Pocketeers

A small studio for handheld machines

Pocketeers was a British studio formed in September 2002 to build games for handheld consoles. Its own about page, archived from its website, names two founders, Matthew Hopwood and David Garrison, and says both had worked in video game production since the early 1990s. The company traded first as AGB Games, then took the Pocketeers name, and set up in South Yorkshire in the north of England.

The studio defined itself narrowly and deliberately. Its stated mission was to develop two-dimensional and three-dimensional technology and games for handheld platforms, with Nintendo's Game Boy Advance at the centre, alongside Pocket PC and similar devices. It described itself as a registered Nintendo Game Boy Advance developer and said it worked with a pool of experienced programmers, artists, musicians and testers rather than a large permanent staff.

Building up to its own titles

The founders had a shared history before the company existed. An archived history page says they worked together on 3D technology from 1996, starting with a PlayStation rally game called Race of Champions and later a hoverbike racer, Destiny Destruction. They also began, but could not find a publisher for, a PC project called Zero Tolerance. That long partnership, spanning a rally title, a hoverbike racer and an unshipped PC design, is the thread the studio traces back to its own founding.

From 1999 to 2002 the pair contributed to handheld games while working for other firms, including Fluid Studios and David A Palmer Productions. Titles from that period included Top Gun and Rolling for the Game Boy Advance, a Star Wars Episode 2 game and Doom, described in the studio's notes as one of the first 3D titles on the platform. That run gave the pair the experience they would soon apply under their own name.

Need for Speed: Underground 2 on Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS

Pocketeers' best-known credit is the handheld side of Need for Speed: Underground 2. Its own news pages record that in April 2004 the studio was chosen to develop the Game Boy Advance version, and the company's games list later describes a Nintendo DS edition as well. The main console and PC game was made by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts.

The handheld release carried the same racing identity as the larger game but had to fit far weaker hardware. Pocketeers' description of its version is spare: a 3D racing title for Game Boy Advance featuring licensed vehicles. It was one of several Need for Speed handhelds the studio handled, and it sat alongside its conversions of Underground, Porsche Unleashed and, later, Most Wanted.

The C2 engine

Pocketeers built its own technology and named it the C2 engine, a set of tools meant to work across several platforms. Its Game Boy Advance page lists features such as real-time texture decompression, mipmapping, a dynamic level of detail system and imports from 3D Studio Max. The point of writing it in-house was to wring 3D performance out of hardware that was never designed for it.

The studio's pitch for that engine won outside notice. Its news archive records that the games site Pocket IGN gave Pocketeers a Technological Excellence award at E3 in 2003 for its 3D engine work. The company also produced demos in the style of third-person city and first-person shooter games, showing what the technology could do on a handheld. On its own site the studio treats that award as a milestone in its push into portable 3D.

Mobile games and the wider catalogue

As well as console handhelds, Pocketeers moved into mobile phone games. A later version of its games list shows a run of small titles built for phones, including Soccer Manager 2006, Speed Bingo, Stackers, Cogs Challenge and a group of arcade games gathered under the name Addiction. These appeared while the studio still described itself as a developer for consoles and mobile.

That breadth is part of the studio's character. Its about page says the goal was to push handheld gaming technology and make the seemingly impossible work on small devices, and the company took development roles on both Nintendo and Sony handheld hardware. The catalogue ranges from licensed racing conversions to original mobile puzzles, all made for machines with severe limits.

Quick facts

Formed: September 2002, by Matthew Hopwood and David Garrison, and formerly known as AGB Games. Based in: South Yorkshire, England, according to the studio's own about page. Speciality: 2D and 3D games and technology for handheld platforms, chiefly the Game Boy Advance. Status: a registered Nintendo Game Boy Advance developer that later announced official Nintendo DS and Sony PSP developer status.

Key credits: the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions of Need for Speed: Underground 2; Game Boy Advance conversions of Need for Speed: Underground, Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed and Need for Speed: Most Wanted; and a line of mobile phone games. Technology: the C2 engine, which powered the studio's Game Boy Advance 3D titles and won a Technological Excellence award at E3 2003.

Games

• Need for Speed: Underground 2

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