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Meet the Developers and the Cougar World Team
It's a real pleasure to introduce you to the Cougar World Team - comprising some of the developers, beta testers, hardcore users and Web gurus responsible for making ths site the perfect companion to your Cougar. The fact that the majority of these people are the developers and beta testers of the Cougar, speaks volumes about the pride they have in it! Given the Cougar's complexity and innovation, it's somewhat surprising to learn that the number of developers involved with the Cougar numbers just seven people, especially when most of them are essentially new to Thrustmaster high end controllers, or at least designing them. Given a blank piece of paper, and the instructions "Design and build the most realistic, most powerful, feature rich and metal F-16 joystick and throttle, for less than the combined cost of the original TM F-22 PRO and F-16 TQS" it is to their credit that the Cougar commands the respect of International Air Forces and the likes of Lockheed Martin. Awesome! So without further ado, let me introduce to you, some of the key members you may bump into here at Cougar World ;)

Guillaume "Dimebug" Lelevé, Project Manager
Position: Project Manager
Responsibilities: As the Project Manager, Guillaume has had the stressful task of ensuring that everything got done on schedule (yes, there really was a schedule!), that all the goals were met and bettered, and that every last nut and bolt was accounted for. This was no easy task - imagine that you've got a fresh team of people in different countries, with different responsibilities, working together over the net at different times of the day - you've got other projects to look after at the same time, and you've got the very critical and highly expectant eyes of the high end flight sim community watching your every move. Add to this you've got to persuade your company to do all of this at a loss for under $300. I can tell you that there is an awful lot that you will now know that Guillaume did for you guys, and you have him to thank for the fact that you only had to pay $300 for your Cougars. Guillaume is also a lot of fun to work with, has excellent engineering ideas and knows how to fix an early prototype for a major show with a combination of my credit card, a pair of scissors, some glue and some tape :)
Location: Carentoir, France
Guillaume is an avid flight simmer, in particular Falcon 4. If he's not simming, he can be found browsing the various forums online, making some noise with electric guitars, surfing, collecting and playing with his macross toys - (apparently they're engineering masterpieces), skiing and kite flying. Like a lot of simmers, Guillaume is a big kid ;)

Mark "The Moon" Mooney, Development Team
Position: Hardware Developer
Responsibilities: Mark worked tirelessly on the electrical and firmware design of the Cougar, his main responsibility being designing the emulation engine inside of the firmware. Basically, other than mechanical, he's got the broadest knowledge of what really going on inside of the joystick. Mark in conjunction with David, also wrote the Cougar Control Panel part of the manual.
Location: Montreal, Canada
Mark enjoys playing pool, badminton, basketball, and volleyball.

Saeed "BikeManiak" Mostofi, Development Team
Position: Hardware Designer
Responsibilities: Participated in the hardware design; specifically in schematic/layout design and assembly documentations. A little known fact is that the Cougar circuitry started life on my calculator case!
Location: Montreal, Canada
Saeed enjoys motorcycle riding, hiking, badminton, and handcrafting wooden toys. You will find Saeed helping out with known hardware issues as and when they arise.

David "The Block" Block, Development Team
Position: Software Engineer
Responsibilities: David had one of the hardest jobs on the development team. He had to provide the link and interface for James's and Mark's work using their staggeringly different documentation, add ideas and suggestions of his own, and produce the official TM software that made it all happen. He is responsible for developing the Cougar Control Panel, the Compiler (an amazing bit of programming - trust me!) and other software.
Location: Montreal, Canada
David is 30 years old (1971), engaged to Kim (during the Cougar development no less!) and lives, works and plays in Montreal. His interests include technology, science, programming, movies, DJing, golf, pool, poker and getting caught in the rain.

James "Nutty" Hallows, Development Team
Position: Dentist (don't laugh, it's really true!)
Responsibilities: A bit of a mixture actually. According to my contract, it was firstly to develop the feature set - ie. try to ensure the Cougar could do everything a simmer would want it to do. This involved me pooling all my previous knowledge, talking to Mark and David, and the three of us working together as a team to make it all happen. Guillaume and the beta testers jumped in with great ideas or better ways of doing things, and eventually the feature set became the Cougar's programmability. It was then a matter of rewriting Fox Two Pro whilst maintaining the front end many users already know, and ensuring it and the other supporting applications I developed could get the most out of the Cougar. I then tidied up and submitted the Feature Set document I'd written for inclusion in the manual relating to the programmability of the Cougar and the TM syntax, and tried to work my way through testing each statement out under different circumstances. Finally - I've ended up here - founding and helping to create Cougar World to provide a permanent home for the TM Cougar community. It's been an awful lot of work but also a lot of fun ;)
Location: Bristol, England
I'm definitely the odd ball on this team. With a degree and Ph.D in Materials Science, and being a dentist as well, it would seem odd that I should be involved in the Cougar. But those who know me will be able to tell you that for I don't know how many years now, I've lived and breathed TM high end controllers, supporting them, writing software to make it easier to program them, and helping people out when problems have arisen. I've always loved TM controllers, and the increased realism and excitement they've brought to my simming hobby, and I've just wanted other people to share that experience. If only they'd been available for my very first (and still one of the best sims ever written IMHO) - F-16 Combat Pilot for the Atari ST. Wonderful stuff!
I'm 35, engaged to Kay, also a dentist, callsign "Fruity" and you can find out everything else about me on my completely out of date homepage ;)

Olivier "Red Dog" Beaumont, Beta Tester and more ...
Position: Beta Tester, and more accurately the only Cougar beta tester with an Azerty keyboard ;)
Responsibilities: Bug hunting, bug hunting, and more bug hunting ... oh - and developing file support for a lot of sims with gorgeous graphical layouts! Olivier is a very experienced simmer and used to run a TM repair centre from his home, so he knows the original high end TM controllers and everything to do with them very well. Needless to say, he's also extremely knowledgeable about the Cougar, and Im very pleased he stuck it out through the very difficult and at times immensely frustrating beta testing period. A great asset to have on board any team ;)
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Olivier is married and enjoys nautical sports like sailing catamaran on the North Sea or in France and motorbiking. Needless to say he's also an avid simmer!

Michel "Leveller" Andre de la Porte, Beta Tester
Position: Quality Assurance
Responsibilities: Michel was the internal tester at Guillemot in Montreal right up until November 2001. He started with the very first prototypes (basically modified F22/TQS sets with new circuitry and a microstick), having to decipher and then learn the various documents evolving at the time, and putting the beta sets through their paces, on a wide range of operating systems and hardware combinations. Not a fun task! This guy did a great job in finding and hunting bugs down for us, and even went to the trouble of developing some files for various games, albeit with some shockingly psychadelic backgrounds to his graphical layouts! ;)
Location: Montreal, Canada
Surprisingly, Michel is as British as they come, and when I first met him in Montreal, I thought I was talking to someone schooled at Eton. Hopefully Michel is using his spare time constructively, educating our Canadian and North American friends about the rules and virtues of our fine sport, Cricket !!

Philippe "Nemeses" Delisle, Beta Tester
Position: QA Technician (BETA Testing)
Responsibilities: Phil joined the team in late November 2001, and following in Miche's footsteps, his job in this project was and still is to find all the little "bugs" so that they can be corrected, making sure the customers get what they paid for. Even at this stage, Phil picked up some bugs we all missed - nice one!
Location: Montreal, Canada
I've never met Phil so over to him to write his own Bio :) With his third child under way, Philippe's masculinity is not to be questioned. That testosterone level leads the way to his interests in high-power war machines. In day to day life, he is an extreme gamer, always seeking an adrenaline rush which sometimes causes him to be right down crazy. One little anecdote that might interest you is that Philippe is from the "Old School" as he was providing technical support to the North American users of the old F22 Pro / F16 TQS. Due to the lack of stock in Christmas 1999, he had to fix with his own hands a number of these units to be sent back to customers. If you had one of these sticks and had to send it for repairs in that time period of time, it most likely has Philippe's name on it.

And for Cougar World ...
Thanks to Frugal for supporting Cougar World over the years and Dimitar "Coda" Christoff for its cool design.