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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 18</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

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              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../1.8/topshelf/index.html">The 
                Top Shelf</a>: Jason &quot;loonyboi&quot; Bergman plays <b>Klingon 
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8">romuluSngan 
          HoH!</font></p>
        <p align="right"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Jason &quot;<a target="_self" href="mailto:jason@loonygames.com">loonyboi</a>&quot; 
          Bergman </font></b></font></p>
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          <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Was there anything that 
            you wanted to put into the game but weren't able to because of time 
            constraints? </font></b></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think that every designer 
            will tell you "that list is too long to fit here".</font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Delays of Unreal aside, 
            you guys were actually on time, weren't you? That's pretty impressive, 
            considering the engine was in development while you were working on 
            it. </b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The process definitely 

            taught me to prepare and to think about every possibility you can 
            before you commit. This way you avoid costly delays from going down 
            the wrong path. Oh, and "keep your ego out of the box". </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Once you commit the game 
            to paper it is not yours it is the team's, then the world's. Remember 
            that and you won't get hurt.</font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Got any weird stories 
            to tell about the development process?</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The funniest story is when 
            I came back from a PR show to find my entire office filled to the 
            ceiling with <b>KHG</b> boxes.</font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Did you oversee the 
            production of the cinematic sequences? What was that like? </b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes I did. When we designed 
            the game we mapped out each cinematic sequence. After that it was 
            pretty easy. Just sit back and watch you artist make magic. I am still 
            dumbfounded by how real the faces look in the briefing animations. 
            Barb Bents Miller is a genius!</font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Did the actors involved 
            have a difficult time adjusting to the game setting, or was it more 
            of a non-issue? </b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Surprisingly no. Tony Todd 
            was jazzed. All of the actors were consummate professionals. We didn't 
            even have to be there during the recording sessions. We directed it 
            all over the phone with ISDN connection for the DAT tape.</font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>What kinds of references 
            were you provided with for the design? I imagine Paramount is chock 
            full of reference materials that you have to adhere to.</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Everything you could imagine. 
            Set walks, reference photos, even talks with Dan Curry the special 
            effects advisor and creator of the Bat‘leth and the fighting style 
            associated with it. They also helped with setting up the actors. Paramount 
            was a true member of the development team. </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Are there any plans 
            to get GameSpy support in for KHG?</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Already in the works. </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Any plans for an add-on 
            pack/extra deathmatch levels?</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't know that yet. 
            </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>How has the fan reaction 
            been? I'm speaking of both standard game fans, and <i>Star Trek</i> 
            fans in general.</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Excellent overall. For 
            our first FPS I think we did very well. </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Playing the game, I 
            noticed some interesting changes in the characters: for starters, 
            the running. When you run, you start slowly, and gradually build up 
            to top speed. How did this come to be in the game</b>? </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It was an effort to make 
            hand to hand combat possible. If the player could run like a superhero 
            no one would ever get close to him. The Unreal physics engine made 
            this easy.</font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Another thing I noticed, 
            was the fact that certain Klingon enemies will shoot at you a few 
            times, stop, rush in and pull out the bat’letlh and try and kill you 
            that way. It's all very "Klingon". Was it hard to rewrite the AI to 
            "act more Klingon"? In what other ways did you modify the code?</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It took time but was not 
            hard at all. The <b>Unreal</b> scripting language is very extensible. 
            It allowed us to do quite a bit with our AI. </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>AI aside, what other 
            changes to the Unreal codebase did you make? It didn't look to me 
            like you modified the graphics code at all, but I could be wrong. 
            :)</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There were no changes to 
            the graphics code. There was however, quite a bit of scripting done 
            to create things like the beam in effect for our creatures, weapons, 
            pickups, AI features, etc. </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Were any changes made 
            to the networking?</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">No. We were in contact 
            with Tim and knew that he was working on a fix for the problems. </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>If you had to start 
            over, is there any aspect of the game you would have done differently?</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Once again this list is 
            way too long. &lt;bg&gt; </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>I noticed that as a 
            promotional thing for KHG you released one of you weapons for use 
            in normal Unreal (there's also an unauthorized thing out that allows 
            you to run regular Unreal maps in KHG). Was this especially easy to 
            do?</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes it was just make sure 
            that you have the proper files and bingo! Epic created Unreal with 
            the mod maker in mind. </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Did your level designers 
            take easily to Unreal's editor? </b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, it is pretty intuitive 
            and it was created with artists in mind.</font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>How did you come to 
            be at Microprose?</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Seven years ago I was designing 
            software for AT&amp;T when someone at the local computer games store 
            suggested that I should work for MicroProse. (I bought ALOT of games 
            back then.) MicroProse was into coin-op games back then and was testing 
            them in a local arcade. I made sure that I was in the top ten every 
            week. Eventually I came in for a focus group begged for a QA job and 
            six months later joined the Simulations Group on F15 Strike Eagle 
            III. </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>What games had you worked 
            on prior to Klingon Honor Guard?</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Well, Strike Eagle III</b>, 
            <b>F117A</b>, <b>Civilization</b>, <b>Gunship 2000</b>, <b>F14 Fleet 
            Defender</b>, and <b>Pacific Air War Gold</b>. I also helped out on 
            a lot of other games over the years. During my time at Microprose 
            I had the pleasure of working with and learning from the best in the 
            biz. My mentors were Sid Meier, Sandy Peterson, Lawrence Shick and 
            Jim Day. <b>Klingon Honor Guard</b> is my first project as the sole 
            designer. </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Did you always want 
            to design games, or was this a late in life decision?</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I started gaming when I 
            was fourteen. <b>D&amp;D</b> and <b>Traveller</b> were my first hardcore 
            "games". Being an inquisitive guy, I would immerse myself in the rules. 
            Hating to lose, I would exploit every loophole I found. This led to 
            me correcting those loopholes when I would run a campaign. That led 
            to creating my own game systems. The rest is history.</font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I truly believe this is 
            what I was born to do. </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>What are your favorite 
            games of all time?</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well let's see how old 
            you readers are. I no particular order: </font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Rip Off, Disks of Tron 
            </b>and <b>Asteroids</b>. (I got my first job so that I could play 
            these three at the arcade) Also: </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Traveller, 
            </b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>D&amp;D, </b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>F19/177-A, 
            </b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Civilization, 
            </b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Call of Cthullu, 
            </b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>BattleTech, 
            </b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Doom, </b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Half-Life,</b> 
            (Thank you Harry and Wazzup!)</font> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Metal 
            Gear Solid.</b> And let us not forget:<b> Defender Stargate</b>.</font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>qatlho'! And romuluSngan 
            HoH!</b></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">HISlaH! Much romuluSnagam 
            HoH!</font></p>
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    <td><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
      Illustration &copy; 1998 Mike Sanzone. romuluSngan HoH! is &copy; 1998 Jason 
      Bergman &amp; Christopher David Clark. All other content is &copy; 1998 
      <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi productions</a>. 
      Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, dangit.</font></i></td>
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