We're sad to report that Peter Calver, founder of the British studio Audiogenic, has passed away following a battle with cancer.
Having previously founded home computer software and hardware company Supersoft in 1978, Calver established Audiogenic Software Limited with Pearl Wellard in 1985, taking on the assets and goodwill of Audiogenic Limited, an audio firm founded in 1975 by Martin Maynard.
The company would become famous on the back of sports titles such as Brian Lara Cricket, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer, Graham Gooch's Test Cricket, and World Class Rugby. Outside of sports, Audiogenic also developed the Simpsons title Krusty's Fun House for Acclaim (in reality, a reskinned puzzler from 1991 called Rat Trap).
Audiogenic's skill in sports titles led to an agreement with Codemasters, which saw the latter company absorb the development team behind the Brian Lara series. Audiogenic would cease developing new games in 1997.
Calver also co-founded the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), which would eventually evolve into Ukie. In 2004, he established Lost Cousins, an "innovative database matching technique [that] links people with common ancestry."
Speaking in 2015, Calver talked about when he moved away from games:
"I left the industry because the stakes were becoming too high for a small publisher, and I certainly don't miss the sleepless nights wondering how to pay 30 peoples' salaries! I do miss having so many imaginative people around me, though, and I certainly regret never producing the 1930s football game we designed after signing up Sir Stanley Matthews. I've always been an ideas person, so when I left the games industry after 20 years, I continued dreaming up ideas - some of which I put into practice - but most of them are sitting in a file waiting for their time to come."
The thoughts of everyone at Time Extension and Hookshot Media are with Peter's family and friends at this difficult time.