Name:    Mike Fenton
E-Mail:  Mike.Fenton@gcsystems.com
Address: 71 Gresley Ct.
         Thunder Bay, ON
         P7A 1S8

BBS:   The Abysmal Trench
BBS Number: (807)683-8210
            (807)683-8395
Fido:           1:229/514

BBS:   Global Connect Systems
BBS Number:  (807)344-5505
             28.8 (807)344-2385
Fido:        1:229/500
             1:229/512
Fax:         (807) 344-5992

        Meet Mike Fenton, Author of Vampires: Children of Darkness and Sysop
of both The Abysmal Trench BBS a nd Global Connect Systems BBS.  The Abysmal
Trench is mainly a Support BBS for Vampires.  Recently Mike was featured in
the Chronical Journal written by Pamela Bron regarding his game.  Mike sent
it along which the following excerpts are from...

        "Mike Fenton plans to pursue a career in computer science after he
finishes high school, but the 18-year-old Hillcrest OAC student is already
ahead of the game.  Fenton has designed and released a computer game called
Vampire's Children of Darkness that's burning up (BBSs) as far away as South
Africa, Japan and Australia."

        "The game is based on Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, a series of        
novels that follow a group of vampires through the centuries.  Like the
characters in Rice's novels, game players are vampires, and have to survive
accordingly. That means consuming human blood as a regular chore, attacking
other players and built-in characers, and ultimately surviving as a vampire."

        "A complete game of Vampire's Children of Darkness can take months.
It's a game of strategy and full of player interaction.  Any number of
players can participate, or a single person can play alone." 

        "Fenton says it's not necessary to have read the Vampire Chronicles
to enjoy the game, but it helps for perspective."  

        "It's from the vampires' point of view," he says, "Vampires are the
good guys. It makes better sense if you've read the books but most of the
people playing the game haven't."
                       
        "Fenton says two things set Vampires:  Children of Darkness apart
from other games posted on BBS systems -- he spent a long time designing a
highly playable game, and he commisioned some highlevel grahpics from a 
Pennsylvania designer."

        "The result is a game that is both "easy to learn and alot different  
from other games out there." 

        "The popularity of Vampires Children of Darkness hasn't brought Fenton
alot of local fame.  "You have to be on a BBS system to know about it," he
says" the BBS Community is not as large as it should be in Thunder Bay, so
it's really more well known internationally than in Thunder Bay."

Mike provided some additional info that he thought may be of interest to
others...


BBS History:

    Abysmal Trench has been running for approximately 4 years, 2 lines very
popular local BBS.  Running TriBBS.

    Global Connect Systems has been running for approximately 8 months, 8
lines, popular commercial style BBS, 10 000 message areas, Live Chat, over 12
gig online, Large adult section, over 50 great games.  Running Wildcat, plans
to switch to Wildcat 5.0 are underway.

Programming History:

    I do all my programming in C/C++,  I use C because I recognize it as the
easiest yet most powerful language to use.  I learned to program simply from a
few books, and alot of experimenting.  When I write a game... I make it for
myself... I want a game I can have fun playing, that was the idea with the game
I've released so far (Vampires:  Children of Darkness) I'm a large fan of
vampires, and in particular Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, so the idea was
there.  With the help of a bunch of friends it all came together.  Once the
first version was out, I was flooded with suggestions and the game evolved.

Future of BBS'ing

    I personally think that BBS's are the best thing out there,  I don't care
for all the fancy graphics and boredom of the World Wide web.  It pains me to
see people moving to the internet from the great BBS's available.  BBS's are so
much easier to use and fun, I sure hope that they are around in some form
forever.  As for BBS games, there is still limits to what can be sent over the
modem at a reasonable speed, without the user having to get files and all that
trouble.  And as long as BBS's are around, I plan to continue to develop games
for it, if the BBS Scene moves on... I will also, to whereever it may lead.



Please Visit Mike's Ads in the Advertisement Section...
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