Computer game Worms went from classroom to classic

Worms began as a small programming experiment by Andy Davidson, who was 22 when the game reached shops in 1995. While struggling with A-level maths at Bournemouth School, he challenged a friend to make a game on a graphing calculator and built a simple tank battle. The idea grew into a turn-based artillery game in which teams of worms fight using weapons such as dynamite, homing missiles and exploding sheep. Davidson chose worms because they had not featured in games before and their simple forms offered scope for expressive animation.

The game took shape in an Amiga club started by art teacher John Pakeman, whose interest in computer art helped draw other sixth formers together. Crowds gathering around Davidson’s work led the school to ban it, but the attention convinced him it had potential. After signing with West Yorkshire company Team17, he released Worms in November 1995. Its many versions have since sold around 70 million copies, and the franchise was among six British games honoured on Royal Mail stamps in 2020. Davidson also recorded the worms’ angry voices; the warning “Incoming” remains familiar as a mobile-phone message sound. Despite its extraordinary reach, he still thinks of it as the little game he made for himself and his friends.