ZX81 games developer finally closes down

The Code Monkeys, the Yorkshire-based games developer, says it decided to cease trading on its 23rd birthday earlier this month. It was only founded in 1988, but some of its co-founders had written games for the Sinclair ZX81.

Obviously, it moved on. Over the years, it wrote or ported games to the Sega Mega Drive, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii and, most recently, Apple's iPhone and iPad. The iPhone games included Voodoo Charms and Postman Pat, while for the Wii and iPad, it developed the Triple Sports series.

ZX81 games developed by Code Monkeys' founders

Two of its better-known cross-platform games were International Athletics and Manic Monkey Mayhem. Many more are illustrated on the company's History page.

The closure was announced on the Code Monkeys News page, which said: "It would've been nice to make the quarter century, but alas... :( "

As trade site gamesindustry.biz pointed out:

"Just over a year ago [corrected] development director Adrian Hirst had announced that The Code Monkeys would be cutting staff to remain competitive, telling press: 'The Code Monkeys reduced staffing levels based on our current production needs and predictions of what is needed for 2010.'"

It seems the rapidly growing interest in mobile and casual games, led by Angry Birds, was not enough to save the Monkeys.