Darklands designer Arnold Hendrick Q&A on Steam forum

[AwesomeButton]

Someone should ask Josh on his tumblr if his aware of Hendrick's wish to make a spiritual successor to Darklands. If Josh pitches to Feargus, some form of cooperation might spring there. Obsidian even have their own crowd-funding platform... :D

 

[Shinji]

Please make RPG's great again

 

[LESS T_T]

Hope for turn-based combat:

There are some games who claim to be "the spiritual successor to Darklands", but which games do you consider that have been the closest to being "spiritual successors to Darklands"? Why?

To be honest, I'm not aware of any historically based RPGs that intermix wide-ranging large-scale travel with varied story events and a tactical combat system that supports a wide variety of PCs (player characters) as well as enemies. I don't really care if it's real-time or not. In fact, these days I am seeing the many virtues of turn-based play for people who want to clearly control their party throughout the game.

To date, all the RPGs I'm familiar with use a fantasy setting. It's mostly high fantasy, although low fantasy is trying to stage a come-back, which is a baby-step toward historical settings (much like R.E.Howard edged a bit closer to history than J.R.R.Tolkien

Equally disappointing is the back-sliding to fixed story-lines. Sometimes this is accomplished by having very little freedom in large-scale level. In some games, pre-set encounter/battle locations are linked by lines of travel (not unlike the "zoning" from one zone to another in most MMORPGs). In others, the events and encounters are limited to just those in the main story line, virtually forcing the player to experience the story the designed wanted, rather than creating his own.

So, clue me in? Where can I find all those historical RPGs? I give double bonus points to any designer that allows me to have female characters (even if they have to cross-dress, much like historical figures did).

 

[V_K]

Will someone show him the Expeditions series already?

 

[LESS T_T]

Will someone show him the Expeditions series already?

I've checked his Steam profile before Valve changed privacy setting. IIRC he has played Expeditions: Vikings (or Conquistador?) a few hours as well as Legend of Eisenwald and PoE.

 

[Darth Canoli]

This guy is a fucking moron, i checked his reviews and turns out he's shitting on indies games with 0€ as a starting budget while he's asking for not just 10 but 10, 20 or 30M € (or $ i'm not sure) to make a new game.
As a professional, he should have some empathy.
Also, is saw him shitting on a game he found good but didn't have a useful manual, a shame he didn't write on grimoire.

Well, it's a good news bad news situation, turns out he's going to have plenty of time to write shit reviews because his game is never going to be funded.

I wouldn't be surprised if he was a codexian with 1k-1M messages already, he'd fit perfectly.

 

[Nutria]

If you make a game and Arnold Hendrick takes his time to explain to you why it sucks, you should be grateful.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Oh yeah, warbanners creators don't know their graphic limitations nor their game difficulty, they needed Arnold Schwarthendricker to tell them the errors of their ways.

I realize i should have writen this on "trigger the codex ..." but it works better outside, right ?

 

[Grotesque]

In general, which of the old geezers that have done great things in the distant past would you trust today?

Gollop.

 

[LESS T_T]

He's still looking for people: https://steamcommunity.com/app/3279...0787364/?tscn=1565890645#c1642045637385255030

Thank you for your work! This is the first RPG I ever played, yet still unmatched by others in some aspects. Though on subject of sequel/spiritual successor I think you're too willing to embark on a multimillion project. Only thing you will get out of it is an "actionized" sequel that has no time for history stuff. Original Darklands is strong by virtue of its writing and complex rpg system to fiddle with. Doing something like this doesn't require millions by itself. Technically by modern standards Darklands can be considered a Visual Novel with RPG elements, and there is dedicated engine for such things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren'Py

I'm sure RPG/VN with good RPG system and solid grasp of history would be welcome in Ren'Py ecosystem.

Thanks for your thoughts. In my 30+ years designing and producing computer games, please give me some credit for learning how to estimate and scale potential projects. In fact, the drastic under-estimation of the Darklands game (and financial troubles at MicroProse) ultimately motivated me to learn a great deal more about project management and ultimately embrace SCRUM methodology.

You are correct that at its core, Darklands philosophically uses the same kind of branching and re-entrant text system seen in RPGs such as Wizardry and various MUDs. There are many technological approaches to this. Personally, right now I favor a data-heavy design method. This is because a wide variety of relatively simple calculations can be built in, with some of those presenting "hints" to players about the likely success of various choices. Data-heavy methods also allow for secondary and tertiary effects (like reputation changes, friendship gains and losses, world status alterations, etc.) relatively easily. In the decades since Darklands, as a designer I've learned that it's much better to represent things in simple algorithms and/or data that anyone can understand, as opposed to writing custom code (especially in Python!) that only the creator (or a skilled/motivated debugger) can understand.

However, Darklands also has a world data space, a map travel system, and a tactical battle system that do not appear supported Ren'Py without significant additional coding (not to mention data). In addition, my goal in the original game, and in ANY sequel I get involved in, will not be to tell a single story. I instead, I want to recreate the feeling of nearly unlimited options in an historical world setting. The player should feel they are "creating their own story" for a small group of people adventuring in a realistic-seeming world. In effect, players should create their own historical fiction. Getting more involved in the actual dramatic events of the historical period would be my preference now, rather than getting sidetracked into a complicated and ultimately fantastical good-vs-evil confrontation. I certainly would not try to remake yet another action RPG, no matter how profitable it might seem. If nothing else, what kind of game appears "most profitable" changes far faster than it takes to build a decent game.

For the last couple years, I've been looking into finding enough people with a professional background in game development to do a "spiritual sequel." Unfortunately, the only way to finance such a venture is by people contributing time in exchange for a share of the game's income when it is published. This "work now, money later" approach is exceedingly difficult for various reasons. However, anyone with an interest such a project, AND who has a professional experience in game production, design, art, engineering, sound and/or QA, is invited to contact me at ajhendrick{at}aol{dot}com.

---

This guy is a fucking moron, i checked his reviews and turns out he's shitting on indies games with 0€ as a starting budget while he's asking for not just 10 but 10, 20 or 30M € (or $ i'm not sure) to make a new game.
As a professional, he should have some empathy.
Also, is saw him shitting on a game he found good but didn't have a useful manual, a shame he didn't write on grimoire.

Well, it's a good news bad news situation, turns out he's going to have plenty of time to write shit reviews because his game is never going to be funded.

I wouldn't be surprised if he was a codexian with 1k-1M messages already, he'd fit perfectly.

Yeah he has a thing for manuals, a review on Spellforce 3 from last year: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198022734065/recommended/311290/

Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 2.9 hrs on record

SpellForce 3 is a potentially good game. However, it has a glaring fault: no useful manual.

If you want to figure out how to do one thing (like, say, how the UI for operating a building works, and what game logic controls the movement and behavior of workers), can you look it up? No.

Publishers like to say, "Oh, let the player figure it out," "Discovery is part of gameplay," or "Nobody ever reads the manual anyway." That's just being lazy and cheap, because a good, useful manual takes time and money. In an ideal world, an "honest" developer would ask the game design team to write a manual as part of the development job, rather than expect the publisher to do it. After all,. the people who built the game should best know how it works. If their writing is disorganized and poor, or needs an index, or both, the publisher should hire a professional to "clean up" and edit it.

I am sorry to report that SpellForce 3 has terrible documentation. Nothing comes with the game. The game does include a manual about it's World Editor (mod creator), so they obviously understand the importance of manual. There is even an attempt at a game manual. However, its hidden away inside the game, accessible only after a few minutes of loading and playing, by pressing F9. Sadly, like the tutorial, it rarely describes the exact order of mouse movement and keystrokes to do something. Furthermore, there is no way to view the manual outside the game, or even when a cut scene plays. As a manual I can reference during gameplay, I give this a "D+" (below failing).

The only wiki available is a "fan powered" site that is the usual unhelpful combination of advertising text taken from promotional materials, and tons of ads on each page, some of them written so badly they can lock up or crash your browser, even your entire PC. Worse,. in SpellForce's case, you get info about the two preceding games as well as SpellForce 3.

Overall, looking up useful information about the game is extremely difficult and frustrating. The tutortial tells you to do things, but doesn't tell you HOW to do them (specific mouse motions and/or keypresses). All in all, you have to REALLY want to play this game to learn it. It will take extra time and frustration to become a competent player who can enjoy the gameplay as well as the sound and graphics.

You can see him talking about manual in other reviews and forum posts too.

From Darkest Dungeon forum: https://steamcommunity.com/app/262060/discussions/0/1644292549030889239/

Cannot start a new quest ?

The lack of a manual, and of tooltips, is confusing me.

For example, in starting the game, I fought the two fights, and then went to the hamlet. I could recruit two more party members at the stagecoach, but I couldn't figure out how to start a new quest.

There was an "embark" option, but none of my heroes wanted to go there. Besides, I was confused whether I was embarking on a journey to a different (more difficult) region, or just embarking on an advanture.

Obviously I'm overlooking something really basic, but I'm not sure where or what.

He's not all talk though. Even if you don't count the manual of Darklands, he writes cool guides these days too: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=726585668

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Manuals are incline, though.

 

[Beastro]

Josh Sawyer wants to make a baby game with this guy.

ftfy

With the advent of Everquest in 1999, full 3D MMORPGs became the dominant form of RPG gaming through today.

RPGing~

 

[Barbalos]

Not really surprising that he loves manuals considering the Darklands manual was beyond epic tier. I really hope he does get something going and done in time, personally. I love historical fiction and really enjoyed Darklands. I'm planning a new playthrough when I have time to set it up properly (the sound specifically). A modern game of that style as he describes would be awesome.

 

[Nutria]

You don't live long enough to be a silverback chad like him just to try to play some goddamn game and the instructions are like "whatever dude, get some kids from ur family to teach what keys they push in Fortnite".

 

[LESS T_T]

It's "still in the far future": https://steamcommunity.com/app/3279...0787364/?tscn=1565974342#c2763442118809490495

Thanks for the kind words. There may come a day when your help in promoting a "spiritual sequel" would come in handy. Unfortunately, that day is still in the far future. Finding people to work on the project is the current problem.

 

[newtmonkey]

I have a lot of respect for this guy for his work at MicroProse, but it's no wonder why he can't get this project off the ground. The commercial failure of Darklands apparently nearly killed MicroProse, and now he's talking about needing millions of dollars and industry veterans to make a spiritual successor, but the industry veterans would have to accept a share of profits in lieu of a salary... so... yeah... this game will never happen.

I mean, what's the harm in putting together a kickstarter with a moderate goal? If it can't even make that goal, then a multimillion dollar budget game is obviously out of the picture.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

Everythin that Arnold does he does right. Predator, Commando, Terminator I and II Conan, not to mention body building and governing California.

 

[CyberWhale]

Two and a half years have passed and still no sign that he even started pre-production. This shit is never going to happen, and if it does it's going to be made by JESwayer and without this primadonna.

 

[Barbalos]

I have a lot of respect for this guy for his work at MicroProse, but it's no wonder why he can't get this project off the ground. The commercial failure of Darklands apparently nearly killed MicroProse, and now he's talking about needing millions of dollars and industry veterans to make a spiritual successor, but the industry veterans would have to accept a share of profits in lieu of a salary... so... yeah... this game will never happen.

I mean, what's the harm in putting together a kickstarter with a moderate goal? If it can't even make that goal, then a multimillion dollar budget game is obviously out of the picture.

From what I've read from here and his posts on Steam, to him it's not so desperate or urgent that he is willing t to compromise to get it made. He either wants to do it correctly as he sees it, with a large budget and very organized (he references his experience as a team lead as well as a designer a lot), or does not want to do it at all. He sounds sincere to the historical part of his historical fiction idea for a game (and Darklands' setting backs that up) and seems to want to do the whole project justice. I can respect that. It kind of sucks for fans since he won't make any smaller-scale or more realistically possible game, but I can respect his position for sure.

 

[LESS T_T]

since I have been following your thread here, decided to google you to see what else your known for found out you used to own a miniatures store and you won the 1981 Charlie, I assume for your game Barbarian Prince which I have sadly never heard of prior to this search, but i love the concept of a single player board game, one of my favourites is firefly because it also can be played single player due to "pre programed" card events you pull from a deck. (sounds like something you would also enjoy)
this kind of explains where your experience came from when you started to design Darklands.
I myself at the present age of 34 have gone back to university to become a designer, (been a tv repairman most my life up to this point, and yes that’s still a job but its becoming redundant) I will probably end up a web designer rather than a game designer as that seems to be the most viable employment path these days, but I enjoyed reading about a few of your exploits which are out there on the web, hell I might even see if I cant find a copy of Barbarian Prince to add to my games cupboard, not enough people play board games anymore, I try to get my kids interested but they are usually distracted by something like Minecraft.
Any way I find your story inspiring good job mate.

Edit. Found a copy for anyone interested. https://dwarfstar.brainiac.com/ds_barbarianprince.html

Actually, I never owned a miniatures store, although I did publish various miniatures rules, and was either designer, "developer" or supporting designer in various boardgames. By the end of my 20's (at the end of the 1970s) I ended up as publishing director at Heritage USA, which manufactured various miniatures, miniatures rules, and boardgames. It was there that I did more boardgames, including the award winning "Barbarian Prince" in the dwarfstar line, as well as a PnP RPG ("Swordbearer"). When Heritage went bankrupt, I moved into computer games at Coleco in West Hartford, Connecticut. When Coleco started to collapse, I moved on to MicroProse in Maryland, where I did Darklands. The main take-away from all this is that game companies often have short life spans.

Spoiler

I happened to be linked to this thread - I played Darklands many years after it released and found it very interesting and inspirational, though a bit inaccessible. Later on I went on to do games development(it's been over a decade now) and basically agree with the assessments Yasha makes about how feasible it is to make a product that is fleshed out to current expectations.

If I were to approach the subject, though, I would be looking in the direction of leveraging a procedural/user-generated approach to content. The original Darklands had some of the most sophisticated character creation of its time, and this is a feature that current games also boast in a more cosmetic form - one of the trends that has really taken hold of the industry since 1992 is to focus the products around making "doll" or "action figure" avatars, and for professional game players on Youtube and Twitch to do storytelling with these avatars.

And that idea would lead me away from reviving the original systems design in terms of modelling lots and lots of stats and a big open RPG world - because it's those "big systems" concepts that accumulate unexpected scope, make the UX cluttered and difficult to learn, and really drag down a project - but instead to provide a lot of procedural detail about this character's life before they start adventuring, introduce some cosmetic aspects to give them a portrait and costume, then keep their subsequent adventures more constrained and told in episodic form using the choice gameplay of the original, with the simulation limited to simpler binary qualities and a few sources of chaotic behavior(RNG, timers and finite state interactions).

Then the focus is on giving prompts that add structure and assist storytelling, more than it is to be specifically detailed and fuss over min/maxing the character or keeping track of logistical parts of gameplay. When focus stays on driving the character from one event to the next without grand simulation loops, the detail doesn't have to be very great, the environment doesn't have to be very explorable. You still need a budget and art direction(a picture tells 1000 words), but the total asset burden is shifted towards writing/design. For combat portrayal, my first pass would aim for stock fantasy 3D models using stock Mixamo animations with a zoomed out isometric camera, and then subsequently iterate into more sophisticated, customized characters as budget permits.

But the depth of content of the episodes is really the thing that defined Darklands to me - the signs of research surfaced everywhere and made it more than a typical fantasy RPG, and on that end I would also want a user creation tool that allows creators to make adventure modules to share, reusing a lot of premade stock elements and fill-in-the-blanks scenario templates so that everyone can leverage that research to make adventures that feel similarly grounded in the same universe and create something that feels large in aggregate. i.e. instead of modelling "Mainz" as a fully simulated city, model it in terms of properties relevant to a story("has inn") and allow custom names and descriptions for those elements, plus some recurring characters. Make it easy to assemble each of these elements into a complete module, and then players can quickly make a "large number of small adventures."

That game would probably be different enough to no longer be "Darklands", since some of the original appeal is in the grandiosity, but its form is more accessible and much closer to the indie scopes I'm accustomed to.

Spoiler

I already said months ago, I'll stress again now: while i don't doubt his general assessment of the budget necessary, i think he may be overstating the amount of production value required on a cosmetic level.
The perfect art style for a new Darklands, something that could be at the same time budget-effective to produce, cool looking enough and faithful to the style of the original, would be something like Another World (Out of This World for American users):

https://ip.trueachievements.com/rem...458ba15-ff46-49a4-9dea-382dbf038fff?width=900

Simple, stylish polygonal models, a lot of nice animations (and this is an area where it could be easy to improve on the original, with some cheap rotoscope techniques available today, public assets, etc) and backgrounds that wouldn't require an excessive amount of work to be produced in large amounts and with satisfying variety.
Also, being a low poly art style, the benefits of allowing a certain degree of customization on characters.

Trliplefox and Tuco - thank you for the intelligent and insightful comments.

Triplefox - You have outlined an interesting approach to bringing some of the concepts in Darklands into the 21st Century. I agree that Darklands has too many numbers and whatnot for comfortable play. Like you, in my quarter-century of game design work since then, I've come to prefer things that are easier to perceive and operate, even if I rely on ever more elaborate mathematics, data and algorithms behind the scenes.

Since you're very familiar with the indie scene, perhaps you could lead a team to create such a game? I'd certainly be interested in trying it, and the world definitely needs more historical games! Of course, if you rely on players to provide engaging content, especially in a historical game, I think you'll find the results disappointing.

Like you, Triplefox, I've given the question of a Darklands spiritual successor considerable time and effort - with the aid of a few others. I am not in a position to discuss more in public. However, if you are interested, please send an email with real-world contact info to my personal email (see below for details).

Tuco - If I were to eliminate the need for realistic animation and real-time combat, say by using a turn-based system with much more limited graphics, I believe I could halve the $10 million budget to perhaps $5 million for development. However, a decent marketing campaign would probably cost another couple million. Heck, just a good marketing director costs over a quarter million a year (overall cost to a software company for a person is about 2x their salary).

While I am a great fan of "middleware" and "off the shelf" software, I've also worked with enough artists over the decades that I can say most insist on inserting some personal creativity. And games are much better for it. I wouldn't want to develop a game without having artists contributing to it. The example you give shows just how much artistic talent is needed to make even "simple" graphical systems perform expressively.

It is true there are alternatives to starting a company and paying people. I have been investigating those with considerable energy. And again I make this offer: anyone with game industry experience, who is interested in contributing to a spiritual successor of Darklands, should contact me via my private email. That email is available in my Steam account profile (if you click the "view more info" option). I am happy to talk privately about my thoughts, but am not in a position to speak in public about it.

 

[LESS T_T]

Mr. Hendrick - why not do a PnP RPG set during the Hundred Years War? Sort of Barbarian Prince meets Darklands. Among the many intriguing aspects of your Darklands design were your NPCs and the various complex encounters - particularly interesting were those you planned but weren't able to implement in Darklands like Hussite rebellions, sieges, war torn regions, etc. While the automated bookkeeping is nice, the narrative you created along with the historical backdrop is something that can be just as interesting without a computer.

bkasten - you are correct, and really ANYONE could take the Barbarian Prince game system and put it in a historical setting, grafting into it a lot of the spirit of Darklands. In fact, I'm surprised more people in this generation of kickstarted boardgame creation, who clearly understand the necessary printing technology, haven't done it. Perhaps you could do it?

As for me, I'm already spending my spare time on things related to a computer game project that can't be announced for a while yet.

However, as you perhaps know, the nadir of the Hundred Years War (late 14th Century, or "The Calamitous 14th Century" as Barbara Tuchman called it) is the period that has my interest. If you want the best modern history of this period, Johathan Sumption's multi-volume history of "The Hundred Years War" is unbeatable - and probably will remain so for a generation or two once he finishes it (he's still writing the 5th and final volume). However, for 'local color' Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror" is still a fun read, although her comparisons to our era seem forced.

 

[LESS T_T]

More about the spiritual successor:

Jan - Thanks for the kind words. I am aware of "The Guild" and its sequels (of course!), and am looking forward to what's in the latest sequel when it finally leaves early access and is released. Personally, I rarely play Early Access games.

As you probably know, I am seriously examining the possibility of a "spiritual successor" to Darklands. It is not intended to be a competitor or remake of Darklands, but instead to be another historical game set in the later middle ages.

Back in 1988-89 I briefly considered Hundred Years War France as a setting for Darklands. I indirectly alluded to this in the manual (page 99). However, suitable historical sources weren't available at that time. This has now changed. Jonathan Sumption's magnificent multi-volume history of the Hundred Years War describes who was where, doing what, year by year, region by region for the entire Hundred Years War! It's his lifetime magnum opus, well worth owning. It's also an astounding gold mine for an historical game designer like me.

My attention is drawn to the era roughly between 1370 and 1410, after the first huge English victories, but before Henry V gains the English throne, wins at Agincourt, then dies so the French can regroup, be inspired by Joan of Arc, and ultimately win decisively in the early 1450s.

My goal in such a successor product would be, once again, to portray a region and era as seen through the eyes of those who lived it. My current thinking is to place less emphasis on witchcraft and fantastical plots, and relatively more on actual political struggles (thanks to all the detail in Sumption). In particular, I'm looking at the four-way political struggle in France for power between the English, the Burgundians, the Orleanist/Armagnacs, and the royal bureaucracy. I also want to provide a a portrayal of the role of Christianity in popular beliefs, as well as it's politics between the popes of Avignon and Rome.

It's typical of the era that each papal faction (as well as various non-religions factions) was remarkably quick to complain the opposing Pope was using sorcery against them! Of course, "sorcery" as understood in that era was very different from the current popular conception of it, much less what's portrayed in fantasy books and games of the last half century. (For historical insights, see "Magic in the Middle Ages," second edition, by Richard Kieckhefer,, c.2014, and assorted remarks in "Avignon and its Papacy 1309-1417" by Joelle Rollo-Koster, c.2015.)

In all this, you can see my preference for setting games in slightly more obscure periods that are not dominated by the actions of a few important leaders. This lets a more "ordinary" party of adventurers plot their own course through a turbulent region and era. I want the player to make their own choices, having "free will" to control their destiny without feeling they are slaves to the dictates of history.

 

[Barbarian]

Now I do wonder if Hendrick is giving us vain hopes with all the tease or is actually ever going through with it. Probably empty hopes right?

 

[LESS T_T]

Regarding recent news of new-ish publisher Ziggurat: https://steamcommunity.com/app/3279...9536640/?tscn=1583536958#c1754654250655907808

Matt (mwirkk) - thanks for keeping the Darklands discussion group alive, and updating us about this interesting bit of news.

I have not been contacted by anyone associated with Ziggurat about anything, which could suggest that Darklands is not at the top of their "rework" list. Since my contact info (as Arnold Hendrick) is available on Steam, and in Linkedin, it's not because I've disappeared off the face of the planet. However, it might just be confirmation of my opinion that updating the graphics of Darklands would be large, expensive undertaking, not to mention trying to bring its code into a relatively modern format.

On another front, I recently heard from Doug Whatley, a programmer who worked heavily on the original game. (Doug has moved on and now successfully runs "Breakaway Games" which mostly does medical training simulations). Fortunately for posterity, he apparently found old some code and documents related to the original game. These he has now donated to "The Strong National Museum of Play" in Rochester, New York (in western New York State). The Museum does make elements of its collection available to visiting scholars. Someone looking for source data should probably start there. However, if your intent was commerical rather than academic, I'd urge you discuss potential business considerations as well.

 

[LESS T_T]

On another front, I recently heard from Doug Whatley, a programmer who worked heavily on the original game. (Doug has moved on and now successfully runs "Breakaway Games" which mostly does medical training simulations). Fortunately for posterity, he apparently found old some code and documents related to the original game. These he has now donated to "The Strong National Museum of Play" in Rochester, New York (in western New York State). The Museum does make elements of its collection available to visiting scholars. Someone looking for source data should probably start there. However, if your intent was commerical rather than academic, I'd urge you discuss potential business considerations as well.

Doug himself popped into the thread:

Matt, thanks for your support of Darklands over many years. I have popped into your forums periodically to watch the conversations and I hope everyone succeeds one day in getting a new version of Darklands created. It is such a great game that it really needs to have a remake. This is Doug Whatley if that isn't clear.

First, let me tout the Strong Museum in Rochester, NY. Fabulous museum and the people there are doing a great job of trying to recapture the early days of the game business.

Several weeks ago I decided to donate much of my archives of old materials from Darklands, Quantum Computer (which became AOL) and OT Sports. A big part of that donation was Darklands materials. The most interesting elements are many (if not all) of the original design documents that Arnold created - including things like early hand written lists of saints and alchemical elements as well as story ideas. There are also many interesting parts of the development process including early versions of ideas all parts of the game including names. If I remember right the first working title was Swords across the Rhine or something like that.

Included with all of the paperwork was an old style industrial magnetic tape backup. The type of tape is so out of date that I do not have a player to read it and couldn't find one available. Part of the reason to give the tape to the museum was that I believe they have the equipment to read it. So I don't know any more what is on that tape - since I can't read it. What I believe is on the tape is a complete copy of everything that made Darklands. I was the programmer that did the builds of Darklands and the tape was a complete copy of my machine. It should have all source code and all artwork and music necessary to make all versions of the game. I do hope it is all there. At the end of the project I made full backups for the company (and I don't know what ever happened to those) but I also made one extra copy for myself. That is the disk I gave to the Strong.

The Strong has only had my materials for several weeks (and I gave them a lot) so I bet they haven't even begun to catalog it all. Give them time to go through everything, but I do hope that they have all of that available to researchers one of these days.

Doug W

Ooh I really hope the tape is still alive. Even a remaster with just hi-res illustrations and modern UI would be great.