Jack Yarwood (Author)

Author Profile

Hailing from Manchester, Jack has a particular fondness for point-and-click adventure games. In the past, he’s written about lost games from studios like Sony Manchester, Genepool Software, and DMA Design, and has made a habit of debunking video game rumours.

My name is Jack. I live in Manchester, which is a city that was once home to amazing game studios like Ocean Software and Software Creations.

I initially got into game journalism after studying Journalism & English at Salford University. At the time, I was looking for a way to combine my love of meeting new people and interviewing them, with my happy memories of playing the Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo.

As a kid, one of the things that I loved most about video games was their potential to spark my own imagination and transport me to other worlds that were way more magical than my own. But as I've gotten older, it's an appreciation of the craft and artistry that goes into making video games that keeps me coming back.

Experience

Jack joined Hookshot in 2022 as a Staff Writer. Prior to that he was a freelancer for around eight years, contributing to a wide number of publications including Playboy, The Washington Post, Variety, Eurogamer, PC Gamer, Polygon, Kotaku and various others!

Jack’s work these days sees him creating a wide variety of news, reviews and features for Time Extension.

I'm fascinated in the journey of learning more about the art of making games, and video game history. I'm typically someone who is always eager to learn and this position is absolutely ideal for that. I get to pick the brains of some of the most celebrated voices in the industry, as well as people just starting out on their game dev journey. What more could I ask for?

Timeline

2014: Begins his freelance writing career
2022: Joins Time Extension as Staff Writer

Qualifications & Awards

BA (Hons) Journalism & English Literature, University of Salford

Expertise

Jack’s first gaming console was either the Super Nintendo or the Sega Mega Drive - as he grew up with a controller in his hand, it’s hard to remember! Since then he’s owned the Famicom / NES, Super Famicom, N64, GameCube, PlayStations galore, handhelds and a host of modern gaming hardware.

Jack describes himself as a lousy fence sitter, finding it hard to choose between the Super Nintendo and Sega Mega Drive as his favourite all-time console. He loves the 16-bit era, and has a particular fondness for licensed games from the era - think Natsume's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Ukiyotei's Hook, Ocean of America's Jurassic Park, and Traveller's Tales Mickey Mania.

As I've gotten older, my favourite genre is probably the point-and-click adventure. As a kid I loved platformers like Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario 64, and so on, but I've gradually become more interested in games from Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts. Games like Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis, Simon the Sorcerer, Broken Sword, and so on.

Jack’s Favourite Games

From the Archive

We asked Jack to pick out his three favourite pieces of work from across his personal archive, and tell us why he picked them!

The Making Of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Konami's Underrated N64 Classic

I was pretty proud of this feature, as I feel I was able to dig a lot deeper than many of the other attempts from Western journalists in understanding how Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon was made. I managed to access some newly translated interviews, and also reached out to journalists and members of the game's community to put everything into context.

Feature: The Incredible Story Of Satellaview, Nintendo's Satellite Modem SNES Add-On

This is another piece where I think I was successful in going a bit deeper than most journalists had in the past. Again, a lot of this information was locked away behind a language barrier, so it was amazing to be able to give people a better look at what the Satellaview actually was, why Nintendo decided to pursue it, and why they ultimately pulled the plug.

Interview: Legendary Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto Talks Final Fantasy, Vagrant Story And Sword of Convallaria

This is one of the interviews I'm most proud of on the site as Hitoshi Sakimoto is one of the most respected composers working in the industry today - and a personal hero of mine. It was great to be able to ask him some questions about his long and storied career. I feel like I managed to prepare pretty well for this and cover a lot of ground.

Username: JackGYarwood
Articles: 6 (6 reviews)
First Article: Thu 20th, August 2015
Avg. Review Score: 7.3
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