Hal Barwood is, in every sense of the phrase, a Renaissance man. Cutting his teeth as a Hollywood scriptwriter he penned contributions to the likes of Spielberg's The Sugarland Express and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. (The landing location of the alien mothership at the fi lm's fi nale, the iconic Devils Tower, was his suggestion. His reward? A small cameo as one of the pilots of longlost Flight 19). In his role as producer on the Disney movie Dragonslayer (which he also co-scripted), he created a perennial cult favourite of many fantasy fans. And he even found a little time to put together a few games for LucasArts featuring the 'Man In The Hat'.
"I'm an old friend of George Lucas," begins Hal. "We went to film school together, and he knew of my interest in games way back in the early Eighties, when Lucasfilm Games was forming. He introduced me to Steve Arnold, who ran the Games Group for several years, and I started to hang around the company. I met David Fox, Ron Gilbert and Noah Falstein during that period. These guys worked hard as a triumvirate to produce the first Lucasfilm licensed property ever, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade – a wonderful game based on the last Jones movie, and a sizable hit." When Last Crusade wrapped, the LucasArts team fragmented and moved on to other things, so when the decision was made to create an Indy adventure sequel the door fell open for Hal. "They all had other projects they wanted to pursue," he explains. "David wanted to move over into public space interactive attractions, Ron was busy on Monkey Island, and Noah was starting out on The Dig. They needed someone to rescue them from Jones, and they picked me."
