FUN JOBS: The $100-million Orange County video...

FUN JOBS: The $100-million Orange County video game industry is creating more jobs for technical wizards, artists and even actors and musicians needed to make the increasingly sophisticated games. Companies are building studios equipped with graphics supercomputers and video-editing facilities for game designers to work in virtual warrens of creativity. “It’s fun, a business where you start from ground zero and learn to do things” like comb film footage for scenes to use in games, says designer Mark Yamada.

SLY DISK: The movie “Demolition Man” starring Sylvester Stallone opens Friday, but Irvine-based Virgin Interactive Entertainment’s Demolition Man video game won’t hit the stores until March. . . . Virgin’s game-design crew filmed 11 hours of additional video with the actors, which it will blend with 3-D graphics. “We’ll have things that aren’t in the movie,” says programmer John Alvarado. “You’ll play Stallone and be able to move from shooting gallery to shooting gallery.”

REALITY CHECK: Irvine-based Interplay Productions plans to release its StoneKeep dungeon video game in early 1994, after more than three years in the making. . . . What took so long? Game realism. Says producer Michael Quarles: “It took us one day a week for four months just to figure out how a character in the game picks up a sword.” Quarles says the game may include a short story or 100-page novella to add to the experience of the game simulation. “This is a lot more sophisticated than the average game on the market,” he said. “It’s real storytelling.”