Shahid Ahmad was a schoolboy living on a London council estate when he sold his prized BMX bike to raise money for programming books and taught himself to write computer games. After several knock-backs, in 1983, at the age of seventeen, he sold a game for £300 to a commercial publisher.

He soon made a name for himself in the emerging Britsoft scene, programming the Commodore 64 version of Jet Set Willy, which sold more than a million copies. Having worked on dozens of his own games, included Chimera and Pandora, in 2005 he joined Sony PlayStation where he commissioned more than a hundred titles including the hits No Man’s Sky and Hellblade.

Today he mentors industry newcomers, produces games designed to promote mental health, and sits on the board of the British Games Institute, the video game equivalent of the BFI.

Play the console:

• Star Raiders
• Knight Lore
• Gauntlet
• Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
• Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

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