BHMS: A rider can argue his case to the match referee in the pits if he has been disqualified. These decisions are not always clean cut. A rider can be disqualified from the race if he's the cause of the race stoppage (he fell or caused another rider to fall) sometimes who's at fault is a grey area). Have you included this in the game. If not, why?

Techland: In FIM Speedway Grand Prix the riders are disqualified for causing an accident of touching the tapes. The decisions are final and you cannot argue with the referee.

BHMS: Historically, Speedway started in Australia in the 1920's. The major powers in World Speedway were and are: England, Poland, Australia, United States, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Germany and Czech Republic. Since this is official FIM game, one would thought all real drivers are in the game. Will we be able to edit them (names, riding attributes...)?

Techland: No, that will not be possible, because it�s not allowed by the rules of Benfield Sports International. Only real drivers race in the FIM Speedway Grand Prix. Their statistics are based on the 2003 standings. Parameter modifications are not possible, but perhaps we will release appropriate tools for any alterations in the future.

BHMS: How open to editing will this game be? Will we be able to pain bikes, rider suits? If there isn't a paint shop in the game, how "hard coded" are the files, if someone would like to paint their bikes, suits... Let us not forget the track editing.

Techland: The game does not include any editing tools to change bike or rider suit colors, but edition is possible by editing the graphics files. We learned, that the greatest speedway fans in Poland are already creating their own players and editing tracks.

BHMS: The two main Speedway Engines now are Jawa (Czech) and GM (Italy). They develop their power at different stages, so some are suited to one track and not so good at another. Are these two machines available in the game and what are the bike differences physics wise?

Techland: Two types of engines are available in the game. We did not call them Jawa or GM, because we do not use brand names in the game. We simply called them �engine1� and �engine2�. There are significant differences between those two engines, and that has substantial effect on the playability.

BHMS: The starting tapes go up at different intervals after the green light goes on. This is important to create the anticipation. If you go too early, you'll touch the tapes and be disqualified, too late and you've get left behind. Tell us more about the starts in Speedway Grand Prix.

Techland: The start is crucial in SGP, just like in a real Grand Prix. You need great reflexes in order not to be left behind right at the beginning of the race. You should practice the start, especially before racing with the best riders.

BHMS: Gate positions are critical. Do they follow the Speedway Grand Prix format? If they do, it might be a good thing to explain the rules to our visitors.

Techland: In FIM SGP, just like in real speedway competition, the gate positions depend on the results of the previous heats. Only in training the gate positions are awarded at random.
The rules of determining the gate positions are in agreement with the SGP heat table. The heat, in which the rider will race, and the gate position in that heat depend on the place taken in the previous heat. For example, if you win the first heat, you will race in heat 7 from gate A.

BHMS: Clutches overheat if they are held too long. This slows the take off speed. What kind of damages, breakdowns can we expect in the game?

Techland: The parts of the motorcycle are wearing out in each run. Extensive use of a given part increases the probability of a malfunction and lowers the bike�s performance.

BHMS: Have you included a career mode or just one year championship? If there is a career mode, can a driver get injured at a high speed crash and miss some events? If the career mode is missing, why didn't you include it. It seems like more and more games these days are forgetting about this.

Techland: The game does not include career mode, because each year new riders take part in the GP events. FIM SGP was based on the 2002 Grand prix series and includes riders taking part in those events.

BHMS: Over the past few years, multiplayer almost became more important (or so it seems) then off-line racing. What have you prepared for SGP buyers in on-line department? Will people be able to run leagues? Is there an option to run a dedicated server or maybe an in-game server search engine?

Techland: You cannot run leagues in FIM SGP, because the game was developed under a license of the original speedway championships and includes only the Grand Prix events.
The current version of the game supports a multiplayer mode for up to 4 players on one computer. It is possible that in the future we might publish an on-line version of the game.

BHMS: Now that the game is completed and in the stores, would you add anything or maybe change some things, if you would have more time?

Techland: If we had more time we would have added the on-line mode, but it is possible that in the future we will implement that option.

BHMS: How world wide are you planning to go with this game? Right now it is only available in Poland.

Techland: We�re planning to make this game available in all places, where men desire a bit of an adrenaline rush. We have finished the negotiations with the distributor for the United States. Currently we are negotiating with the distributors in Germany. Of course we would like to invite distributors form other countries as well.

BHMS: What holds the near feature for your company? Maybe another racing game?

Techland: You guessed it. In the nearest future we�re planning to release a realistic racing game with a built-in career mode - Xpand Rally. Besides Xpand Rally we�re also planning to release the long-awaited Chrome. We firmly believe that Chrome will be a very successful game.