David Braben @ Highscore WDR TV Show December 17th, 1988

David Braben @ Highscore WDR TV Show December 17th, 1988
The Interview was right before the RADWAR VS Gravenreuth Discussion in the same TV Show.
BTW: You can see lot's of sceners in the audience:
Jeff Smart (TRIAD), BamBam (Hotline), ZAZ and Speedcracker (TWG), Oliver Stiller and Frank Nürnberger (MDG), Andreas Escher, Jörg Prenzing (SevenUp), Joachim Fräder (X-Ample) and many more ...
About David Braben, taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David John Braben (born 1964, Basford, Nottingham) is a British computer programmer, best known for co-writing Elite, a hugely popular and influential space trading computer game, in the early 1980s.
Elite was written in conjunction with Ian Bell while both were undergraduate students at Cambridge University. Another seminal game written by Braben was Zarch for the Acorn Archimedes (later released on some other platforms as Virus), which was one of the first true "solid" 3D games.
After Zarch, Braben went on to found Frontier Developments, a games development company whose first project was a sequel to Elite named Frontier. Braben is still the Chairman and part owner of the company, whose recent projects have included RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, games based on the Wallace & Gromit franchise and the platformer LostWinds, which was a launch title on Nintendo's WiiWare download service.[1]
As of July 2006, David Braben is currently working on a game called The Outsider with Frontier Developments. As said in a GameSpot interview[2], he is planning to start working on Elite 4 - as a space MMORPG game - as soon as The Outsider is gold. Braben said explicitly that this title is of a special value to him.
He married Katharin Dickinson in May 1993 in Cambridge.

[@Fovulonkiin]

I took the time to fully translate this interview for those who don't understand German:
(00:00-00:22)
Presenter (P) "As a presenter of a music show I'd certainly wish to welcome Michael Jackson in my show or Prince. But there are also such stars in the software industry, in the computer industry, and one of these stars is with us today. He wrote a game that has become an iconic game. It is called "Elite", the programmer is from Great Britain: Here is David Braben."
(00:35-00:50)
P "So, firstly we need to wire ourselves now so we can understand each other correctly. That's always a bit difficult. But I think- I am done already. How's your ear? Or does it once again not fit this time. That's really complicated; one hardly thinks it possible."
(00:50-00:55)
David Braben (DB) "Ok."
P "Yes?"
DB "Sorry about that, yes."
P "Wonderful. No problem."
(00:55-01:57)
P "David you're from Cambridge and, uhm, that small English town inspires one rather to engage with medieval English history than with computers. How did it come to this for you?"
DB "Well it is primarily a university town and, uhm, that's how I got to know it and uh, the computer industry just grew up around it."
P "Mhmh, and you personal history being at a computer.. did you grow up with that?
DB "Yes, it started out as a hobby and, uhm, when I first started there were only a few games around. It was really.. very much, a.. a.. a sort of ,uh, uh, hobby, rather than the games industry(?) it is now, where it is programming rather than.. games."
P "Mhmh, your most famous game is "Elite", what can you even play with that? How does it work?"
DB "Ah, Elite is essentially a game, where, uhm, the player has an alter ego, which is, uhm, ... he gets to trade within a galaxy of planets(?) and the idea is to make a profit, by buying some goods. And I can show it."
(01:59-02:40)
DB "Now, ye-uhm, you get a description of you- of your, uh, space ship. The idea is, you slowly improve it as.. as you progress through the game. Essentially(?) you have various things you can add to your space ship and you can have various items in your cargo you can buy and sell. Whoops.(?) Now, I'll.. I'll take off. Now the idea is, for instance, in an agricultural place you would buy food and take it to an industrial place. Now, uh... whoops. To do this you select various places. You have, uh, a.. galaxy of several(?) thousand- two thousand planets"
P My god.."
DB Now I am going to select a planet and, uh, fly to it!"
(02:40-02:57)
P "And then... wonderful. The successor.. for the successor of this game, for "Virus", you recently received something like an Oscar of the software industry, but isn't it incredibly difficult to even write, to develop, an adequate successor after such a success?
(02:57-03:13)
DB "Yes, but, uh, "Virus" is a different game. (?) "Virus" is, uh, an arcade game, it's a fast action game with pretty graphics, uhm, it's more a reaction test (?). In "Elite" there is quite an element of thinking whereas in "Virus" that is, uh, shall we say somewhat small."
(03:16-03:20)
P "Do you believe that computer games have a future? That they're still played in the year 2000?"
(03:23-03:39)
DB "Uhh, yes! But I think they'll(?) be very different, uhm; I think, uhh, that it(?) will slowly approach the film industry in some respects and I personally would hope, that it would.. no longer be a solitary (?). I would much prefer to have several people playing together; much more social."
(03:42-03:44)
P "Do you give away computer games as presents at Christmas?"
(03:46-03:58)
DB "Uhh no! I much prefer more social games. And since(?) I and, uh, uh, a lot of my friends, uh, spent most of their time with(?) computers, there is this(?).. any (?) just to get away, they do(?).
(04:01-04:32)
P "Thank you very much for coming to us. David Braben surely must've also become acquainted with "crackers", people who do something forbidden. They bypass through clever programming the copy protection of a computer game that they bought in a store and then something is possible, which was supposed to be prevented: They can copy these games without paying anything for it and can distribute them without the industry getting paid anything for them. It is not as straightforward as it may sound. You and me will shortly know why..." Proceeds to move to the next guests, like Markus, who is an "expert of the cracker scene". :D
Yes, if the wording sounds strange, like "wrote a game", that is because the presenter very clearly has no expertise on the matter whatsoever and I translated it as close to the original as possible. Sadly due to the German voice over there are some words by DB that I simply could not hear. Missing or unsure words are marked by "?".
Hope this helps! o7

[@marquisor]

looool
geiler up!
und totaler n00b die moderatorin.
damals schon netzwerkfähigkeit erkannt, der braben. ein genie!

[@NuntiusLegis]

Damals schon erkannt aber dann lange verschlafen, während Andere geniale, bis heute nicht wieder erreichte MMO-Weltraum-Spiele kreierten - der Zenit war Jumpgate. Elite Dangerous ist in der Hinsicht leider ein gewaltiger Rückschritt, denn soziales Interagieren ist da nur sehr verkrüppelt möglich durch Instanzierung und andere Fehlentscheidungen beim Multiplayer-Design.

[@TheSevenUpMan]

Ja, er ist wirklich Visionär. Spiele nähern sich tatsächlich immer mehr Filmen an - was auch immer man davon manchmal halten mag - und Multiplayer ist aus der Spielewelt nicht mehr wegzudenken.

[@VeraRabbit]

Thanks. Virus for amiga remains my favourite game of all times. I remember how I passed the "David Braben" level, and after that I started getting comments like "How you did it?" for high scores.

[@FrankiePatella]

Commander Braben 🤗

[@krashd]

Germany invented the Universal Translator? Sweet!

[@satanicdude]

Ze verie clever clichee zcientists ja?

[@BlammoGer]

satanicdude1 That was very weak, dude!

[@lazur188]

@@BlammoGer wery week you zay, nicht?

[@DanKonev]

Im from future, 2018 year. That dude continue made Elite. But now Dangerous😆

[@ramireza6904]

And very boring.

[@thripweed]

Ok, so bin ich mit google dafür zu übersetzen. Entschuldigt, wenn es rauskommt in schlechte Grammatik. Für diejenigen unter Ihnen, die nicht wissen Elite 4 ist auf Kickstarter.

[@BlueLemm]

Long before the comfortable jumpers.

[@SuperJoey73]

Seine Vision wurde wahr!

[@NuntiusLegis]

Eben nicht, denn ED ist weit entfernt von einem richtigen MMO.

[@brandis2000]

Der Link zum ELITE:DANGEROUS

[@Alexander-zl3er]

Wow, ganze 23 Kommentare... Aber wirklich interessant, wahrlich kam es so wie vorhergesagt.

[@brandis2000]

Warum kannman keine links einfügen?

[@omma911]

Gott, was ist diese Moderatorin inkompetent gewesen. Genial, wie Manfred Kleimann (ASM) sie damals wegen Archipelagos auflaufen lassen hat.

[@MorganFreeman5]

wo ist Raxxla!!!

[@ToumalRakesh]

"Glauben Sie dass man Computerspiele im Jahr 2000 auch noch spielt"... Hehehehehe....
Und ja, Elite Dangerous ist absolut genial. Das Ticket zur Alpha ist zwar relativ teuer, aber das Spiel ist schon jetzt unglaublich detailliert und "polished". Da hat Star Citizen derzeit kaum etwas griffiges entgegenzuhalten. Tip: Einfach mal auf youtube nach "Port Zelada Docking" suchen und staunen, auch ueber das unglaublich gute Sounddesign.

[@NuntiusLegis]

Für mich hat Braben seine in diesem Interview angedachte Vison eines sozialen Spielerlebnisses mit Elite Dangerous verraten, denn die Zeit wäre längst reif für ein richtiges, persistentes Elite-MMO satt eines instanzierten Spiels mit aufgeflanschten Gruppen.
Auch die Konkurrenz bietet sowas nicht (mehr) an (früher gab es das mal mit mit Jumpgate): SC ist ebenfalls instanziert; EVE und Dual Universe sind zwar nicht instanziert, aber haben ein langweiliges Gemeplay mit öden Skill Trees und Tab Targetting,
ED ist die erste Version von Elite, die ich nicht anfasse. Elite V vielleicht wieder, wenn das dann endlich ein nicht instanziertes MMO sein wird.

[@ToumalRakesh]

Das verstehe ich nur zu gut - irgendwie scheint Frontier Developments im Moment etwas sehr auf der Stelle zu treten. Multicrew beschraenkt sich derzeit komplett aufs Kaempfen, es gibt keine "engineer" rolle oder dergleichen obwohl das erst letztes Jahr noch erwaehnt wurde. Die Missionen werden ganz ganz langsam besser, aber NPCs sind immer noch nicht persistent, es gibt jede Menge Dinge die random spawnen...
Ich habe das gefuehl dass Sandro Sammarco hier sehr stark auf der Bremse steht und teilweise garnicht versteht was Spass macht - fuer ihn ist "more of the same" anscheinend "additional content".

[@NuntiusLegis]

Danke für das Verständnis. :-) Auf NPCs kann ich in einem guten MMO völlig verzichten - oft bewirken sie da mehr Schaden als Nutzen, weil sie von der Interaktion mit den Spielern ablenken. In Jumpgate konnte man die NPCs tolerieren, denn da waren das nur seltsame Weltraummonster; in ED geben sie aber leider vor, menschliche Piloten zu sein, was die Immersion beeinträchtigt, denn hirntote NPCs sind als Menschen in einem Spiel, in dem es tatsächlich menschliche Piloten gibt, nicht plausibel.

[@Flying_Acehole]

Stein schalosch... oh, dass ist ja gar nicht Uri Geller..