Did you know that the Independent Games Festival's main prize, the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, is named after the creator of its *second* winner? Seumas made one of the last great shareware games, Tread Marks, a 3D combat racer with deformable terrain, released in early 2000.
Seumas had been diagnosed Hodgkin Lymphoma three years earlier, aged 18. As his health declined, he defiantly made the best Breakout game ever, DX-Ball 2, with help from his family, then after meeting his hero John Carmack he dove into this more ambitious, innovative project.
He released the game on January 3rd, 2000, then accepted the IGF main prize March 10th, assisted by an oxygen tank and seated in a wheelchair. He died 11 days later. Carmack later penned a moving eulogy (see attached images).
In honour of his gamedev dream, his family continued making games under his company name, Longbow Digital Arts (now Longbow Games). They made the Hegemony RTS series and puzzle-platformer Golem. https://longbowgames.com
As my own tribute to Seumas McNally's legacy, and to the brilliance of his games, I told a longer version of his story to close out my new book, Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internet. More info on the book at https://sharewareheroes.com
Seumas had been diagnosed Hodgkin Lymphoma three years earlier, aged 18. As his health declined, he defiantly made the best Breakout game ever, DX-Ball 2, with help from his family, then after meeting his hero John Carmack he dove into this more ambitious, innovative project.
He released the game on January 3rd, 2000, then accepted the IGF main prize March 10th, assisted by an oxygen tank and seated in a wheelchair. He died 11 days later. Carmack later penned a moving eulogy (see attached images).
In honour of his gamedev dream, his family continued making games under his company name, Longbow Digital Arts (now Longbow Games). They made the Hegemony RTS series and puzzle-platformer Golem. https://longbowgames.com
As my own tribute to Seumas McNally's legacy, and to the brilliance of his games, I told a longer version of his story to close out my new book, Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internet. More info on the book at https://sharewareheroes.com
@pgv
And thank you for reading it. I first learnt about Seumas via a fan of his games who hoped to see his work covered in my book, and I was similarly touched by the story I heard, so in a way I'm just paying it forward.
And thank you for reading it. I first learnt about Seumas via a fan of his games who hoped to see his work covered in my book, and I was similarly touched by the story I heard, so in a way I'm just paying it forward.
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@MossRC Incredible! DX-Ball 2 was massive. Thanks for finding this story and sharing it with us.
