Jukka Tapanimäki

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Jukka Tapanimäki (11 August 1961 – 1 May 2000) was a

The first successfully operating game written by Tapanimäki was Monolith, announced in the June–July 1986 issue of MikroBITTI. It was followed by Minidium, a Uridium-style shoot 'em up published in the January 1987 issue of C Magazine. The development of Minidium was extensively covered in the magazine.^[2]

Early personal computer enthusiasts followed the development of Tapanimäki's career through his magazine articles.

Commercial game successes

Octapolis

Tapanimäki's first commercial game was

and shoot-'em-up genres. Tapanimäki had created Octapolis completely by himself, except for the music.

Netherworld

The next year (1988) Tapanimäki had his game

Netherworld published. The working title of the game was Abyss Zone. In it, the player has to pilot a spaceship through a series of caves while collecting diamonds. The game was published by Hewson, which used Tapanimäki's face as cover art

(without first asking for his permission). The game's music was composed by Jori Olkkonen.

Zamzara

That same year, Hewson published Zamzara on

alien, whose mission is to escape a laboratory complex before a time bomb explodes. The bomb has a time limit of 15 minutes. Various enemies, both stationary and mobile, hinder the player's progress, requiring the player to shoot them in order to advance. The player character

is armed with a gun and various additional weapons, which have a finite supply of ammunition.

Many action game fans found Zamzara satisfying due to its various graphics styles. Some, however, complained about excessive difficulty. The music by Charles Deenen was generally praised.

Moonfall

In 1991, another game, Moonfall (inspired by

3D graphics, was published.^[3] In the game the player steered a spaceship from the pilot's viewpoint. Because of agreements made with Hewson, the game could only be published two years after its completion^{[citation needed}

], and was a commercial failure. The publisher was 21st Century Entertainment (Hewson's new name).

Death

Jukka Tapanimäki died 1 May 2000 due to heart failure caused by coronary heart disease.^[citation needed]

References

1. ^ Tampereella on syntynyt pelejä 1980-luvulta asti – niitä pääsee pelaamaan Vapriikissa lauantaina – Aamulehti (in Finnish)
2. ^ Tapanimäki, Jukka: Minidium, overview, development details and full program listing. C-lehti 1/1987, pp. 52-56. Available online at [1].
3. ^ "Moonfall for Commodore 64 (1991)". MobyGames.

External links

• Jukka Tapanimäki at MobyGames