Editing Greg Fulton/Fanstratics Newsletters/11 (section)

== HoMM3 Recollection: The Day the Coke Machine Caught Fire ==
Some of you may remember this story, but three weeks from finishing the game... the [[New World Computing]] (NWC) Coca-Cola machine... caught fire.

Once ‘crunch’ was declared, at 7:00pm each night, [[Mark Caldwell]] would unlock the company Coke machine.  No need to feed the machine money, just pull open the front half of the appliance, reach inside, and pull out a cold can of... whatever.  If you have ever purchased a can or bottle of soda pop from a vending machine, you will know these machines are big and made to endure all sorts of vandalism.

I vaguely remember grinding away, at my desk, with my office door open.  Prior to NWC’s growth and expansion, my room was sandwiched between the offices of [[David Mullich]] and [[Benjamin Bent]] (NWC Office Manager and part time Producer (Vegas Games)).  Outside my office, the hallway diverged, leading to the Tester’s Room and the Break Room. 

As my office wasn’t too far from the Break Room, I remember sitting there... smelling smoke... thinking, “Is that smoke?”

A moment later, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a young man dart into Ben’s office.  I heard a muffled, hurried exchanged, followed by the same young man rushing out of Ben’s office... followed by Ben.

Now, I could definitely smell smoke.

Down the hall, I heard an additional, brief conversation, after which I saw Ben calmly returning to his office.  I caught Ben’s attention and he took a detour to my doorway.

 Me, “What’s going on?”
 
 Ben rolled his eyes, “The Coke machine caught fire.”
 
 “It caught fire?”
 
 “Well, it looks like opening and closing the machine sheared some electrical wires, and they caught fire.”
 
 Ben shook his head, “This idiot tester just stood there with a soda can in one hand, pointing at the fire.”
 
 Me, “Do we have a fire extinguisher?”
 
 “Yeah, but just unplugged the machine.”
 
 “So, we have warm Cokes now?”
 
 Ben chuckled, “We will.  Get ‘em while they’re cold.”
 
 A moment after Ben returned to his office, David Mullich appeared outside my office door, “Do I smell smoke?”

I remember this event rather well for a couple of reasons.  First, its absurdity fit within the general absurdity of game development.  Second, in many ways, it was an apt analogy for game development... something goes wrong, someone panics, someone else calmly solves the problem, and work continues.

In game development, the Coke machine is always catching fire.