The current box art for the game (UK version). There are differences across the various areas. In fact the US one (for example) is wildly different to this.

Having got interested in this "X" thing, I first thought I'd write a book.

It will be available for download here at some point in the future. Currently, its destined for the game CD of the next Egosoft game and some of its content would maybe spoil things for those that play the game. So it isn't here yet. Check back though, it will be. It's called "Dominion".

I then got into the "fiction" side of things a little deeper and began to throw ideas around with Bernd Lehahn (Egosoft) and Helge Kautz (author of the X sci-fi novel "Farnham's Legend"). This was in 2001 and these two gave me lots of help with the fiction, mainly with regards to "do's and don'ts".

This grew until I was assisting with the plot for the game and having some interesting discussions about characters and so on. All good stuff.

We also organised an X-Con (convention) for fans of the series and this was held at Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope in Cheshire, England in October 2001. I also visited a similar event held in Germany shortly after.

Here is a picture of the Egosoft team in their offices in Germany. Taken in July 2003.

And me again, in my study *working* hard on the game :-) In England of course.

After some chats with Bernd, we decided that I would "have a go" at generating some interest amongst the gaming press for the new release. We hadn't signed a publisher yet (a job they  - the publisher - would do eventually), so ahead I went.

This was my first real insight into the workings behind the games industry. OK, I'd learnt how Egosoft managed the projects and some of the tasks that needed to be done, but now I actually started talking to the games press... An eye-opener indeed!

Click here to see some of the results of my press work. You will also find links to the X-Con events there. This shows internet related stuff, but there are also various items in print in a collection of relevant magazines. There is more to come too!

Try this, put my name into a search engine, like Google and see the results.

There is also the small matter of the forums which I help administrate. We have almost 30,000 registered users around the world of which a few hundred actually visit us every single day!

Once we get this development finished, we intend to continue work on the next big project we call Online-Universe.Net A persistent 24/7 online space epic based in the X Universe. Really looking forward to working on that one (if they still let me)!

Below are a few pictures I have captured from the game. I have had to seriously degrade the quality of the pictures so they are internet friendly. But I hope you like them anyway.

A Titan class Destroyer exits a jump gate while its supporting fighters engage the enemy.

Teamwork. An enemy craft is defeated after he takes the bait

A fighter gets hit...hard!

I particularly like this picture as it shows a sense of unknown as you venture out into deep space looking for your fame and fortune. Excellent!

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