1. Introduce yourself please
I am Delta. My real name is Eli Dayan (Eli is pronounced like "jelly", minus
the j, incase you are wondering). I am 18 years old and I live in Hewlett,
New York. I am currently employed by a nearby Web Design company where I do
all sorts of programming. I am also the co-author of Pretendo (Evan Teran
(PrOxY) is the other). Oh yes, I also love the NES ;).
2. When were your first contacts with emulation?
I think it was about three years ago, when a friend of mine showed me
NESticle. I was quite impressed and amazed when we loaded up Contra for the
first time, and saw it running at full speed, with sound on an old Pentium
machine! At the time, this was probably one of the coolest pieces of
software I had ever seen. Naturally, I thought to myself "I have to make one
of those!". I then stumbled upon a couple of emulation sites like Dave's
Classics (now Vintage Gaming), Zophar's Domain, and Archaic Ruins. I recall
downloading emulators like Snes9x (the second emulator I ever used),
Genecyst, and HU6280 (whatever happened to that one!?). The rest, is
history.....
3. What was your motivation to code a NES emulator?
I think I was initially motivated by NESticle. If anything, seeing, and
using NESticle was probably what really got the ball rolling, in terms of my
programming. I had been using VB for quite some time (two years) prior to
seeing NESticle. I realized that VB wasn't (and in my opinion still isn't)
flexible enough to write an emulator in, so I began to learn C. There were
other things involved too, though. I was younger at the time, so naturally,
I wanted a bit of attention. As a kid (and now still) I played NES lots. At
the time of Pretendo's conception, I don't recall there being too many
Windows-native NES emulators, so I wanted to try and create a good one. Now,
my motivations for working on Pretendo are completely different, though.
4. Why this name, Pretendo?
Hmm... The name "Pretendo" was suggested to me by a friend of mine (not the
one who showed me NESticle). I knew it was a keeper, and at the time, I
decided to call it that, even before I started working on it. Apparently,
Pretendo means "I pretend" in Spanish. A few people have asked me if that's
the reason I named it what I did. Answer to that is no. The name Pretendo
is basically just a play on words. It is an emulator, therefore, it's
Pretending to be Nintendo.... so if any of that made any sense, that's where
"Pretendo" comes from.
5. Who helped you to code Pretendo?
Well, PrOxY and I are co-authors of the project, so that's a given. Other
than that, there have been quite a lot of nice people who have extended their
knowledge to help us make Pretendo what is is (or isn't.. ;) ) today. If I
were to name a few right off the bat: Nyef (of Darcnes fame), Neil Bradley
(master of ASM CPU cores), and loopy (obviously of loopynes). I have also
learned a lot from posts to the nesdev mailing list, as well as spending
countless hours on IRC in #***** (for some reason they don't like it
publicized or something... though it's not that hard to figure it out).
Also, I must not forget to mention people like Jeremy Chadwick (y0shi), and
Marat Fayzullin, both have written excellent documentation of NES hardware.
6. Is it really discontinued for the public?
For now, yes. If things go well in the future, we will all certainly see a
public release, but not for quite some time, though. I am mainly working on
Pretendo for myself, and my own personal gain. I do not want attention (like
some people might think), and I certainly don't want to add a lacking
emulator to the already deep pool of NES emulators. Currently, Pretendo is
undergoing a (final) rewrite. PrOxY and I do not plan on releasing anything
publicly until things are really rockin' again, so it will probably be
awhile.
7. Why have you decided to code Pretendo for Windows?
As I said in question three, at the time of Pretendo's conception, there
weren't very many NES emulators for Windows, so, I thought it was a good
idea. It's a whole different story now, though, as you can see in the next
question.
8. What are the ports availables of Pretendo?
With the new codebase, that PrOxY and I are currently working on, one of our
aims is portability. I am developing Pretendo under BeOS, using GCC and
NASM. PrOxY will be working on Linux and Windows versions, so not to worry
if you don't run BeOS. As for the older codebase, there was of course a
Windows version available, version 0.20, if I remember correctly, and a BeOS
version which I ported sometime in early June. You can find the Windows
version on most emulation sites, and the BeOS version lives at: http://
www.bebits.com/app/1311. Hopefully we will see the new codebase running on
MacOS too, if we can find someone willing to port it.
9. Why there are tons of NES emulators?
Good question, with a lot of answers. Hopefully I can provide a few logical
ones. I think NES was probably one of the most popular consoles of all time.
So many people, (myself included) had one (or more) at some point in their
lives. One of the reasons I decided to write a NES emulator, instead of
something else, is because I grew up playing NES. I would assume that most
others are doing it for the same reason I am, but there's always a few who
are doing it just for the attention, which is not cool. I really think that
with all these NES emulators out there, it's difficult to find one you like
without a lot of research. Right now, I think there are at least two or
three good quality NES emulators available for the major operating systems,
so it's just a matter of finding the one you like, I guess. I personally
don't think we need any more NES emulators, but who am I to judge? I wonder
sometimes why new emulator programmers steer in the direction of NES. It's
been done and re-done so many times, that there's really no point anymore.
I'd rather see a new TG-16/PCE emulator, or a new SNES emulator, or
something. Surely _everyone_ didn't grow up playing NES, or did they? So it
seems ^_^.
10. Is not source code a good solution? What is your opinion about nester?
Open source (which is what I think this question is referring to) is an
excellent idea. But, abusing source code is where I would draw the line,
I've seen it happen plenty of times, and it's not cool. If it hadn't been
for open source, Pretendo would definitely not have gotten the jumpstart it
did, as the very early versions were based on Bero's FCE. I'm pretty sure I
made that clear in Pretendo's readme file. As for nester, I think it's
probably one of the better NES emulators available to date. Darren is doing
a fantastic job with it, and the fact that he GPL'd it, is even more
impressive. However, nester is a perfect example of the two outcomes of open
source. Projects like "unofficial nester" and nesterJ (maybe they are the
same, I don't know) are great examples of the good that can come out of open
source. The authors of unofficial nester are taking a great NES emulator,
improving it by adding all sorts of mapper support, and making the sources
available, as the GPL license requires them to. Unfortunately, we sometimes
see projects like "Famicommunist" which basically spit on the idea of Open
Source by violating a liscense. Ripping sources directly from an any program
without crediting the original author is not only the wrong thing to do, it's
also lame and childish. Unfortunately for CyberBry (Famicommunist "author")
didn't realize what his actions would get him into. It's sort of like the
"What goes around comes around" saying, I guess. So where is CyberBry these
days? Nobody knows. He made a (big) mistake, and is now paying for it, I
guess, by having disappeared from the scene.
11. Is Pretendo your only emulation project?
For me, for now, yes. The idea of emulating SNES has been in the back of my
mind for sometime now, but I don't think that will be a reality (if so) for a
very long time. As for PrOxY, he is currently developing a Playstation
emulator under Linux, called "Fakestation". I have seen it show the Sony
BIOS screen, and according to PrOxY it is already running a few demos. I
think it will definitely be a nice project to look out for. Hopefully, if
time allows, I will be able to work on a BeOS version. If you're
wondering... No, PrOxY didn't steal any sources from FPSE ;).
12. What is your preferred emulator besides Pretendo? Why?
Keeping within the realm of NES, I think loopynes is probably my favourite
NES emulator. It's small, fast, insanely accurate, and very easy to use.
loopy has done an excellent job with it, and I hope to see future versions.
As for other stuff, I like SNES9x a lot.. I really wish someone would update
the BeOS port. ZSNES is great too, but I don't run Windows at home anymore,
so my selection is quite limited. I liked HU6280 a lot too, but it hasn't
been updated in a very long time, and the homepage isn't too promising
either. For SMS, I'll probably side with Meka. As for Genesis, I have
always been partial to Genecyst, though Gens is pretty damn good.... and DGen
is great too since it's available for BeOS. I have also been following one
of the newest Genesis emulators, Genital, and I think it has a great future.
Again, if time allows, I might be able to port Genital to BeOS, so we'll see
:D.
13. Actually, how many contributors has Pretendo?
Lots. Obviously PrOxY and myself are the main contributors. But between all
the people on the nesdev mailing list, some of the people in #*****, all of
those who have written NES docuementation, those I have met on ICQ, or
IRC.... etc, etc, the list goes on... there are quite a lot as you can see.
14. Is the NES scene a good place? Are there a lot of "fights"?
Hehe no ^_^. Well, actually that depends. As far as emulation goes, I think
it's gotten out of hand. It's lame, period. I don't have much else to say
regarding that. As for the fighting, I wouldn't call it that exactly, but
from what I have seen, and have been involved with in #****** I think it's
more of a "teritorrial pissings" kind of thing, where certain people convey
the "I'm better than you attitude". These people are trying to run the show
in there, and it's just not cool. It's usually just some bickering, and
that's all. This doesn't apply for all, just some people. I think the real
goodness in the NES scene lies in the hands of the "hackers", and developers.
I always find it rewarding to read about some newly discovered facets of the
NES due to someone's reverse-engineering work. It's also fun trying out a
new homebrewn NES demo, or something like that.
15. Is true that most of current NES emulators have used Bero's code to
start?
I have no idea. I know Pretendo did, and I will openly admit that. I'm sure
there are a few that have done the same also, but unfortunately, just like
the open source thing, there's two ways it can go. Using the sources and
crediting Bero for the original codebase (FCE Ultra being an excellent
example here), or using the sources and not saying anything.. which I'm sure
some people have done.... I just can't recall any offhand.
16. What happened in HyNES issue?
It's a bit of a long story, but I'll try and sum it up. Basically in my
"scene farewell" note, that I left up on http;//www.pretendo.org/news (it's
probably still there) I said some things about HyNES that the author
apparently didn't like. I have talked it out with him, and we have
straightened things out, but to me it is still quite evenident that the HyNES
team likes attention, a lot. I basically said things to the effect that the
author should concentrate on learning about NES hardware and architecture,
rather than release a GUI that doesn't emulate anything. I also put down the
fact that he's working in VB is quite wasteful. In any case, I just think
the author took what I said the wrong way, and made an un-necessary big deal
out of things. He apparently thought my intentions were to have him cancel
his project. I just wanted him to get a clue of what writing an NES emulator
is all about.
17. Besides HyNES, what emulators do you consider unnecessary stuff?
Blatantly obvious source rips, like Famicommunist. I also think that rushing
to emulate the newest system out there is un-necessary. I feel the point of
emulation is to preserve the older games, so that the emu-scene is more a
place for nostalgia, than for warez. Unfortunately, we see the opposite
happening. We have emulators for many of the "newer" systems, like N64, PSX,
Dreamcast (I recall seeing something about that). I think the worst was when
we saw that Gameboy Advance emulator pop out of nowhere. GBA isn't even out
yet! It's too bad that the emu-scene is turning into a medium for
distributing warez. There's not much that can be done about it though.
18. Is the fakes/rip-off emulators avalanche back?
The fakes and ripoffs are annoying. In cases like these, it's usually just
for the so called fifteen minutes of fame. Attention is great, but it can
soon turn into hate when the truth is discovered. I never really understood
why people make fake emulators.... What are they trying to prove? In any
case, I now just try my best to ignore them. Famicommunist and the whole
HyNES situation has left a bad taste in my mouth, but now I just try my best
not to let it bother me, and things work out.
19. Where is emu scene going?
Straight down. That's all in the eye of the beholder, though. If things
continue as they are, it will get progressively worse. Unfortunately, I see
a correlation between emulation and warez, which is completely not the idea.
I think a project like MAME is excellent, as the team is really doing a
fantastic job of displaying what emulation is about. That being preserving
the nostalgia. I think that the more "next-gen" emulators we see, the more
warez-oriented, and therefore worse, the scene will become. It's always nice
to see emulators for some of the older consoles that haven't yet been
emulated. A project like AGES, for example (emulating the 32X, and SegaCD)
can bring good spirit back to the scene.
20. What do you think about non-free emulators?
I think they're wasteful. Often times, we will see better (free) emulators
than those which are non-free. iNES comes to mind. I don't see why anyone
would pay the $35 (or whatever it is) for it, when they can get something
much more advanced, and much better for free. As a programmer, though, I
know what kind of work really goes into projects like these, so I can
understand why people charge money. The bottom line is it's very hard work,
and it's always nice to be rewarded for that. I think Zoop of Meka has the
right idea, in that he distributes new versions of his emulator to those who
have helped him out (by donating carts, for example) before he releases it
publicy. This is currently what I'm trying to do with Pretendo.
21. Will you start to dump ROMs?
Absolutely. Interesting that you mentioned that, actually, because I'm
currently building a NES ROM dumper/development kit. It's about half way
done right now, and I hope I can finish building it before the year is out.
It's my first real electronics project, so I'm pretty much learning as I go
along. WIth that disadvantage, and a a fulltime job, I don't have very much
time to work on it, on a daily basis, for example. As for the ROM dumping
though, I collect NES carts (fun hobby) and I intend to dump whatever I can
get my hands on. I used to own an overly large NES ROM collection, which I
lost, along with the rest of my win32 partition, about two weeks ago. So now
I'm testing Pretendo with public domain ROMs, and eventually anything I own,
and can therefore dump. This way it's
1. completely legal
2. very easy for me to build a compatibility list.
Ofcourse the benefit to me is that if someone really likes Pretendo, but
can't seem to get XXXXX game working, they can always donate the cart to
Pretendo's cause, and I would ensure the game would work in a future version.
22. What are your future projects?
Pretendo of course ;). As soon as my dumper/devkit is done, I intend to
start doing some real NES development, and reverse engineering, so you can
probably count on seeing an NES demo (or a few), or some NES technical
documentation from me. My goal with Pretendo is to work on it for personal
gain, and satisfaction, and release it to the public when I feel it's fast
and accurate enough. Also, as previously mentioned somewhere in this
interview, I hope to port PrOxY's PSX emulator to BeOS, as well as port
Genital to BeOS. I hope to return to school next year, so who knows.... I
might decide to write an emulator for a college project, or something. We'll
see... ^_^.
22. Your final considerations?
Uh, yeah. I hope this wasn't a boring interview, I just realized how
freakin' long it is! Hmm... long live NES!
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