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In the July issue of Electronics Gaming Monthly, we interviewed Henry Hill--you know, the guy the movie Goodfellas was based on? He worked for the mob, participated in the $6mil Lufthansa heist in '78 (the biggest ever at the time), then turned state's evidence and helped put away the Lucchese crime family. We thought the wiseguy who lived Grand Theft Auto back in the 60s and 70s should play it, so we called for a sit-down and brought in GTA: Vice City, Hitman 2, The Getaway, and, for the hell of it, Animal Crossing. Along for the meeting: Julian, Hill's 14-year-old son and videogame consigliere. At the end of the game sections there's a general Q&A with Henry, which we couldn't fit in the magazine.

PS2 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City EGM: Here's the opening sequence. Henry Hill: Very good. Very funny. EGM: Here's the crooked lawyer. HH: Been there, done that. [laughs] EGM: OK, now press Triangle, jump in that car. HH: I want that Lincoln! Where the--where'd he go? Julian Hill: Press Triangle! HH: I am. Everyone's watching me f*** this up here! I never played one of these.. JH: You're not supposed to hit everything, Henry. You're supposed to avoid it. You're driving like in real life. EGM: You're gonna get a DWI, Henry. Go up to that guy. Now hit him. HH: Julian, help! I feel like such a retard! My brain doesn't fire the way these kids' brains do. JH: Follow the map. The pink dot. Follow the pink dot. HH: What pink.oh, that thing. First of all, that's purple. JH: Whatever, just follow-- HH: Show me where the money is. I'll get the money. Oh, I'm in South Beach! JH: They got money, Henry. Hit 'em! Go up and punch 'em! HH: Wait, the girl on the roller skates, I want her! Where'd she go? JH: Don't worry about that--hit the guy. Use the gun! Press Circle. [Henry shoots some Vice City denizens before the cops arrive and make the collar.] JH: Busted! HH: Yeah? You just lost your college fund, Julian.

PS2, Xbox, GC Hitman 2: Silent Assassin HH: What's this? Italy? Yeah, I'm half Sicilian. That's where I learned to cook, from my mother. The other half's Irish. That's where I learned to drink. JH: You're not supposed to drink. EGM: OK, we're in Sicily. Your character's a gardener. And a hit man. HH: I like that. I want those tomatoes. EGM: Been to Sicily much? HH: I was over there a bunch of times. I had to testify. What kinda hit man is this? Wait, he's going to confession? This is supposed to be fun? EGM: He's got a conscience. HH: These Sicilian hit men have no conscience. Dime a f***ing dozen. I'm telling you. We called 'em zips: They zip in, they zip out. So I'm supposed to what, here? JH: Go in the gate. Now hit that guard. EGM: I think that's the mailman. JH: Hit the mailman! HH: The milkman? I'm trying! JH: Henry, you're not-- HH: I'm running all over the place. Screw this. Only reason I go to Sicily is to get tomatoes.

PS2 The Getaway HH: What's this, English gangsters? What the f*** are they saying? And why's that guy so ugly? Like his face got caught in the sausage machine. EGM: OK, that aside, how do you like it so far? HH: This is like that other stupid one--I'm dying all over again. How do you drive? Ah, s***, wrong side of the street! Bad enough I gotta learn this complicated apparatus-- JH: It's a controller-- HH: It's a torture device. Look at these f***ing buttons--where am I going? What the f***? We're in Brooklyn! JH: It's London. HH: I know. Let's kill some guys. Can I kill a cop? The Queen, is she dead? Somebody.. JH: You have to follow the mission. HH: There's too much traffic. This is like the freeway--why would I wanna do that at home? JH: Finish the mission! HH: Julian, I can't even get in this car. How am I gonna finish anything, here? This game sucks. I'm gonna go have a smoke break.

GC Animal Crossing HH: What kind of...what sex are these things? What is this, X-rated? Oooh! Good cast! Where is this? This is up in Pennsylvania, right? Look! I'm fishing! JH: Hey, there's a fish! Head the other way! HH: No, it's coming down here. Current's running this way. It's swimming upstream. Probably spawning. They get pregnant; they run away. Wish they all did that. Ah, I don't wanna catch a pregnant fish. But I do want this game! JH: We can rent it, Dad. HH: I'm not renting this! I'd be too ashamed.lemme talk to this walrus, here. Ah, f*** it. I like this music. Nice. JH: This game's for little girls. HH: I will master this frickin' game! I gotta take this home. JH: Henry, it belongs to EGM. HH: Bill me for it. Call San Francisco [EGM's home office]. I want this. JH: It's for little girls, Dad! HH: Girls, boys, whatever. Hey, I never had a childhood. Growing up with Paulie [former mob boss Paul Vario], you don't have a childhood. My childhood was taking a Molotov and throwing it through a window. JH: You played games, Dad. HH: If it didn't have dice, cards, or pistols, I never played it. EGM: So you'd never played a videogame before today? HH: The only one I played was Bong. EGM: Uh...Pong? HH: Bong, yeah. JH: It's Pong, not Bong. HH: This animal thing here, this is the longest I've ever been attached to a game. Julian, I could play this with your mother. Give us something in common. Besides sex. JH: Oh, God. Can we go now?

HENRY HILL Q&A EGM: You're familiar with tape recording devices? Henry Hill: My name is Henry Hill, and I'm an alcoholic [laughs]. EGM: When did the Federal Witness Protection Program end for you? HH: That ended in the early 80s. Well, I'm out of it but I'm not out of it. The FBI constantly keeps tabs on me. I still have an umbrella over me. I got a lot of stuff going on with the government, State of California, Nevada, Arizona. EGM: Stuff? HH: I get consulting jobs-not as far as setting people up, but I do seminars, I go to Quantico once or twice a year. I do seminars for new FBI agents coming into the organized crime beat. I teach a couple of times at the sheriffs' organized crime school. I've done a little pro bono work. I try to give back. When they ask me to do it I do it. But really, over the years I've had more wiseguys coming to me wanting to publish books and write scripts. EGM: They're more interested in you for your entertainment connections than anything mob-related? HH: Yeah. EGM: What's the deal with the Lucchese family? HH: They're all gone. Either doing a hundred years or dead. Dead mostly. I don't go to certain places where there's a bunch of young bucks hanging around. Where someone'll take a shot at me or put a f****n' knife in my back to make a name for himself. I don't live in fear anymore. I lived in fear long enough when I was in that world. Not anymore. Life's too short. I'm in the entertainment business. I don't f****n' know. It's an honest living. I feel good about it. EGM: What about acting? HH: I've even got a head shot. It's crazy, I get calls almost on a daily basis. But I'm saving myself for my own company. We're doing our first feature this year. I'm gonna be co-starring. EGM: No Sopranos? HH: I'd like to, but I don't really spend too much time in this town [Los Angeles]. Too crazy. That's why I got the ranch. Get away from this insanity. EGM: So what do you make of this national obsession with gangsters? HH: Vicariously, people think that it's glamorous or cool. I, personally, don't get it. I've been out of that world for 23 years. If people had to live that way for an hour of their lives, they would be against every aspect of it. I don't get it. It's surreal. EGM: GoodFellas was accurate? HH: 99% accurate. I worked with Nick [Pileggi] on the book [Wiseguy], I worked with Nick and Marty [Scorsese] on the script, I consulted on the movie, I'm writing the sequel now-the last 23 years. A lotta flashbacks, a lotta stuff that we missed in the first movie.