People

Mike Montgomery

Co-founder & Lead Programmer

One of the three founders of The Bitmap Brothers, Montgomery was the studio's lead programmer and public face. He drove the technical vision behind the Amiga titles and was the primary voice in interviews throughout the studio's life. His programming work on the Amiga engine that underpinned titles from Xenon through to The Chaos Engine set a standard for smoothness and craft that the studio's competitors rarely matched.

Montgomery represented the studio's rock-star self-image — the deliberate cultivation of an image that said software developers deserved the same cultural respect as musicians. His quotes in the gaming press were often philosophical: the studio should make games "with style," games you couldn't buy anywhere else.

Steve Kelly

Co-founder & Programmer

Kelly was one of the studio's three founders and worked as a programmer across multiple Bitmap Brothers titles. His contributions to the technical foundation of the studio's output — particularly the Amiga versions of early titles — were integral to the quality that distinguished the studio's work.

Simon Knight

Co-founder

The third of the three founding members. Knight was part of the original trio that established the studio in Guildford in 1987 and helped shape its early direction and commercial strategy.

Dan Malone

Artist & Art Director

Dan Malone was responsible for the visual identity of virtually every Bitmap Brothers title. His dark, precisely detailed illustrations — chrome warriors, industrial arenas, mythological landscapes, steampunk machinery — gave the studio an immediately recognisable aesthetic.

Malone's influence on Amiga-era visual culture cannot be overstated. His work on Speedball 2's arena design, Gods's mythological architecture, and The Chaos Engine's Victorian steampunk environments demonstrated that computer games could have a genuine visual art direction rather than merely functional graphics. He is the reason the Bitmap Brothers look like the Bitmap Brothers.

Antony Crowther

Programmer

Contributed programming work to titles in the Bitmap Brothers catalogue. Crowther was a respected Amiga programmer within the British games industry of the era.

Mark Coleman

Programmer

Worked as a programmer on Bitmap Brothers titles, contributing to the technical output of the studio during its main creative period.

David Whittaker

Composer

Whittaker composed the music for the studio's early titles including Xenon, Speedball, Cadaver, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, and Cadaver: The Payoff. One of the most prolific and respected composers in British games history, his music for Speedball 2 remains among the most recognisable game soundtracks of the Amiga era.

Bomb the Bass

Music — Xenon 2: Megablast

Tim Simenon's Bomb the Bass project provided the title track for Xenon 2: Megablast (1989). "Megablast (Hip Hop on Precinct 13)" was a genuine chart record; licensing it for a computer game was an unprecedented creative decision that repositioned the Bitmap Brothers as a studio operating in pop-cultural as well as gaming space.

The collaboration is the most celebrated moment in the studio's musical history. See the Xenon 2 flagship entry for full context.

Richard Joseph

Composer

Richard Joseph composed the music for the studio's later and most celebrated titles: Gods (alongside Nation XII), Magic Pockets, The Chaos Engine, and Z. His work for the Bitmap Brothers represented some of his finest output — particularly the atmospheric grandeur of The Chaos Engine soundtrack and the mythological sweep of Gods.

Joseph was a prolific Amiga composer who also worked with numerous other British studios. His passing in 2007 was a significant loss to the retrogaming community that continues to celebrate his work.

Nation XII

Music — Gods

Nation XII contributed music to Gods (1991), alongside Richard Joseph. The combination of Nation XII's energy and Joseph's atmospheric composition gave Gods one of the most memorable soundtracks in the Bitmap Brothers catalogue.