KiNOX's interview #9 |
| Target :
Fx3 Interviewer: MGandhi Date : 99/08/21 |
This interview is a part of KiNOX's website.
You're reading an interview done by MGandhi through IRC, with RockNES author: Fx3. If you're a NES fan, you must read it.
1 - Why start a NES emulator?
NES was a great videogame, with classic games and musics. An emulator brings these classics played in my infance, and, itīs fun to learn how that console work, how things are displayed and such. The start was xNes, like a door that was openned to me.
2 - We can be sure you're a NES fan because code a NES emu?
I always was a NES fun, before and after its emulation. Of course that emulation brings the videogame knowledgement :)
3 - What's your preferred NES emulator?
RockNES of course :) Sometimes I use loopyNES.
4 - You used xNES source to build RockNES, what's the improvements that you added to the source code?
Well, the xNES source was *very* preliminary and dirty. I had to do a big cleaned up! With the time, I could fix VROM/PRG pages switching, and later, a scanline graphics engine, which had increased *a lot* the number of working games. With the Nyef help, the PPU was rewritten and fixed, hence, more mappers were working, and more should be added easily. The sound code (from DarcNES) is being used. I did fixes. Itīs better, but, I donīt know if Iīm able to reach a loopyNES sound quality right now... I didnīt find a better config file yet. Kritz did a great work :) Currently, I had to rewrite something to suit new stuff.
5 - What's new things we can expect for RockNES in future?
RockNEs is a non-stop project. Things happen randomly, I never know what should be get done today or tomorrow... If i have correct info, so, this can be added. The future is unknown.
6 - Where/How you get info about mappers?
From a document called mappers.nfo (by \FireBug\) and from a mailing list called nesdev.
7 - Some days ago I suggested for you a new and cool thing to add, netplay, what do you think about that?
I canīt add īcause I donīt know yet. It would be nice if someone wants to do :)
8 - Besides NES, RockNES emulates another Nintendo systems. What are their names and a little explaination about them.
Sure. RockNES emulates VS Unisystem, arcade machines with minor differences. There is coins to insert. The sound and graphics should look the same. There is Playchoice-10 support too, but no coins and the original arcade has 2 monitors, one with the game and other with instructions (how to play). They are 10 games (best 10 games) which has a high score table added. Both are NES boards slightly improved.
9 - When RockNES will features a GUI?
No idea, sorry. Iīm not good yet with Allegroīs GUI routines... and writting my own should take time coding...
10 - Some people said for me that new gfx engine (EAGLE) didnt improved (a lot) the graphics, comment it.
It improves, but itīs in an early stage of development, hence the pixels are a bit messed up.
11 - At this momment, you're alone coding RockNES?
Yes.
(c) KiNOX