TWZ: Just a brief history of how I became involved with your The Immortal game.
As an avid NES game collector, I was reading my old magazines. The Immortal
had caught my eye so I picked it up in the used bin for a few bucks...the
best game I've played in a long time. Back in the early nineties, my
brother would always choose the NES games we should buy, he had overlooked
the game so that is why I didn't buy it until more recent years (about 2
years ago).
Something I had found really neat about The Immortal was the storyline. I
remember that I was really surprised when I found out Mordamir was using you
as a tool to destroy the dragon...I was totally shocked!!! The storyline is
so ironic; becoming allies with goblins during a troll vs goblin war was
rather fun too. Do you remember how the storyline had come about initially?
BGD: Wow... this was over 12 years ago, so I will probably have to make
something up that sounds interesting. I joined the project after a lot of
groundwork had been done. If I remember correctly, there was a slightly
different idea for the game, when it was known as "Campaign". I seem to
remember a few other characters, including an elf. The storyline progressed
as the game was being developed. I think we had a big design session late
one night after loading-up on ice cream at Double Rainbow and that is when
more details about Mordimir being evil came about.
TWZ: You had mentioned in your email that Doug Fulton had stopped in. That's
pretty cool, it would be great if you'd pass on my compliments to him for
such a great musical soundtrack. The music is one of the factors that had
drawn me into the game.
BGD: Doug did a great job. I passed along your comments.
TWZ: The most interesting part of the game was the "programmers room." I like
giving you guys the coffee, which was cleverly hidden in the stage before.
I think the line is brilliant when you try to give Will coffee if you don't
have coffee: "Don't try to fool me, I made this game!" I had to laugh when
I first read that. Whose idea was the programmers room? I would have to
guess that Doug Fulton wasn't included in the room since he did the music,
not the programming. Was he cool with this?
BGD: Hmmm... I am not sure who suggested the programmers room, but I am sure it
was after an Easter egg discussion. I do remember suggesting the "infinite
hallway" and being pleased when Will used my idea (I was very junior at the
time and excited when I had a good idea get implemented). The coffee was
our source of life at the time. The team was working 10 hour days, 6 days a
week and we were generally pretty exhausted. Will was also going to
Stanford at the time. Doug was not included because he was always drunk and
belligerent when we had team meetings and we wanted to teach him a lesson.
Okay, that's not true.. I thought I would spice up the story. Doug was not
involved in the every-day work and we probably forgot about adding him or
ran out of graphics space... he should have been in there. I think he was
cool with it, but I do find key marks on my car when he visits these days.
TWZ: I really have to wonder who came up with the concept of steering a magical
carpet around a dungeon. This was one of the harder parts in the game, what
were you guys thinking? Another part of the game which still gives me
nightmares is the Worm Room...
BGD: I am almost positive this was all Will - he was, and still is, really
amazing when it comes to this kind of user experience.
TWZ: Were there any ideas that went unused with your Immortal game? I remember
reading that Nintendo had wanted the addition of extra lives...another thing
that I have to wonder, was there ever any serious thought for a sequel to
The Immortal? One of my old magazines makes a reference about The Immortal
2, though it was probably one of their numerous mistakes.
BGD: There were a million unused ideas, none of which I can remember. I don't
remember a sequel being discussed. I did work on a Sega Genesis version
that I had running but was then canned because at the time there were
restrictions about developing for Nintendo and Sega. These restrictions
later changed and EA did a Sega version without using my work. I also
programmed versions for the Atari ST and the Amiga... these were released.
TWZ: The Immortal is a one of a kind game. The music is superb, as I had stated
before. The stages were well laid out, there was so much to do and the
puzzels were fun to solve. The 3D perspective layout of the rooms is one of
the coolest things I've seen on the NES. The graphics in the dragons lair
were also some of the best I have ever seen on the NES. Is there anything
else that you think would be important to mention? What did you like best
about The Immortal? Thanks for your time and best of luck with your future
projects.
BGD: It was great to be a member of the project team. We had a lot of fun
developing it and played many practical jokes on each other as part of the
process. Will and I would have ongoing "milkshake" bets where, if you could
eliminate any cycles from the rendering routine the other person would owe
you a milkshake. Food tampering was also common, where the goal was to
alter Will's food. I frequently replaced the filling in his cookies with
wasabi and one time dissolved a whole shaker of salt into his yogurt (Will
thought he had been poisoned). We also had a pair of hamsters ("Link" and
"Zelda") that produced about 30 more hamsters over the development of the
project.