Introduction
Tim Skelly is a video game designer and game programmer who developed arcade games for Cinematronics from 1978 until 1981. He designed a series of pure action games using black and white vector graphics. One of his early games, Rip-Off, was the first arcade game with two-player cooperative play. Star Hawk, Rip-Off, Armor Attack, and Star Castle were all later ported to the Vectrex home system.
After leaving Cinematronics, he worked briefly for Gremlin before becoming an independent contractor with Gottlieb. His first game for Gottlieb was the esoteric Reactor, and he had it written into his contract that he would get a credit on the title screen for designing the game. Previously, programmers had occasionally sneaked their names into their games as easter eggs, and Berzerk designer Alan McNeil's signature was on every cabinet, but Reactor was the first coin-op to have the designer's name appear in-game with the manufacturer's blessing. Skelly also designed two other games for Gottlieb, Insector and Screw Loose, which were never released. Later he worked for Incredible Technologies, then Microsoft Research.
Games
- Star Hawk
- Sundance
- Warrior
- Rip-Off
- Armor Attack
- Star Castle, designer-only
- War of the Worlds
- Reactor
Unreleased prototypes
- Insector
- Screw Loose
Other projects
- Tail Gunner, producer, cabinet art
- BattleTech, software and hardware design for the original game center in Chicago, designer of several clan omnimechs
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2. design advisor, art director
- Trivia Master
- Slick Shot, graphic designer
- Golden Tee Golf II, artwork
- Golden Par Golf, artwork
In 1983, a book of video game cartoons by Tim Skelly was published as Shoot the Robot, then Shoot Mom.