The young pioneers who became millionaires in the video game industry.
Spain, 1980´s. The extremely talented Ruiz brothers, Víctor, Nacho and Pablo, were 17 years old by the time they paved the way for the video game industry almost by accident. Fascinated by arcade machines, they started experimenting in their attic with rudimentary equipment and realized that they could create video games and sell them by catalog, similar to what was beginning to be done in the United Kingdom.
Their company, which was still located in their parents’ house, would be called Dinamic and would become the first major Spanish video game company. The teenagers would be in charge of the whole process: creation, editing, production, marketing and all the logistics involved in a company.
In 1984, they launched their very first completely hand-made games, Yenght and Artist, and, a few days after publishing their ad in ZX magazine, they began to receive thousands of orders. They soon became the new Spanish programming geniuses and started selling their games in computer stores.
After just one year, they had more money than they knew what to do with and their parents threw them out of the house. So, they set up the office in the most emblematic building in Madrid. Teenagers would call offering up games of their own that they had created at home, just as the Ruiz Brothers had done not long before. Each game would soon become a bestseller. They were launched on the international market, tripling their sales and provoking great controversy, such as the censorship of the cover of one of the videogames, whose protagonist’s breast was visible; or the criticism of another of the titles for simulating a bullfight. In spite of this, the money multiplied and Dinamic kept growing, thus entering the golden age of software in Spain.
In the late 1980s, computers that are more complex arrived, requiring larger equipment and production that is much more expensive. It was no longer enough for a talented teenager to develop a video game. Sales dropped sharply and these millionaire kids ended up going bankrupt. Luckily, they struck gold in soccer video games for the laptops. They gradually pulled themselves together and founded Dinamic Multimedia together with José Ignacio Gómez Centurión, the most important publisher of technology magazines in Spain and owner of Hobby Press (known today as Hobby Consolas). They became the most successful Spanish video game production company, but they were victims of a scam and Centurión kept everything.
Once again, Victor, Nacho and Pablo Ruiz were left with nothing. Following the bursting of the Internet bubble, Centurión went bankrupt and shortly thereafter took his own life. Dinamic Multimedia ceased to exist, but the Ruiz family returned to the world of video games, this time specializing in laptop software sold in kiosks.
RELEVANT DATA: This non-fiction book will be published in the autumn of 2021. Jesús Martínez del Vas is an author and, above all, a great cartoonist with more than twenty works under his belt. He has collaborated in media outlets such as Marca or Gaceta Universitaria and has been a scriptwriter of the webseries Cálico Electrónico. He collaborates with the magazine El jueves and the podcast El mundo de Spectrum.
In addition, he has been awarded the JB Graphic Humor Award and the Best New Author Award at Expocomic in Madrid. His great expertise in the history of computer and video games, make him the perfect narrator for this story.
Dinamic, which tells the true story of the rise and fall of the Ruiz brothers, the pioneers of video games in Spain, features a large number of interviews conducted over the years. A rich universe with multi-layered characters reminiscent of the fictional series Halt and Catch Fire.
What the critics have said:
“Jesús Martínez del Vas is one of the most recognized authors in our language specialized in video games of the eighties, especially in the Spanish market.” 3Djuegos.
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: In development for TV Series.
LANGUAGES AVAILABLE: Spanish.
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