How Phil Mansell went from the ZX Spectrum to becoming the CEO of RuneScape

Andy Martin spoke to Phil Mansell about his career from programming on a ZX Spectrum, working with Playstation and then joining Jagex to look after RuneScape

RuneScape is a tapestry of folklore and legend and fantasy (Jagex)

It’s not often I come away from an interview with a magic sword poking out of my backpack. This was one of those rare times. In the real world, I had cycled off to see Phil Mansell, CEO of Jagex, at the Cambridge Science Park. But in the more heroic virtual world I battled my way across a barren, body-strewn wilderness, pursued by fire-breathing dragons and aided by a particularly beautiful woman archer in my quest for revenge or salvation or a pot of gold. Because Jagex is the creator of RuneScape, the classic online game that now has more players than ever.

In the fantasy land of Gielinor, I imagine we would have sailed across a silver sea together in search of adventure, but as it was I sat with Phil Mansell in the Golden Gnome pub, situated inside the Jagex campus, where staff go for their “AFK” time (Away From Keyboard). Like all good virtuosos, Mansell started young, conjuring up his own games on the ZX Spectrum computer by the age of 10. He was particularly traumatised one fine day in the 1980s when his baby brother got hold of a game he had spent ages programming and chewed it to destruction (since files were then stored on cassette tapes).

This early setback only served to spur him and he was soon pounding the BBC Acorn keyboard and selling games in the school playground. “I’m not an artist,” says Mansell. “I got a ‘D’ in my O-level art. But with a computer you don’t have to rely on innate aesthetic skills. You can build creative works even if you’re not that talented.”