First off let me thank you for giving your time to this interview. We honor the opportunity to submit an interview to our readers to give them insight into the world of simulation motorsports. We would also like to thank our visitors for submiting over 400 questions.

BHMS: Before we start with the questions, could you please introduce yourself to our readers. Tell us what you do and a little about your background.

Steve Myers: My name is Steve Myers and I am a producer for NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. This will be my third NASCAR title at Papyrus, and after spending the last 8 months working on NR2003 I believe it will be the best one yet. I grew up a motorsports and video game fanatic and actually went back to school to try and get a job at Papyrus, which, thankfully worked out.

BHMS: What, in your opinion, is the feature that has changed in NR2003 that will make those who played Nascar Racing 4 and/or Nascar Racing 2002 Season want to buy the 2003 edition?

Steve Myers: There really are a ton of new features in NR2003 that will make it an improvement over our last two products, there should be something for everyone to enjoy. The features that I am personally most excited about are the changes to our physics model and the bump mapping on the tracks. These two features alone make NR2003 a must have for any sim racing enthusiast.

BHMS: In a previous interview, one of the Papyrus producers had stated "In fact, the physics model is so accurate now that we can plug in a real-life Winston Cup Car setup, and the car will behave just as it would in real life." Can you tell us if and who in Winston Cup has helped in the development of Nascar 2003 in order to achieve this and how was this implemented? Did you take a known setup for a particular track and then try to match the physics to that? We know that NR2003 will have manufacturer specific bodies. Will there also be physics differences between them?

Steve Myers: Manuel Daskalos and the guys at Jasper Motorsports helped us so much in making changes to our physics model, I never could have imagined how much data they ended up providing us. Even at this point in development we are continuously getting feedback from Manuel and his team. We essentially adjusted every value we could based off real world data Manuel provided. The end result gave us a physics model that is as close to a real world stock car as possible, one that will not be matched or surpassed for years to come. I should also add that Mike Stackpole at Goodyear Tire and Rubber has also provided us with every piece of data we could ask for, and our tire model is incredibly improved because of it.

BHMS: Could you explain the implementation of the Matrox wide screen in N2003 and what it would take to patch some of the other games to support this new technology? With the multiple screen technology that we're seeing now, do you think we'll see more of that technology designed and supported in todays gaming or in the future? And don't forget the 3D glasses and all sorts of head movement trackers.

Steve Myers: Actually, NASCAR Racing 2002 Season can be run in wide screen mode on the Matrox card, you just need to download a patch for it. Working with Matrox to incorporate widescreen was a no-brainer for us, because we always look for ways to let our customers feel a little closer to actually racing a stock car .

BHMS: I have been a strong proponent of sim products having a brake bias adjuster in the cockpit so drivers can adjust brake bias to balance the car on worn tires. Why do you think this essential tuning adjustment has been left out of many of the products that we see on the shelf today. Is this possibly a new feature that we will see in Nascar Racing 2003 Season (on road courses)?

Steve Myers: Unfortunately this did not make it into NR2003. As we do every year, we end up having to cut back on things we REALLY want to fix due to time constraints. The trick is finding a nice mix of things that gives us the most bang for the buck in terms of adding value to the game.

BHMS: What improvements have been made to the AI in NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, other than the auto-adjusting AI strength? Their inability to drive most tracks realistically (which can prevent the player from racing closely with them) was a major problem in N4 and NR2002. Will this be improved? Also, will the AI cars react to contact from the player's car in a more realistic manner? In both N4 and NR2002, contact with an AI car which, in real life would have spun them (for example, in the left rear quarter panel while going through a turn), will instead cause the player to lose control, while the AI car drives away unscathed.

Steve Myers: We really have made quite a few improvements to the AI for NR2003. They now have a better understanding of the track, the positions of other cars, and the draft. When we started this project we made the decision that one of our primary goals would be to improve our AI, and I think that we have accomplished this goal.