Obituary: Archer Maclean, Commodore 64 developer, has passed away at 60 years old

Game developer Archer Maclean recently passed away at the age of 60. Maclean was a longtime programmer and designer best known for Dropzone on the Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64. 

Maclean's passing was confirmed by several members of the retro game community, who wrote that he "produced some of the [Commodore 64's] greatest games...my heart goes out to his family."

Born January 28, 1962, Maclean's first game was the aforementioned Dropzone. Following the success of that title, he would go on to do design and graphics for 1986's International Karate (and its 1987 sequel, International Karate+), and several snooker simulation games, including Archer Maclean Presents Pool Paradise.

Several of these titles were developed at Awesome Studios, a subsidiary of the now defunct Ignition Entertainment. Maclean co-founded Awesome in 2002, and later left the developer in 2005. He went on to found Awesome Play, creators of the 2009 Nintendo Wii title Speedzone (or Wheelspin in Europe).

Though Speedzone marked the end of his time as a game developer, Maclean also wrote columns for Retro Gamer Magazine.