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Let $\lambda$ be a limit of Woodin cardinals. It was shown by the second author that the pointclass of ${<\lambda}$-homogeneously Suslin sets has the scale property. We give a new proof of this fact, which avoids the use of stationary tower forcing., Comment: 11 pages

Let M be a fine structural mouse. Let D be a fully backgrounded L[E]-construction computed inside an iterable coarse premouse S. We describe a process comparing M with D, through forming iteration trees on M and on S. We then prove that this process succeeds.

If T is an iteration tree on K and F is a countably certified extender that coheres with the final model of T, then F is on the extender sequence of the final model of T. Several applications of maximality are proved, including: o K computes successors of weakly compact cardinals correctly. o K^c is an iterate of K. o (with Mitchell) If alpha is a cardinal > aleph_1, then K-restriction-alpha is universal for mice of height alpha. Other results in this paper, when combined with work of Woodin, imply: o If square-kappa-finite fails and kappa is a singular, strong limit cardinal, then Inductive Determinacy holds. o If square-kappa-finite fails and kappa is a weakly compact cardinal, then L(R)-determinacy holds.

A cardinal kappa is countably closed if mu^omega < kappa whenever mu < kappa. Assume that there is no inner model with a Woodin cardinal and that every set has a sharp. Let K be the core model. Assume that kappa is a countably closed cardinal and that alpha is a successor cardinal of K with kappa < alpha < kappa^+. Then cf( alpha ) = kappa. In particular, K computes successors of countably closed singular cardinals correctly. (The hypothesis of countable closure is not required; see "Weak covering without countable closure", W. J. Mitchell and E. Schimmerling, Math. Res. Lett., Vol. 2, No. 5, Sept. 1995.)

We introduce two new iteration games: the game G, which is a strengthening of the weak iteration game, and the game G+, which is somewhat stronger than G but weaker than the full iteration game of length omega_1. For a countable M elementarily embeddable in some V_{eta}, we can show that II wins G(M,omega_1) and that I does not win the G+(M).