David Heath on Aquiring the Rights to Publish Talonsoft Games

Once a powerhouse of PC wargaming, Talonsoft Games crafted some of the best computer wargames back in its heyday. But Talonsoft moved on to other things some years ago and these classic wargames have been largely without official support, though the community continues to avidly support them. Fortunately, all that is about to change! We recently had an opportunity to speak with David Heath, president of Matrix Games, about the company's acquisition of the rights to publish the classic wargames from Talonsoft.

Xtreme-Gamer: David, thanks for joining us today. We understand that Matrix Games has recently acquired the rights to continue Talonsoft's old line of wargames, which will certainly make a lot of gamers very happy. Can you tell us a little bit about which titles are included in this?

David: First I would like to thank Chris Mate of Talonsoft, John Davidson formally of Talonsoft and many of the community members that worked with us to finalize this deal. To answer your question YES, Matrix Games has now acquired the rights to most of Talonsoft's original titles. We plan on selling them as bundle packs with some long waited improvements. Some of these improvements and enhancements will be at the source code level. Here is the list of Talonsoft titles we've acquired:

* Gary Grigsby's Battle of Britain
* Gary Grigsby's 12 O'Clock High: Bombing the Reich
* Age of Sail
* Battleground 1 - Bulge-Ardennes
* Battleground 2 - Gettysburg
* Battleground 3 - Waterloo
* Battleground 4 - Shiloh
* Battleground 5 - Antietam
* Battleground 6 - Napoleon in Russia
* Battleground 7 - Bull Run
* Battleground 8 - Prelude to Waterloo
* Battleground 9 - Chickamauga
* Campaigns Series: East Front
* Campaigns Series: East Front II
* Campaigns Series: East Front II: Fall of the Reich
* Campaigns Series: West Front
* Campaigns Series: West Front: Battle Pack
* Campaigns Series: West Front: Sea Lion
* Campaigns Series: Rising Sun
* Campaigns Series: Rising Sun: Imperial Strike
* Campaigns Series: Divided Ground: Middle East Conflict
* Operational Art of War Vol. 1
* Operational Art of War II: Modern Battles 1956 - 2000
* Operational Art of War: Century of Warfare
* Operational Art of War Vol. 2: Flashpoint Kosovo
* Operational Art of War: Clash of Eagles

Xtreme-Gamer: We understand that there was a cost associated with picking up the rights to these games, and we know they have remained untouched by the original developers for the past several years. Undoubtedly they will require additional programming to bring them up to 2005 standards. This will require money and time. Can you give us a broad example of the pricing structure you envision for these updated titles?

David: So far, we only set prices on a few products and these are not set in stone.

* The Operational Art of War Matrix Edition $39.99
* The Complete Campaigns Series Matrix Edition $39.99

These are the same pricing level Talonsoft were selling them. These games will be available through our Digital Download service and CD On Demand and will use our serial number security system.

Xtreme-Gamer: Are the original developers, such as Gary Grigsby, Norm Koger and John Tiller, going to be involved in this project? If so, were they excited to see these old titles come back into the limelight?

David: I do not know if they were surprised but they did seem very happy that the games development would be moving forward again. We are still working out some final details with all three developers and some new ones as well. We hope to have some more news on these developments very soon.

Xtreme-Gamer: Will any of these games be released with an expanded list of included scenarios? Is there a chance some of the more popular user-created scenarios will make it into this release?

David: We do not plan to remove any scenarios which shipped originally with the games, although we may look at getting updated versions of some of them. I have already talked with both Daniel McBride and Brian King on adding and/or making changes to scenarios found in the TOAW series. We have talked to Wild Bill Wilder, requesting him to design some new scenarios for both TOAW and the Campaign Series. We are also currently talking with members of the community to make sure we get them involved in what we are doing. I would like to make an open call, if you are a long time fan/scenario designer of any of these games and think you have something to offer please contact us over at Matrix Games.

Xtreme-Gamer: Do you have plans to sell add-on scenario packs, commission new scenarios, or create any special derivative products that you can tell us about?

David: We do have some ideas about this, although nothing is set in stone. We are hoping we can make some special battle packs with Wild Bill Wilder and others. We are currently talking with Daniel McBride about possibly working with his World War I or Fire in the East TOAW scenarios and turning them into standalone battlepacks. We also have our eyes on other scenarios popular throughout the community. The plan is to make a special EXE that would allow us to include the special or unique rules and features needed to make those kinds of a monster scenarios work within TOAW.

Xtreme-Gamer: Some gamers may question whether they want to buy the same games again. What would you say to them?

David: These are not really going to be the same games. The changes will start off small but will grow in size with time. We feel the fans of these games will be willing to purchase these games to allow Matrix and the original developers to work on the enhanced/updated versions of these titles. The revenue from the sales of these games will be used to pay the original developers for their support and for work on new features. If you know and like what we did with Steel Panthers World At War then you already know what we are hoping to do.

Xtreme-Gamer: How will these titles be available? Will they be available on CD-ROM at local retail stores, or will these only be available via electronic download from Matrix Games?

David: We are currently working to have the games released via Matrix Games Digital Download service as well as our Game On Demand service. We are still working out the details for the other options. You should be able to find these games anywhere you can find our games currently. We do not have any plans to bring it to retail. We are still working out the details so this could change as well.

Xtreme-Gamer: Have you established any estimated release dates for these titles yet?

David: Since we need to set up some beta teams, get some input from the community, and see what we are doing with the developers, it's going to be hard to give a firm date. We plan to get the first release out as quick as possible. We may start out with some small changes and then make more substantial updates as we move forward. We plan on starting with some small changes and then make more substantial updates as we move forward.

Xtreme-Gamer: The Campaign Series consisted of a number of titles based on the same basic game engine, yet set in different theaters of war. Are there plans to combine these into a single mega-title?

David: Yes that is one of that things we are planning on doing. Making it one install and, if possible, one game menu.

Xtreme-Gamer: Map, scenario, and OOB editors were always the strong point of the games released by Talonsoft. Can we safely assume that this will continue with this re-release and all the editors will be made available to gamers?

David: Yes all map, scenario and OOB editors will be included in our release version. We will not be removing anything that came with the games when they were originally released from Talonsoft.

Xtreme-Gamer: There is no question these are older titles, but many would argue they still have a lot of life left in them. Obviously Matrix Games believes this to be true as well. Do you have any concern that improving some of the original flaws of these titles by using 2005 programming standards, 2005 graphics, and 2005 marketing will put them in direct competition with other titles in the Matrix lineup?

David: Not at all! Many companies have done this including Avalon Hill, SPI and others. Matrix has no problems releasing games on the same subject. The subjects are not the issue really. Instead, it is how each designer presents his game and the system they design.

Xtreme-Gamer: Are there going to be any discounts or upgrade paths for people who own previous versions of these titles?

David: No. There is no way for us to truly know who purchased what or when. These new versions are for the fans of these series.

Xtreme-Gamer: Several of these titles have small but dedicated groups of players and designers still out there making scenarios, playing head to head, and enjoying the product they purchased four or five years ago. Will these community members be allowed to continue developing and playing the older versions independent of the new version (creating free content for instance).

David: Gamers can do what they want. What Matrix is doing here is creating a chance for these classics to be updated and, God willing, improved upon, with new features added. Those in the community that want to support this effort can do so, and those who do not can continue to play the older versions. Matrix has already opened support forums for these titles on our web site. This project was started because of our love for these games and we truly believe the fans will support these titles and their fellow gamers.

Xtreme-Gamer: Will the new versions have backwards compatibility with scenarios created for the old versions? For instance, will the updated version of The Operational Art of War be able to load free scenarios created for the previous version? Assuming this is true to start, will there be a point in the updating process that scenarios will become incompatible with each other?

David: I cannot see why not, but I do know that some scenarios will need updating. We are not going to put anything in the game that would stop them from working. Let me say that as we add features this may change, but we are not going to intentionally try to do that.

Xtreme-Gamer: Can you give us some insight on the plans you have for these games over the course of time? Do you plan on doing minor cosmetic changes or do you envision taking the time to address major engine flaws, updating graphics, or other fundamental redesigns? Are any of the titles going to remain unchanged? Are they all going to be compatible with Windows XP?

David: We are going to going to get rid of the original copy protection since it was a cause of some gamers not being able to run the games. We will be adding our serial number security system so we can make the game available for digital downloading. We are going to be looking at everything and talking about it in our forums. I do not want to change the design of the developers but we will look at expanding or adding features. One example would be expanding the TOAW event manager from 500 to 999 or greater. Until we are ready to dive in and start working we cannot really be sure what we can or cannot do with this code.

This will not be just a re-release of the old games. We will be working with the original designers and bringing in new features to the games in most cases. Some titles will have more done to them than others. As far as who, what or why, it is still pretty early to say for sure. We plan to update all the games so they work with Windows XP, Direct X 9.0 when possible.

Xtreme-Gamer: If there were ever a problem getting the help of past developers/designers of these games (they are all busy doing a variety of other projects after all) can you tell us how you plan to continue development of these titles without them? Do you have programmers on staff that can work with the source code?

David: We do have the source code to most of the titles and are talking with some community people about handling some coding duties, graphics, sound and music. Grisgby, Koger and Tiller were all eager to help and stepped up to the plate.

Xtreme-Gamer: It is probably safe to say that you are a fan of at least some of these titles or you wouldn't have gone through so much time, cost, and effort to acquire the rights to them. Can you tell us which of these classics will be the first one you install on your personal PC?

David: Hahaha. I already have a few of them on my PC. These are great games and I plan on playing all of them.

Xtreme-Gamer: Any final thoughts?

David: Well a lot of gamers I talked to said this would never happen, and I am glad to say they were wrong. But the true success of this deal has been the ability of a gaming company following its dreams, developers supporting that effort and most importantly a gaming community supporting us and the games they love. God bless and thank you all for your support.