Questions for Stoo Cambridge

[merman]

The legendary artist and former member of Sensible Software, Stoo Cambridge, will be my next "In the Chair" interview for RG.

Stoo started out with a VIC-20 and moved on to the C64, before he was able to afford an Amiga (but he did also draw art for the Atari ST).
After working freelance for a few years he joined Jon Hare and Chris Yates at Sensible Software, working on some of their classic titles.
Perhaps Stoo's best known work is on the first two Cannon Fodder games, including those classic level intro animations.
In recent years Stoo has been working on mobile and phone games, including the Blobbit series, and went back to his roots to work on Tower Software's J2ME version of Cannon Fodder.

There are also some interesting unreleased games in Stoo's back catalogue - including Molotov Man (SNES), The Last Starship(Amiga), the lost Sensible games Mirror Signal Manslaughter and Have A Nice Day, and Joe Blow (PS1)

You need to be quick with your questions as I am speaking to Stoo this week.

A quick summary of some career highlights:

Renaissance 1 (1990)
The Final Conflict (1990)
Feudal Lords (1990)
Insector Hecti in the Inter Change (1991)
The Executioner (1991)
Mega lo Mania (1992) - Mega Drive
Cannon Fodder (1993)
Sensible Golf (1994) - Graphics, Course Design
Cannon Fodder 2 (1994)
World Championship Soccer II (1994) - Mega Drive
Sensible World of Soccer (1995) - Amiga
Road Rash II (2000) - Game Boy Color
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (2001) - Game Boy Color
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) - Game Boy Advance
Cannon Fodder (2004) - J2ME
Monkey King (2004) - Mobile
Sensible Soccer (2005) - Xbox 360
Alien Hominid (2006) - Game Boy Advance
1000 Tiny Claws (2011) - Mobile

[Rory Milne]

How much fun was Jon Hare to work with, and what stories can you tell us that won't land Andrew in court for libel?

Did you have a career break between 1995 and 2000, or did Road Rash II just have a very long development? It's probably neither, but I couldn't help but notice the gap in your resume.

[The Laird]

Although you didn't list it there I believe Stoo worked on the enhanced version of International Sensible Soccer for the Jaguar.

So my question is - What was the Jaguar hardware like to work with it and do you wish you had done more games for it?

[mr jenzie]

when you saw your first character in cannon fodder DIE, what were your feelings?

[DRS]

He sounds an interesting bloke Merman! Hope it goes well. My question is...

What artists, NOT in the games business, have influenced your art style?

[merman]

How much fun was Jon Hare to work with, and what stories can you tell us that won't land Andrew in court for libel?

Did you have a career break between 1995 and 2000, or did Road Rash II just have a very long development? It's probably neither, but I couldn't help but notice the gap in your resume.

I will (partly) answer that. Stoo was involved in a three-year project for a PS1 game (Joe Blow - Adventures in Dreamworld) that was never released. It was a difficult time for him, but it's something that will be covered in the article.

[Rory Milne]

How much fun was Jon Hare to work with, and what stories can you tell us that won't land Andrew in court for libel?

Did you have a career break between 1995 and 2000, or did Road Rash II just have a very long development? It's probably neither, but I couldn't help but notice the gap in your resume.

I will (partly) answer that. Stoo was involved in a three-year project for a PS1 game (Joe Blow - Adventures in Dreamworld) that was never released. It was a difficult time for him, but it's something that will be covered in the article.

Got you, thanks. I thought there might be an interesting story there.

[merman]

So here's the importance of research... Stoo is credited in various places online for bitmap graphics in the game "Eco" from Denton Designs/Ocean. But... he was never involved.

Also, there's a typo up there I had to fix - I called his unreleased Amiga game The Last Starfighter, when it should really be The Last Starship. It's not connected to the classic 1980s film...

[kebabinho]

Did they get any complaints around the opening music for cannon fodder on the amiga

[merman]

Did they get any complaints around the opening music for cannon fodder on the amiga

Apologies, we did the interview on Wednesday - but I will e-mail Stoo and try to get you an answer to share here.

[NorthWay]

Is it really Stoo - that isn't some pet/nick name?

[merman]

Is it really Stoo - that isn't some pet/nick name?

Stoo short for Stuart - what he used to enter into high-score tables to save time.

[merman]

So, the interview lasted 90 minutes and the transcript is 13,000 words... now to cram as much of the interesting stuff into the article...

[merman]

Did they get any complaints around the opening music for cannon fodder on the Amiga?

Stoo: I don't ever recall any complaints, having said that Jon Hare is probably more qualified to answer this question than me.

[ely]

So, the interview lasted 90 minutes and the transcript is 13,000 words... now to cram as much of the interesting stuff into the article...

Looking forward to it, better to have too much that too little