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Early life

Mev Dinc was born Mevlüt Dinç in May 1957 in Ordu, Turkey, to a family of Georgian descent. He grew up in a remote village 40 miles (64 km) from the city and studied economics at the Ankara Academy of Economics and Commercial Sciences. During this time, he married an English woman and moved to England in 1979, travelling back-and-forth between the two countries to complete his education later that year. He eventually adopted the short name "Mev", citing that "no one could say it properly" in England. After graduating, Dinc pursued a master's degree in England but, due to the high tuition fees for international students at the time, could not afford to finish it. From 1980, Dinc worked for the Southampton cable factory of Standard Telephones and Cables. A colleague from the factory, Vino Dos Santos, introduced Dinc to video games via his ZX81, but Dinc showed no interest in games or computers. When the ZX Spectrum was released in 1982, Dos Santos pre-ordered one each for himself and Dinc, despite Dinc's continued lack of interest. When Dinc eventually unboxed his ZX Spectrum, he struggled to understand the enclosed instruction book for the BASIC programming language. He instead taught himself to program over the course of two years via programming magazines, particularly Popular Computing Weekly. Dinc cited the 1983 game Arcadia, which he examined as part of his learning, as major influence.

Early games

Dinc began working in the video game industry in 1983, after leaving the cable factory. He responded to an advertisement from programmer Paul Fik, who was looking for a ZX Spectrum developer, and helped him convert the game Ant Attack from the ZX Spectrum to the Commodore 64. The port was released in 1984, and Dinc used this development to get insights into the Commodore 64, which he would use for his later games. In the same year, he and Jon Dean founded the Society of Software Authors, a trade association that was to provide "practical advice" for developers in the game industry. The society had its inaugural meeting on 5 May 1984 in Ilford. Dinc acted as its chairman. Dinc's first original game was Gerry the Germ Goes Body Poppin', in which the player controls a pathogen that invades a human body. He initially pitched the game to publisher Mirrorsoft (part of the Mirror Group conglomerate), which rejected the game, citing the reputation of the Mirror Group. Dinc later met Tony Rainbird, the managing director for the Firebird publishing label. Although Dinc considered the British Telecom (which Firebird was part of) more respectable than the Mirror Group and therefore thought that the label would reject his game, Rainbird was fond of the idea and agreed to publish it. Dinc entirely developed the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC version and had Edwin Rayner, whom he had met in Southampton, create a Commodore 64 port. Although released in 1985 as a budget-price title, Gerry the Germ sold well, generating "quite a lot of royalties", especially in the United States.

Following Gerry the Germ, Rainbird asked Dinc to create another game for the publisher. However, he had come in contact with Dean and Rod Cousens (whom he had known through the Ant Attack conversion), who at the time were establishing Electric Dreams Software for Activision. Dean requested Dinc to develop his second game with them instead, which he accepted given a satisfactory offer and the company's location in Southampton. Dinc's second game, 1986's Prodigy, had the player care for an infant. He described the game as ambitious but difficult to program. Subsequently, Cousens and Dean persuaded Dinc to develop a port of Enduro Racer, originally an arcade game, from the ZX Spectrum to the Amstrad CPC, which he agreed to despite his disinterest in such projects because Electric Dreams had offered him "really good money". Dinc met with the developers of the ZX Spectrum, who attempted to explain their development concepts. He considered their work far more complex than and his and instead requested the original source code, using which he simulated the ZX Spectrum version on an Amstrad CPC. After the port was released in 1986, Dinc became involved with two video game adaptations for movies: Big Trouble in Little China for the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum had been left unfinished by another developer, and Dinc was asked to rescue the project within two months. Afterwards, he worked on the original Commodore 64 version of Aliens: The Computer Game, where he again worked alongside Rayner. Dinc's last project with Electric Dreams was Knightmare, a 1987 adaptation of the TV series of the same name.

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Dinc began working in the video game industry in 1983, after leaving the cable factory. He responded to an advertisement from programmer Paul Fik, who was looking for a ZX Spectrum developer, and helped him convert the game Ant Attack from the ZX Spectrum to the Commodore 64. The port was released in 1984, and Dinc used this development to get insights into the Commodore 64, which he would use for his later games. In the same year, he and Jon Dean founded the Society of Software Authors, a trade association that was to provide "practical advice" for developers in the game industry. The society had its inaugural meeting on 5 May 1984 in Ilford. Dinc acted as its chairman. Dinc's first original game was Gerry the Germ Goes Body Poppin', in which the player controls a pathogen that invades a human body. He initially pitched the game to publisher Mirrorsoft (part of the Mirror Group conglomerate), which rejected the game, citing the reputation of the Mirror Group. Dinc later met Tony Rainbird, the managing director for the Firebird publishing label. Although Dinc considered the British Telecom (which Firebird was part of) more respectable than the Mirror Group and therefore thought that the label would reject his game, Rainbird was fond of the idea and agreed to publish it. Dinc entirely developed the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC version and had Edwin Rayner, whom he had met in Southampton, create a Commodore 64 port. Although released in 1985 as a budget-price title, Gerry the Germ sold well, generating "quite a lot of royalties", especially in the United States.

Following Gerry the Germ, Rainbird asked Dinc to create another game for the publisher. However, he had come in contact with Dean and Rod Cousens (whom he had known through the Ant Attack conversion), who at the time were establishing Electric Dreams Software for Activision. Dean requested Dinc to develop his second game with them instead, which he accepted given a satisfactory offer and the company's location in Southampton. Dinc's second game, 1986's Prodigy, had the player care for an infant. He described the game as ambitious but difficult to program. Subsequently, Cousens and Dean persuaded Dinc to develop a port of Enduro Racer, originally an arcade game, from the ZX Spectrum to the Amstrad CPC, which he agreed to despite his disinterest in such projects because Electric Dreams had offered him "really good money". Dinc met with the developers of the ZX Spectrum, who attempted to explain their development concepts. He considered their work far more complex than and his and instead requested the original source code, using which he simulated the ZX Spectrum version on an Amstrad CPC. After the port was released in 1986, Dinc became involved with two video game adaptations for movies: Big Trouble in Little China for the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum had been left unfinished by another developer, and Dinc was asked to rescue the project within two months. Afterwards, he worked on the original Commodore 64 version of Aliens: The Computer Game, where he again worked alongside Rayner. Dinc's last project with Electric Dreams was Knightmare, a 1987 adaptation of the TV series of the same name.