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This is a transcript from The Computer Show, presented by Malcolm Russell on 702 Talk Radio and 567MW Cape Talk.
08 December 2001

Malcolm: Hello Aki, nice to have you in the studio.

Aki: It is indeed a very special afternoon. The Harry Potter phenomenon has just been overwhelming this December.

Malcolm: Yes it really has.

Aki: In fact, I'm taking my daughter to go and see Harry Potter the movie this afternoon and I'm looking forward to it. You just have to look at all the Harry Potter paraphernalia and the movie, which has gone to the box office and broken all the records. I received Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone game a few weeks ago for Sony Playstation 1 as well as the PC version.

Malcolm: Yes, you were going to lend me the PC version and I haven't seen hide nor hair of it, which says something about the fact that you're playing with it.

Aki: Yes I am and I tell you, it's a very, very addictive game. What's brilliant about it is that when you look at the books and the movie, to adapt something like that and put it onto a computer game is the most difficult part. And I believe that most people that have tried to do that in the past have been largely unsuccessful but the Harry Potter crowd has managed to get it right. They have got it right and they have brought the image across magnificently. Whoever I've spoken to about the book and the movie, they've said that they've got it right and they've got it right with the PC game as well. It's a fantastic game and we've got the Harry Potter head honcho on the line as well.

Malcolm: Well Rob O' Farrel did a lot of the development work. Rob, nice to have you on the line.

Rob: Hi, good to speak to you.

Malcolm: How about that for a compliment?

Rob: Yes, it makes us pretty proud actually. It was a tough challenge, but it was good.

Malcolm: Tell me how your company came to write the game. Who gave you this challenge?

Rob: Well basically Electronic Arts pitched for the Harry Potter licence about a year-and-a-half ago.

Malcolm: Well Electronic Arts has got to be one of the biggest game developers in the world.

Rob: Yes, we've got studios in San Francisco, Canada, Australia and London.

Malcolm: Tell me how you come to interpret a game like this because clearly you either had to read the book or see the movie and really insert yourself into the entire process to get the feeling.

Rob: Well fortunately we had a couple of really good designers that got into the fiction and actually met JK Rowling a couple of times and really understood what she was thinking. That was a really important part of it. Harry Potter fans are so fanatical about the fiction and if we had got anything wrong they would have criticised us really heavily. So we really wanted to make sure that it was believable in Harry Potter world.

Malcolm: But you have to also keep it within the bounds of credibility for a child and their parents, because the parents are going to get ratty if you start getting too violent or bloody and all the rest of it.

Rob: Well I think that everybody knows that Harry Potter isn't violent.

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