Archer Maclean, Commodore 64 Developer, Dies At 60

Game developer Archer Maclean recently passed away at the age of 60. Maclean was a longtime programmer and designer best known for Dropzone on the Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64. Game Developer reports: Born January 28, 1962, Maclean's first game was the aforementioned Dropzone. Following the success of that title, he would go on to do design and graphics for 1986's International Karate (and its 1987 sequel, International Karate+), and several snooker simulation games, including Archer Maclean Presents Pool Paradise. Several of these titles were developed at Awesome Studios, a subsidiary of the now defunct Ignition Entertainment. Maclean co-founded Awesome in 2002, and later left the developer in 2005. He went on to found Awesome Play, creators of the 2009 Nintendo Wii title Speedzone (or Wheelspin in Europe). Though Speedzone marked the end of his time as a game developer, Maclean also wrote columns for Retro Gamer Magazine.

Vale

[Anonymouse Cowtard]

Fond memories of playing Dropzone and Int'l Karate on the C64. That he was only 22 when Dropzone was released is a bit wow. Another one gone too young in this cuntish year.

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[Cool Hand Leia]

Dude, seriously. Take a breather. When he livestreams his own death, you're going to be stuck with that guilt.

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[Moridineas]

Who exactly are we talking about?

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[bev_tech_rob]

Who exactly are we talking about?

The incels on here keeping the CReimer troll train going.....:/

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[Stormwatch]

What sort of schizo rant is that?

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[Stormwatch]

Saw a comment on the Atari Age forums that he had been fighting cancer for years.

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[JaredOfEuropa]

His young age is not that remarkable; it was very doable to develop an entire game by yourself for the machines of that time, and a lot of young people were doing just that. I wrote a few games during high school, and even had one of them published.

Re: Vaccine injury?

[NagrothAgain]

When cause isnâ(TM)t released it's either because they're waiting on labs/autopsy results (i.e. medical reasons) or because it's something embarrassing like erotic self-strangulation or heat exhaustion from a stuck zipper on a fur suit. But most of the time the results are available but nobody cares enough to pay the $2 records fee.

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[kmoser]

Or there just simply wasn't an autopsy because there was no obvious signs of foul play, so the death was assumed to be natural.

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[real_nickname]

When you die at 60 years old, you probably die from cancer. And Archer Maclean seems to have died from cancer according to google.

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[quonset]

Whenever someone passes away, if cause of death is not given, can I be forgiven for thinking that maybe there's some sort of cover up? There is certainly a large increase in "unexplainable" heart conditions of late.

Yes, there is a cover up [imgur.com]. Never mention when your idol does something stupid. Wonder if he died from an "unexplainable" heart condition as well.

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[Stormwatch]

Here [fusionrgamer.com] says he had been fighting cancer for a long time.