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| Ghost In The Machine | ||
| What does the name David Crane mean to you? How about Pitfall? Or Space Shuttle? And, of course, there's always Ghostbusters. Alison Hjul was ushered in to his (ghostly) presence to meet the man behind the machine code... | ||
Secondly, as Activision's foremost 'games designer', he turns his rather large nose up at the 'programmer' tag. Since he joined Activision as a founder member in 1981, more than six million of his titles have been sold worldwide. Ghostbusters has notched up over 100,000 UK sales on the Speccy alone. He paid a fleeting visit to the UK at the end of October, to attend the British launch of his latest creation, The Little Computer People, which should be available on the Speccy sometime soon. Okay, so you're called a 'games designer' -- but isn't that just a fancy way of saying you're a programmer? No, it's not. Anyway, I'm really a 'generalist'. I come up with the ideas, design the game and get involved in the programming. But it's really all down to teamwork. I head a team of technical people who're the best in the industry. A real good game requires good team concept -- there's a lot of mutual respect. Your games are all bestsellers, but how do you suss out what's going to be a megahit? We play a lot of games as games designers. We know what people are playing today, why they're enjoying them. We must design games people will enjoy a year from now. For example, when the market was flooded with space games, I did Pitfall. People obviously wanted it, it's been incredibly successful. Basically, I watch what other people are doing -- and try to do something different. Do you personally research all your games? When I was doing Ghostbusters, I spent a lot of time on research. I got hold of a video of the film and watched parts of it over and over again. Real spooky. Didn't you get bored with the film? No, I loved it. How did you get involved in Ghostbusters? Columbia and Activision approached one another to see how the film might lend itself to a good computer game. Discussions were underway before I got involved. When I was asked if I'd like to do Ghostbusters, I'd just seen the movie the night before so I went back the next day to see it again. I wanted to see how an original game might be designed based on the film. Who's your favourite character in Ghostbusters? The Marshmallow man... no, not really. I don't think I have one -- I just like the interaction between all the characters. Do you believe in ghosts? I don't actively believe in ghosts, although people have reported seeing them. I think there may be little computer ghosts. Are you obsessed with little people because you're so tall? No, it's not because I'm so tall ... I never really thought of it like that. About a year ago my research team and I decided that little people inside computers were to blame for unexplained hardware and software performance. We decided to design a comfy environment to entice the little people out. The result was a 2 1/2 storey house where the little people go about their daily business, eating, sleeping, listening to music and playing the piano. Each little person has a name and is slightly different to the next, but all share basic traits such as responding to love and attention -- a pat on the head works wonders! Isn't it all a bit daft? Heck no. Back in the States there's a woman who bought three extra Commodore 64s just so her whole family could each have their own little person. Hmmm, buying Commie 64s in the first place sounds a bit daft to me! Have you got any favourite little person? And is it true that some of them are transvestites? Well, Wallace and I had a good time, and Zeke baked cookies once. As for the transvestites, I've never met one, but l guess there's all kinds living in these computers. What are your plans for the future? Nothing at the moment. I've just finished this one so I'm taking time off at the moment. I tend to limp along and then something suddenly hits me and an idea comes. Are you a trainspotter? What's one of them?
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