Larry Dunlap
larry@intelgames.com

I have been an addicted gamer for as long as I can remember, designing and "improving" games as early as high school with my buddy, John Clair. While growing up in Indiana I also came to love science fiction (thanks again, John), lost for days at a time in far reaches of the imaginary universes of classic authors such as Asimov, Heinlein, Sohl, Vance, and Bester. Today authors such as Cherryh, Card, Benford, Bear, Brin  and many others continue to fascinate and transport me. These two influences are certain to stay with me for life. The greatest influence on the IWars game story was The Foundation Trilogy, an Asimov classic that never goes out of style for me.

In 1982, shortly after buying my first computer, an old Apple II+, I became so fascinated with the computer games I discovered for my new computer that I founded the first digital television network dedicated to delivering computer and educational games over cable TV. What I wanted to do was to create a service that would allow people to play all these cool games with out paying $3,000 for a computer. Before we were finished, we had more than 6 million prospective subscribers. The Games Network went public in 1984 with virtually every, popular computer game and educational title of the time, licensed for broadcast distribution with franchises in Canada and England. The company eventually foundered in it's inability to finance the huge cost of manufacturing the set-top cable converter/computer necessary to access the service. But we ran a prototype system for six months in Fullerton California and folks of all ages loved it. Some people said we were ahead of our time. Maybe, but I think we just needed a little more money. TGN has been profiled in many of the cable trade magazines of the time as well as the cover story of Entrepreneur Magazine, October 1984.

This project began to take shape in the early days of The Games Network when we talked about interactive television programs. Interactive television became a major influence to the design of this game. Other influences are MegaWars III, Kesmai's Compuserve game where I spent incredible sums monthly trying to learn how to fly my starship, the classic Diplomacy and Rick Loomis' PBM classic Star Web, a model for a new kind of role-playing. The original Star Wars, episode 4, fueled my imagination as well as everyone else with a cool Sci-Fi project. But though it may not be obvious, the major influence to me is from those wonderful science fiction authors who lifted me off this earth and into a Galactic Empire of a far distant dimension. The first and greatest of these, Isaac Asimov with the Foundation Trilogy.  Thanks to Karl Peterson and Randy McBride, who helped me proto-type Imperial Wars in Provo, Utah.

Now we are introducing it into the World's most phenomenonal playground - the Internet. I don't think you will find that there is any other game quite like Imperial Wars anywhere on the Web.

I continue to work with some dedicated friends and associates to develop and expand this far reaching interstellar space adventure. The Intelligent Life team is made up of Bruce Dean, incomparable artist  who gives life to the Imperial Wars characters and brings his magic to the Imperial Wars universe. Mike Kienenberger, our amazingly talented black-belt, network programmer, Michael Fawcett, who tackeled the client programming for us and Ken Cassady and some anonymous programmers who continue to donate time and effort in helping us achieve our launch. Thanks to Arthur Schimmel, doing the business so the rest of us can live in our imaginations, Nicholas Palmer whose Imperial Wars theme has given voice to the emotions of the game, kudos also to Margot Winchester, who takes time for her real job producing movies to give us critical and crucial advice and of course, Laurie who has been my light and my staff. We also would not be able to bring this game to you without our friends and strategic partners at OpenBase, who provide a world class database product and WebCountry, who hosts our servers.

"Imperial Wars is dedicated to all the Science Fiction authors, publishers, artists,  and producers who have filled my waking and dreaming hours with wonderful worlds packed with excitement and adventure ever since I have been a small being on the planet Earth."

I hope you will enjoy the fruits of our efforts. That is where the real test will come. But look out! That Raider you see, or maybe that Philosopher coming through a Stargate near you, might be me because most of all - this is the game I've always wanted to play.

Woodland Hills, California, April 2004