It’s incredibly sad to hear about the passing of Fergus McGovern, he was only TWO years older than me! My first car was actually his own personal car, he gave it to me when I made a game for him.
Fergus was the head of Probe Software in Croydon, England. I had decided to start my own company (in my mother’s living room) and he gave me a steady flow of exciting projects to work on, including the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (they didn’t use the Ninja word in the UK), which gave me my first #1 video game. He also introduced me to Nick Bruty, one of the best artists in the industry and we made endless games together.
Fergus taught me to keep jumping hurdles no matter how challenging things would get. He believed we could do anything and so we believed it too. He gave me projects on Sinclair Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Sega Genesis, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST.
He knew so many people in the industry, and it’s interesting to see just how many had close personal relationships with him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a strong reaction to someone passing in the video game business.
He’s a real loss and sadly this keeps happening now as we all get older.
I had to post something as I’ve been thinking about him all day. I spent so much time with him, and am really sad that the last dinner we had together, is the last dinner we will ever have together.
Thanks Ferg.
