Information AboutChris Roberts |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CHRIS ROBERTS | |
| 1968 births | |
| american video game designers | |
| american film producers | |
| american film directors | |
| game programmers | |
| living people | |
| people from manchester | |
| wing commander | |
Chris Roberts (born May 27 , 1968 ) is a Computer Game Designer and Programmer and a Film Producer and Director . Often hailed as a visionary, he is best known for creating the popular '' Wing Commander '' series while employed at Origin Systems . EARLY YEARS Born in Redwood City, California , Roberts grew up in Manchester , England . He attended the same school, contemporarily with the computer music composer Martin Galway . As a teenager, he created several hit games for the BBC Micro , including Stryker's Run and Wizadore . ORIGIN SYSTEMS Roberts returned to the '' (which his brother, Erin Roberts , produced) and being more deeply involved in '' Wing Commander III '' and '' Wing Commander IV ''. For these sequels, Roberts directed the live-action cinematic scenes. Following the traditions of Origin Systems, Chris Roberts' residence at the outskirts of Austin, Texas was aptly named "Commander's Ranch", a reference to the Wing Commander series he created. DIGITAL ANVIL Roberts left Origin in 1996 and founded Digital Anvil along with Marten Reginald Davies EA National Sales Manager PC, Origin producer Tony Zurovec and his brother Erin Roberts. The fledgling studio set up shop in Austin and for several years worked quietly, inking a publishing deal with Microsoft in 1997 . Roberts had stated that he desired to produce films as well as games with Digital Anvil. The 1999 feature film release of '' Wing Commander '' directed by Roberts himself, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and featuring Visual Effects from Digital Anvil failed to attract either critical praise or financial success. Digital Anvil's first finished game was '' Starlancer '', released to a somewhat lukewarm reception in 2000 . Developed externally at Warthog, the game was produced by the Roberts brothers, and featured only some contributions by Digital Anvil. The company was acquired by Microsoft soon after, who sold two of Digital Anvil's projects to Ubi Soft . Roberts left the company after the acquisition, abandoning the director position of his extremely ambitious project '' Freelancer '', even though he remained with the game in a consulting role for a while. The game was commonly regarded as Vaporware due to its promised release date of 2001 . The game was eventually released in 2003 with a markedly different feature set than the initial plans, but was received fairly favorably. POINT OF NO RETURN ENTERTAINMENT/ASCENDANT PICTURES After leaving Digital Anvil, Roberts founded ''Point of No Return Entertainment'', planning to produce films, television and games. However, no projects materialized from Point of No Return. Roberts founded ''Ascendant Pictures'' in 2002 and served as a producer for a number of major Hollywood productions including the 2004 adaptation of '' The Punisher '', '' The Jacket '' and '' Lord Of War ''. EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|