Abstract
Problem: What was it like working at Interplay in the early-to-mid 1990s, and what are the untold stories behind Castles and Stonekeep?
Approach: Tim Cain shares firsthand anecdotes from his time at Interplay, covering both games despite having limited direct involvement with either.
Findings: The video reveals a collaborative studio culture where developers freely helped each other across teams, and provides behind-the-scenes stories about Stonekeep's ambitious motion capture production, CD-ROM technical challenges, and the people who shaped these projects — many of whom later influenced Fallout.
Key insight: Interplay's culture of cross-team collaboration was instrumental in shipping games like Fallout — people volunteered to help other teams simply because they could, a practice Tim notes is far less common in modern game development.
Castles and Scott Benny
Tim started at Interplay in 1991 as a contractor, coming in every couple of weeks to drop off code for the Bard's Tale Construction Set. He didn't work on Castles directly but met key people during this period.
Scott Benny was the producer and lead designer on Castles. Tim notes sadly that Scott passed away the previous year. Vince DeNardo was a designer on Castles and went on to produce Castles 2 (released 1992–93 depending on platform). Tim recommends Vince as the person to talk to about the Castles games.
Vince's Dog Sasha in Fallout
Vince loved dogs and often brought his dog Sasha to work. Sasha appears as an easter egg on the Cathedral map in Fallout. Tim also mentions that someone told him there's an NPC in Fallout 2 running around calling out for Sasha, though he can't confirm that one personally.
Stonekeep: A Huge, Secret Project
Stonekeep (1995) was a massive undertaking for Interplay — featuring 3D-rendered dungeons and full motion capture for many creatures. Some creatures like the dragon were CG-rendered, but many were performed by people in costumes.
The project was super secret. At Interplay's Susan Street office in Costa Mesa, the hallway leading to the Stonekeep offices had a restricted access sign and, memorably, a sign reading "Abandon hope all ye who enter here."
Rob Nestler, who later became Interplay's 3D art director (and now holds that role at Obsidian), showed Tim the game during development. Tim found it visually stunning — rendered graphics were uncommon at the time.
Tim's Failed Acting Career
When the Stonekeep team recruited Interplay employees to appear as characters via motion capture, Tim auditioned. He wanted to be in the game. The team looked at him, had him perform, and cast him as Wahooka — the little magic guy.
Tim didn't get the part. Wes Yanagi got it instead, and Tim admits Wes was probably a better Wahooka than he would have been.
Tim also couldn't play the Ettin (a two-headed creature) because at 6'1" he was too short. The team needed two people of roughly equal tall height, so they chose producers Tom Decker (~6'3"–6'4") and Bill Dugan. The two were strapped together around the chest and leg with cloth covering the join to create the illusion of a two-headed creature. By all accounts it was a miserable experience — hours of motion capture while physically bound to another person, with one of them making sarcastic comments the entire time.
Michael Quarles: The Producer Tim Admired
Michael Quarles produced Stonekeep, and Tim describes him as someone he "super super admired." Along with Tom Decker, Quarles was one of Tim's biggest influences on the production side of game development.
Despite mutual respect, they disagreed on RPG design philosophy. Tim strongly disliked that Stonekeep gave players a pre-made, named character rather than letting them create their own — he called it "awful." But they disagreed professionally and amicably.
Quarles Saved Fallout
When Tim nearly left Interplay during Fallout's production (he couldn't qualify for a mortgage on his salary), it was Michael Quarles who convinced the executive producer to give Tim a raise. Tim credits Quarles as instrumental in Fallout's existence.
The Critical Error Handler
Tim's actual code contribution to Stonekeep was a critical error handler for CD-ROM read failures. In the mid-90s, CD-ROM drives from countless manufacturers would frequently fail to read perfectly good sectors, triggering a critical error interrupt.
Tim wrote an assembly language handler that would retry reading the sector a configurable number of times before reporting an error. Some cheap CD-ROM drives would fail 100 times before returning a good read.
The problem was partly caused by Stonekeep's massive data filling the disc near the edge (inner or outer), where read speeds were inconsistent on cheaper drives. This handler proved invaluable — Tim reused the same solution for Fallout, which had identical issues. Even with aggressive retry counts, some drives were so bad that customers returned discs, though every CD-ROM drive at Interplay could read them fine.
Cross-Team Collaboration Culture
Tim's biggest takeaway is about Interplay's collaborative culture. He wasn't on the Stonekeep team, but when they needed an assembly-level error handler, he volunteered. Similarly, when Fallout hit problems near the end of development, people from other teams showed up to help — writing code, debugging scripts, working after hours.
Tim acknowledges the modern perspective that this sounds like crunch and exploitation, but insists people volunteered willingly. He contrasts it with today's attitude where developers are more likely to say "they should have planned better" or "that's not my team's problem."
Chris Taylor's Jump to Fallout
Chris Taylor was Stonekeep's lead designer. He and Tim talked constantly, played GURPS together on Thursday nights, and were deeply familiar with each other's projects. When Fallout's lead designer Scott Campbell left the company mid-production, Chris immediately volunteered to take over — a direct result of the cross-team relationships Interplay fostered. As soon as Stonekeep shipped, Chris jumped onto Fallout.
References
- Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xkTHqrYr6U