Eurogamer meets Monty Python
Terries Jones and Gilliam talk games.
[Shakes head]
Well, um...
Pfft. We have lives to lead.
No, we're fascinated by videogames.
Oh yes, we're fascinated, that's the correct answer.
We just want to spread the pleasure that they can give.
I'm amazed we even have time to talk to you because normally we'd be out there gaming away, 24 hours a day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what I wanted. It's not what we've achieved, I'm afraid. So if you want to read a book you're going to have to go and buy one.
I thought the games could be much more wild like that and throw people back into the real world occasionally, so they're actually learning something, gaining something, rather than just escaping from a life on the tube. Obviously they've ignored me because they know these things won't make a penny.
But if you spent your life on the tube you'd want to escape, wouldn't you?
That's true. Luckily we have limos so we don't know about that world.
Do you have a limo? Hmph...
We're on camera.
Really?
Yes, I did.
No, no no no. In fact I didn't want David Bowie in the film at all, actually. Well actually no, that's not true.
That's why it didn't break the box office records, it was those tights that he wore.
Did you grow up with those tights as a dream?
It wasn't throwing up the baby in the air?
Actually it would, come to think of it, yeah. I mean you could have the whole thing with the hands, which was my idea, and... Yeah, could be a good idea.
What about Munchausen or Time Bandits or any of my films?
Oh, your films? Your films?
Could they make games, Terry?
No, I don't think so. No.
Argh, I mean, I always thought it was a shame that Python would be just come and gone. In fact actually it nearly was gone, because we learned about sort of '73 I think it was, our video editor said they were going to wipe the first series.
So we smuggled the tapes out of the BBC and put them onto Phillips VCR, which is a defunct system nowadays. For about six months I thought those, in my cellar, were going to be the only evidence of Python.
The crime wasn't necessary in the end.
They didn't wipe it.
It could have been a whole life of crime at the beginning. We could have started doing bootleg copies, we could have been rich.
Well, I wouldn't have let you in on it, Terry.
The Ministry of Silly Games is due to launch early next year. To sign up for the public beta, visit MinistryOfSillyGames.com.