The Return of Mitch

[ChristopheF]

I'd be glad to host your scans on the DM Encyclopaedia. There are already some interviews of FTL people: http://dmweb.free.fr/?q=node/100
You can send them to dmweb AT free DOT fr. Thanks!

[beowuuf]

Hi,
Just thought I would let you know that I have scanned the pages of the ST Action magazine which held my interview with the FTL team and sent it to the moderator of this forum. If he agrees he may make it available for you all to read.

Oops, that would be me! Done and done.

http://www.dmjump.net/dm10001.jpg
http://www.dmjump.net/dm10002.jpg

[Ameena]

Hehe, that was a cool read .

[ChristopheF]

Nice article. I have added it here: http://dmweb.free.fr/?q=node/100

[Gambit37]

Aha! Cool. I actually remember this interview. Even though I had an Amiga, not an ST, I used to buy *any* magazine that mentioned DM back in the day. I was quite obsessed by the game. I guess you could say I still am, what with it being 22 years now since I first played it...!

Oh, and Russ Boelhauf has massive hands!

[beowuuf]

I now wish that was my name

[Boggit]

Just in case you don't get around to reading the ST Action interview with the FTL team, I'll tell you one amusing incident that the team explained to me.
Although the game was designed to be fully loaded into memory at the begining of the game, the team thought it would be fun to add to the tension a little by making the floppy drive suddenly start up at certain points. They knew that users were pretty IT literate, so if they were about to enter a suspicious looking area of the dungeon and the floppy drive started up, they would assume that some extra nasty was being brought off the disk and loaded into the darkness before them. It was all a hoax, but it certainly raised the fear level.
A neat touch, simple, but a testament to how clever the design of the dungeon is.

Mitch (The Boggit)

[Gambit37]

Yeah, I remember the first time my Amiga did that, I jumped out of my skin! I'd been playing for ages, had cleared loads of the dungeon, and everything was really quiet -- suddenly the floppy drive went "brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd" and I damn near wet myself.

[ChristopheF]

Is it really true that they added these "unnecessary" disk accesses to scare players? Isn't it some bluff to hide the fact that the copy protection scheme periodically reads the floppy disk to check if it is an original? (especially when you move from one level of the dungeon to another, with stairs for example).
I doubt these disk accesses were done purposely and I think they are only a consequence of the copy protection system.
But I agree this is really scary and serves the game. "Oh my! The game must have just loaded the graphics of a powerful monster across the corner! Run away!"

[Sophia]

I don't think they're necessarily incompatible. Since they're putting in a disk access to scare players, they might as well actually read something while they do it, and since they don't actually have to read game data, they might as well make sure the game is legit.

[zoom]

or they came up with the copy protection after the idea of introducing needless scary floppy access in the first place!

[Boggit]

And another thing! I have also found a 3 page interview I did, complete with photographs and artwork, of the art designer who designed and drew all of the monsters in the DM dungeon. Now who wants to see that?

Mitch (The Troll, The Boggit)

[Ameena]

I really hope that's a rhetorical question .

[zoom]

I would like to see it.

[ian_scho]

Yhhhheeees!

[ian_scho]

Q: Do you know anything about the people behind the story of DM. I remember reading the manual in both DM & CSB and they were definitely a great scene setter!

[Gambit37]

@Ian: Do you mean who wrote the Intros? The overall scenario was contributed to by all staff, but the intros were written by Nancy Holder, Wayne's wife (they're now divorced and she writes stuff like Horror novels and Buffy stories, etc): http://nancyholder.com/

[ian_scho]

Tee hee, I actually knew that (not the divorced bit), but what I was interested in is BACK THEN if Mitch picked up from the team the fact that Nancy Holder had contributed to the work (she doesn't appear in any interviews with FTL?). Her website states "Nancy has worked as the fiction editor for a computer game company" and was wondering if they placed a high 'value' on her work.

Only now for example do I appreciate the effort of the musicians who contributed to these games, but not back them. Master of Magic or Civilisation are two games that have superb music dits and scores. The people who contribute the fiction behind the games... Did they ever get a mention?

[Boggit]

I have now passed the Andy Jaros interview to the forum moderator, so I assume it will be available for you to view in the near future. I suspect I have other goodies hiden in the pages of my old magazines. I will dig these out as I find them.

Mitch

[beowuuf]

http://www.dmjump.net/jaros0001.jpg
http://www.dmjump.net/jaros0002.jpg
http://www.dmjump.net/jaros0003.jpg

[Ameena]

Wooo, that was another great read (typos aside )...it's cool to see what the actual creators of these games actually thought of the stuff they'd come up with. I hope you dig up some more in the future .

[ian_scho]

Thanks for the article!

[ChristopheF]

Thanks for this interesting article, I'll add it to the encyclopaedia too. We are all eager for more!

Do you know the magazine issue # and publication date of both articles you have posted?

[zoom]

Thanks. As I suspected Andy Jaros used animals for reference on monster creation.

[Gambit37]

Yay, that was a great read I also still have some great material to share from the interviews I conducted years ago -- especially a lot from Andy. Yes I know I've been promising it for what seems like a lifetime, but the new website *is* coming...

[Boggit]

Info regarding the Andy Jaros interview:-
This came from the games magazine - ST Action Issue 26 June 1990

[ChristopheF]

Thanks a lot for the infor! And what about the first article you posted? I assumed "21" at the bottom of the second page was the issue # instead of the page #.

[Sophia]

Interesting articles. I did find it amusing that they suggested poison clouds worked on Knights.

[zoom]

yeah, that was funny!

[Boggit]

The FTL interview with the FTL team was printed in ST Action Issue 19 November 1989.

Mitch