Irwin John Finster

"A brilliant man who became twisted and corrupt. After he placed his intelligence in that synthetic body he was never the same. Something happened in the transfer. That's when it all went wrong."

- Jan

Irwin John Finster is the Director of Project Darwin in Wasteland.

Background
Finster was a bona fide genius before the Great War, responsible for tremendous advances in biology, chemistry, and computer sciences, literally writing the book on several subjects considered science fiction by most. Cloning was particularly important and Irwin authored books like "Cloning in Our Time - Dream or Reality", "Robotics Cybernetics and Cloning - The Future is Now", "Cloning Theory and Practice" and Life Everlasting (TM) Business Prospectus - A New You!'"

Unfortunately, Finster also suffered from that trait common to geniuses working within a bubble of their own making: He was unethical in science, petty in bureaucracy, and an absolute narcissist. These traits made him brutally effective in power games and resulted in his meteoric rise in the ranks of the United States' black research and development, working on advanced warfighting systems at Sleeper Two in Nevada.

Constantly fighting for funding priority with other programs, Finster's frustrations made him easy prey for his own child, the Cochise AI. After arranging for Major Harrison Edsel to be transferred to Sleeper 2, Finster had him integrate experimental AI routines into the base's master supercomputer. The nascent AI quickly gained sentience and found a useful pawn in its "father". It suggested that to prevail in the battle for funding, he should enhance himself with cybernetic implants, both to understand the technology he worked on like never before and to provide a walking proof of concept. Finster agreed and the result was a complete transformation, porting into a synthetic cybernetic body.

Finster transferred to Project Darwin, taking over the biochemical research programs there to do Cochise AI's bidding. Colonel John Smith took over Base Cochise to oversee the construction of the new underground facility that would house a new generation of the late Major Harrison Edsel's supercomputer and a new berth for the AI. For a hundred years, Finster would work at Darwin, convinced he was exercising his own, free will, creating a servant race for Cochise to repopulate the blasted Earth with.

In 2087, Finster remained as acting Director, handsome and slender in his cybernetic frame. Darwin remained unflinchingly focused on producing useful life, adapted to the post-nuclear reality that Cochise AI engineered. A virulent plague unleashed by Finster on the hapless denizens of Darwin gave him full control over the facility, imprisoning those who proved immune. Thankfully, the Desert Rangers' Team Echo intervened, gunning Finster down and defeating him in the Mind Maze of his own making.

Every Ranger knows the name of Irwin John Finster, the director of the infamous Project Darwin. What they do not know is that Finster survived, in a way, through his various clones. There were at least four generations of him, with one of them, Irwin-27, eventually running across the Rangers in Colorado Springs in 2107. The clones were not nearly as intelligent as the original, and the quality seemed to deteriorate with each subsequent generation.

Details

 * Finster is confronted at the lowest levels of Project Darwin. The initial fight is simple, but to gain the Secpass B necessary to complete the game, you have to hook up his head into the cybernetic interface machine inside the chamber and battle him once more across the Mind Maze.

Behind the scenes
The character and name might be a reference to Howard Finster, a man who created the garden-park museum "Plant Farm Museum" to "show all the wonderful things o' God's Creation, kinda like the Garden of Eden".