T.R. Buz

Written by ST Graveyard

This is Théo as Terry, the main protagonist in his game The Ultimate Arena... after getting his ass kicked.

The C64 was Théo's dream machine as an early teen.

Thanks to the articles of Hebdogiciel, many young people in France discovered programming, shaping a new generation of coders.

Notator was Théo's preferred choice for making music on the STe. All the tracks in Ultimate Arena were created using this more affordable "Cubase clone".

Mortal Kombat was the main inspiration for Théo's game.

At one point in life, Théo became a real-life "paperboy".

The freeware version of The Ultimate Arena, featuring larger sprites compared to the full version, was more of a proof of concept.

A floppy from the French IFA PD catalogue.

The end screen from the second version of the demo. By the time of its release, the full version was already almost completed.

This is Théo performing the stunts for the Terry character in front of a large, beige wall.

All video was shot using a Grundig VS-155-AF camcorder.

To portray Arvester, a photo of Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator was digitized.

The box cover of VIDI-ST, a powerfull video frame grabber tool for the ST.

Théo's mother is Sandy.

These are all the characters in the Falcon version. Here we also see the hidden characters Skeleton and Shadow.

Artwork created using NEON on the Falcon, which Théo used as a proof of concept to pitch his idea for an interactive CD-ROM to Samantha Fox’s management..

More artwork for the Sam Fox project.

Mortal Kombat II was a major inspiration, especially for some of the background artwork in Ultimate Arena.

Degas Elite was heavily used in creating the Atari STe version of the game.

The "Skull Den" background was ray-traced artwork created on the Falcon 030 using NEON and was designed specifically for the hidden character Skeleton.

The heaven stage, inspired by the pit stage in MKII.

The character Mileena, falling to her death in the MKII pit fatality.

Super Mario Kart is probably the most famous game that used Mode 7 scrolling on the SNES.

This is Théo as Terry. His T-shirt features the game's logo, which was inspired by both the MK logo and the crane kick from The Karate Kid movie.

The famous 'crane kick' from the movie The Karate Kid.

Théo even created a HD install program which came with the game.

The novel 'The Running Man' was another big inspiration for the game. Richard Bachan was actually one of Stephen King's pseudonym.

Sandy, fichting the final boss, Ahdes, at the Pool stage.

The airbrushed cover art of the game box.

STEAM, an amalgamation of ST and Team.

Joe vs Terry at the Volcano stage. In the background we see the announcement of 'The Daughters of Time', a Zelda clone Theo was development. It sadly never saw the light of day.

The Falcon edition of the game finally had its own version of MK's fatality, but in UA it was called 'Mortality'.

A preview of the Falcon version in issue 100 of the French ST Magazine.

Théo's tribute to Mortal Kombat 3... This screen was created exclusively for the Falcon preview of the game.

The Falcon version featured an animated intro and game over screen, created using Neon on the Falcon.

In the French magazine Joystick No. 53 (October 1994), Ultimate Arena was announced for the Amiga. However, Théo has no idea where that rumor came from

B.M. Swan, who also composed all the music in the games, posing as Arvester.

Half-Life: Alyx—the game that led Théo into VR.

I guess it is safe to say, without MK there wouldn't have been an UA.

1) I have searched for a very long time to find you, so the first question is…Why T.R.Buz? What does it mean?

Well, that one is simple: T.R. are my initials and Buz has been my "artist" name since I was 10.


2) Can you introduce yourself to the Atari ST fans who have not heard of you before?

I’m Théo, 53 years old, living in Paris, and I’ve spent my entire life working as a freelance multimedia artist and programmer.


3) When did you first encounter a computer? How old were you? Where was it? And which machine was it?

That was a long time ago—probably in 1982 or 1983. I went to a fair in Basel, Switzerland, with my father, where we saw some very expensive PCs and a much more affordable home computer, which cost around €1,000 at the time—still five times cheaper than a PC. I couldn’t stop talking about it, so my parents decided to buy one for my birthday. t was the Commodore 64. From that day on, computers have never ceased to fascinate me.

I also had an Atari 2600, but since it was just a gaming console, there wasn’t much you could do with it—though I do remember creating figural drawings using the joystick.


4) Where did you learn to program? What was the first piece of software you ever created and on which machine?

I bought the first issue of Hebdogiciel and, less than ten minutes later, was already typing out crazy machine code—essentially "random" alphanumeric sequences. It felt like magic. From then on, I got every issue until the magazine stopped publishing four years later. I also picked up some books to learn how to write my own programs in Commodore BASIC.

In 1985, I worked on an ambitious multi-platform Olympic Games project with a friend, though it was far beyond our skill level. Due to limited RAM, we could only include two sports. The following year, he moved to Paris—despite being three years younger than me, he was in the same class and far ahead of his peers.

The two of us tried to create all the sprites, which was a real challenge. On the C64, there was no way to use external graphic files, so every graphic had to be manually entered as numbers, representing 8x8 pixel grids. For example, a circle translated to 24, 36, 66, 129, 129, 66, 36, 24. And we were only 11 and 14 years old. Suffice it to say, nothing ever got published.


5) When did you buy an Atari ST and why? (why not an Amiga for example?)

In 1990, I got a 1040STe, and the choice was obvious. At the time, I was working on two personal music albums with a friend, and in our home studio—a bold concept in the late '80s—we recorded vocals and analog instruments using an Atari ST with Notator (a more affordable competitor to Cubase... if that still exists). The STe allowed me to combine my passions for computers, video games, and home studio music.


6) In 1994 you released the fighting game The Ultimate Arena. But was this the first game or program you created on the ST? Or have you done other things on that system as well?

I believe it was my first project on an Atari computer, though I'm not 100% sure, as I always had two or three projects going on at the same time.


7) How did The Ultimate Arena project start? Where did you get the idea? And why did you want to make a fighting game on the STe? You must have been a big Mortal Kombat fan, no?

As I mentioned earlier, I started a game project on my Commodore 64 in the early eighties. Since then, I've never owned a computer that I didn't use to create some kind of game, along with numerous tools and computer graphics—an interest that began with the Atari 2600 console. I came up with the idea for this particular project after completing my military service.

After graduating from high school, I spent two years at an art school in Strasbourg, as there weren’t many other options available—computer graphic design wasn’t offered in higher education at the time. Once I realized that my teachers expected me to pursue a career as an art instructor, I decided to leave before graduating. Instead, I moved to England with my closest friend to explore life, discover more about myself, and embrace new experiences.

I had to return to France to become an aviator—a fancy term for a rookie in the Air Force—since military service was mandatory at the time. After those challenging years, I had no idea what to do with my life. I remember coming up with the idea for the ultimate arena while staring at the ceiling of a ski cabin in the Alps. At the time, I was still living with my mother and wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the part-time job I had.


8) what was the job you were doing? Boring jobs can get the creative juices flowing, I know from experience.

I worked at the post office, mostly as a postman—kind of like playing Paperboy on my C64 once I got home.

I had read that Mortal Kombat, an arcade game I spent a lot of time on with my friends, wouldn't be ported to the Atari ST (though Street Fighter II was available, it had terrible reviews). I was so disappointed that I thought, "If they don't want to give it to us, I'll just do it myself!"


9) You first released a PD demo version featuring larger sprites. This version was not reviewed well in ST Format issue 72. Is that why you completely reprogrammed it for the full version?

The freeware version was really just a first draft, almost a proof of concept. Once I knew I could make it work, I spent a lot of time refining the game and optimizing it as much as possible.

10) I would like to ask some more detail questions about this first demo, see if I can trigger your memories. The demo was released somewhere in 1994. It featured bigger sprites compared to the finished full game. The scrolling was choppier. So between this version and the full release you did a lot of optimizing (as explained below). But do you remember with this demo, with this proof of concept, how far you were actually away from the finished game you eventually made? Because this demo already featured the digital sprites, the actual actors. It also had digital sound effects and music, and the animation of the characters was very good already. At the end of the demo, a screen was featured explaining to people you could order the full version. So the full game was already available when you released the demo?

Yes, I can explain this. There were actually two "releases" of the shareware/demo. The first was through IFA Magazine, which featured a black-and-white listing of free shareware titles available on floppy disks. I received a lot of positive feedback from that release, which motivated me to reach out to major gaming magazines—not just Atari-related ones—to reach a broader audience. ST Magazine showed interest in promoting the full game, so I had to fix all the issues before sending them a fully working version. I also added the screen at the end of the demo since, by that time, the game was almost complete.


11) This new demo featured quite a cool intro which was missing from the full game. It explains more about the lore you created, The Running Man theme. Can you tell us more about this intro? And why it was missing from the full game? The host clearly was a digitized image? Who is this person?

To fit the whole game on three disks, I had to cut some content from the game. The intro was the only reasonable choice as it didn’t impact the gameplay. I think it was a French presenter we liked back then.


12) The demo featured 2 characters, Terry Blitz and Kato. I’m really curious who these actors were? Are you Terry? And if so, do/did you really have the body of a Schwarzenegger or was it faked?

I was Terry, and my friend, B.M. Swan, was Kato. I was into "home" bodybuilding at the time, though I think I may have touched up the final image a bit.


13) The demo featured one background, the Volcano stage. I also noticed a PEPSICO add on the monitor in the background. I guess this was just done for fun, right? You were not sponsored by Pepsico or something? ;-)

If only… ;-)


14) Can you tell me a bit more about the ‘making of’ the game : The graphics are amazing. You used digitized sprites. I am fascinated by this and wondering how it was done. Did you actually make real recordings of the characters like they did in Mortal Kombat?

I honestly had no idea how Mortal Kombat was made since video games weren’t widely covered in mainstream media, and even gaming magazines didn’t go into much detail about how studios operated. But it turns out I ended up doing almost exactly what Acclaim did—using a beige wall as a backdrop and filming stunts with my camcorder on full-size VHS tapes. I then bought a digitizer device to transfer the footage from my VCR to my computer. The post-production process took forever, but since I loved working with computer graphics, I didn’t mind.


15) Do you remember what digitizer device or the software used to transfer and convert the images to the ST? I know there are tools like VIDI-ST. And When you talk about the post production, you mean retouching the graphics? Was everything done with Degas Elite? Did you cut every frame of the ‘fighters’ from the beige background and saved them as a picture file which you would then use in game (to create the animations)?

Indeed I used vidi-ST to grab the images straight from my Camcorder, a GRUNDIG VS155. I imported the images into Degas Elite where I removed the background and colored all the pictures. Then I staged them on big sprite sheets. In the demo I also used black and white masks for the transparent parts of the characters.


16) For the full game, additional actors were involved. The end credits list the stunt performers as MBW, Cathie Klein, MT Banholzer, and TRB. Were these the only actors used in the game? I'd love to hear more!

Yes, just like in the demo, I filmed myself and my best friend - but this time, we also included his girlfriend and… my mother! It was challenging, but we had a lot of fun shooting all the sequences.


17) Your mother?! This blows my mind! Can you tell me who played which characters? Also, regarding the close-up graphics on the VS screens, they seem to be a mix of famous people—like Samantha Fox (Sandy), Schwarzenegger (Arvester), and Harrison Ford (Joe)—and original characters. Were these based on real photos, or were they fictional? For example, were Terry and Kato actual photos of you and your friend? And for the animations of Arvester and Joe, did you pull footage from movies, or did you actually dress up in Indiana Jones/Terminator outfits and film yourself?

My mother played Sandy, I played Terry, Skeleton, and Shadow, and my friend took on all the other male characters (Kato, Arvester, and Joe). Serena, an original character, was portrayed by Cathie, though her face on the selection screen actually belongs to another uncredited friend of mine. Ahdes was entirely hand-drawn and animated. For the close-ups of Arvester, Joe, and Sandy, I used edited movie vidcaps


18) You played Skeleton and Shadow? I think those were special hidden characters in the Falcon version—do you remember? But how did you portray Skeleton, for example? Did you perform the movements and then use masking to draw a skeleton over them?

Shadow was just a simple mask applied to Terry’s sprites, making him completely black. Skeleton was entirely hand-drawn, using Terry as a reference.

Here’s some trivia since you seem to enjoy these: Speaking of Sandy, I actually met Samantha Fox’s manager in London a couple of years later to discuss an interactive CD-ROM project. They seemed interested, but they already had another project in the works—which, as it turned out, ended up being a VHS released in 1996.

They were really nice people, though, and my six months in the U.K. was a once-in-a-lifetime experience—but that’s a whole different story!


19) Oh, please, tell us more about the CD-ROM project! When was this? How did you get involved in a CD-ROM project? Were you working for a software company in the UK, or was it something self-published? And regarding Samantha Fox, did you need permission to use her photos and character? Or was that not really an issue, since the Atari ST was nearly dead by then?

I actually only used one picture of her, since the in-game version of Sandy was entirely played by my then 50-year-old mother. I later removed the photo in the Falcon edition.
Of course, it was just another tribute to a singer I liked, much like the movie references in the game. Back then, I wasn’t planning on ever meeting her staff, that happened after the release of the game!


20) So this was another trip to the UK?

Yes. After TUA was published, I started working on launching a new Atari/Linux magazine in 1996 and really enjoyed creating 3D images on my Falcon. Around that time, I had just gotten a CD burner to release the CD-ROM version of STraTOS, and interactive CD-ROMs were becoming a big trend.

I thought it would be a great idea to pitch an interactive CD-ROM project to Samantha Fox’s manager in London. By then, she had a solid fan base but was getting less media attention after ten years in the industry. My intuition was correct—shortly after, the Calendar Girl VHS was released. However, their focus seemed to have shifted, and music was no longer the priority.

My idea was to remix her biggest hits from the past decade, visualize unseen sequences in a virtual studio, and include childhood albums and other exclusive content. I even put together screenshots using NEON3D on my Falcon.

So here is a timeline of what we discussed so far :
1983-84 – First computer (C64) and first video game projects
1989 – Graduated high school, built a music studio with friends, and worked on music projects
1989-1991 – Art studies in Strasbourg (Atari 1040STE)
Mid-1991 – Moved to London
1992-1993 – Military service
1994 – First game projects, including TUA (Falcon 030)
1996 – Back to London, working as a writer for ST Magazine, and launching STraTOS mag
1997-98 – Worked on my first 3D short film (first non-Atari project), meant to help me land a job at Disney or a VFX studio (486DX PC)


21) OK, back to the game. The beautiful backgrounds during the fights, what tools did you use to create them?

All the background designs were created using Degas Elite on the STE. Some were tributes to Mortal Kombat II, while others were original designs.


22) Did you design these on paper first, or how did you begin the process?

Most of the backgrounds were created digitally using Degas Elite, though I designed some on paper beforehand. The extra backgrounds in the Falcon Edition were ray-traced on the Falcon 030 using NEON.


23) Do you still remember what inspired you, or what the levels were based on?

The Arena was designed to fit the game's original story. I created all the levels with lethal borders to prevent the common Mortal Kombat tactic of winning by simply cornering an opponent. This also helped raise the stakes in each fight.
The Volcano stage was inspired by the pit stage of the original MK.
The Heaven stage was another tribute to the PIT stage from Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II. It also gave me the opportunity to experiment with the parallax effect.
The Pool stage was my interpretation of the Acid Pool level from Mortal Kombat II.
Finally, the Training Room was inspired by Goro's Lair from the original Mortal Kombat.


24) If you remember any cool trivia about the different stages, feel free to share it with me! I'd love to hear more.

Not exactly trivia, but as I mentioned, all the stages, while clearly tributes to MK, had lethal borders at their extremities, making the gameplay even more challenging. I spent quite a bit of time working on a parallax effect similar to Mode 7 on the SNES (but not on the Mega Drive). However, it slowed down the animation significantly, so I ended up using a simpler 3 or 4-plane parallax effect instead.


25) Do you remember anything in particular about the logo of the game? It definitely has a resemblance to Mortal Kombat.

It was inspired by both Mortal Kombat and Karate Kid (another movie we were big fans of). The pause in shadow puppetry was directly taken from one of Terry's digitized positions.


26) In what language was the game programmed? 68K assembler?

To be honest, I don’t remember all the steps, so there may be some inconsistencies in my story. However, I started with Omikron Basic, which was freely available with the ATARI STE. After some experimentation, I realized that the results weren’t as good as I had hoped. So, I decided to switch to GFA Basic, thoroughly read all the available documentation, and explored the possibilities of incorporating routines written in 68K assembler. Learning assembler wasn’t the most enjoyable part of my journey, but I eventually added a significant amount of assembler code to the main program. This ranged from music management (which was simply impossible with BASIC) to image manipulation, and even an image and video codec that was later used in CD-MAG a few years later.


27) Can you explain to somebody who is not very technical what you think was the most difficult thing to make in this game? And what you are most proud of

That’s an easy one because I spent so much time optimizing RAM usage. The STE simply wouldn’t allow me to do what I wanted, constantly throwing 'Out of Memory' errors. The sprite sheets were so large that storing both left and right positions simultaneously was simply impossible.


28) I was thinking about this the other day, and now that you mention it, I noticed that it's impossible to jump over your opponent, like in Mortal Kombat. You never managed to solve that issue?

This was quite a surprise to me because I was expecting gamers to complain about this limitation (100% due to low RAM on 1040STE) and no one ever seemed to notice or bother. So much actually that I decided not to add this possibility to the Falcon Edition after all.


29) I read in ST MAGAZINE the game ran in 3 VBL (which is about 20frames/sec) on an STe and 35frames/sec on the Falcon. Quite impressive, don’t you think?

As I mentioned, a lot of optimization went into it... I even had to slow the game down on the Falcon—its turbo mode isn’t running at full speed.


30) The full game was spread across three disks and contained over 5 MB of data. You even included a special HD installation program, which was quite unique for the Atari. Any thoughts on that?

I bought an overpriced, shoebox-sized HDD to make development easier. Launching the game from it was so much more convenient than constantly swapping slow floppy disks, so offering this option to players was an obvious choice.


31) Let's talk a bit more about the game's characters and lore. Do you remember anything about them? Who came up with their designs? You had Terry (who resembled Johnny Cage), Sandy (clearly inspired by Samantha Fox), Serena (a Kitana lookalike), Kato (a rather unique character), Joe (modeled after Indiana Jones), Arvester (a nod to Arnold Schwarzenegger), and Ahdes (an alien being). Do you have any memories or anecdotes about their creation?

From the beginning I wanted to make a game that felt like Mortal Kombat in the gameplay and visually (with digitized graphics) but not a simple clone, so I created a lore much inspired by the novel The Running Man and some of my all time favorite movies where various fighters would compete for their life.


32) If you remember any cool trivia in conceiving these characters, please do share…

As I said, I ORIGINALLY didn’t want the Ultimate Arena to be a Fantasy Game but more of an anticipation story. So all the characters had to be human apart from the final boss which was designed to be a real challenge and a surprise. Most of them are of course tributes to movie characters we used to love (and still do to be honest), the way some characters of MK were clearly inspired by movie stars (Johnny Cage, anyone?). The Falcon Edition included more surreal characters (there were 9 characters in total) but it was a Falcon Edition so I felt I could do whatever I wanted.


33) The gameplay closely resembles Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2, featuring special moves, pit stages, blood, turbo mode, and more. However, you introduced a strategic element in the single-player mode—your fighter’s health didn’t fully replenish after each stage, and using special moves cost a bit of energy. What was the reasoning behind this design choice?

Yes. The lore implied a more realistic universe. They are real people fighting on TV stages and they can actually die. The game isn't that hard but the fact that you don't have infinite energy forces you to think before using special moves.
I didn't give a proper explanation to these in the game but basically Sandy and Terry are using futuristic technology to send those plasma fire balls and some of the opponents had help from the Alien boss.


34) How old were you exactly when you created the game? And how long did it take to finish the complete STe version?

I must have been 23 or 24 years old and it took me roughly a year.


35) Can you tell us something about the excellent intro music? Where did you get the excellent sound effects and who was the voice of the announcer in the game?

Okay, so the voice is mine (modified using freelance audio software), most of the sound effects are homemade, and the music consists of original tracks created by me and my friend Swan/BMW.


36) Théo, here is something I may have missed. When browsing through the manual, it says music and sound FX were done by Cobra, not Swan/BMW? Who is Cobra?

Cobra was the name of our music 'band' in the late ’80s, consisting of three guys and a girl. We never recorded an album under that name, but two members of the group contributed to the solo albums that Swan and I recorded in 1990. It was more of a tribute to the group than actual participation.


37) The full game was released in 1995. It seems like an incredible accomplishment. It is such a big and well made game, and it seems it was almost completely done by you alone. But in 1995 there were very few ST owners. The game was well received in magazines, but did it sell well? Do you have any regrets?

Absolutely no regrets. The whole experience was amazing—from programming the game, shooting the stunts, designing the backgrounds and title screens, composing original music, to handcrafting the game box (the first cover was airbrushed, then photographed and finally xeroxed onto A4 special paper!) and the user manual. I also handled all the post and packaging from my room, using scissors and adhesive tape…

From what I learned later, the game sales were pretty good compared to larger games in stores (I even found a copy of Ultimate Arena there—don’t ask how). I was contacted by a major German publisher who sent me a contract for worldwide distribution. Their offer was interesting but meant raising the price of the game by four times!

I’ve always believed that culture should be accessible to as many people as possible—not necessarily free, but at least affordable for those who can't pay for expensive cultural experiences. So, I logically turned down their offer and continued packing hundreds of boxes on the carpet of my room for months, if not years.

The most incredible part of the journey was the letters from people. Literally hundreds of heartfelt letters from Atari fans who loved the game and supported the developers. I can’t express how amazing it was to get letters every day from such kind and passionate people, sharing incredible stories, and sometimes even intimate details. There was even a hacker who asked for permission and paid for the game (true story).

You’ve got me here because I can get quite emotional thinking about that period. To anyone wanting to create a game today, that’s the real reward for your dedication. No contract, no amount of money could ever replace that…

Okay, next question...


38) I never asked this, but why did you call the game The Ultimate Arena?

The fights took place in a modern arena and I liked the sound of this. The goal of the 'game' was to get access to the final stage: the Ultimate Arena


39) And your company was called STeam. Why?

STE Team -> STEam. It was 10 years before the Steam platform was launched, but funnily enough, Gabe Newell and I share a lot of similar views on game pricing and piracy. He was a bit more successful than I, financially speaking, anyway.


40) In the STe version of the game, in the background, there is an announcement for a game called 'Daugthers of Time'? What was that? Do you remember?

Yes, I’ve always worked on more than one project (even to this day), and at the time, I felt the Atari gaming scene was lacking a true adventure game à la Zelda. So, I began writing a time-travel story spanning seven periods, from prehistory to the year 3000, following the adventures of a female character who faces challenges unique to each era, yet interconnected.

In the end, I abandoned the project when it became clear that ambitious projects like this were no longer aligned with the Atari universe.


41) You also announced a Falcon version already by the release of the STe version. And in 1996, 'Ultimate Arena – Falcon edition' was released. Why did you make a game for the Falcon? As there were so little Falcons out there.

Mostly because I had bought a Falcon for myself and realized the tools for programming were the same. I was frustrated with the hardware limits on the STE so it was quite obvious that I would spend a few months on an updated version. I really loved working on this conversion btw.


42) Do you remember when you had bought a Falcon? In what year? And why did you actually buy a Falcon? (and not a PC for example)

I guess in 1993/94?. I really liked Atari computers and didn’t want to 'buy' a PC when it still was quite expensive and not dedicated to games and music. In the 80s/ early 90s PCs were still professional tools and it took me quite some time to build my own PC based on a 486 intel CPU.


43) What was the most challenging thing to accomplish in this version of the game?

Honestly not a lot, the hard work had been done on the STE version so it was a pleasure to be able to do all the things I couldn’t achieve because of the limited RAM of the 1040 STE.


44) I have been playing the Falcon version and it is absolutely stunning! What were the things you could not achieve on the STe you wanted on the Falcon? (in game music? All characters in 1 player mode? Mortality moves?)

Basically all you listed, plus a game even closer to the arcade game it was inspired by. I also added some extra backgrounds and extra characters.


45) In the Falcon edition, you could pick all characters in 1 player mode (compared to only Terry or Sandy on the STe), there were Mortality moves (like fatalities in MK), hidden characters, a beautiful intro screen (I think inspired by Mortal Kombat 3) and in-game music. Yet ST Magazine was a bit disappointed that the game only featured about 80 colors (instead of the full 256 colors) and a resolution of 320*200. Did you ever consider making the game for a higher resolution with more colors on the Falcon?

To include all these features and maintain a fast-paced game, the 320x200 resolution was essential. As far as I remember, higher resolutions meant fewer colors and a slower frame rate. Only static games really used the higher resolutions at the time, so it was never a viable option.

As for the colors, I did my best to create smoother gradients and add more details, but the 16 colors used in the original game also gave it its unique style. I didn’t want to lose that. Adding more colors just for the sake of it didn’t make much sense, and I was happy with the result. It was my game, not a technical demo that some people were hoping for.

Some last-minute trivia: I’m colorblind, so that might explain the lack of colors that some people experience on the Falcon.


46) Théo, do you remember the software used on the Falcon to upgrade the graphics? Was ingame music on the STe not feasible compared to the Falcon? I mean, adding music during gameplay on the STe would probably slow the game down too much?

I think I used TruePaint but I am not 100% sure.

We didn’t really talk about the music. Most of it was created by my friend using Notator on the 1040STE and a Roland keyboard I had bought a few years earlier for a different project (funded by my paperboy job—everything comes full circle). I helped build a home studio in 1987/1988, and we were allowed to use the tools and instruments when the owner was away working. This is also the main reason I chose an STE over an Amiga a year later—the MIDI port was a game-changer for musicians.


47) The Falcon version also featured a hidden break-out game. Who’s idea was that?

Mine actually, as I said programming on the Falcon was fun and I like Easter eggs.


48) The Mortality move...please tell us more.

I have a terrible memory (as you can probably see as I struggle remembering details) and Fatalities in MK were pure nightmares to me. So I made sure the special moves were easy to remember, Fatalities usually are special moves played at the end of the game. There was a printed manual with the original game with most of the moves, I think you can find scans online. Just try an uppercut once the opponent is defeated, it may be the secret move for decapitation. Timing is important of course!


49) Also on the Falcon version a message appears in the background on the monitor saying 'Bugsy, remember the name'. What was that?

Another game I spent some time on. A Tamagotchi style game with a cute creature you had to take care of on your computer.


50) The Falcon demo featured a really beautiful intro screen, do you remember anything in particular? How was it made? Definitely inspired by MK3 …

It was indeed inspired by the latest version of MK painted in TruePaint.


51) The full game of the Falcon version had a beautiful 3D animated intro and also a game over screen with a monitor and blood. Do you remember how this was made/rendered?

All using Neon 3D on Falcon if I remember well.


52) In the magazine Joystick numero 53 (October 94), Ultimate Arena was announced for the Amiga, it even has some really nice screenshots. I guess this never happened?

And was never really considered. I don't know where this information came from, but the Joystick team never bothered to contact me to confirm. The second screenshot is from a demo of an adventure game I was working on by the time but never finished for the same reasons mentioned above.


53) Yet another game (the adventure). Was this on the Amiga, or on the ST or Falcon? You remember? The graphics look amazing. (Was this perhaps 'Bugsy' mentioned above?)

That was Evil Games, a fairly ambitious adventure game on which I spent months (if not more) writing a screenplay based on a closed-door setting in a strange mansion and ending with a close encounter of the third kind and space travel. I was having a lot of fun at the time ^^


54) Are you still in contact with any of the people who helped in the creation of this game? Like Swan BM (music) or any of the stuntmen?

Yes, not all of them, though. It was a long time ago, and I moved to Paris in 1998! I told him about your project, but since our (too insane to explain) relationship is now only through letters, I haven’t received a response to my last one yet. I talk to my mother every day (she just turned 80), even though we live 600km apart. I haven’t heard from Cathie in 30 years.


Some final questions

55) In 1994 you also started writing for the French ST Magazine. How did that start?

At the time, I was quite active on the French predecessor to the internet: the Minitel. There was an online forum service, and it was the editor-in-chief of ST Mag (Godefroy de Maupeou) who contacted me to offer me a spot on the editorial team. I was impressed with the passion he put into his project, so I agreed to write a series of articles on programming without compensation.


56) Am I correct when I say that you started Stratos Magazine in 1995? Can you tell us a bit more about that adventure? You must have been a really big Atari fan to start a magazine in 1995 when most people went to the PC I guess.

The idea for STraTOS wasn’t originally mine, but when I was approached by an Atari enthusiast who shared my vision of getting into multimedia press, I immediately jumped on board as editor-in-chief (and also designer) of the CD-Mag included with each magazine. This was a few years before the advent of the internet, and there’s no doubt that, with a little more time, it’s in this format that STraTOS could have evolved and developed.

Launching a magazine from scratch was an immense challenge and an unforgettable experience. I loved every issue and all the sleepless nights I spent working on STraTOS.


57) Are you still interested in computer games today? Are you a gamer? And if so, what is your favorite game of all time?

Yes, I still follow the evolution of video games, particularly VR. I even bought a Meta Quest headset just to play Half-Life: Alyx in 2020. I’m convinced that VR/AR has enormous potential, not just in the video game world, but in many other areas as well. However, there are still some major technical hurdles to overcome. The release of Apple Vision should be interesting, as they seem to have a better approach than Meta. Still, it may take a few years (2030?) for VR/AR headsets to become as common as tablets are today, lying on the coffee tables of most families.

As for my favorite game, it's impossible to pick just one. I loved playing all the Half-Life games, Civilization holds a special place in my heart, and Mortal Kombat has been a huge part of my life (though I’m still nostalgic for the first three).


58) What are you doing these days?

After the STraTOS and ST Mag adventure, I had to find new goals in my life. I returned to my first passions and spent two years working on a 5-minute short film in computer graphics, which was meant to serve as my CV to join a special effects or animation studio. However, the market at the beginning of the 2000s wasn’t very favorable, and I eventually began working as a freelance multimedia artist/author. Over more than 15 years, I collaborated in the world of educational publishing, creating hundreds of mini-games in Flash for textbooks at that time.

Today, I continue to work freelance, mostly through word-of-mouth, as a web designer or infographic designer when needed. I’ve also reconnected with drawing and am experimenting with the possibilities offered by generative AI.


59) Final question, just for fun, If you could have a drink with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and what would you ask? Who do you look up to?

Don't they say it’s always disappointing to meet your idols in real life? However, more prosaically, if you ever pass through Paris, I would be delighted to have a coffee with you. As a nostalgic for the Atari era, I’ve seen your work and must say that I’m very impressed!


Thank you so much for your time, Théo, and for sharing your great story with us all.

For those who missed the documentary :

- Part 1 : The demo
- Part 2 : The STe version
- Part 3 : The Falcon release