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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 27</font></b></font></p>
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              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
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              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../1.25/feat/index.html">Serious 
                Brass Ones</a>: Jason &quot;loonyboi&quot; Bergman sits down with 
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              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../bgnbn/index.html">The 
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../corner/index.html"><font size="-1">Guest 
          Editorial</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          History</font></p>
        <p align="right"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          <a href="mailto:dsmart@pobox.com">Derek Smart</a></font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:randyp@home.com"></a></font></font></p>
        <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By January of 1993, I was 
          without a publisher and my assistant 3D developer had departed. Those 
          moves cost me eighteen months of development time and an unusable 3D 
          black box. THE GAME would, however, be completed, so I went searching 
          for a replacement. Was I disillusioned? Absolutely not, I was determined 
          to finish my game regardless of what I had to go through.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In February of 1993, after 
          a providing a demo for another potential publisher, I received another 
          nice letter, of course, turning the project down. Tell me if you are 
          beginning to see a pattern here: your product is quiet impressive and 
          we believe it will do well on the market, but we do not think we are 
          the right publisher due to our staffing and other product commitments. 
          We could not give you the attention, both development and marketing, 
          which your product will require to maximize its market success. Remember 

          Matt? Yeah, you remember him. Well, I contacted him - again – and told 
          him about my misfortune. He then suggested that I talk to another contact 
          in the game of games to see if they would be interested in doing my 
          game. I did and a few days later had a new publisher. Well the publisher 
          had problems of its own and a few months later, the key players went 
          separate ways. With that split, I decided to stick with one group, Matt 
          and Tom Ptak, who then formed Mission Studios with <b>Battlecruiser:3000 
          AD</b> as the first product. Talk about taking risks with a developer 
          claiming to be the creator of THE GAME.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I bet you thought that was 
          the end of the tale. As much as I thought and later wished it was, THE 
          GAME was still far from finding its way to those patiently awaiting 
          its release. I had managed to assemble together a ghost team of one 
          more 3D programmer, an artist, an animator and a support programmer 
          and we continued working. Chasing technology can be a dangerous thing 
          with limited resources and an ambitious objective. This industry creates 
          it's own standards, in part, in response to what you, the ultimate arbiter 
          of what constitutes a quality game, demand. Jumping on the bandwagon 
          of a contemporary marketable concept is as simple as finding the talent 
          and money to do it. In my opinion, technology will no longer cut it, 
          however, in terms of producing something that has the potential to occupy 
          hard drives or CD caddies for years to come. Everyone has the basic 
          tools that technology yields. Texture mapping, gouraud shading, 2D/3D 
          graphics manipulation, great sound fx and music, stunning animation 
          etc.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Without being overly critical 
          and in an attempt to avoid sounding arrogant, a game without the 'gameplay' 
          is like a cheap thrill-here today, nothing but fragments of erased files 
          when the next piece of eye-candy or trendy stuff hits the shelves tomorrow. 
          That kind of software pays the bills, attracts many (though it may leave 
          many disappointed) and has some positive gameplay aspects in addition 
          to the "gee whiz" technology, but it is not the heart and soul of any 
          great game, let alone that of THE GAME. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For three years I was chasing 
          technology. Great games came and went and <b>Battlecruiser: 3000 AD</b> 
          was still in development. Review followed review, still no game in sight. 
          By late 1994, the delays, slips and technical difficulties finally put 
          a strain on the limited financial resources of Mission Studios. In the 
          interest of all concerned, we agreed that I would find a new publisher 
          to purchase the publishing rights to <b>Battlecruiser:3000 AD</b>. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Several companies expressed 
          an interest, but true to prior form none of the deals panned out. In 
          March 1995, came the next publisher. Invigorated by a recent acquisition 
          of one of those publishers that had already made me the beneficiary 
          of one of those lovely ding letters, my new publisher now expressed 
          an interest in acquiring the same game that the acquired company may 
          have erred in dropping from its stable of titles. This deal fell apart 
          quicker than one would imagine for a project that really was demonstrably 
          close to completion. Two months after the ink had dried on the contract, 
          I was without a publisher again! That stunt cost me two months of development 
          time and attorney fees I did not have to incur (but gladly paid because 
          I'm that kind of guy and my attorney made me say that). In the end, 
          I got my game back. I'm sure you've probably read about the circumstances 
          in one of the computer gaming magazines. I won't go into any details 
          here.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Anyway, one bright afternoon 
          I was buried deep in code (never say die, Dr. Smart, the Tooth Fairy 
          got your message and will see you immediately!!!) when the phone rang 
          and I found myself speaking to Ryan Brant at Take 2 Interactive Software, 
          who I didn't know from a hole in the wall. Apparently, he had read about 
          the incident with my prior publisher in the press and expressed an interest 
          in the game. A few days later, armed with what I thought was a top notch 
          support team and a dedicated <b>publisher Battlecruiser: 3000 AD</b> 
          was finally headed for the shelves. Take Two purchased the rights from 
          Mission Studios and went to work providing whatever assistance the development 
          needed to ensure its timely completion.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It was the deal that has 
          changed my life and all but ruined my career. For all of you out there 
          with questions about why this development has taken this long and what 
          has Derek Smart been doing, now you know. The answer to whether it was 
          worth the wait and whether <b>Battlecruiser: 3000 AD</b> is anywhere 
          close to the epitome of gaming that I worked so hard to at least try 
          to achieve, lies in the box and awaits your judgment. Now that you've 
          opened it, install it, play it and determine whether it is THE GAME 
          or any reasonable facsimile thereof. Whatever your conclusion is, I 
          have truly expended all efforts to attempt what may be as impossible 
          as writing the Great American Novel. Most of all, do what I'll be doing 
          post-release, have some fun!!</font></p>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>THE DOWNHILL SYNDROME....</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Talking about Take Two's 
          mistake causes me nothing but aggravation and turmoil because I trusted 
          them. When they [Take Two] came calling right after the Intracorp deal 
          fell through, I really knew that this time, the game would reach the 
          shelves. They were more concerned that the project would never get finished 
          and wanted a little 'assurance' that it would not be the case. Of course, 
          they wanted me to pay my own way. Naturally.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I was more concerned that 
          since the inception of my idea in 1989, I had gone though three publishers. 


          Three Sixty Pacific went out of business shortly after a deal was signed. 
          Mission Studios could no longer afford the project due to other project 
          financial commitments. Intracorp had requirements I was not prepared 
          to meet, including the modification of my design specs. With these issues 
          in mind, I was not prepared to lose another publisher and as such, was 
          determined to do whatever I could in my power to make the game happen 
          and complete it once and for all.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Three things happened in 
          May of 1996 as a result of the project not shipping for Christmas 1995 
          as was suggested. 1. I was asked to leave Miami and go to Latrobe, PA 
          to 'work with' their team on finishing the project. 2. Take Two wanted 
          me to give them release rights as a guarantee that I would not stifle 
          the final release of the game. 3. I was to take a royalty cut to pay 
          for their investment that included paying Intracorp and Mission Studios 
          for their expenses and providing me with monthly development funding. 
          That royalty cut meant not being paid for 100,000 thousand units. Think 
          about it. 100,000 units. Most games don't even sell 50,000 units. Based 
          on the figures that I had been sold, I was confident that indeed the 
          title would sell several hundred thousand units worldwide. Because of 
          this, I didn't care about the royalty cuts especially since, effectively, 
          the game was paying for itself as it always had in the past.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I did #1 as instructed and 
          went up there in April 1996. At the same time my contract was modified 
          to support #2 and #3. It went downhill from there. Now that they had 
          release rights and the project had been brought 'in house', they felt 
          they could chop 'n ship the game. Boy were they wrong on that one. This 
          nonsense people are saying about them not seeing the code, is what it 
          is, utter nonsense. The only code I did not make them privy to, for 
          obvious reason, was my artificial intelligence engine. They had libraries 
          for that. Besides, that engine required no modifications. With an assigned 
          project scheduler, an entire art team, a sound fx team and two programmers, 
          we set to work. It went downhill from there a few weeks later when it 
          became obvious that <b>BC3K</b> would not be ready to ship for Christmas 
          '96 though I already knew that it would not happen and had requested 
          more time. The extension was rejected and they set out on tasks aimed 
          at having something to ship. They hurriedly replaced my dynamics engine 
          with some chase dogfighting code that didn't work. The artwork and models 
          done by the artists were fine because let's face it, these guys are 
          all from the art institute in PA, one of the best in the country. I 
          had already done, and paid for all my sound fx, only new MIDI sequences 
          were added. Programming assistance for the core game engine was pretty 
          much non-existent because the gentleman assigned to me spent more time 
          taking orders from the NY head office about what 'he' needed to do, 
          than to listen to me who was the project leader, designer and producer 
          of the title. He spent most of his time figuring out how to merge the 
          chase engine with my dynamics engine something I told them could not 
          be done. I told them that dogfighting was part of the things to do and 
          needed to get done right but they felt that it was one less thing for 
          3000AD to do. Fair enough.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font> </p>
        <p align="right"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(<a href="index4.php">Continued 
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    <td height="22"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
      Guest Editorial logo illustrated and is &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. This Guest 
      Editorial is &copy; 1999 Derek Smart. All other content is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
      productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited and not 
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