Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 3, 2004. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
With more than 1,000 questions and a multiplayer mode, the programming becomes highly complex. More than 20,000 elements – background and overlay graphics, audio files, animations and links – were compiled automatically using a new DVD authoring technology based on programmed macros and Javascripts. To do this, the questions with their associated answers were converted from a database into 1,000 XML files, interpreted via Macromedia Director projectors and stored as individualized bitmap graphics in a defined folder structure. Finally, the graphics were encoded into MPEG-2 system files and linked and compiled according to the programmed game structure. Because all linking is controlled by the programming, manual careless errors during authoring are excluded.
