It is with great pleasure that I bring you this interview with
Josef Drexler, maker of the famous Drexler patch. I consider it
an honor to have this opportunity to talk to him and share with
you his thoughts on RCT 2. Josef, like many RCT celebrities,
didn't give me a whole lot of Bio on his personal life and there
are valid and prudent reasons for this that I'm sure we all can
understand and appreciate. But during the brief communications we
have had in making this E-View I did get to know Josef enough to
perceive a couple of personal things about him. He has a great
sense of humor and a very intelligent mind!
If you think Mr. Drexler rocks for giving us the RCT Patch?
You should see the TTD patch he has been working on for Transport
Tycoon Deluxe. We'll hear a little bit more about that from him
in a bit. One thing he said about the RCT Drexler patch that
really floored me was "I have had 260,000 visitors to my own
sites".... That was not said in a vain way at all, he was
explaining matter-of-factly that this is what he has seen with
his own eyes on his own sites. The actual number of downloads of
the Drexler patch from all the various sites across the Internet
must be well over a million by now!
If only he received a dollar from each one of us for the
patch, he would be a millionaire. Yet like so many of the trainer
and utility makers for RCT, we get this stuff free and benefit
tremendously from their endeavors. Although you may be shocked
when you read how long it took Josef to make the RCT patch. But
ya can't get shocked if I don't get you to it... And I can't get
ya to it unless I quit yakking, so without any further ado let's
give a warm RCT Community welcome to Mr.Josef Drexler and get
this E-View coaster on the lift hill!
| Boomer |
Welcome Josef! Thank you for your time. There's
people about ready to bust their buttons waiting for the
answer to this first question. So the first question I
have to ask you, by order of your fans is, if we need a
patch for RCT 2, will you make it? |
| Josef |
"I can't promise. I think I'd want to do it if I
have to (and if no one else is going to make one), but I
don't know if I'll have the time. Besides, I don't even
know whether I'm going to buy RCT 2. And without it I
obviously can't make a patch for it". |
| Boomer |
Well, sounds like there's a little hope here anyway
but I sure know what you mean about the time thing. Of
course not much is known about what may or may not be in
RCT 2, but in terms of new technology, do you think the
anti-cheat codes will be harder to break this time
around? |
| Josef |
"My guess is actually the opposite. Remember
that it'll be published by Infogrames, not Hasbro, and so
far Infogrames have shown to listen more closely to what
their customers want. RCT 2 will have a scenario editor,
for example, and apparently a sand box mode. If it has
those, most people wouldn't even need a trainer, if they
just want to play without the financial constraints. But
that could be wishful thinking... we'll see". |
| Boomer |
Interesting observation about Hasbro verses
Infogrames. I know you said your time is limited and I
know you have a lot going on right now but I was
wondering if you still get a chance now and then to play
RCT? |
| Josef |
"No, I haven't actually played it for about half
a year now. I was busy finishing the Loopy Landscapes
scenarios, but eventually I did get bored with them, I'm
afraid". |
| Boomer |
Yeah, I was getting a little bored too, but RCT2 has
got my curiosity back up again. I heard you were working
on a project for Transport Tycoon, a patch or something,
how is that coming along, or is it completed? |
| Josef |
"Yes, TTDPatch is actually what I spend most of
my gaming (and programming) time with. It's less of a
"patch" and more of a big update for Transport
Tycoon Deluxe, in that it not only fixes some bugs, but
adds a lot to the gameplay, as well as some convenience
features (like automatic railway track conversion, which
was a real chore before), and of course cheats! I don't
know if it'll ever be anything close to done, I'm still
adding new features all the time. The list of things I
want to add is three pages long in small print. I guess
if we ever see a sequel for Transport Tycoon I might move
on, but that's not in the foreseeable future". |
| Boomer |
RCT and TTD are both excellent games by Chris Sawyer,
both made even better by your own patches and I think now
would be the time to say thank you from all of us who use
them, so thank you! That being said; You may have seen
the new screenshots of RCT2, released not long ago at
Expo3. Also there's some limited information out on it.
But other then what we already know about RCT2 what would
YOU like to see in it? |
| Josef |
"More of everything, nothing in particular
really. The possibility to have more peeps in the park,
because 6000 sprites is a bit small, I like to build HUGE
parks. And in the same vein, more cars for the single-car
rides like the log chute, go-karts and the chair lift. Of
course I would also like to see it not have anti-cheat
code, just to save me some work :). Oh, and better
support for multi-station tracks, for example the
possibility for the passengers to skip the lift hill for
the water rides (and others), by loading them at the top
of the hill, and unloading them at the bottom, so that
the boring part happens when no-one is in the vehicles.
But I think actually one of the screen-shots showed
something like that, it's just not clear if that's really
what I think it is". |
| Boomer |
Yes, I think I saw that on there also. Looks like a 4d
coaster will be in RCT 2 too. We finally have the answer
to William Shakespeare's question; 3-D or not 3-D, that
is the question and "NOT" 3-D comes back Mr.Sawyer's
reply! But I keep saying 4D coasters or forty coasters,
THAT is the question! Are you hoping for more new rides
this time around or are there other areas that you would
like to see improved? |
| Josef |
"I think there are already a lot of coasters,
and many of them are very similar. It might be better to
add a bigger variety of track elements to the existing
coasters (such as horizontal loops, steeper helices or in
general more sloped curves), than add yet another
variation of and existing coaster. Oh, and there can
never be enough flat rides. I'd definitely want to have a
bigger variety of flat rides. Not only are they a big
guest attractor to the park while having a small
footprint, they also make the parks look more varied". |
| Boomer |
Indeed, flat rides can add contrast to coasters.
Another thing that I was personally really hoping for in
RCT 2 was the option of nighttime with lights. It doesn't
look like nighttime mode is going to be there. Of course
we can still hope, but things aren't looking to good at
this point for that feature. Can this be "re-created"
or simulated somehow in a patch or a trainer or utility
of some sort? |
| Josef |
"Hmm, that's hard to say. Depending on how RCT2
works, it might be possible to just change the colour
scheme to night-ish colours, and perhaps turn on the
lamps. It doesn't sound to be very easy in any case.
We'll see what the trainer writers will be up to". |
| Boomer |
It looks like sandbox is going to be there. Will that
make your job of making a patch obsolete or will we still
need one? |
| Josef |
"Who knows? I'm certainly hoping that it'll make
my patch obsolete, but there's no way of knowing for sure
until the game is out and someone starts writing a
trainer". |
| Boomer |
Once RCT 2 is released, IF you buy it, how long will
you wait to get it and look it over? |
| Josef |
"I don't tend to buy games right away when they
come out, mostly because they're kind of expensive.
That's why I didn't even hear of RCT until it was over
half a year old and already famous, therefore it might
take a few months till I buy it and form an opinion". |
| Boomer |
(laughing) Speaking of discovery of RCT for the first
time, I know your brother plays RCT and in fact is
responsible for YOUR RCT discovery, will this be your
turn now to show him RCT 2 and return the favor? |
| Josef |
"Probably not, more likely the other way 'round
again. He always has the good games before me". |
| Boomer |
So many grateful RCT fans throughout this crazy RCT
universe both now and in the past, have downloaded and
used the Drexler Patch. It is as common of a name as RCT
itself. Are you aware of the popularity of the Drexler
Patch and the widespread use of it by players everywhere? |
| Josef |
"It's hard not to be aware of it. Pretty much
every RCT website has a link to it or a copy of it. I
have had 260,000 visitors to my own sites, and many more
people must have downloaded it from somewhere else. I
guess that just proves how wrong it was to have this anti-cheat
code in RCT in the first place". |
| Boomer |
Well, maybe Mr.Sawyer listened and learned this time
round. Have you ever met or corresponded with the creator
of RollerCoaster Tycoon, Chris Sawyer? |
| Josef |
"I have not met him personally, but he did email
me about my patch. He wrote that he wasn't particularly
happy about it, but wasn't going to do anything to stop
me. More or less the same happened with my patch for TTD,
although there it was his agency who contacted me". |
| Boomer |
I know you are busy so I will let you go, but I do
want to thank you again for taking the time to give us
your thoughts and to answer some questions for us. You
have become quite a celebrity in this zany RCT world and
it has been an honor and a pleasure doing this E-View
with you. |
| Josef |
"The pleasure was all mine. It's not often that
I get asked for interviews, and these days I don't even
get a whole lot of email about RCTPatch, so it's good to
see that I'm not forgotten yet :)". |
Josef has left the house! Perhaps he will return someday and
visit with us again. Maybe it will be to give us a new patch for
RCT 2 that he may have created for it. But hopefully it's just to
say howdy and to chat for a while. Well, it's late, I'm tired,
and going to bed. I hope you've enjoyed this E-View as much as I
have. Good Night and Sweet RCT dreams.
Boomer dampens the fire in the fireplace noticing the ever-widening
area in the heat caused crack, running across the front of the
burnt brick face. Turning off the lights and closing the door
tiredly behind him Boomer never saw what really happened next, no
one did, in the darkened room left behind. With no other light
source available, a soft glow appeared momentarily from the large
crack in the fireplace. Then, as quick as it started, it faded
away, but left behind, on the fireplace front, the large crack
was gone! Disappeared as if it was never there. It had been
mysteriously, magically PATCHED, by something.... or somebody!