Jester Interactive

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Jester Interactive
IndustryVideo games
Founded1997; 25 years ago (1997)
Headquarters
Wales, United Kingdom

Jester Interactive is a video game developer based in North Wales in the United Kingdom and was founded in 1997 as a trading arm of Morgan Computing Limited. It would later trade under the name Jester Interactive Limited, and after going into administration in 2003[1] would re-emerge trading as Jester Interactive Publishing Limited.

History[]

Jester Interactive Limited was formed as part of, and through funding from Morgan Computing Limited, a Database Software company based in North Wales. Key staff who kicked off this venture were Lee Wright, Tim Wright and Gavin Morgan, managing director of Morgan Computing Limited.

Jester Interactive initially consisted of a small team of five people working in offices based at Liverpool's Port of Liverpool Building where a custom made studio was constructed to develop the company's first title NoiseToys/.[2] NoiseToys was later re-titled Music Station, and then shortened to simply with the strap line Music Creation for the PlayStation Generation. This line of software also featured a DJ Character known affectionately as 'Scratchy'[3] which usually appeared on all Jester's MUSICtm products.

After a very quick development of roughly 9 months, Jester launched its first title MUSIC™ through Codemasters to critical acclaim. Winners of the Official PlayStation Magazine award for the Most Innovative Game 1999 and Sony Computer Entertainment America's award for Most Innovative Game 2000, Jester also twice reached final nomination for the highly acclaimed BAFTA awards in the category of user interface.[4]

Jester sustained this level of success scoring highly in reviews for its subsequent MUSICtm based releases. They then went on to develop several racing games involving Super Trucks and the Isle of Man TT races.

In 2000 Jester won the Achievement Wales 2000 Business of the Year Award from the Daily Post / Wales 2000 initiative.[5]

In 2001 it was ranked No. 4 in the Fast Growth 50 company list.[6]

Aside from any other achievement, their MUSICtm range of software has sold more copies than any other music sequencer worldwide.[7]

At its peak Jester has over 50 employees at two offices (Mold, North Wales & Liverpool, England) and enjoyed many highs in the form of export awards[8] and also suffered lows in the form of unreleased product such as Hellgate and Super Trucks 2. The culmination of the lows led to Jester finally going into administration in 2003, but quickly re-emerging as Jester Interactive Publishing Limited.

Jester's most recent titles include TT Superbikes Real Road Racing[9] and TT Superbikes Legends[10] and they are by all accounts working on as yet un-revealed titles.[11]

Jester Interactive has been first in many areas; it was the first software development house to be given permission by Sony to launch a non-game utility on its PlayStation console, likewise by Nintendo on its Game Boy handheld consoles. It was also the first new media company to benefit from the assembly government's £7m Wales Creative IP Fund.

Games developed[]

Year Game Platform(s)
1998 PlayStation
1999 Music 2000 PlayStation, Microsoft Windows
2001 MTV Music Generator 2 PlayStation 2
2002 Pocket Music Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance
2002 Super Trucks PlayStation 2
2002 Manic Miner Game Boy Advance
2003 Music 3000 PlayStation 2
2005 TT Superbikes Real Road Racing
2005 Dance:UK XL Lite
2008 TT Superbikes Real Road Racing Championship
2008 TT Superbikes Legends

References[]

  1. ^ http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/pics3/jesterdead.jpg
  2. ^ "Archived copy". www.coldstorage.org.uk. Archived from the original on 11 June 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ "Archived copy". www.coldstorage.org.uk. Archived from the original on 11 June 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ http://www.gamezone.com/news/04_02_01_08_02AM.htm[dead link]
  5. ^ http://www.xsgames.biz/news/jul24.php[dead link]
  6. ^ http://fg50.community.sequence.co.uk/fg50/fg50-2001
  7. ^ "Jester Interactive Publishing".
  8. ^ http://cymru.gov.uk/news/archivepress/officefirstminspress/firstminpress2001/748564/?skip=1&lang=en
  9. ^ "Archived copy". www.jesterinteractive.com. Archived from the original on 27 July 2010. Retrieved 5 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. ^ "Archived copy". www.jesterinteractive.com. Archived from the original on 27 July 2010. Retrieved 5 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ^ "Jester Interactive returns with a flurry of new releases". MCV. April 2008.

External links[]

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