All language subtitles for We.dont.like.Captain.Sausage.2015.SPANISH.1080p.WEBRip.x264-VXT

In April, 1982, the day after Lord Pim,
British Foreign Office Secretary,

landed in Washington in one last effort
to prevent the war with Argentina,

and one day before the Spanish singer Lucía
lost the 27th Eurovision contest

to the German singer Nicole,
the British company Sinclair Research

launched an 8-bit computer that would be
known forever as the ZX Spectrum.

Its creator was Clive Sinclair,
a self taught and talented entrepreneur

who had created the first pocket
calculator, the first digital wrist watches,

the first portable TV set
and the first personal computer.

As well as the first printer.

But none of those inventions, future or past,
would have the same impact as the ZXSpectrum,

since it would change drastically
the gaming culture across generations

and it would establish the foundations
for a new universe: the virtual one.

In this new dawn of the 8-bit era,
a group of 16 and 17 year olds

would develop a game named Captain Seville
that would be made public in the late 80's,

when the controversial golden age of
Spanish videogames was coming to an end.

This is their story.

We do not like Captain Blood Sausage!

Captain Seville's project got started in
Seville by recruiting young people, my age,

to develop a Spectrum videogame for Dinamic,
the company we worked for back then.

Alvaro Mateos was Dinamic's star,
if you will,

because he created
two best selling videogames

that positioned Dinamic as a big production
and distribution company in Spain.

Those games were West Bank and Rocky.

When he first presented a plot, an idea,
a script for Captain Blood Sausage,

Dinamic knew it would be
a massive success, a blockbuster.

That's how I got started. First you go to
your friends and people you already know.

It was then when I met Angel Tirado,
who had the original idea as a comic

which he had been drawing as
he attended his high school classes.

The comic on which Captain Seville
videogame is based upon

I drew when I was 14 for the magazine my high
school published, the Becker High School.

The plot was preposterous. It had not been
properly designed and it sounded braindead.

The main character is Mariano López, a truck
driver who usually transports cured meats.

By chance, he drives past an area
reserved for nuclear weapons tests,

precisely when a test goes wrong and there
is a radiation leak in the whole area.

Mariano is affected in a way that each time
he takes a bite of some cured meat

he becomes Captain Blood Sausage, and he has
superhuman powers Mariano López never had.

Other people in the affected area become
radioactive mutants who endanger the planet.

Evil Professor Torrebruno will use them
to conquer Earth, as he had planned.

Captain Blood Sausage's mission
is to fight off these mutants.

Rather than a classic videogame, it sounds
like the plot of a comic made for the screen.

That is what makes it
so original in many ways.

Then we just had to use the techniques
of the time for the trends of the time,

and we had to find the staff we needed
in order to complete this project.

Also, we didn't want it
to be the first game,

but the starting point for a company that
would launch other videogames in the future.

I was 4 or 5 when I first saw Space Invaders,
the Martian killing game we all know.

I freaked out. I didn't even know how
it worked. I imagined it would be...

like animated cartoons
moving behind the screen.

I wanted to venture into playing.
So I asked my dad many times.

He would pilot and I would shoot, 'cause
I was too small to reach the screen.

I was so impressed when I saw it that
I wanted to have it at home somehow.

Before I could have a computer,
I went to big shops to touch

the ones in display and play in them until
I got kicked out. ''Kid, get out already!''

But I would return the next day,
at 9 am sharp, to keep playing.

I spent many hours in front
of those computers, playing

and waiting forever until those games
would be downloaded into a tape.

Like all children my age, I hated the error
message ''Download incomplete - Start over''.

I can't remember my childhood
unless it involves a computer,

playing games with my brother...
We were there at the right time,

at the time of the big bang
for the 8-bit computers.

Videogames existed for my generation since
very early in our lives, in gaming rooms

and in bars. Beyond the impact
of videogames in our culture,

computers had an even bigger impact.
Microcomputers entered our homes

and changed the concept of entertainment.
They had such potential...

You could do your own programming in BASIC,
which was the simplest coding language.

An important part that was associated
with computers was gaming.

Those of us who discovered computing then
lived through an era that won't happen again.

Also because it was
the first era of its kind.

Before then, there were only corporation
computers so pricy we wouldn't dream of them.

When microcomputers reached our homes, we
discovered a world that didn't exist before.

So, everything could still be explored.

My first real encounter with computing
happened when my Spectrum broke down.

I started studying the computer's inners,
and the Z80 assembly language.

When my computer was fixed,
games became secondary.

I wanted to apply what I had learned
to my Spectrum and see what happened.

It was a fascinating world.
With graphics, with sound even...

Back then the technical part was
more demanding but less complex.

You'd work in machine code, unlike now. And
you had to know the machinery components.

But that machinery was not complex.
So, it was more demanding and intensive.

But individuals like us nowadays
would be out of their depth.

I did the programming, the graphics
and even the artwork.

Now it wouldn't be possible for one person
to do 10% of graphics, or 10% of coding.

Whatever you wanted to do,
it was almost impossible to achieve.

You were dealing with a computer
that barely had an operating system,

designed to be used at home,
almost like a...

a scientific calculator where you had a
very limited range of programming options.

But you could use motion graphics
with a certain range of colors.

You had 8 basic colors which would
refuse to interact with one another,

a low screen resolution, an also limited
processing speed for graphics animation,

In the best videogames companies of the
time, the goal of their best programmers was

was to get to show the animated graphics
at a 12 frames per second speed,

which was almost magic to us.

It contained only the basics,
just enough to be operational.

You'd use 7 k for the screen,
and the remaining 41 k

you had to use with a clear plan
and precise measurements,

so that the final effect was
so much more enjoyable.

There was an assembler, a disassembler,
just the least you needed to start coding.

In the assembler, there were graphics apps
that would allow you to draw rather easily.

There were apps for animation
where you could learn a few tricks.

You would superseed an image with another,
and you could create the ilussion of movement.

There were music apps. Rudimentary,
grant you, but you made sounds.

Back then there was nothing at all.
No cell phones, no Internet...

Having a device where you could program
a sound and then hear it was fascinating.

The big four were Dinamic Software,
Opera Soft, Made in Spain and Topo Soft.

Dinamic was the best known one,
because they...

They had the best company model. TopoSoft
and them had the best company structure.

The others were groups of kids that decided
to start a company, but they remained kids.

On the other side of the corporation fabric
of the time were Opera and Made in Spain.

Made in Spain was pure craftsmanship, and
they were the greatest software researchers.

They had the craziest creations,
absolutely fantastic.

They really researched into those machines
in depth to get the best out of those 8 bits

we had back then, just like the Opera people
did. And each one created exceptional games.

I think there was more competition
back then than there is now.

Now, all videogames companies
are associated one way or another.

We don't feel we are competing.
The market is much bigger now.

To give you a proper picture: Amstrad Spain,
formerly Indexcom, started out with nothing,

and in 1988, I think, they had billings for
24 or 28 thousand million Pesetas.

Dinamic had billings for 140 in 1988. They
had started out in their parents' attic.

Erbe, which Paco Pastor started out as a
side project, billed 1000 million in 1988.

Within a 5 year period, there was
an incredible bing bang.

I do not know the numbers nowadays,
but I can give you a reference.

The Butragueño game sold 150 thousand copies,
and although ADS won't give the total numbers

for videogame copies sold in Spain, it's said
that the last CoD sold 300 thousand here.

It's impressive 30 years ago a game sold half
as many copies as their best selling one now.

It was just a fraction of the industry
we know nowadays.

It was like the toy soldier
varnish industry.

You could be creative and
have plenty of feedback,

but nobody knew videogaming,
nobody understood what it was you did.

But it was truly satisfying.

They were actual authors' products, because
few people would work in any one project.

Nowadays a project involves many people,
and the sense of authoring is lost.

We paid a lot of attention to technical
issues. We'd see a new game in a gaming room,

and we'd focus on the great scrolling,
or on the animation, and we'd want it.

We wouldn't focus so much on playability.
In Spain we had started with Arcade,

that gave instant gratification for graphics,
for motion and for all on-screen objects.

The scene in Andalusia did not exist. Just
small groups, like the Captain Seville one.

Or us, who made side projects and then moved
on to other Spanish companies like Dinamics.

We didn't know each other.

Alvaro was always
a restless soul like that.

Always ahead of his time and his age.

To us, to the gang,
he was a hero.

He called a meeting to meet
kids with similar interests to his.

I imagined they all lived in caves, because
you wouldn't see them out in the streets.

I learned about the project through
a friend from the same town.

He was already in college.
I wasn't yet.

He gave me a leaflet
he had found in the ads board.

The leaflet called for a meeting
at a driving school in Seville.

I think the school was called Montelló.

The meeting intended to get
collaborators for a videogame.

When I got there,
it was amazing because...

I was happy. You have to
go back to the time, 1986-87-88.

You'd meet some 20 people with your interests
and good skills for coding and graphics.

I was almost high
with the atmosphere there.

Alvaro Mateos showed up.
He was a living legend.

Everybody introduced themselves.
We were just kids, actually.

We were naive in a way that
we would never be or see again.

We all had our eyes wide open,
and our mouths wide open.

We'd ask if that was happening for real.
If it was really going to happen here.

People with different abilities showed up.
Some would never be seen again.

Others would join in during
the production process.

I was most impressed that people so young
would try something like that. It was big.

Most of all, I'd say they were
games that you could play,

which is different from games nowadays, that
are mostly films or sightly interactive games

that make you have the stick in your hand
for ages as they tell you stories and films.

They were games you could play.
Games you actually played.

Since the videogame was so simple,
and it had such a limited power,

it had two other defining elements: first,
you had to complete it with some showmanship,

and also it was icon based,
so it was far more suggestive.

It alienated the gamer with a more
complex imaginary formation than now.

I'm not saying games now are less.
They are just different.

There were works of art, and games
that were worthless. Just like now.

Luckily for Spain, there were very good
coders then, very talented people.

Games here were at the same level as
the ones from abroad, or even better.

Maybe ours were a bit difficult. It could
be because coders were also testers.

Maybe we played them so often
we came to think they were easy.

They had a reputation for being difficult.

Just the opposite of what a publishing
company would want nowadays.

If it's too difficult, they won't play it,
and they won't buy another game from you.

Back then I would think
I was a bad player.

And that was why I couldn't complete the
games. Now I see the difficulty standards

back in the 80's could not be compared
with present day standards.

I don't know why we made them like that.
They may be too short and we needed content,

so we made them difficult in order to make
longer the actual playing time.

Abu Simbel was criminally difficult.
Some people told me they hated me for it.

But they were hooked up at the same time.
And that was the real issue there.

To get gamers hooked up
on how difficult games were.

Now there is nothing but tutorials. It's all
designed to make things easier for players.

The very producers now admit their aim
is to keep users from getting frustrated.

That makes me sad. I am old school,
and I need to be challenged.

But I can't find those challenges.

There were better and worse things, but
some were really good. Good enough to say

there really was a golden age for Spanish
software, although this annoying term,

golden age, sounds self-aggrandizing
and self-serving, but

it can really be applied to some games and
some apps that were created here at the time.

It was the biggest explosion ever occurred in
Spain for videogames, with no external help,

and it left a mark on a whole generation
of gamers for ever.

That alone would merit
calling it a golden age.

This industry was really born in England,
with the Spectrum.

We looked up to those coders.
Later on they looked up to us.

A time came when the production was
important, and it was also exported abroad.

Software development in Spain was as
advanced as any in Europe, at UK's level.

Games developed by Topo or Dinamic would
reach top places in best selling ranks.

Top got the exclusive license
rights for the film Gremlins.

Foreign companies had nothing
on Spanish companies. Quite the contrary.

At that time, any videogame
released by Topo, Dinamic or Opera,

had a warm welcome.
And it was sold fast.

Buyers really wanted them.

That, along with the fact that those machines
allowed users to develop their creativity,

because anyone with a little interest
was able to get something done.

Sometimes even products so good
that could be released commercially.

Such possibilities make way to call that
time the golden age of Spanish software.

I don't think it's a mistaken label, but
it may be a bit over the top, uncalled for.

But we are feeling so nostalgic regarding all
things 8-bit and 16-bit, it can't be avoided.

It was indeed a golden age for Spain.
For us, for our national market.

There was a market, there were national
products, there was press and exposure.

For the global market, there were just
exceptions. One release here or there.

Our graphics caught their attention,
but they disliked our playability.

To me, it was a golden age
for Spanish software indeed,

but other developed countries
had it too at the same time.

Kids all over the world, in the UK,
Germany, France, the USA, even Japan,

started developing videogames at home,
and some of them generated real business

worldwide, as was the case with Spain.
And some of them made a real profit.

We rented a flat in Seville,
in the Triana area.

We kind of made an office out of it.

We had equipment to work with: computers,
a printer, discs for security back ups...

The first few weeks were for meetings,
specially with graphic artists,

since they would take point, not just
in the visual aspects of the videogame,

but also in the plot,
the action, the AI elements...

As time went by, you would identify
what each person was more qualified for.

In the end, each team member
had a precise task.

Alvaro was in charge of the technical
direction, specially the programming.

He put me in charge of the graphics team.

Including me, that team comprised 4 people.

Captain Seville was a platforms game, which
was one of the most successful types then.

Considering the possibilities those computers
offered, that was the most colorful option.

There were two options: screen by screen,
or the finite screens that scrolled softly

up and down and side to side
in your computer screen.

In the end, it was preferred to
have several levels of depth

instead of moving side to side,
and the decision was clear.

Since you couldn't have it both ways, it
was decided it would be screen by screen,

and each level could have a higher level
of detail, it could have a life of its own.

Because of the limitations Spectrum had,
we chose to work in monochrome,

also tainting the screen, except for
the area reserved for information,

where you could see how many lives
you had left, etc. It had a bit more color.

Screens were black and white with some sort
of color filter superimposed on them.

We made these choices so that we could
work on creating more complex characters.

In other games, the color
range could be deeper,

but that would limit the avatars'
shapes and their movement.

I was in charge of creating the ilussion
of movement for our characters.

As a sub-routine, you had to indicate
the coordinates in the X and Y axis

where each graphic element
had to be drawn.

Also the direction, whether
we were looking right or left.

And little else. It only
appeared to be little.

But you had to describe
parabolic arcs for the assaults,

there was a flight motion effect for
Captain Seville that could be controlled

from the keyboard by a sensor that measured
the speed with which you pressed the key.

The quicker you pressed the key,
the quicker he moved and flew.

Captain Seville was a bidimensional game
with some tridimensional elements.

Some objects would move in front of others,
and there were objects in the background too.

To make that effect of an object moving in
front of another you had to create a mask.

That mask would make you see the object in
the back as transparent through the coding.

It made it look tridimensional.

We gave it all the hours it needed
in a laid back environment,

because sometimes I would be absent and
I would arrive in the middle of a party...

Thinking that a group of 13 or 14 people
between 16 and 18 years old

would start up a company and would have
a clear and professional structure

is rather naive, right?

We didn't feel we were working. We enjoyed
it, had fun and felt passionate about it.

We could work hours on end, whole nights,
mixing it with fun, jokes, laughter...

Sometimes we'd go out and have a few drinks.
When we got bored we'd go back to work

until the very next day.
It was fun.

It was like Microsoft,
but back in the day.

It was complete chaos. Luckily,
everyone would fly ideas,

which would then be discarded
or not. But it was chaotic.

It was a nice and fun kind of chaos.

It's only normal. We were kids trying
to carry out a hard, long term project.

Alvaro would ask for all the information
we had gathered on occasion,

so that he could manage it. This way,
the game would go on being developed.

Even if we worked individually, he gathered
and managed all information rather well.

The system evolved,
and it included ups and downs.

Generally speaking, everybody
was committed to the project.

Some people quit. They didn't
think it was interesting.

Mostly, I think, because they didn't
see a clear future, money wise.

In the graphics team, the people in charge
of the videogame's design and image,

Angel was the point man,
he created the characters,

and he decided what characters
we had to design.

We used a drawing technique I recycled
from a comic drawing manual I once read.

Its author was Josep María Béa.
Basically, you draw on paper,

then you transfer it to acetate, either with
a marker or by photocopying it on the acetate,

then you'd place that acetate on the screen
which was connected to your computer,

and then your would trace again
with pixels the lines you had drawn

by turning pixels
on and off, one by one.

It became information that the coding team
could use to integrate it into the game.

We would bring comic books and magazines
to some meetings. That was real fun.

We were looking for documentation.
We would meet and point out one we liked.

Then Angel or Manolo or me
would draw a sketch

that we later on had to pass onto those black
and white, or black and blue tiny squares...

If I liked motorcycles,
I would draw one.

I don't know... If I particularly liked the
head of an effigy from an old Peruvian cult,

I would just draw it.

Each one would contribute
their own personal take on things.

In some meetings we would split
the RAM memory, which was peculiar,

since the 48 K Spectrum had we had
to divide for graphics, music, coding

and anything else that ended
up in the final game.

From today's perspective,
that was like juggling.

The RAM memory was so little we sometimes
had to make magic to enter graphics

and programming routines in places used by
the system. It was really hard sometimes.

What does look like a miracle today
is that we managed to complete it.

All through the time we were working on
the videogame, roughly a year and a half,

all who took part in making
the game had a great rapport,

but the end was... too sudden.

We had spent the money Alvaro
had gathered as the starting budget,

and we had to close the office because
we couldn't pay the rent anymore.

And the publishing company started putting
pressure on us to finalise it quickly.

The MSX version had troubles.
The Amstrad version had troubles.

We were no longer in the flat by then.

By then many things were solely Alvaro's
responsibility and he had to do them at home.

But he was in charge of other things,
besides the game.

As it was being postponed, we lost our
enthusiasm and our chances, little by little.

In the end there was some friction, some
tension. We didn't stop getting along, but...

We never had the usual big farewell party
when the project was complete.

It dragged on forever. The game
should have had a Christmas release,

but we missed the deadline.

We barely touched the game. We just agreed on
small changes by phone, like title or logo.

The game came from an experienced group,
with Alvaro as team leader,

and Alvaro had already developed
two successful games,

so it made no... Mind you, it's true that
other games I would sit down to play them

and find possible improvements, corrections
or mistakes. But they, as a team,

had already delivered a final product.

The game's first name was Captain
Blood Sausage because that was

the title of the comic it was based upon.

But, as the project took shape and Dinamic
looked at promotion and marketing strategies,

the name was called into question
because it wasn't appealing for sales.

So it was changed to Captain Seville, but
we didn't think the name had to be changed.

It was a bit frustrating for all of us.

After the bittersweet last few months,
it meant relief mixed with pride.

Seeing it released was so moving...
I will never have the same feeling again.

I was thrilled. At 16 or 17, I had made a
game that was being analysed in magazines.

I couldn't score with girls
because of it, but still..

We tried to make a successful and
fun videogame for the Spanish market,

but we didn't care so much about
the impact it could have anywhere else.

I think it was Gremlins Graphics
that took it to England,

and from England, which
was Spectrum's core,

it was released in other countries,
like France, Italy, Germany...

but it was sold as a low budget game.

A lot of videogames' artwork was
done by Azpiri, specially Dinamic's.

Since we could make suggestions to Dinamic
regarding the advertising campaign,

I proposed to ask Max to draw the comic
and the videogame's cover art.

Seeing my story drawn by Max, and my name
by his name, was an exciting moment for me,

since I was so young, and Max
was one of my favourite artists.

When it was released, Captain Seville
became a surprise.

It was a surprise first of all
because it was a good game.

It had a good graphic quality, and it
was surprising that it was made in Spain.

Because most videogaming software came
from England, from English developers.

It was a bit disappointing to see
it didn't achieve what we expected.

But it was due to the changes the industry
was going through at that time.

There were new things, and maybe
it wasn't the best time for this game,

which had gotten great reviews,
and was well liked.

I remember I had to buy a copy for myself.

Because we had a rule: no one could take
out any tape or anything from the office.

The risk of piracy was too high,
it was a big problem in Spain.

I remember going to the flee market in
Alameda, where pirated games were sold,

and having the feeling, when looking at the
game there with the other pirated games,

that I had made it, or I was one
of the people who made it.

It was a weird feeling, seeing your pirated
game there, but I guess it's still the same.

Captain Seville just covered its cost,
and didn't make way for further projects.

At least we tried.

The publishing company paid Alvaro
according to the number of copies sold.

And Alvaro paid us in one single installment
according to the effort we had made,

and the achievements we had accomplished. I
saved it to buy a PC when I went to college.

They were very expensive.

I always say this fantastic job got me a
leather jacket and U2's Joshua Tree album.

Little else. It wasn't very profitable.

Money and profit didn't really motivate
me to work on that videogame.

It was just one more motivating reason.

But it was also the fist
money I made by working.

It was thrilling when we got paid because
we all wondered what to do with the money.

We went camping to the beach
for a weekend, the same people...

And we even had a picture taken with that
first money we had made honestly.

It could have been the starting point for
other games, but it came apart on its own.

It didn't really work.

Nostalgia aside, I think it's a fun game,
and very playable, which is paramount.

I think it makes you feel things. It has a
story, and stories were hard to get then.

As a whole, it makes you feel you
are going through an adventure.

It is an A+ game. Not only for
back in the day, but also for today.

For an external production, its quality was
better than other games from abroad.

I was astonished by the superhero concept,
since I was a big fan of superhero comics.

The detailed graphics also mesmerised me,
but I was a suffering MSX user,

so I said to myself ''Another Dinamic game
with a monochrome Spectrum version''.

But that didn't keep me
from enjoying the game's value.

I really liked it. As with all Spanish
products, I was mad at its difficulty.

And I got a bit frustrated.

The game was easy. Getting to the next screen
was hard. Each screen had a hard enemy.

Each enemy's goal is
to kill the main character.

There was a trick. If you ate a sausage,
you could just fly away.

You just signed a non aggression pact with
them, and you could fly until the very end.

I started playing Captain
Seville rather late.

I looked for it, of course, because
I had to know it.

I thought it was a game for high level
players. For real hardcore gamers.

It was a masochist game.

It's as difficult as most Dinamic's games,
and I felt sorry for players from that time.

Games nowadays are not
like that, for good or bad.

It was different. I don't think
it's at the top of Spanish software.

But it wanted to be different. There was a
long tradition of Spanish comic already.

And we were really disappointed with
the first Mortadelo from Magic Vice.

Captain Seville mixed the American
tradition with a fully Spanish style.

The first thing of a game
you'd see is the cover art.

The design, very much like Viper drawings,
caught my attention.

And Captain Seville himself
caught my attention.

The usual was an American hero, or a hero
from a Spanish place other than Andalusia.

It caught my attention.

Captain Seville had a very
warm welcome in the press.

I remember the reviews
in Micromania and Microhobby.

It didn't really left me puzzled.
It was Arcade, which was complicated.

I think I completed it by making loops
and cheating to get infinite lives.

When you try the remake, you see it
with fresh eyes, it has another look.

You go back to those times,
and it's still a difficult game.

I quit videogames because
I needed a job with some future.

So I was away from them
for a number of years.

I got an email some time later letting me
know a remake for PC had been released.

I was surprised that the one game that
was remade for PC was Captain Seville.

Captain Seville started out when most
of the group was still at Computer Emuzone.

I think it was LordFred who did some
graphics and had the idea of making a remake.

Then Benway in coding and Daniel Celemín,
LordFred, in graphics, joined forces.

That's how the project got started.

I came to Captain Seville when I decided to
remake a real game, and I considered options.

I wanted to remake a classic Spanish game
from the 80's, and I chose this one.

I think the graphics were different
from other games of the time.

Each screen is different.
It's a little bit surreal.

It think it was a bunch of
kids' ideas put together.

They tried to put everything in it.
An elephant, a waiter...

When we played the game, each screen
was inspected, each enemy...

You're playing a game that takes place in
Seville, with a superhero that eats sausages.

Let's try to get into the game's spirit.

We had to coordinate schedules, the two of
us, and the development had ups and downs.

We could complete it through
self imposed discipline.

In the course of 3 years, not only time
but also motivation fails you at times.

But we could finally complete it. And
I was very happy with the final product.

I love remakes, first of all. I think it's a
chance for a second lifetime for videogames.

Whether it is Captain Seville, or the Crime
Bay, which I adore, by Seville programmers.

It's nice to see
those games remade,

and play them in different ways.

For us that's fun,
and we love it.

I think the passion for retro is to try to
relive those happy times you had as a kid.

Ultimately, people just try to feel good.

They remember those times with nostalgia,
possibly because of their age.

As a kid you are more impressionable,
and your imagination is freer.

We try to relive those experiences
that made us happy once.

In the 80's, you played in the streets.
You played football, hide and seek...

The entertainment was not digital. Any fun
with the first computers or consoles

would caught your attention and
left a mark. Of course, back then,

if you gave a kid a videogame that made
him the lead character in an adventure,

what else would he want? He could use his
imagination, and that leaves a mark.

People who nowadays play pixelated,
remade games, they play out of nostalgia.

I think it's nostalgia.
Plus, playing is actually fun.

If you lived back then and want to play a
game, and you're shown Abu Simbel or SirFred,

you'll find it more appealing, 'cause you
remember the moments you lived as a kid.

If you can relive it,
why wouldn't you? Go and play.

A whole generation lived
and sucked on that.

They refuse to lose it, and they organize
talks, and meetings with people their age.

They aim to preserve them so that
those games can be played nowadays

and those who didn't live it
back then can live it now.

As the videogames fans we are, it matters
to remember how the industry started out.

And how present day games have
their roots in what was done 30 years ago.

It may be that. The usual lines about the
time and the chocolate sandwich and such.

But I think it's more that old players
have opened their eyes because

they still live gaming actively,
and they realise

that now they don't have as much fun
as they used to have.

Nostalgia is comparing the new games
you play to the first games you played.

I have a friend who describes it well
as the First Computer complex.

I value videogames
by their playability.

Nostalgia has no part in the playability
of an app that still works as a videogame.

Nostalgia pisses me off,
it upsets me.

It upsets me because it can complicate
the rapport of a gamer with a game.

The most relevant case of Pixelart
success has been Mein Kraft.

You make a sword by putting 4 pixels up,
and two across. And that's a sword.

That allows people who don't master
graphic design to make objects easily.

The beauty of Pixelart is that shapes are
simple, but they stand for something bigger.

It's a like a book reader.
Their mind does the rest.

It generates images. Pixelated games
can get the same effect.

There is a worldwide passion
for retro aesthetics, at many levels,

and it's particularly intense
in videogaming.

I mean reinterpretation,
apropiation from other disciplines.

Artists in love with pixels and 8-bit
things which computers now have left behind,

because machines with millions of polygons
and textures that make it look real...

Somehow, past aesthetics left something that
won't happen again with today's computers.

Because of cell phones, in part, and
because of the remakes of those old games

a new generation of people are
attracted to that kind of games.

Those games have a simple playability,

because back then you couldn't
do complicated stuff.

And then they are joined
by casual gamers,

people who only play simple games.
They like simple games.

Some ideas from those old games
can be projected now more easily.

In the world of Spectrum and old consoles,
systems cannot communicate with one another.

A Spectrum machine couldn't
connect to another Spectrum.

That was a revolution.

Together with the capacity for graphics
today, that allows for interesting things.

Still, I find games that don't intend
to use that capacity for graphics,

but to use the vintage
pixelation of the old days.

From a designer's perspective,
they do look a bit different.

Things to get back from those days...
First, we had a strong national market.

We had game production companies
developing games for specific platforms,

and those games were distributed in the
Spanish market, and people would buy them.

To me, the 80's are valuable
because of that national market.

A national market that doesn't exist now.
That is their value.

Then, in 1990 or 1991, Spanish production
was completely destroyed.

Only Dinamic survived,
under the Hobbypress umbrella.

And still they made a great product,
which was PC Football.

We had to wait for a restart
until Arvirago and Noria were born.

That's when I joined Ignacio
in his Pyro project,

with all credit for Ignacio, for the money
he spent and the company sense he had,

and we were luckily successful with
Commandos 1, which was a milestone

in the sense that it proved Spain
could play at international level again.

When we talk about videogames, everybody
thinks about big multinational corporations,

about consoles, about PC's. But most Spanish
production companies focus on other markets.

There's plenty of games for cell phones,
for tablets, for social networks,

for websites, for browsers,
for download, MMO...

There are many types of videogames
and interactive entertainment nowadays,

and most Spanish companies
are focused on that.

Something nice about a Spectrum was that
even a kid at home could create a videogame.

You just needed the Spectrum.

Now we have a new chance with mobile
platforms like AppleStore or Android Market.

Those little games could have room there.

They can be developed by one person or two:
A programmer, a graphic designer...

You no longer need a publisher
to release your product.

I think consoles will always
keep their market.

I think mobile devices
have a different market.

I think they will coexist, because
Triple A's will keep being produced.

People are going back to developing.

Big productions, 3D PC games, cannot be
produced by an independent team,

but cell phones have created a new space
where people can develop their creativity.

It's not like back in the 80's, but you can
make your own videogames and publish them.

It's clear that people working
in Spain are really talented.

We can mention relevant cases like
Invizimals, a big hit in Sony's platforms.

We have Castlevania: Lord of Shadows,
a Spanish company getting a big franchise

from a Japanese multinational.

You realise those are big
achievements within the industry.

But, if you analyse one case at a time,
you find out all of these Spanish companies

actually depend on companies
that are not Spanish.

Joking about, I'd say we are
an exceptionally gifted dwarf.

I mean to say, our numbers are unimpressive,
but our point people really deliver.

An impact on iPhones as
the 3rd power in digital legends.

Virtual Toys, that sold in the old Nintendo
DS astounding numbers, even if unreleased.

FX that keep fighting to be
on point at development.

We have a group of production companies
fighting well on the international stage.

My own Pyros Studios, which keeps
changing to stay at the top.

It's impossible to get millions of users you
need for a minimum profit in any one country.

Profit to compensate the cost of
developing. So, you have to go abroad.

If we want Spanish production to be viable,
we need to create sale channels for it.

First, nationally.
We need Spanish publishers

to position that Spanish production
in the national market.

Then, we can try to get publishers
to reach out to international markets.

Those companies should be able to go
out with good competition prospects,

that is, to help them with international
promotion, with international costumers,

because Spain is an important market, but
we'll remain a small market for our producers,

because this industry is fully globalised.

If we had to live just from our national
market, we couldn't make a living.

That creativity, that language,
are modern. They are just 50 years old.

So modern, it's much more global than
other languages like film or literature.

And it can be easily exported.

I think the videogame industry, or
videogames as cultural items,

is growing and looking for its own place.
It still doesn't have the room it deserves,

because, being bigger than film industry
or any other culture related industry,

it's still not recognised as serious.

If, 30 or 3000 years from now,
an alien ship landed on Earth,

and dug for documents to find out how
civilization was in our present days,

I'm sure they'd find many signs to indicate
that videogames were important,

that interactive videogames were important
and marked the world's global culture.

What's important is that the project
was released, and that was a success.

With good and bad things, but it was created
and completed by young people from Seville.

I think it was a privilege to be part
of such a project at my age.

It was ambitious, even if
we didn't sense it.

We had great dreams, and it
enriched us for the future.

It was most valuable for me.

To me, on a personal level,
it was a huge experience.

I met back then my best friends.
They still are my best friends now.

That year and a half was unforgettable and
crazy, because all kinds of things happened.

In a way, it was like going
into adulthood through the backdoor.

An awakening of sorts,
for pretty and for bad.

It was a human and personal experience,
rather than professional,

although it was also interesting
professionally. Many times we'd say

that it was like the era of
silent films, but for videogames.

We were part of it, but we
didn't know we were part of it.

You realise in time, when
you gain perspective.

But, personally, it was incredible. It gave
me things I've used the rest of my life.

Personally, I retain a kid's dream
that gets something done.

When I spoke to my town friends, other kids
like me, I was the hero, not Captain Seville.

I had made the game they were playing.
It was very important to me.

To me,
it's a time in my life I do remember.

I remember the fun, the intensity...
I'm sure it helped me to do what I do now.

That saying that goes. ''work on something
you love, and you will be happy''.