Chui's Interview
This interview with Chui was taken by Maturion in February 2008.
What is your current Dreamcast project that you are mainly working on?
During last year i have worked on:
- New FAZE Z80 assembler core for ZX4ALL, MAME4ALL and NEO4ALL emulators.
- DCaSTaway emulator was adapted to FAME M68K core, so now it is more stable and more fast.
- A new and secret emulator project by Fox and me.
- ZX4ALL emulator was released with a lot of enhanced features.
- First alpha release of Neverball game.
- KGLX library continued for getting a new OpenGL implementation for KallistiOS.
- DreamEDGE (EDGE) and DreamPlaces (DarkPlaces) 3D engines port using new KGLX library.
In general, 2007 was not a very productive year for me because my son was born and he needs a lot of my free time, but i love playing with him. Also i hope release a beta non-playable of Fusion game (DreamEdge based) and other for RetroMadrid/MadriDC 2008 party (8th March):
When did you start developing Dreamcast software and why did you do that?
I started to coding for Dreamcast around 2003 summer with a simple SDL port, DCIRCUS. At this time, i was porting SDL for GP32, but Fox persuaded me for continuing FAME M68K core for Dreamcast and Ron for porting Castaway (an Atari-ST computer emulator). Then i was falling in love, this machine is wonderful. But i always have seen to Dreamcast a good platform for emulators because it is enought powerfull and cheap for playing old games on a TV. There are not a lot of people coding for Dreamcast now, i think that there are a lot of things to do yet.
Some time ago an unknown programmer from Germany has made a basic Dreamcast port of DaedalusPSP (DaedalusDC, a Nintendo64 emulator. Sadly, he won't continue his work on this emulator. Do you think anybody will continue his work? Will this emulator ever allow to play games in a playable speed?
I think that it is not easy that another coder continues that work because it is a hard task and it is possible that never runs for playing decent way. Maybe i will continue it at far future, now i have a lot of running projects, but i always have wanted to try it after PSX4ALL.
What do you recommend coders who want to start out with Dreamcast programming?
I recommend writing SDL portable code as far as possible. Because it is more easy and confortable work for your PC, like running a simple test or debugging and tracing a bug.
Did you work with any other consoles or handhelds than the Dreamcast?
Mainly i have worked for GP32 console, porting SDL libraries and Fenix gaming runtime. I love this handheld console but there are a lot of people that write code for it (now for GP2X), so it is not necesary my contribution now.
Will you release a new version of SDL for the Dreamcast?
I planned to release this year using newest SDL version and a bit changes. But really SDL for Dreamcast is very complete and stable now. Anyway, KGLX will be a good complement, i think that a lot of 3D games could be ported, like Neverball.
What are your wishes for the Dreamcast scene in 2008?
I wish for have a lot of time for doing ports and games for Dreamcast. And i encourage all scene for not falling in lazyness, there are a lot of work to do and it is very funny.
Do you think the Dreamcast will still see some new releases after 2008?
Why not? I would like continue coding for it, it is my hobby and i want not change it as developing target. I see now new releses for ZX-Spectrum computer, it is a very old machine with a decent scene.
Do you think SEGA will ever make a new console?
I really do not know but maybe it is not important because SEGA is not dead and continues doing fantastic games. Always i was a Nintendo fan and it is perfect play SEGA games with a DS or Wii.