yates set up Sensible Software in March 1986.
Sensible initially released games for the ZX Spectrum and later the Commodore 64, clinching market praise with Parallax, Shoot'Em-Up Construction Kit and Wizball (later to be voted 'Game of the Decade' by Zzap64 magazine). At the time, the pair's output was well known among gamers for its high quality and offbeat sense of humour.
In 1988 Martin Galway joined the team and Sensible Software became a 3-man partnership. That summer they released Microprose Soccer, their first venture into association football games.
By 1993 there were 6 staff members.
Galway left in 1990 to join Origin Systems in the USA, and over the next few years the company swapped the 8 bit machines for the more powerful Amiga and Atari ST, where games such as Mega Lo Mania, Sensible Soccer, and Cannon Fodder became classics. With the rise of the 16-bit home console market, Sensible released seven number one hit games, winning numerous industry awards in the process. Sensible's games were ported to a wide range of computing platforms, including MS-DOS, the Mega Drive and Super NES.
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