James D. Sachs

James D. Sachs

Birth Name:	{{{Birth Name}}}
Alias:	Jim Sachs
Birth Year:	1949
Birthplace:	{{{Birthplace}}}
Death Year:
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Nationality:	USA
Employer:	Sachs Enterprises (1984-85; Founder) Cinemaware (1986-87) Commodore (1986-93) Aegis Interactive Entertainment Serenescreen.com Prolific Publishing
Occupation:	Game designer Programmer Graphic Artist
Known For:	{{{Known For}}}
Q-Link Handle:	{{{Q-Link Handle}}}
Social Media:	{{{Social Media}}}
Website:	www.fish-byte.com (offline)
Information:	Designer of Saucer Attack! Designer of Time Crystal (Demo) Designer of Defender of the Crown (Amiga)

James D. Sachs (Jim Sachs) is an American artist and game developer.

He is known for the games Saucer Attack!, Defender of the Crown (Amiga), and the remarkable game demo Time Crystal.

After his service in the US Air Force, he started working as a graphic designer, programmer and game developer.

Biography[edit | edit source]

After serving in the US Air Force for 6 years, he began working as a graphic designer, programmer and game developer at the age of 28.

His first computer was a C64, which he learnt to program with the help of an assembler book on 6502 machine language, and BASIC through computer magazines. His first self-programmed commercial computer game in 1984 was the shooter "Saucer Attack!", which he marketed himself at his own company "Sachs Enterprises". Followed by "Time Crystal", which never left Preview status due to C64 software piracy and his switch to the Amiga in 1985.

He worked for Commodore as an independent developer for Amiga, CDTV and CD³² and also for Cinemaware as art director. He also worked for other games companies as a contractor, e.g. for the business simulation "Ports of Call" (Amiga version), "Centurion: Defender of Rome" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", as well as "Defender of the Crown II".

After Commodore went bankrupt, he tried to realise his dream project "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" from the 1954 Disney film. Unable to secure rights to a game based on the film, he instead based his design on the original 1870 Jules Verne book "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas". However, this project ended after a virus destroyed part of the files and he was unable to secure funding for further development.

Following this, he left the computer games industry and went on to develop the bicycle trainer "CompuTrainer 3D" and "3D Aquarium" screensavers, which were eventually used by Microsoft in Windows add-on packages.

He is now retired and has no plans to work for the computer games industry again.