Interview with Jürgen Malzacher

- Was Mission Underground going to be commercial or PD?

Jürgen Malzacher: The programming of Mission Underground was started without being in contact with a publisher. As far as I remember we had some contacts in the end but the game was never published. Now we agree for a non commercial publishing on the agtw.abime.net website.

- What's the reason that it was never published?

Jürgen Malzacher: As we were a small team of three friends using their free time to develop the whole game, we could not compete with the professional teams in the end as they published professional games.

- How long have you worked on this game?

Jürgen Malzacher: I assume Carsten has been working for some months on the game when I met him and started to draw the graphics.

- Which language and tools were used for development?

Jürgen Malzacher: The game was written in assembler.

- How were the graphics and animation constructed?

Jürgen Malzacher: I used deluxe paint for the graphics.

- What games inspired you when making Mission Underground? Personally it reminds me a lot on Fort Apocalypse on the C64.

Jürgen Malzacher: I think it was Fort Apocalypse which inspired Carsten for the programming. I don't remember that I have seen Fort Appocalypse, but Carsten told me what he expected the graphics to be and I worked it out.

- How complete (%) is the Amiga version of Mission Underground?

Jürgen Malzacher: The game's 100% complete.

- How did you get started in computer game development?

Jürgen Malzacher: Ever I was more fascinated to program a game than to play a game. So I started to program on the C64. Having changed to AMIGA I startet to develop ZARGON which was finally published by Markt&Technik Verlag. With this experience I made the graphics for Mission Underground.

- Are you still writing games? What are you working on at the moment?

Jürgen Malzacher: Carsten, Stephan and I are not writing games any more. Stephan and I are in the telecommunication field and Carten is in the IT field.

- What are your favourite Amiga games?

Jürgen Malzacher: I liked Hexenhaus very much, I assume Carten's favourite was Fort Apocalypse.