"I never really played computer games," he said.

"I went for a job as a computer artist and after a year I successfully went for something altogether more demanding."

Now, the 34-year-old is a producer, leading the team which developed F22, a simulation based on a military aircraft which won't even come into service for another seven years.

"It's a bit like being a film director," said Simon.

"You have to make sure everything's on time and isn't costing too much."

Simon's latest project caps a remarkable rise.

He has worked for Digital Image Design for just three-and-a-half years, after joining the firm as a computer artist.

Before that he worked for various advertising agencies after studying technical illustration at Mid Cheshire College, close to the Hartford home he currently shares with his girlfriend and three children.

The release of F22 marked the completion of a trilogy of simulations that began with TFX and continued with EF2000, which won the top prize at Cannes' international games festival - beating off nearly 500 other games from 20 countries.

Work on F22 stretched to 451 production days for Simon and his team, which ranged in numbers from anything between 30 and 85 DID employees.

"We were pushing the boundaries of what we could do within a flight simulation," said Simon.

"Because it's a real world vehicle we have to make the games as realistic as possible."

Now the firm is switching its attention from focusing solely on games for PCs - and developing ideas which may appear for a console near you in the not too distant future. "We have always pushed the boundaries," added Simon, "and even though DID works on various military projects we have to strike a balance between what we could do and our target market."

The firm is based in Warrington with most employees living in Cheshire, among them the chairman, who lives in Delamere and a lead programmer, who lives in Northwich.

It's only been going 10 years but has already more than made its mark in the ever-developing world of computer programming.

As Simon rightly says: "We really have taken on the world and won."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.