Jonathan Smith (games programmer)

{{Short description|British video game programmer (1967 - 2010)}}

{{EngvarB|date=December 2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}

{{more citations needed|date=November 2010}}

Jonathan M. "Joffa" Smith (1 February 1967 – 26 June 2010) was a British games programmer, best known for his titles for the ZX Spectrum. His games{{cite web | url = https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/list?label_id=7432 | title = ZXDB Entry: Jonathan M Smith (UK)| accessdate = 8 August 2021 | last = Saukis | first = Einar | work = Spectrum Computing}} were notable for containing a large number of sprites and parallax scrolling.

His most notable games include Cobra,{{cite magazine |title=Developer Profile: Special FX|magazine=Wireframe|issue=4|publisher=Raspberry Pi Ltd|date=10 October 2019|page=51|url=https://archive.org/details/Wireframe24/page/n49/mode/2up|access-date=9 June 2023}}{{cite journal |date=December 1986 | title = Cobra | journal = CRASH | issue = 35 | pages = 140–141 | url = http://www.crashonline.org.uk/35/cobra.htm | accessdate = 12 August 2006}} (which was a license extremely loosely based on the Sylvester Stallone film) one of the first Spectrum games to exhibit full-colour parallax scrolling and his conversion of the arcade game Green Beret.{{cite journal | last = Smith | first = Rachael | date = June 1986 | title = Green Beret | journal = Your Sinclair | issue = 6 | pages = 30 | url = http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/greenberet.htm | accessdate = 12 August 2006 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20060705103934/http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/greenberet.htm | archivedate = 5 July 2006 }} A notable "trademark" of Smith's was his habit of writing his name (with "Jonathan" and "Smith" spelled various ways) as a mirror-image in his games.

Smith also created the computer displays for the British science fiction comedy series Red Dwarf using an Atari ST.