I'm very proud of my work on this game, even if I did initiate an enormous cock-up by leaving out the connecting line that should have joined the Middle East and East Africa, an error that remains uncorrected to this day.

Kevin's involvement with RISK is with the design and technology and, as such, he was the driving force behind the CD-ROM version of the game that was Hasbro Interactive's first European-developed product when it was launched in 1996. This is extremely important because it was during the development of the original RISK (a solid, if slightly uninspired game, I trust those of you who have played it would agree) that many of the seeds of ideas which are now being incorporated into RISK II first saw the light of day.

When Kevin and I parted company with Hasbro Interactive to set up Deep Red in May 1988, we felt that we could do a lot worse than approach Hasbro with a plan to put some of our new ideas for RISK (and, hopefully, a few more besides) into a much-improved sequel. To their credit, the bigwigs at Hasbro were open to suggestions about how we could improve what is, after all, one of the most successful board games of all time. The one proviso which they put on our creativity, however, was that whatever we came up with had to work as a board game before we even thought of transferring it to the CPU.

So, with Kevin in the driving seat and with the help of two of the newly-formed Deep Red team (Steve and John), we sat down with a number of RISK sets, some pens and paper and a hatful ideas for what proved to be the first of many late, late game development sessions...

Next week, Kevin Buckner will focus on the first of the game's development issues that the team faced during this project.