Kevin McGrath
From Sega Retro
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| Kevin McGrath |
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| Place of birth: United States |
| Employment history:
Electronic Arts[1] (1989 – 1992)
Futurescape Productions[1] (1992 – 1994)
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| Role(s): Technical Director, Programmer |
| Education: Bellevue College (2000-2003; AAS)[2], University of Washington (2009-2010)[2] |
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Kevin McGrath is an American programmer and former Electronic Arts technical director and software engineer.
Contents
Career
Early career
Futurescape Productions
| “ | Once again, career ambition got the better of me, and I figured the time to start a Genesis game development house was 1992. It seemed to me that SEGA was winning that segment of the console wars and would be around for decades (whoops). I had known Ken from my days in Eugene Oregon, and he also had entrepreneurial ambition like myself, so we both thought that now is the time to start our own game studio.
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„ |
With the accumulation of their experience developing games at Electronic Arts, McGrath and Hurley set out to create a software development house of their own, co-founding Futurescape Productions in October 1992.[4][1] McGrath was primarily responsible for executive responsibilities like company operations, employee management, scheduling, accounting, payroll, and everything in between. "I think we flipped a coin to determine who would be President, which I "lost" and ended up titling myself "VP of Development", which sounds impressive until you learn it's a two person company." He also contributed to the company's games in a more direct form, designing and programming the Sega VR-capable game Nuclear Rush, as well as the film noir-inspired Relentless.[3]
| “ | Leaving Futurescape was very difficult, as you can imagine. No one wants to give up on their dreams, and for a couple years it seemed like we could grow into a successful game development studio. The plan was to grow with royalty revenues, but we never got any because neither Nuclear Rush or Monster Hunter were released. The projects we tried to line up after it became obvious that neither game would get royalties, didn't provide enough income to cover salaries for the long term. We did have some contracts in the works, but they were mostly for porting existing games or for technical help, nothing that resulted in longer-term contracts for a team of programmers and artists. The future of Futurescape did not look very bright, and I didn't want to cut staff to just Ken and I and continue to try getting larger development contracts while we did small piecemeal contracts to keep afloat. So we helped everyone find new employment and closed shop. | „ |
Later career
| “ | Microsoft was just forming its internal game development group, and I was lucky enough to be the second programmer they hired for the group (called the Kids & Games Business Unit). I was hired to get up to speed on the SEGA Saturn, which was not yet released, but we never got a development system for it! | „ |
After wrapping up Futurescape Productions, McGrath departed to a job at Microsoft's then-dedicated game development division, the Kids & Games Business Unit. His first responsibility was to investigate the hardware and technical specifications of the upcoming Sega Saturn. Despite his task though, he was unfortunately unable to acquire a system to study. "Other groups at Microsoft must've had one, but for some reason the Games group couldn't get our hands on one." Little appears to have come of this, as he quickly moved to the Hover! team, where he wrote the game's raycasting rendering engine and level editor. Despite what McGrath calls a nearly-impossible deadline, the group was able to complete the game in time for inclusion on the Windows 95 installation CD.
| “ | Pat, also who I shared my first office with at Microsoft, later started Cat Daddy Games with Harley Howe (who was also an artist on "Hover!"), even after listening to my endless warnings about start-ups and going out on your own. Good thing they ignored me, since Pat convinced me to come do some development contracts with Cat Daddy Games after I left Microsoft, and I spent the last 15+ years of my career working for Cat Daddy Games / Take-Two. | „ |
Production history
- Populous (Mega Drive; 1990) — Additional Programming[5]
- Rings of Power (Mega Drive; 1992) — Additional Thanks[6]
- Road Rash II (Mega Drive; 1992) — Technical Direction[7]
- Will Harvey Presents The Immortal (Mega Drive; 1991) — Genesis Programming[8]
- Monster Hunter (Mega Drive; unreleased)
- Nuclear Rush (Mega Drive; unreleased) — Programmed By
- Nuclear Rush (Mega Drive; unreleased) — Design By
- Relentless (Mega Drive; unreleased) — Design
Interviews
- Interview: Kevin McGrath (2005-02-01) by Sega-16
- Interview: Kevin McGrath (2025-04-25) by Alexander Rojas
Photographs
- Main article: Photos of Kevin McGrath
External links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmcgrath/details/experience/
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmcgrath/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Interview: Kevin McGrath (2025-04-25) by Alexander Rojas
- ↑ https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ca/C1825862 (Wayback Machine: 2021-05-09 22:23)
- ↑ File:Populous MD US MDMini2 manual.pdf, page 17
- ↑ File:Rings of Power MD credits.pdf
- ↑ File:Road Rash II MD credits.pdf
- ↑ File:Immortal MD credits.pdf