Tim Skelly

Tim Skelly is an arcade game designer and programmer who worked for Cinematronics from 1978 until 1981. He designed a series of pure action games using black and white vector graphics. One of his early games, "Rip-Off", was the first arcade game with two-player cooperative play.

After leaving Cinematronics, he worked briefly for Gremlin before becoming an independent contractor with Gottlieb. His first game for Gottlieb was the esoteric "Reactor", and he had it written into his contract that he would get a credit on the title screen for designing the game. Previously, programmers had occasionally sneaked their names into their games as easter eggs, but "Reactor" was the first coin-op to have the designer's name appear with the manufacturer's blessing. [ [http://www.dadgum.com/giantlist/archive/cinematronics.html "Tim Skelly's History of Cinematronics and Vectorbeam "] from Dadgum Games] Skelly (along with Brian Jones) also designed two other games for Gottlieb, "Insector" and "Screw Loose", which were never released. Later on he worked for Incredible Technologies, then Microsoft.

Games

*"Star Hawk"
*"Sundance (arcade game)"
*"Solar Quest (arcade game)"
*"Warrior"
*"Rip-Off"
*"Armor Attack"
*"Star Castle" (designer)
*"War of the Worlds"
*"Reactor"
*"Insector"
*"Screw Loose"

Other projects

*"Tailgunner" (producer, cabinet art)
*"BattleTech" (software and hardware design for the original game center in Chicago, designer of several clan omnimechs)
*"Sonic the Hedgehog 2" (design advisor, art director)
*"Slick Shot" (graphic designer)
*"Golden Tee Golf II" (artwork)
*"Golden Par Golf" (artwork)

References

* [http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/SKELLY.HTM Interview] from ""
* [http://www.wtec.org/loyola/hci/aa_bios.htm http://www.wtec.org/loyola/hci/aa_bios.htm]
* [http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=person&name=Tim+Skelly http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=person&name=Tim+Skelly]
* [http://terrania.us/hg-fasa/legal-5.txt http://terrania.us/hg-fasa/legal-5.txt] (see conclusion note A-41)
* [http://www.westnet.com/~chris/arcade/TimSkelly/ http://www.westnet.com/~chris/arcade/TimSkelly/]

Notes