>> INTERVIEW!!: TNM BASEMENT INTERVIEW WITH MIKE SWEETSER (Feb '99)
{Taken from Issue #40}

In this interview: bAz stands for me
		   Mike stands for Mike Sweetser

Thanks and enjoy the first of hopefully many interviews conducted
by the TNM Basement. I've got a couple of names in mind and I'll
keep you all informed when they agree. All of these interviews will
be posted onto the site, I'll post the URL on here when everything
is finalised. Enjoy everybody!!

bAz: First of all we'll talk about wrestling...How did you actually 
first find out about professional wrestling, and who were your 
favourite wrestlers?

Mike: My grandmother got me interested in wrestling back in the summer 
of 1991. After seeing the awesome Bret Hart v. Curt Hennig match at 
SummerSlam '91 - a match I still consider my favorite match - I was 
hooked.  I've been a fan ever since. I'd have to say my favorite 
wrestlers back then were Bret Hart, Curt Hennig, Sting, Shawn Michaels 
once he turned heel in early 1992, and Rick Rude.

bAz: What in your opinion is the best federation in the world?

Mike: As far as wrestling goes, I'd give the nod to WCW..but as a 
whole I enjoy the WWF more.  I had the opportunity to attend a Raw 
taping in December of last year and had the time of my life 
(especially with my two favorite wrestling women, Terri Runnels and 
Jacquelyn, forming an alliance right before my eyes. :)

bAz: Now onto TNM matters...How did you first find out about TNM?

Mike: I had been using both WLS and Rampage for a while and was 
looking for something different.  Once I got on the net in 1995 I 
started looking, and stumbled across TNM in early-1996.

bAz: What version did you download?

Mike: TNM 6.13.

bAz: What version did first register?

Mike: Actually, I haven't registered any of them.  I was about to 
register TNM 6.2 when Oliver offered me a spot as a beta tester. :)

bAz: Where you involved in the decision by Oliver Copp to incorparate
plugins into version 7?

Mike: No.

bAz: What was the first plugin you programmed?

Mike: Actually, the first thing that could be considered a plugin was 
something I wrote called FCA+ for TNM 6.2.  It basically taking the 
code for the gimmick matches in TNM 6.2 - which at the time wasn't 
compiled and was just BASIC source code - and added a few things here 
and there. As far as TNM 7 plugins, my first one was the Brawl for All 
plugin, which was the first match plugin released.

bAz: What programming language did you use to code the plugins?

Mike: QuickBasic 4.5 and later, QuickBasic 7.1.

bAz: What gave you the idea to program the FCA Cubed series of plugins?

Mike: I had been toying with the idea of converting the FCA+ plugin I 
mentioned into a match plugin for TNM.  People at the same time were 
asking for different matches, such as the scaffold match, lumberjack 
match, etc, etc. Then it occurred to me - why not make a plugin that 
did all that and let the user make their own matches?  It'd save me a 
lot of work and them time downloading each plugin. :)  So there it 
was.

bAz: Did you ever consider making the FCA Cubed series like the
Interview Integrator from which the user had to pay after 30 days?

Mike: I did consider it, but at this point I wanted to let my plugins 
speak for itself.  I've gotten a lot for the Internet community, and 
I thought it'd be nice to give something back to TNM.

bAz: What do you think of the Interview Integrator?

Mike: It's a good idea, but it needs to be improved on.  I'd like to 
see injuries implemented, as well as more general options.

bAz. What is in the future for Hellfire & Brimstone, Inc and Mike
Sweetser?

Mike: Well, first off, it's not Hellfire & Brimstone Inc anymore.  The 
company is now known as simply HABI.  Easier to put in a logo, change 
around, and I got tired of typing the full name out. :)

Right now, I'm taking a break from doing plugins, but I've got several
ideas, both TNM and non-TNM, on the drawing board.

bAz: Finally we come to the TNM Sites section..What TNM sites do you 
frequent most often?

Mike: Well, of course, tnm7.com, mostly to check out the message
boards and occassionally to download exports.  I don't really go to 
the same TNM  sites over and over, but kind of bounce around. :)  
Sometimes I go around to see what people are saying about my plugins, 
to get some exports not on the TNM site, and to check out the PWWTNM 
rules, which I've been looking into modifying a bit. :)

bAz: What do you think of the sites that post exports of wrestlers who
haven't even wrestled? e.g. Midian, "Titan" a.k.a The Giant

Mike: Truthfully, I despise that.  The wrestlers have not competed in 
their new gimmicks, yet they've been given these moves and guesses 
have been made as to what they'll be like, just for the sake of being 
the first on the block with the exports. How do the people know the 
wrestlers' styles haven't changed completely?

Take a look at Sting back before Starrcade 1997.  Everybody took 
guesses and had exports of "Crow Sting" out there with superpowers 
and all this other crap, but when he came back he was nothing like 
they thought he'd be, and it ended up making the people with these 
"exclusive exports" look pretty foolish. 

I wonder how many people with exports of Titan were scrambling to 
change their webpages... {Ed: You can be sure that real wrestler
exports will have to have wrestled first before they're included
onto the website so that we don't have a repeat of the "Titan" fiasco
on our site, which is happening on other sites!!}

bAz: What do you think of the TNM Basement site and newsletter?

Mike: I think it's a good site.  I honestly haven't been there a great
deal in the past few weeks - vacation and all - but it's an enjoyable 
site and has a great deal of potential.  The newsletter as well.

bAz: And the last question for today Mike...What do you hope to see in 
the future for TNM?

Mike: More plugins, more possibilities, more functionality with TNM.  
I'd like to see what's in the realm of possibilities for plugins in 
TNM expanded on. For instance, right now, my World War 3 plugin can 
only use 50 wrestlers at once, due to some limitations in TNM...but 
it's programmed to handle up to 128.   See, there's a reason you can 
have up to nine rings in the plugin. :)

I've done a lot of work with Oliver on debugging and expanding the 
TNM plugin interface, but there's still much to be done.  You'll be 
pleasantly surprised by what's still to come..

Especially, I'd like to see others making plugins.  I can't come up 
with all the ideas here, and I'd love to see what people have out 
there.

bAz: Thanks very much Mike for taking the time to answer these 
questions. See ya later and hope to hear from you soon.

Mike: Adios.

{Thanks go to Mike for answering the questions that were sent. Mike
can be contacted at mikesweetser@uswest.net}