Paul Reiche III: "Here's a low-res and cryptic image of the two of us (Paul on left, Fred on Right) which we intended to put in Star Control II. We had this idea about presenting ourselves as egotistical space gods who would grant boons only to those who complimented us incessantly. That didn't work out for Star Control II, so instead we decided to apply the same notion to our employees."

We wanted to be the first to congratulate the codesigners of Star Control II, since their game is only the sixth to make it into GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time. However, we had some ulterior motives: to probe their minds on what they think of Star Control II in hindsight, to get the inside track on what it was like developing the game, and to get an update one what they're working on right now.

GameSpot: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, and congratulations from all of us on your achievement with Star Control II.

Paul Reiche III Being included in GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time is certainly an honor. I suppose I should make some polite gesture by saying that all games are winners, blah, blah, blah. In truth, here at Toys for Bob, we are all about basking in the aura of victory while dancing on the graves of the vanquished. We are popping champagne corks, drenching each other with Gatorade, and walloping our bare bellies against each other. Life is sweet.

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GS: Do you have a personal favorite race and ship from the game?

PR Fred favors the Ilwrath, because like him, they are so absurdly evil. In particular, Fred likes the idea that the overly righteous are at risk of "wrapping around" the good-evil continuum, probably somewhere around a "goodness" of 65,535.

I am a big fan of the Spathi. In Fwiffo's perhaps overly long conversation on the surface of Pluto, he says,

"I knew that someday I would be vastly rich, wealthy enough to afford a large, well-fortified mansion. Surrounding my mansion would be vast tracts of land, through which I could slide at any time I wished! Of course, one can never be too sure that there aren't monsters hiding just behind the next bush, so I would plant trees to climb at regular, easy-to-reach intervals. And being a Spathi of the world, I would know that some monsters climb trees, though often not well, so I would have my servants place in each tree a basket of perfect stones. Not too heavy, not too light--just the right size for throwing at monsters."

This is not some silly, alien notion I dreamed up. This is my personal credo--my "American dream," if you will. Please do not mock me, or I am likely to throw a rock at you from a distant treetop.

GS: What was the most challenging part of creating the game?

PR As a designer, I would say that the biggest challenge was simply creating all the story text, art, and animation that SCII needed to work on an epic scale. We enlisted the help of friends, family, and unpaid semiprofessionals worldwide (I am not kidding). Fred must have had some programming challenges, but he is not a complainer, so besides dealing with me on a daily basis, who knows?

There was also a problem keeping the publisher interested in the game. We did have some fans within Accolade, such as the very cool CFO (a rarity), but for the most part, they were all about sports. Strangely enough, when the game did win some "best of the year" awards, Accolade put a sticker on all the SCII boxes saying "Best Sports Game of 1993." No fake.

PR What would you cite as some of the primary influences on the game?

PR If you read the manuals to SC and SCII, you'll see we credit many, many science-fiction authors as being inspirational and/or wonderfully nonlitigious. At the top of my list would be Jack Vance, Orson Scott Card, Robert Heinlein, David Brin, and Andre Norton.

In terms of games, Starflight was a very strong influence, in large part because the designer of Starflight, Greg Johnson, was one of the most significant contributors to Star Control II. If you like SCII, go play Starflight!

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PR Fred and I would love to create another Star Control game, but due to the cruel realities of modern game economics, I suspect both Fred and I will need to become independently wealthy before we can tackle the project full time. Dedicated Star Control fans should not take this as a request by Fred and myself for checks in the mail--especially large checks from rich fans. Such checks should not be sent to our offices in Novato (directly to me, Paul). Guilt over playing illegally pirated copies of the game should not be a factor in sending exceptionally generous checks.

GS Can you give us a brief bit of background on Toys for Bob?

PR Fred and I have been working hard over the 15 years on such games as SC and SCII, The Horde (3DO, PC), Pandemonium (PS2, Saturn), The Unholy War (PS2), Little Witching Mischiefs (please, don't ask), 102 Dalmatians, and most recently Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure for Activision. Toys for Bob has 18 employees, does the work of a company twice its size, and has recently installed tasteful paper lanterns.

GS Is there anything else you'd like to add?

PR Last summer, we rereleased Star Control II as an open-source project called The Ur-Quan Masters. This new version has been rebuilt to work on modern operating systems and, most importantly, is free. SourceForge.net and The Pages of Now & Forever are good places to look for it. Have fun!

GS Thanks for your time.