He became prominent for programming platform games for 16-bit home consoles in the early to mid 1990s, including Disney's Aladdin, Cool Spot, and the Earthworm Jim series.

[5] At the age of 17, he moved to London, where he developed games with Mikro-Gen and Probe Software for publishers such as Elite Systems and Mirrorsoft, working on titles such as the ZX Spectrum conversion of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1991) for NES and the Sega Genesis version of The Terminator (1992).

Perry's work on The Terminator caught the attention of Virgin Mastertronic, which was expanding into the United States and had entered a deal with McDonald's to publish a video game themed around its restaurants within six months.

Perry responded to Virgin's generous employment offer into their American development branch in Irvine, California, and was granted an apartment overlooking Laguna Beach, which he remarked was "like living in Baywatch".

Although Perry had planned to return to the United Kingdom upon the game's completion, the unexpected critical success of Global Gladiators (1992) convinced him to stay in California; as he recalled, "it suddenly made people appreciate me".

[6] While at Virgin, Perry led the development duties for several award-winning games for the Genesis, including Cool Spot (1993) and Aladdin (1993).

[7] The company's first game Earthworm Jim (1994) was a hit, selling millions of copies on multiple platforms, including Sega Genesis, Super NES and PC.

The title character, an "average worm" who stumbles upon a space suit which turns him into a superhero, became immensely popular, and spawned a variety of other types of merchandise: action figures, comic books, and a syndicated television cartoon series.