2003. In 1989 West End Games released a Cyberpunk and Paranoia crossover. The game, called Alice Through the Mirrorshades, was designed by Edward Bolme and is compatible with both Cyberpunk and Paranoia games. At least two fan magazines were created around the time of Cyberpunks peak popularity with Pondsmith's approval: Interface Magazine, which evolved from the unofficial Cyberpunk Update run by Chris Hockabout, and UK-published 'Punk '21. Castle Falkenstein In 1994, R. Talsorian Games released Pondsmith's steampunk-themed fantasy role-playing game titled Castle Falkenstein. The game's mechanics were based on playing cards, instead of dice, and geared towards live action role-playing. Castle Falkenstein remains Pondsmith's most critically acclaimed game to date with the 1994 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules, and the 1995 Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award for Best Role-Playing Product recognitions. In 2000, Castle Falkenstein was adapted to the GURPS system by James Cambias and Phil Masters, and released by Steve Jackson Games. Design contributions outside of R. Talsorian Games Pondsmith was briefly associated with TSR, Inc., where he worked on Buck Rogers XXVC, a science-fiction RPG, and two sourcebooks for the Dungeons & Dragons: Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms for Oriental Adventures in 1988 and Hall of Heroes for Forgotten Realms in 1989. He also made minor, uncredited contributions to the original Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game released in 1987 by West End Games. Pondsmith has also been president of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA), and in his role of GAMA President in 1993, he arbitrated an out-of-court settlement between Palladium Books and Wizards of the Coast over Wizards' use of Palladium system integration notes in The Primal Order. R. Talsorian's hiatus and video game design After encountering challenges in the role-playing game industry, on February 15, 1998, Pondsmith announced that R. Talsorian would only operate part-time. Putting the major game lines on hiatus at this time meant doing the same with Hero Games products, and in September 1998, Hero Games announced their separation from R. Talsorian Games. Late in the year 2000, Pondsmith accepted a job offer at Microsoft to produce games for Xbox. As a design manager at Microsoft, he contributed to various games (mostly to the lineup of the original Xbox console's exclusive titles) released by the company's Microsoft Game Studios. In MechCommander 2, released in 2001, he played the role of Steel, a character featured in cut-scenes (he also voiced the character for the in-game