Jez San
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Jeremy 'Jez' San OBE (born March 29, 1966) is an English game programmer who founded Argonaut Software as a teenager in the 1980s. He is also a writer and helped design the Super FX chip for the Super NES.
[edit] Biography
San's interest in computing began at age 12 when he bought his first computer, a TRS-80. Within a year he taught himself assembly language, which he soon mastered for several chipsets.
San started his career in software by founding Argonaut Software in 1982 as a way to get software consulting jobs with large companies. He worked on security systems with British Telecom and Acorn. In 1984, he started developing his first game, Skyline Attack for the Commodore 64 and also co-wrote a book called Quantum Theory (a book about the Sinclair QL).
His first major success was his game Starglider for the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies (earning him £2 per copy in royalties) and was one of the first popular 3D computer games. The money helped launch Argonaut as a larger company that started hiring other people in 1986.
In the late 1980s, Argonaut signed a deal with Nintendo. He attracted Nintendo's attention because Argonaut was the first developer to successfully design 3D modeling on the NES and the Game Boy. X was published by Nintendo as the first 3D Game Boy game. San helped develop the first 3d graphics accelerator known as the Super FX chip that made Star Fox possible on the Super NES.
In 1996 Argonaut received external funding from Apax Partners and was listed publicly on the London Stock Exchange in 2000. San's stake was reduced from 90% in 1996 to almost 50% post AGT's ipo in March 2000. San also helped found ARC International ARK.L when it was spun out from Argonaut in 1998 and was its largest shareholder on ipo. San made substantial share sales during the flotation by Goldman Sachs and Warburg and in 2007 has fully exited ARC
San received an OBE in 2002, the first explicitly awarded for services to the computer game industry. Since that time, others have been honoured including Peter Molyneux, Ian Livingstone and Jane Cavanagh.
After announcing a substantial loss in August 2004, Argonaut Group PLC suspended trading of its shares in October and appointed administrators for Argonaut Software Ltd, Morpheme Ltd and Just Add Monsters Ltd -the wholly owned subsidiaries of the PLC. The administrators sold Morpheme and Just Add Monsters back to Jez San and the other founders as ongoing businesses, while Argonaut Software Ltd was eventually liquidated. [1]
In November 2004, Just Add Monsters became Ninja Theory and continued the development of PlayStation 3 first-party game Heavenly Sword, which launched some three years later in Christmas 2007. Also in 2004, Morpheme became Morpheme Wireless Ltd for awhile before San left, was eventually consumed by Eidos/SCi before being shut down in 2009.
After taking a hiatus from the computer games industry in 2004, San founded Crunchy Frog Ltd, which in 2005 became online poker company PKR. San serves as President, having hired his replacement with CEO Malcolm Graham, formerly of the Ritz Casino and AntFactory. PKR offers a unique 3d perspective for online poker, and operates in legal territories in Europe, Asia and Canada but does not operate in the USA, where online gaming is a grey area. PKR has an entry in PokerScout PokerScout - a gaming industry tracking and analysis site.
In 2008 San co-founded a mobile application developer and publisher Origin8 with fellow game industry colleague Foo Katan. The company produces iPhone and Blackberry software, and has offices in London.
San discusses other investments in CodePlay and Anthropics in magazine TheChilli and is also listed on imdb IMDB
San is a life member of BAFTA, and was an Advisory board member of the GDC and TIGA for several years.
