By Captain Starkiller for BlackOps Station, 2001-05-30

The Galactic Fringe

(interview conducted over ICQ)

Starkiller
Tell us a little about yourself.

Anduril
I'm probably a grandpa here. I'm 38, married, with a young un on the way. I live in Northeast Wisconsin in a smallish town which is the
best way to go after having lived in cities of all sizes. Can't get the farm out of the boy I guess. Did 8 years in the navy to learn electronics
and fixing them is what I do for a living...For fun I ride Motorcycles.

Starkiller
What kind of bikes? Street or dirt?

Anduril
Street. Dirt is for sprouts with bodies that mend fast. I started that way. Now Its usually our Harley. Sometimes the others get to come
out and play.

Starkiller
very nice.
What kind of music do you prefer?

Anduril
hmmm a lot of stuff. Metal, both new and 70's style. Bands like the Red hot chili peppers, Nirvana, Steely Dan, Queen, Stones,
Some of the Hip Hop of the late 80's early 90's, Zepplin, Pink Floyd. Tons of stuff. The CD changer is full. And of course THE BAND
......little British group called the Beatles.

Starkiller
Heheh, just listened to Queen and David Bowie... "Pressure", wow, very cool tune...
You an old SFB player then?

Anduril
I played from 1982ish till about 1990 when I moved back from Florida and away from the group I played with every saturday.
I gave them everything including about 300 miniatures that I had painted down to the windows. then of course I got the itch when they
re-released everything and spent another small fortune buying it back up. :)

Starkiller
Wow. So, is that your motivation when modeling? Do you have a 'character' that you used to play?

Anduril
I was always a Romulan. They seem to have the deck stacked against them and are destined to loose. So it was always fun to bloody
some noses. I carved and molded so many models that when I discovered the Taldren forum by accident Modeling became a natural
extension of my old habits.

Starkiller
Have you read any of the fan fiction regarding the Romulans?

Anduril
I really haven't gotten into any of the other forums yet. I did get my feet wet in the general forum and almost got myself involved in
one of the political posts. I got out fast :) I spend most of my free SFC type time modeling and really haven't played the game all that much.
Though I've been hitting the Iplaywest server...and having fun with my CLC

Starkiller
heheh, kewl, I do recommend it... some very good Romulan storylines.
So, what's Ghost like to work with?

Anduril
The perfect partner I'd say. A godsend in a way. After making the Condor and Sparrowhawk I was just getting to the wonderful world of
texturing and Ghost contacted me about texturing them and me joining up with the fleet dock project. I have been able to learn the different
facets of this at my own frantic pace.

Starkiller
frantic. You two have just blown me away with an ERA I really am not that fond of. There is just something magical about the tos fca and
an fdd alongside...
very cool...
Are the roms your favorite TOS race?

Anduril
I think so to. Who would have thought a plate with a cardboard tube below it would look good as a DD?

Starkiller
Me, I used to play with anything even remotely similar to a 'connie'
In fact, I guess I cut my teeth in Star Trek Gaming back in Junior High. Teletype Computer playing the old ASCII star trek games...
you know the ones?

Anduril
Wow, going back to the time of the early Zork games. What was your Junior high time frame?

Starkiller
crap, I am 36...

Anduril
you can call me granddad..

Starkiller
I remember Space 1999, UFO, and Star blazers....heheheh

Anduril
ah Star blazers...I remember waiting to go to class in "C" school at Great lakes naval base during the 80 Olympics. One TV in the lounge
was showing the US-Russian hockey game and we commandeered another set out of the office to see the Yamato rise from the dirt.
Great times

Starkiller
No, kidding, I woke up on a lazy weekend morning after staying up all night watching Creature Features, woke up to my tv still on playing
that Hockey Match... OMG... what cool memories...
Ok, I am old... ack
What is your favorite thing about Star Trek? Would you call yourself a Trekkie?

Anduril
I still sit and watch it when espn or someone pulls it back out for a play. That and the gold medal game were amazing.
I wouldn't call myself a Trekkie. My favorite things would be the ships and the meanings behind the stories.
Then ones that have them at least. As corny as the original series could be at times it almost always had something to say about society.
I've seen George Takei and James Doohan speak and of all the things that they say you can tell that they believed that they
tried to send a message...

Starkiller
Which ERA then is your favorite?

Anduril
TOS era.
I don't know all that much about the ships of the later eras other than seeing them in the shows. Of course now I watch with a more
critical eye.
I think I'm a bit, hmmm, hostile towards the later era's and Paramount's taking cloaking devices and giving them to the Klingons because
they wanted to.

Starkiller
hehehhe, so you are excited about the "ENTERPRISE" television series?

Anduril
I'm not sure. My wife thinks it'll be cool and it probably will be. I'll reserve any judgment until I see how much history they
decide to rewrite. I'm still not sold on Scott Bakula, tho I do like him, as the captain. But since I don't have a suggestion different
captain I won't complain. I don't agree with the name however.

Starkiller
yeah... potentially any story can be good...
What is your favorite model?

Anduril
anybodies model or just one of mine?

Starkiller
hmm... either or :)

Anduril
There a handful that I really like. But if nailed down to an anthill so I'll confess I think I'd say Moonraker's Ambassador.
I missed the TNG episode with it in and saw a model of it at EAS. After snooping around I grabbed his. Hard to choose, or even
remember all the ones I've seen.

Starkiller
What do you think of the SFC series?

Anduril
I didn't care for the first one. Poor lighting and too many Orion encounters drove me nuts. I ended up playing quake3 for a year.
Someone in a quake IRC channel told me about sfc2 and after a bit I went and bought it. After making a second trip to the "big" city because
they didn't' put a CD key on my jewel case I fired it up and liked the newer look of it.

Starkiller
are you jazzed about the Orion Pirates expansion?

Anduril
I think they have gone in the right direction with the game. There are still things I wish we could do with it but with time who knows.

Starkiller
care to expand on that?

Anduril
Excited because two people in this small community got the call and we can see their work. I'll give the game a try but.....I'm not
all that excited about the pirates in reality. I wasn't overly fond of them in SFB. But who knows the possibilities that they put in the game
till we get to try it out

Starkiller
And, yes, I am VERY Excited to see the modelers in question, Cleeve and Pneumonic81, get the attention they deserve.
I am hoping to see a more open community, more sharing between the 'Modders' and the developers.
What is your favorite PC game?

Anduril
My wife and I play Baldur's gate from time to time, or Diablo across the LAN. And I will occasionally take up my rail gun and go show
the people I still know how to use it. That's pretty much it. I made a rule many moons ago, well more of a guideline, 2 games at a time!
I think the wing commander series was my favorite though.

Starkiller
2 games ?!?!? OMG... how can you do that? You haven't fallen victim to Black and White yet?
And yeah, Origin's Wing Commander Three and the Mechwarrior Series... my faves... along with Unreal Tournament and Quake III
Hehehhe... so the wife, is she a computer person too?

Anduril
If I played more than two I'd keep forgetting my keyboard layouts. I had the same for quake, half-life and any other shooter I could
modify that way. Hell, if I could use the same layout for SFC I would. It also keeps me from getting too immersed. Too many games means
too much time at the pc trying to keep up.

Starkiller
hehe, feel your pain.
How about the family, are you all organized around the pc as a unit?

Anduril
Heh, nah, we have Playstation also. :)
couple nights a week we've been playing Diablo on it. Rest is outside or being lazy. We don't watch very much tv so time is split up between
various things. Including the ever present honey-do list of house repairs.

Starkiller
Hahah... I mean, yes of course, the 'list'.

Anduril
I suppose the Playstation would bring up my other favorite game..
Gran Turismo 2

Starkiller
What are your immediate plans for SFC modeling? Have you and Ghost Modeled the entire SFB fleet?

Anduril
We are getting close. Every time I look down the shiplist or my master list I get ideas. They get in the way of the other voices.
I know Ghost has Hydran and Gorn work to do and I'm still trying to catch up on Illuminating. I am almost tempted to learn scripting as we
will be doing some missions but I think recruiting is the way to go..

Starkiller
Scripting? What kinds of scripts are you picturing?

Anduril
I am starting to get ideas on some other ships after going through the various races and will be starting some TMP , I suppose, type
Kzinti/Mirak soon. I've already done some prelim sketches and will probably get froggy and do a mini story to coincide with the release of the
first ship.

Starkiller
excellent. Do you play the D2 at all?

Anduril
I would think some of the more famous SFB scenarios. Of course it'll require some research to see what can be done with the
limitations of the game imposed upon us.
I played on Arctic Fires server. I just read today that his box crashed. I'd send him some guts but at the moment I only have a
couple 200mhz Pentiums laying around and they're not quite what he needs. I still have a ship on IPlayWest but may move to another
server as I think it's time to go home to Remus and pick up a Sparrowhawk and get down to business

Starkiller
nice.. :)
What about releasing a D2 Pack of TOS replacements for the fca, fff, etc ?

Anduril
It's kind of frustrating with all the game resets. Though I still have a ship after 4 days now so things must be looking up. I like
getting others to join up and go into a mission. I groan at times with the "draft" but it's almost always fun so don't complain.
I like the idea of a pack of TOS ships. But Chris Jones and Dan James are building a mod for a server to be set up in the near future
so will wait to see the interest in it. If it looks like people like the TOS environment I think I may just work on setting up a 5 or 6 ship/race
pack.

Starkiller
kewl, I know I would
anything else you would like to add?

Anduril
i think so...bout the packs?

Starkiller
about life, the universe and everything?

Anduril
About life...life is short. People get themselves way wrapped up in things and loose touch with what really matters. It is good to
see that all has calmed down, forum wise, and that civility has returned and been in place for a while. I admit, though I'm not proud of it,
I almost found all that amusing...
about the universe...How come we're not living there yet?....

Starkiller
Excellent...
Thanks very much... I really appreciate the time :)

Anduril
Your welcome and have a good evening.
and take care

Starkiller
u2 :)