Past Masters, Vol. III: Mike Varley
Michael Varley is the creator and absentee webmaster of Strider-Otaku, over on ClassicGaming.com. He'd been AWOL from the Internet since 2001. I finally tracked Michael Varley down at the end of 2008, and when I found him, he was more than happy to sit down and talk about the old times. The following is an interview from New Year's Day of 2009, wherein the two of us sat and geeked out for about three hours:
LSCM: Hey Mike. What's up?
Mike Varley: Aloha! (Ha, sorry, had to do that.) Going good here, yourself?
LSCM: Pretty darn good, actually.
MV: I was surprised by your original email. Pretty cool you are still holding the torch for the game. It's funny, I recall a lot of the older stuff I had on the site before the last change, but do not remember when I changed over my old personal website to the Strider one. (This would be pre-ClassicGaming.)
LSCM: So you don't remember the upgrade that you put on ClassicGaming? You remember the old site from Ticnet and such?
MV: I remember Ticnet yeah, and I do recall the switch to ClassicGaming. I think before Ticnet I had a small Strider section on my old personal website while in Hawaii, before moving to Dallas for school. I wish I had the site files somewhere, but some things just seem to get lost in time when it comes to digital information.
LSCM: (I think you referred to that on your site somewhere.) I don't remember that personal site of yours, but I do remember the "Official, Unofficial Strider Homepage". Can't you get into the CG.com FTP and download them?
MV: I can grab the stuff from CG, but I was talking about the OLD site. Just be fun to see how bad it was set up and outdated it would look.
I think I just might have found something I thought ClassicGaming took down on my site. (laughs)LSCM: What's that?
MV: Old junk.
LSCM: (laughing) I started there when trying to track you down. It took a while to find you.
MV: Still impresses me.
LSCM: Thanks. I just plugged your name into Google one day, after having tried it at least a dozen times before, and... there popped up the Blue Water Multimedia page.
MV: Yeah, the last name is not too common. At least you didn't get the sign thief from Canada with the same name as me
LSCM: The... who with the what now?
MV: Some guy in Canada. A few years back I got an email meant for him. He and a buddy go around snagging signs from streets, businesses and whatnot and collect them. His claim to fame was the big "P" from a Pizza Hut.
LSCM: That's hilarious!
MV: You gotta love the Internet and all it reveals.
LSCM: One thing that sticks out in my mind concerning your site, though... When you were still over at Ticnet, you leaked the first footage of Strider 2, from one of the conventions.
MV: (laughs)
LSCM: Trying to download that video was... a pain. Ticnet kept locking your site down, due to bandwidth overruns.
MV: Yeah, they sent me a letter telling me they were going to have to take it down or charge me, part of what led to the move to CG. I was surprised the amount of traffic it got, and I have no idea where I found that footage.
LSCM: What's your first Strider-related memory?
MV: Let's see, first Strider memory... was the arcade version. Place, March Airforce Base in southern California, the arcade next to the base exchange. I pumped so much money into that damn thing.
LSCM: Did you beat it?
MV: Eventually. They were built to eat your money.
LSCM: It's amazing how much harder they seemed in the arcades, right?
MV: That it did. (laughs) I am sure I spent enough on that machine to buy a console version. Found the NES version at a local rental place after falling in love with the arcade version and was disapointed to say the least.
LSCM: Ah, the NES version. What could've been so much more...
MV: Hell, Strider is the reason I got a Genesis. Guy had it in middle school, and was showing it off one day for show and tell... was like the last week of 7th grade. I think later that summer they slashed the Genesis to $99. Or $150. I forget.
LSCM: You mentioned earlier that you played the arcade game on an Air Force base? Did you move to Hawaii because one of your parents got stationed there?
MV: My dad was in the Air Force, he retired in California and got a airline job with Japan Airlines, which was located in Hawaii (their main US branch). Not a bad move for a 16 year old.
LSCM: Not at all. Talk about upgrading your life.
MV: Was a bummer to leave the friends and only have 2 years in a high school, but at this point, I had moved around enough that it was not too bad on me.
LSCM: Where had you lived, prior to California? (If you don't mind my asking.)
MV: Let me start at the beginning. Born in Nebraska, yeeehaaaw! Moved to Louisiana when I was 3. Moved to Germany at age 8. California at age 11. And Hawaii at 16.
LSCM: Then Texas for school, then back to Hawaii.
MV: Yep. My mom has family there, so it was easy for me.
LSCM: What led to the creation of your fansite?
MV: This would have been around 1996/97 that I started up the side site on my webpage. It was most likely due to the fact, I had just discovered console emulators and had pulled me back to my childhood. The emulators were crude, but I know the NES ones were working. Genesis, though, I think came later on.
LSCM: So you created your site because you were on a nostalgia trip?
MV: Seems to be the most logical answer. I think. Memory is the darndest thing. I can remember riding a train at age 3, but not something from 12 years ago.
LSCM: I wondered if you'd remember any of this stuff was going to ask you. I was sitting there going, "You know. Only I would really care about this. Why would anyone else remember it?"
MV: (laughs) I remember a lot of odd things, my friends are amazed at my trivial knowledge of crap that no one cares about.
LSCM: What was the Strider Internet scene like, in those days? Was there a lot of communication between webmasters, or was it each man for himself?
MV: I am not sure if I was the first fansite up or not. Finding other people or things on the net back then was a little tricky. There was some communication once we found one another on the Net. There was only one bad memory I can think of in all of it. Someone accused me of taking their MIDI or MP3 music off their site and claiming it as my own. Which was odd, because the MP3 music I had, I ripped myself and tagged it as such. Anything I did not rip from an emulator I got from one of the others in the community with a simple, "Can I use this stuff?" I don't recall who was so upset at me, but I remember one of the other site admins stepped in to try to ease the crazy.
LSCM: I can relate to that. I got myself in trouble with some Japanese Strider sites, when I first started...
MV: I think, out of spite, I took down all my music for awhile and re-ripped and encoded it, with my name or something like that in the ID tag.
LSCM: You said one of the other site admins stepped in? Where was this? Neurogamer? ClassicGaming?
MV: This was, I believe, right before I went to ClassicGaming. Neurogamer, not heard that in awhile.
LSCM: I think that's how I found your site, actually. I liked TJ Rappell's Metroid Database. You and he and a bunch of the CG.com people were over at Neurogamer. Then it went down. Then you all moved to ClassicGaming. Or at least that's how it seemed.
MV: Yeah. I am not sure what happened, but we all jumped to ClassicGaming. I think a few of us were actually invited over. Classicgaming was a good move.
LSCM: No doubt.
MV: The Metroid DB and the Castlevania [Dungeon] were both inspirations to me. They put together a hell of a site.
LSCM: You're not kidding. They were THE sites to go to for their respective games. Still are, as I understand it.
MV: Yeah, they keep things up and running last I looked. Unlike me. (laughs)
LSCM: Feh. They have living franchises to work with.
MV: This is true. Can only do so much when our character gets a role in a fighting game with 50 other characters.
LSCM: Did you have anything you were planning to do with your site that you left unfinished?
MV: I had wanted to do another overhaul of it, just never got around to doing it. I had a template up of a Flash version I was tinkering with. Just never got off the ground.
LSCM: The hardest thing to do is motivate yourself to update your site when you've got nothing new to report on.
MV: Strider 2 got the ball rolling again for me, for a bit.
LSCM: It did for pretty much everybody but the guy who ran Blue Dragon and Agrios. I think Bueno got the most out of it, though, over at Strider Island Moralos.
MV: Yeah, he did a bang up job.
LSCM: What was the deal with that whole "Strider Army" thing? Did you start that?
MV: I did not. Not sure who did. I got an invite. It was built up as something everyone could help with and all that, but never really went anywhere. I think at the time, my site alone was more than enough for me to work on. I never saw it as something I wanted to spend time on.
LSCM: Other than your website, did you ever make anything else (artwork, fangame, tweaking a create-a-character mode to put Hiryu somewhere he didn't belong...)?
MV: Other than the old crude 3D stuff I did, I can't think of anything. I did start making a sword the other day, after I got your email. Trouble with it is, there is only so much reference to go by. There is almost no consistency though. It's crazy.
LSCM: My wife and I found that out when trying to make a Hiryu costume for a contest, a few years back.
MV: I have two references I am using from Deviant Art and a figure I have.
LSCM: (laughing) You have the MvsC figure!
MV: Yep, I have the MvsC figure. Still in the package :)
LSCM: You kept it in the package? Didn't you see Toy Story 2, you cold-hearted bastard?
MV: (laughing) True, I should let 'em out. They might come for me in the night.
LSCM: Actually, I'm jealous because I didn't THINK to keep mine in the package.
MV: I have a poster from the arcade machine somewhere too, got it on eBay years back.
LSCM: Which, the US version?
MV: I think so. I would love to get a PVC or polystone figure one day.
LSCM: There've been some great attempts.
MV: Yeah, someday... It's funny, one other game I have a fascination with, the Soul Reaver games... maybe it's a sword fetish... (laughs)
LSCM: I love Soul Reaver.
MV: I have 2 figures from it: Kain and Raziel.
LSCM: What else are you into?
MV: On the drink side, a good microbrew Beer, rum, ouzo. Hobby is a hobby. (laughs)
LSCM: (laughs) You and Bueno see eye-to-eye on that, I think.
MV: I like Jhonen Vasquez's work, Squee, JTHM, Zim. Have read all of Christopher Moore's books, up to Fool. The Dune series. Love the first three books.
LSCM: I like it up to God Emperor. I think that's the natural series end.
MV: Yeah, I tried to read after God Emperor... could not get halfway through book five.
LSCM: I also think Kevin J. Anderson and Herbert's son need to stop tinkering with Frank's notes, though.
MV: Yes. I love Kevin's Star Wars books, but leave Dune alone.
LSCM: What attracted you to 3D design?
MV: 3D stuff probably got my attention when someone, on a trip back from Thailand, came back with some CD's full of programs... (laughs) I had no idea about anything art wise on a computer. I liked to draw and sketch. (This would have been 1995/96, last year of high school.) Photoshop, Bryce, Poser and Lightwave 3D (Lightwave caught my eye because that's what they used on Babylon 5, fun show) are what caught my eye. After high school, I was hooked, I wanted to be like the guys who made Toy Story and the like. Went to the the University of Hawaii for 2 years and left because they had nothing that could help me get to where I wanted to go. The Art Institute system caught my eye because of the 3D animation program with a base for traditional art. Went to Dallas over Denver or San Fran due to cost and I had family north of Dallas.
LSCM: That'll bankrupt ya.
MV: It used ALL my school fund, plus more. I am just glad I had two years at a state school before. Otherwise I would have never been able to do it. Took me a few years to get it all paid back. Graduated April 2000, came back here and...
LSCM: Luckily Konami came along, huh?
MV: That and after that a sweet job at a place called Adtech. Did go back to school after 9/11, Adtech slashed 10% workforce and no one was hiring. Met up with Ben Leong there and we went to work for a post-production house here in town. Worked on Lost season 2 for a bit, till our boss screwed up that gig and skipped town. He still owes us about a month's worth of pay.
LSCM: Oh MAN, what? You worked on Lost?
MV: Yeah, most of season 2. We were resposible for making sure all the shots with 3D or other effects were filmed correctly. Took camera data and lighting data and handed it to the guys in California.
LSCM: Nice!
MV: We also did the little green number thing in the bunker. The code! (laughs) It was fun.
LSCM: I bet. That sounds like it was a cool experience.
MV: Long days though sometimes.
LSCM: What was Konami like?
MV: Konami was fun. Going to the interview, I felt like Charlie in the chocolate factory.
LSCM: I bet.
MV: After being hired, and working there awhile, it was still fun, but you could see that it was a company in the market for profit. The game people and the management were two TOTALLY different groups of people. But lucky for me, I never had to deal with the higher-ups as a grunt.
LSCM: What exactly were you working on, at Konami? MLS Soccer, I think you said on your site?
MV: Worked on textures for a PS2 soccer game, MLS Extratime (had to go over and look at the box), then was moved to the sound department due to a cancelled Dreamcast game. Too many artists, not enough games to work on. I am just glad I had the sound experience, otherwise I woulda been out the door with the other new hires. I think out of 10 of the new hires, 3 of us stayed. Good times.
LSCM: Jeez.
MV: That's what happens though when a company sets up shop in a penthouse in Waikiki. Rent is a killer. Rumor had it, the only reason the company set up shop in Hawaii was so they could also buy a multi-million-dollar house in the Kahala area of town (richy-rich) for the higher-ups to vacation at... but not sure how true this was.
LSCM: And now you're working with Blue Water Multimedia, right? Which was... a venture with a friend, from the way the website reads?
MV: Yes, Ben and I got it up and running about two years back. We had a third guy, but he dug out to do his own thing. Now we have a new 3rd guy, Quest. I need to update the website, we just moved two doors down in the building, snagged the corner office.
LSCM: Sweet! Right on. What exactly does Blue Water Multimedia specialize in?
MV: We are usually sub-contracted out to by a director or creative team for a commercial to add in some 3D effects or motion graphics. We work locally, with large, medium, and small businesses. We try to fit into everyone's budget.
LSCM: So do you only work locally, or is that just your primary focus?
MV: Primary focus. All of the spots we have worked on are for Hawaii only, with the exception of a Taco Bell spot that was also shown in Guam. We would love to do stuff for other markets, but have yet to make those connections. Have worked with Califonia-based ad agencies, but for local banks or airlines.
LSCM: I did watch that Taco Bell spot on the website. Nice work.
MV: Thanks. We have a few other spots that have yet to be uploaded to the site, one is another Taco Bell spot.
LSCM: Cool, cool. Well, I don't know if you heard about this, but recently, Keiji Inafune did an interview with 1up.com where he said Strider was "one of the franchises that I have an interest in reviving, so I think there's a real possibility that we will make another Strider game". Then Seth Killian over on Capcom-Unity asked... "Could a Strider in 3D recapture that same magic? Would it have to invent new magic? [...] a lot of the best mechanics of the fights were very 2d-centric. I can already think of cool ways you could recreate that in 3d, but what do you think as Strider fans?" So what do you think? if they did a new Strider game, which would be the better way to go?
MV: Adapting 2D games into 3D has always been hit or miss with most games, with most of them missing and falling to their doom. The Bionic Commando remake of the old NES game that came out last year though, that was fun. Well, as fun as Bionic Commando can be... the controls never made much sense to me. But, if there was a way to bring Strider into the 3D world while keeping it fun, I would be all for it. Not sure how they could do it though, first person like the new Metroid games would not work. Over-the-shoulder like Tomb Raider... nah.
LSCM: Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the FPS genre. Mirror's Edge is awesome, though.
MV: Or do you keep it a 2D game with updated 3D graphics...
LSCM: I think (and I've suggested this over on Capcom-Unity), that if they blended Prince of Persia with the PS2 Shinobi... you'd have a pretty decent Strider.
MV: That I could see! Sands of Time, and the others, were wonderful to play. Just got the new one for Christmas. Have yet to try it though. God of War mechanics could work too, to some degree.
LSCM: What's the thing that makes a game feel like Strider, to you? Everyone defines that differently. Some people didn't see it in Strider 2, for whatever reason.
MV: No enclosed spaces if I had to pick one thing off the top of my head. The visual style of the first one was unique as well, I think. I am sure it had more to do with technical limitations at the time, but it had a feel to it. The second one seems too grounded in reality, or at least the reality of the world of anime.
LSCM: So the first one seemed more unrestrained, to you?
MV: Yes, more fantastical. I think jumping from a Russian style city, to a Mountain top, to a Flying Fortress then to the Amazon.... that is a large amount of diversity.
LSCM: You've got a point, there.
MV: The second game made me think of the old NES game a lot of the times.
LSCM: Really?
MV: Not sure why.
LSCM: I... didn't get that feeling at all. I felt like they were just remaking the first one instead of making a sequel.
MV: If I had to put the games on a spectrum, The second game was closer to the NES than the Arcade to me. It could have also been the clunkyness of the control. I could see that too though, a remake.... did you ever play the old Contra game on the SNES? Maybe that kind of remake feel.
LSCM: Contra III? Yeah, I loved that game.
MV: Yeah, a fun as hell game, but to me just had a weird feeling of, I have done this all before... just with more color. (laughs)
LSCM: (laughs) Yeah. I can see that. But you didn't care for Strider 2's controls, though?
MV: I guess it is hard to pinpoint where it missed the mark. It was a fun game, but did not feel like a Strider game. Almost like they took another game and just changed the characters. Like Mario 2... fun game, but was not a Mario game in the true sense of the game. After playing Strider 2, I thought maybe it was nostalgia clouding my brain, and the first one wasn't as good as I remembered. So I went back and played it. It was still fun.
LSCM: I have to say, it's really cool of you to be doing this. Thanks for chatting.
MV: Anytime man, take it easy.