Dave Perry started programming games for the ZX81 way back in 1981 in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. By 1985 he had a major hit with Pyjamarama on the Spectrum, the first title in Mikro Gen's highly successful Wally series. Shortly afterwards, he teamed up with Fergus McGovern at Probe Software and produced some of his finest games, including the classic Smash TV. But it was during the time of Commodore's Amiga that Perry really proved himself with Supremacy, a strategy game that raised the stakes in the Amiga market. He was still only 23 years old.

Realising that it was time to enter the big league, he headed for California and started working for Virgin Interactive, along with former colleague, artist Nick Bruty. They were responsible for three chart-toppers on Sega's Mega Drive - Cool Spot, Disney's Aladdin and Global Gladiators - and the royalty cheques began flooding in, giving Perry and his team the opportunity to set up their own development house, Shiny Entertainment. Perry's keen eye for character development soon became apparent with the advent of Earthworm Jim. The bug-eyed hermaphrodite captured the imagination of gamers all over the world with its fluid animation and off-the-wall humour, marking Shiny's arrival as a major contender. The real genius was in the lucrative marketing of their hottest property, as the game was swiftly followed by the action figures, the comic book and even the cartoon series. Rumour has it that even a live action Earthworm Jim movie has been proposed.

Shiny then decided to have a stab at the lucrative PC market with MDK, the most ambitious project that Perry had ever undertaken. The gamble paid off and MDK sold 500,000 copies worldwide within months of its release. A sequel was recently announced for the Dreamcast, imaginatively entitled MDK 2. However, Shiny have given the project to BioWare, the Canadian outfit responsible for Baldur's Gate, stating that they're far too busy to do it themselves. Does this mean that we may finally get to see Messiah?