Simon Cooke

Simon Cooke (born 10 August 1975, Manchester, England, UK) is a British video game developer and writer. He was Director of Engineering for X-Ray Kid Studios, a cross-media entertainment company, and previously worked for Surreal Software, a subsidiary of Midway Games, as Principal Technology Engineer and Lead Gameplay Engineer on This is Vegas, and as Lead Tools Programmer on The Suffering: Ties That Bind. He is most well known for his work on the SAM Coupé home computer games and demo scene, his monthly column in Your Sinclair magazine, and his work on Xbox as part of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group.

Early life

Cooke went to secondary school at St. Ambrose College on a scholarship from 1986-1993, then studied Physics with Electronic Engineering at the University of Manchester Institution of Science and Technology, graduating with honors.

SAM Coupé videogames and demo scene

Cooke started to produce demos and software for the SAM Coupé in 1990 at age 15. His first published games including ports of Prince of Persia (1991) to the platform, assisting the primary developer Chris White. He would also work with Chris White on the SAM Coupé videogame Exodus (developed primarily by Neil Holmes and Stuart Leonardi), and ports of Populous (unreleased) and Lemmings (1993).