In 1997 SPC Vision started the Golden Oldies series on CD-i: Small arcade-like games collected and released on a physical disc. Volume one of the Golden Oldies series contained arcade conversions of Defender and Space Invaders renamed in this package as Guardian and Invaders respectively. The retail package and even the disc itself contained no information concerning the producer or developer, if it wasn't for a few hints left by the art and programmers then this would have remained a mystery. First clue was the title screen containing a partial logo of The Vision Factory, second clue came from the unique animations and typical styles used by this company in their games. Finally from the disc itself and probably a joke from the programmers responsible for this game the producer appears as "The CD-i Hacking Factory"!
Further to this and only noticeable from high quality screenshots taken directly from the video source of Guardians Highscore Table displayed below in the Guardian Screenshots boxout a programmer Stefan Posthuman and Artist Nik Malmqvist are credited. The former Stefan Posthuman we can safely assume is Stefan Posthuma credited on many SPC Vision games, again with typical SPC humour! The later Nik Malmqvist is of course Niklas Malmqvist credited with the artwork from the early days of Alien Gate through The Apprentice and was also involved in some aspects of Lucky Luke.
Some hints to more Golden Oldies games than the two titles that were released by "The CD-i Hacking Factory" in 1997, as it was copyrighted on the disc. I suspect this is SPC Vision humour!! Perhaps they resented doing a conversion of existing Intellectual Property.
"Golden Oldies. I think I did the graphics for all of the games except for the Centipede clone which was done by someone else. Nothing I am proud of, I must confess. They were made in such a hurry that I really had no time to be as thorough as I would've liked. I think I had to spend about 2 days per game to do the graphics on. They were really stressed projects for me. I actually made the graphics for more Golden Oldies type of games which never made it to disc, unfortunately. I reckon the graphics I did for a Scramble clone was quite okay considering the little amount of time spent, but it was put on ice, apparently.""
"The Golden Oldies series began as a "time filler" project; it was unclear if the games would ever be released. When there were a few oldies sort of working, there was a commercial opportunity to release. They were quickly finished, some music was added and a simple loader menu was put in front of them; then they were released into the world. This was near the end of game development at SPC, There must be an unfinished "memory" game somewhere, and there was 'Pool'."
Volume two of the Golden Oldies series contained arcade conversions of Super Breakout and Centipede renamed in this package as Blockbuster and Bughunt respectively. The retail package and even the disc itself contained no information concerning the producer or developer, if it wasn't for a few hints left by the art and programmers then this would have remained a mystery. First clue was the title screen containing a partial logo of The Vision Factory, second clue came from the unique animations and typical styles used by this company in their games. Finally from the disc itself and probably a joke from the programmers responsible for this game the producer appears as "The CD-i Hacking Factory"!
[Thanks, Niklas]