1. Introduce yourself :)
Hmm ... I actually hate intruducing me ;) ... but I guess an interview needs that to be complete. Well, I'm 22, life in Germany, my first experiences with emulators occured in early 1997, and since late 1998 I'm addicted to the EFnet emulation IRC channels ...

2. Why this nick? Katharsis?
Hmm ... This nick comes from about 5 years ago when I really felt like what the word expesses ... I will paste it's meaning taken from an encyclopedia here:
katharsis: [greek; "(ritual) cleaning"]
1. Purging of the soul of passions as effect of [antique] tragedy (literature scientific).
2. Releasing itself from mental conflicts and internal voltages by an emotional abreaction (psychological)

3. What were your first contacts? Emulators, ROMs?
A friend of mine was at The Party 96 (a big demo competition) and brought a cd with some SNES roms and an emulator with him ... he burnt them for me and I discovered it quite a bit later ... and since then I was addicted.

4. Before get involved with NeoGeo emulation, were you always a SNK fan?
Yes ... I always dreamt of a NeoGeo home console since I firstly read about it in the german Video Games magazines ... but I certainly couldn't afford it then ... now I got a MVS cabinet with all my favorite games in it. ;)

5. Where did you get this MVS cabinet?
I bought it in closing local arcade which sells arcade stuff, videogames as well, mostly PSX and N64 crap ... the MVS carts are partly from eBay and from an arcade systems store in my city.

6. Sometimes we hear guys saying: SNK cant release any game besides fighting games... do you agree with them?
Plain and simple: No ... make it fighting games and shooters and you're right. (as long you count Metal Slug also as "Shooter") [SNK also has sports games (i.e Street Hoops, Windjammer) and racing games (i.e Neo Drift Out)]

7. SNK has announced some days ago they will release Metal Slug 3 for MVS. What are the MVS's advantages?
Well, MVS is in japanese arcades still a very wide-spread system and I guess they still can make some serious bucks with releasing a successor to one their most popular series of games. ;)

8. Some months ago, in January (if I'm not wrong), I have heard something about MVS arcades and Year 2000 bug... Are they Y2K?
The ones I know still run and I don't know of any problems that have occured in January ... so I guess they are Y2K compliant. ;) Mine also runs ;) [ROMList (www.romlist.com) has a screenshot of the board booting in January 1, 2000]

9. Besides your work posting news on GeoShock (http://geoshock.dhs.org), do you dump ROMs too?
Nah ... never did and most likely never will do ... besides my MVS stuff I don't have any arcade boards ...

10. When did you join GeoShock?
Well, that's an easy one ... 7th of September, 1999 [btw, the same day of Brazil's Independence Day]

11. Before GeoShock, did you have work for another site?
Hmm ... I guess not ... I submitted some news to Atila of Retrogames whenever I discovered something and that's about all ...

12. And what's happened with GeoShock? What were the reasons to shutdown?
Well, just as it was posted on the Geoshock page, the site was hosted at a department in an University located in USA, and mostly due to security issues the one who hosted us there had to pull the plug ...

13. Have your or [Haze] already received something from SNK? Letters, prizes, sues ;)?
Never ... nothing ... I expected allways something to come ... but there never did ... Actually I was waiting for an SNK Squad of Troopers trying to hunt me down and execute me ;)

14. Was your idea to start NeoMAME? Has it been discontinued?
Well, we didn't really "start" something with it, and it is no development by us ... every baby could compile a NeoGeo only MAME ... ;) ... and whenever there was something improved in the MAME NeoGeo drivers we compiled and posted such a "NeoMAME"

15. You said some interviews ago you helped Antiriad (Raine). How have you helped him?
Hmm ... mainly kept him in good mood ;) ... and did some CRC32 and dipswitch stuff for helping him ...

16. Is Raine your favorite emulator?
Yes ... it's also the emulator a spent most time playing games with ... much more that with any other emu.

17. And whats your favorite emulator for NeoGeo?
My own NeoGeo only compile of MAME, Dos-MAME

18. It's the same compilation of NeoMAME or has something different to get faster, more stuff?
Well, I allways add the newest KOF'99 and now Garou patches, use a different Allegro SideWinder code, and I did every speed optimization I know ... ;)

19. Is it just private?
Yes ... offering it to the public is not allowed due to the MAME license ... ;) Actually I begin to think with all that fuss about MAME binaries there shouldn't be any non-source versions anymore .. I'd add that to the MAME license ... no more binary distribution

20. What's the reason of the delay between the dump and the release to the public?
Hmm... that's something you should ask someone who actually dumps roms ... I guess the reasons differ from dumper to dumper ... maybe sometimes it's just lack of distribution means ...

21. Are you re-creating GeoShock?
Yes ... :) ... you might have noticed the notice on http://geoshock.dhs.org/ ... I'm currently in the process of rebuilding and changing stuff for it ... But it won't take too long anymore. So be prepared ... :)

22. I have heard about PHP3 things, what are the news or it's surprise?
Well, php3 is just a server sided extension to html and I am using it to make administration of the site easier and faster ... no big deal ... ;). http://www.php.net/ for information

23. Why geoshock.dhs.org is redirecting to A@H?
There are really too many things I don't want to tell behind it

24. What do you think about RS?
Well, that's a very difficult question ... I didn't talk to him since Haze revealed the truth about all about the story behind the KOF99 dump ... I know that it's the truth, and i knew it for quite a while now ... but I still don't know what his reaction on it is, as i never told him that I know it ... [according some sources, RS has quit the scene (again) to "think about his life" and uploaded a false 404 page into his site. He's working on a PSX ISO website]

25. Do you think emulation needs donations to continue, or can walk itself without money helps?
Hmm... that's really a two sided coin ... on one hand begging for money donations is somewhat lame ... but on the other hand there ARE boards that still need dumping like many Model 1 boards, and they are very expensive ... so I'm not sure ... I think it's better when stuff happens without it

25. What are you expecting to NeoGeo emulation? Hyper64 soon?
NeoGeo emulation ... hmm ... dead? Well, close to ... most stuff is emulated very well, the newer boards might never be dumped without beta/bootleg boards, and SNK seems to stop development for MVS finally now ... well, ppl will enjoy the emulated NeoGeo games for a long time to come maybe, but there won't be much new happening anymore ... I don't expect HyperNeoGeo 64 emulation too soon ...

26. I dont know nothing about HyperNeoGeo 64... but you can answer me... What will be available firstly? CPS2 or HyperNeoGeo 64?
Hmm ... that's a tough one ;) ... I wouldn't bet any money, but I'd say HNG64 ... But still wouldn't expect it this year and maybe nor next...

27. Have all games for MVS been released?
Hmm ... there is new stuff like Strikers 1945 and Prehistoric Isle II that cannot be dumped because of protection ... and there are maybe still some rare and beta boards to dump like Ironcald MVS (if it exists) and other ...

28. When Geoshock will be back?
Hehe ... soon ... very soon ... I don't want to state a fixed date coz ppl would hate me when it takes one or two days longer then ...

29. Finally the final question: There are rumors about GeoShock back at our Forum. According some visitors, GeoShock has been sold to Tim Eckel, owner of A@H. Is it true?
No ... Geoshock will never be sold to anyone (well, you can send offers to katharsis@friendfactory.com tho ;) ...