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Today Fabio Trotta talked to Andrea Morolli from the italian games designer Arcadia Developments. They will soon bring us Bubble Heroes.

1. Ciao Andrea since how many years are you an AMIGA user ?

Since 1992 (If I'm not wrong).

2. Why have you chosen the AMIGA as your platform ?

Becouse I think it is a great platform... it has a great feeling, it permits you to have a good control of the system, it gives you the impression of a well and elegant thinked hw + sw interaction. Of course both in hw and sw it is now obsolete (due to lack of support that stopped a real evolution of the product), however there is not another system that can give me the satisfactions which my Amiga gives.

3. What computer(s) are at your home ?

Amiga 1200, 030+882 50Mhz, 16Mb RAM, 2 SCSI HD (for a total of 4Gb), 1 SCSI CDR and 1 SCSI CDRW. Monitor Commodore 1942.

I also own and use a PC (Intel Celeron 400Mhz) net-connected to the Amiga through Ethernet cards.

4. What are your hobbies beside the AMIGA ?

I love cinema in general (except for musicals, too much commercial films and all the American films that impose American culture as the best, ignoring the rest of the world). I like listening to music a lot (expecially good electronic music). I also like playing videogames.

5. What are your favourite games at the moment ?

The game I'm playing night and day, at the moment, is Baldur's Gate (on PC).

6. How long does Arcadia Developments exists ?

Arcadia exists since 1998.

7. What`s your part at Arcadia ? What are you doing there ?

I'm the main programmer and projects director. I also mantain all the contacts with our publisher (Crystal Interactive Software) and with everyone who request info on our games and projects. Too much things However we are expanding, so this asset should change.

8. How many people are Arcadia Development ?

The main four persons in Arcadia are (at the moment): me, Alan Scarpellini (design and graphics), Igor Imhoff (graphics) and Stefano Rossini (audio). Other foundamental people are: Rossano Clementi and Marco Salvi (additional programming and multiplatform porting), Massimo Lotti (3d graphics) and Elena Amore (illustrations).

9. What are your actual projects and at what state they are ?

Our project is Bubble Heroes, a manga style arcade/puzzle. We have finished it the latest week both for Amiga AGA and Amiga RTG. The game will be published in September by Crystal Interactive Software. Future projects will see Bubble Heroes to be converted on GameBoy Color and GameBoy Advance, and other computer platforms. Then, I hope we will be able to realize a new game... we have some ideas but we haven't decided what to do yet.

10. Are there any interests at Arcadia Developments to port games from other platforms ?

No, as we like to create games and not only program them.

11. What do you think about the actual AMIGA situation ?

At the moment, I find the Amiga situation quite strange. On the Classic Amiga side I can't say it's bright... Amiga Inc. promised support for classic machines (and this is good) but it's difficult to understand in what way they will realize this idea. However, some good things happened in the last year: the most important is the return of P5 hardware produced by DCE... even if the prices are too high, this allows users to have the chance to upgrade their Amigas and substitute broken hardware.
On the other side, now it seems that the plans for the new platform exist, and the release of the SDK is a very good thing... so I can notice a renewed interest expecially coming from people from linux community (and I think this is really important as it is important to gain new users).

12. Any words for the AMIGA piracy scence ?

Dont' know what to say... it seems to be impossible to avoid piracy (in every existing system). I'm quite resigned there will be persons who will play illegal copies of Bubble Heroes. I can only consider that Amiga is in a very troubled situation, and cannot bear piracy.
Piracy is surely one of the big reasons becouse developers are leaving the Amiga...

13. Any kind words for our community ?

Well, enjoy your life, enjoy your Amiga and, most of all, buy Bubble Heroes!! ;D


Thanks for your time and i wish you and me that Bubble Heroes will be ready soon I think it`s a really great game and looking forward to the release.

Visit Arcadia Developments at http://www.made.net/arcadia.