Matt Chat 78: Arnold Hendrick Interview Pt. 1

This is the first part of a multi-segment interview with Arnold Hendrick, the designer of Darklands as well as several of Microprose's best military simulation games. In this part, Arnold and I talk about how history influenced his designs, what it was like working with Sid Meier on Pirates!, and why Darklands was such a difficult production.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• interview
• darklands
• arnold
• hendrick
• pirates
• sid
• meier
• history
• designer
• microprose

[RyuRanXII]

Awesome interview! Darklands was a truly special and unique  RPG. I'm impressed how you can easily interview some of the most important game designers ever!

[blacklily8]

@RyuRanXII I only wish it was so easy. Most of them are very hard to find, at least for someone without professional media credentials. Still, so many of these geniuses haven't even been given the attention they deserve.

[kwiksnax]

Interesting guy, and a great interview, Matt! Great to hear about the pitfalls of over-ambitious game design. Perhaps that's why so many studios play it safe these days and release uninspired, formulaic titles instead of pushing the envelope.

[blacklily8]

@kwiksnax I think you're absolutely right. The risks are too great nowadays. Originality be damned; it's all about the cash-in. That's why you have to turn to independent developers if you want anything unique or even compelling.

[kwiksnax]

@blacklily8 That's one of your many strengths, Matt. You offer historical analysis and insight into the industry in a way that I have not seen from any other video artist. You academic background strengthens this. We are all very lucky to have such a dedicated and selfless videographer as yourself to entertain and inform us each week.

[PCGamer77]

WOW, this is super stuff. I was going to suggest doing this interview, but then didn't because I figured it probably wasn't even possible. So nice to be proven wrong!

I'd love to see interviews with other old MicroProse hands (Bill Stealy, Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds). Hopefully "Matt Chat" will continue to grow and grow and then they will all have to say "yes." :)

[donjuanlagarto]

microporose, best company ever

[ItIsTheInvisibleMan]

Hopefully you can interview David Gaider and ask "what were you thinking!?"

[Capeau]

I was12, I never had heared of it but funny enough the reason i bought it was because the box was quite heave so it thought it would have allot of content.

When i got home i was happy to see i wasnt wrong. It had the best manual i had ever seen included in a computer game and the game came on a total of 9 disks (if im not mistaken). Little did i know how awesome this game was and omg did it have tons of content indeed!

[baj2235]

Hey Matt, just wanted to let you know that this video is out of sink...

[Starwars83]

Very pleased that I found this interview. I did not even know the guy's name even though I really, really love Darklands. It's one of those games that are just still really impressive in what it manages to do, even though the tech is outdated nowadays. It's an unfortunate situation that there is very little recognition, and just general knowledge, of video-game history (even though it's a very young industry). Keep up the good work!

[tasteoftea000]

@blacklily8 So true.

[HardWarUK]

I meant 1,800!!!

[HardWarUK]

There is a Darklands gameplay video with 15,000 odd views on You Tube and yet this only has 18,000. If you're posting here, for God's sake, get the word out across the web! This set of video's should be getting at least 10,000 views per video, so we're just not talking about it enough on YT and the web generally!!!

[swinepaste]

Is it just me or is the audio/video sync royally screwed up on this?

[lupine73]

@blacklily8

And the result is some very interesting videos. Also, I'm sure those you're interviewing appreciate, well, being appreciated!

Would you interview Tom Hall? In my opinion, he's made significant contributions to gaming as well. Not least of which was his role in helping Id Software get off the ground. Commander Keen was basically his idea, after all.

There's also Rise of The Triad, his own project with Ion Storm, Anachronox.. and so on...

I think he'd have a lot to talk about.