Matt Chat 78: Interview with Arnold Hendrick Pt. 3

[RUTHAN667]

I saw all previous chats, this is realy best because has depth. Nice work.

[nutherefurlong]

The only flaw I can find is that this interview wasn't longer :) I guess a lot of my questions about the artifact system and the saint system might have gone into too much nerdy detail, though. Really, really cool. Glad GOG's release helped me find your videos!

[chickenhed]

Truly he need not worry about his stutter at ALL! Great interview from a man with some wonderful insights. Thank you Matt and Mr. Hendrick!

[Capeau]

after seeing these videos i really wanna play this game again... Lets see if i can find this treasure back in my dusty cellar

[ColinZeal01]

Very very interesting to listen to this interview. Arnold, you rock! Thanks for being a part of my childhood! F19, Gunship, Pirates.. WOW! And as for the stutter, it 1) builds up anticipation and 2) I just pretended it was video lag. You rock man!

[hulksjedi]

Arnold, you're the man. So much brains, it puts me to shame to know how I waste my time during the entire day. You've accomplished so much. I hope to do 1% of what you've done!

[Hatterific]

Really great thanks.

[TriforceRich]

Such a humble and nice man. It was great watching this interview and thanks Matt for doing this.

The end was kind of sad when he apologized for his Stutter because honestly, I do not care and neither does anyone with a heart and a mind. He seems nicer and more intelligent than the vast majority of people and there is no need to apologize for something like that.

[CptNeeda]

Absolutely loved Gunship, F19, etc. from MicroProse when it first came out for the C64. They are what I think of when thinking of C64 gaming. I didn't realize he wrote Darklands too. I'll need to check it out. Thanks for the great interview!

[blacklily8]

@CptNeeda You're very welcome. I remember playing Gunship when I was a child, but of course I didn't get very far into it. I also remember one called Super Huey.

[Konuvis]

Arnold really doesn't need to apologize for his stutter. When what you have to say is so interesting and fascinating it becomes a non-issue.

Great series of interviews!

And Matt, curse you! curse you for putting footage of WoW in the video. I'm already struggling as it is to resist Cataclysm...

[ItIsTheInvisibleMan]

@Konuvis Yeah thats like apologizeing for being in a wheelchair :S, i felt sad he felt the need to apologise. Loved the interview though, as a previouse comment said, nothing like hearing stories from the old days, like hearing old war storeis ^_^

[gregbest90]

This man is a true beast, this really cheered me up when I was bed-ridden with food poisoning last week.... Thanks a million.

[AaronBegley1234]

What a wonderful perspective from a brilliant guy. I really enjoyed this series. Thanks, Matt, for putting this together.

[helldog3105]

He has no need to worry about his stutter. The information was fascinating to listen to, stutter and all. I seriously wonder with the kind of historical expertise he has what kind of Roleplaying Computer game he could make today. Excellent episode.

[tgaskill]

Great interview! What a great chance to interview a brilliant man. I agree you must do a DVD of all your Matt Chats and interviews. I

[TGApuleius]

I'm pretty sure I could listen to him talk forever. Nothing like stories from the old days.

[Lorfarius]

Thank you,brilliant interview and a great look back at a truly fantastic game.

[DOSBoxMom]

I watched all 3 parts of this Sunday evening while logged in on my daughter's YouTube account -- great stuff! I saved my old copies of the print manual (needed for the copy protection) and cluebook for Darklands all these years -- maybe I should get back into it sometime! I remember the cluebook came bundled with a patch & character editor disk -- which I believe I've also saved.

[blacklily8]

@DOSBoxMom Whoa, you must have quite a collection. I wish I had kept more of my things from back then.

[aaronrex]

Awesome video interveiw there Matt. Keep up the good work interviewing classic game devs. I hope you can get an interview with the original devs of X-com for example.

[marcelagae]

Darklands sounds like such a great concept for a game. I must get it. I think the limitations of old computers actually forced game designers to concentrate on intellectually stimulating game play, since they could not rely on the glitzy visuals to get by. I'm glad to see that people like Mr. Hendrick are still in the industry.

[HardWarUK]

@marcelagae You got it wrong by looking at this game from today rather than at the time. In 1994 there was nothing wrong with these graphics = check out other 1994 games. So back then, developers did the best graphics they could AND lots of fantastic deep gameplay! Let's be honest, a lot of what Arnold said was agreeing with today's games being dumbed down, and how gamers of the 90's being a little weird for playing games that needed note taking, etc! In effect then, he too has sold out. Shame

[BreinStijn]

02:45 LOL :P

[getter7seven]

Excellent interview. Unless my searching skills have failed me, any thought to uploading all the various interviews and whatnot to the Internet Archive for posterity? This interview is a prime example of what is, sadly, all too much a rarity.

[blacklily8]

@getter7seven I haven't thought of that. I assumed YouTube is about as reliable as anything these days, unless they decide one day to pull the plug and delete all their content.

[Sinekyre14]

Great interview. Man, I wish I grew up in Hendricks age. His generation shaped the gaming culture (it is culture) and gave it life. There are very few games today that inspire you like a good book will, but there are a few. Deus Ex, Fallout and Zelda have all made a big impact on my life. Shows you what video games can be, if the money-grabbers out there will stop choking developers..

[RetroRoadshow]

This was a fantastic interview! Mr. Hendrick, it was a real treat being able to hear your views on the game industry and get an inside look at the creation of some of our favorite childhood games. I would definitely put you in the category of brilliantly interesting people that you described in the final segment. I wish I had FF14 right now.... How freakin' cool would it be to do a few quests w/ Arnold Hendrick?!?! Great show Matt!

[HardWarUK]

I would like to Matt, that what you are doing is a public service. Given that you have done a book on gaming history, I wonder if a DVD with the first 100 'Matt Chats' would do well? I would buy it to put some money in your pocket, that's for sure!

[blacklily8]

@HardWarUK I've thought a DVD for quite some time. Maybe it will be possible once I get my new Mac and don't have to worry about so many crashes.

[HardWarUK]

That cluebook is on replacementdocs because of me - my one claim to fame! :)

[blacklily8]

@HardWarUK Awesome! I added an annotation to that effect for you. :)

[HardWarUK]

@blacklily8 Thank you! Does this constitute my 15 minutes of fame?! :) For a Old 'Un like me, that was an adult during the 90's actually going into stores and buying these games and having kept them to this day, your video's quite often bring a tear to my eye. I think interviews like this affect you deeply too!

[laffer35]

Very cool interview! I really need to play this game now, but I'll use the guidebook a bit I think :D

Interesting author, very interesting to listen to what he has to say. Great episode!

[Taarnafeather]

@Arnold Hendrick It was not hard to listen to you because it is such a pleasure to hear thoughts of the maker who made some of the best games of that time and in which i enjoyed so much in my childhood. Thank you, can not represent true nature of my thankfulness, but that is the least thing i can say now, so: Thank you.

@blacklily8 Thank you, to you too, Matt, for this great interview. :)

[Uejji]

I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that Arnold Hendrick worked on Project: Stealth Fighter, which was reworked into F-19 Stealth Fighter on the PC. F-19 Stealth Fighter was one of my favorite PC games as a child, along with Battlehawks 1942, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and the Dynamix "Aces" series.

[LKRaider]

regarding his last comment: he's definetly one of those people :) Also, we need more history based games, as it adds so much more depth to the gameplay

[blacklily8]

@LKRaider I couldn't agree more. I've always loved games like Darklands that teach you things. Why create a fantasy universe when our own history is so fascinating?

[Tychoxi]

Great interview, great insight into goldies like Darklands and the love that put them together. There are so many 90s games that are so very complex. It's not just the background mechanics or RPG systems implemented, but they have these details like using a rope to go down a hole (gasp!) or NPCs actually reacting to things you did, most modern games fail so miserably in those aspects that should flow naturally it's painful... it's all about eye candy and shooting stuff it seems.

[blacklily8]

@Tychoxi I couldn't agree more, Tychoxi. So much of modern gaming is about the eye, not the brain. Can you imagine if a developer tried to release something like Darklands today, much less with an AAA budget? "Oh, it's too hard! A manual? I can't read that! Wahh wahh." Yeah, modern gamers wouldn't give it a chance.

[HardWarUK]

@blacklily8 It's funny, I was just saying on another YT video thread how the record industry today wouldn't sign a Kate Bush!

[beatchef]

@HardWarUK Yes they would, they signed Bat for Lashes :)

[DenmarkRadar]

Thank you for a very interesting interview (all 3 parts) with an obviously very knowledgeable man.