Winter is coming and we’re working on the documentary again. Listening to all the audio-files, watching all footage we shot from start to end and trying to find the right overall look for the videos.

Liverpool!, the city of Scousers, The Beatles, Merseybeat, some football clubs and ofcourse Hardware Rivals. A few days ago we arrived in Liverpool to do some filming for the documentary. The main event for me had to be meeting Darren Douglas. The artist who worked on a lot of games and comics I loved through the years. Games like WipeOut and Hardware Rivals, and comics like Judge Dredd for the publisher 2000AD. Also being about the same age would have us recollecting a lot of childhood memories about movies, tv-series and videogames.

Cases full of film or light stands and bags full of cameras, lenses, microphones and cables.

Sjoerd Banga and I travel for a week through Ireland and England with 30 kilos of luggage each. Now I hear you thinking “30 kilos!”. Yes, 30 kilos. We each have a large suitcase weighing 20 kilos and a backpack of another 10 kilos, and no these are not all clothes.

A few days ago we arrived in Dublin to meet the first developer for our documentary, Andrew Phelan, who worked on projects like Half-Life, WipeOut, Motorstorm, Total War: Warhammer, Formula one and Hardware Rivals). For me it was the first time in Dublin, so on day 1 Andrew and his wife showed us around while having perfect blue sky weather. This was ofcourse also a great way to get to know each other better.

In early February Sjoerd and I will cross the North Sea together to do some filming for a documentary. This fantastic documentary is about the passion for playing and building video games, and about one game in particular. Hardware Rivals!

Because we would like to make more documentaries, Sjoerd and I decided to make a documentary about a subject that is close to us each.

The crazy idea to try and make a documentary about Hardware Rivals and it’s predecessor Hardware Online Arena. It got us in contact with lots of players from all over the globe who we never talked to before. It almost looks like an excuse to share our experiences with the game we love so much. So, thank you for letting us interview you all. 

It was exactly 4 weeks ago when we started trying to get in contact with the developers of Hardware Rivals and tell them about our plans for a documentary about Hardware Rivals and it’s predecessor Hardware Online Arena. The project intrigued a lot of them immediately, so we all had to find a way to let Sony give them permission to be interviewed by us.

As you all know, the last few weeks we have been doing interviews with several players for our documentary about Hardware Rivals and it’s predecessor Hardware Online Arena. Sharing experiences about a game you all love made these interviews very helpfull for us and a joy to do. The quotes will be used for the promo we’ve been working on and this week we’ve been able to make a first version that we premiered first to the people who helped us.

A few weeks ago we told you about the plans to make a documentary about Hardware Rivals and it’s predecessor Hardware Online Arena. Thanks to all the positive reactions we decided to start researching both games. Information is sparce. You find snippets here and there online. But putting them together though gives us already a nice foundation to build upon and go into more detail of the aspects of both games. Sources we checked are the Playstation websites and forums, Wikipedia and other Wiki-pages about the games, reviews and Social Media.