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DCEmu Interviews Go back to Main Page
Interview with: Brian Peek
Homepage: http://www.ganksoft.com/
Date: 2001
The Interview
Wraggster: Hello Brian can you tell us about yourself and where your from
and job,school etc?
Brian Peek: My name is Brian Peek, I'm 24 years old and I live in Schenectady,
New York. I currently work for a company called Rapid Application Developers
writing computer software. In my spare time I write games under my own company,
Ganksoft Entertainment, with a few friends (Bob Thayer (artist), David Wallimann
(music)).
Wraggster: How long have you been into computers and more specifically
coding?
Brian Peek: I used my first computer in 1st grade. My mom enrolled me in
a computer class that taught LOGO that summer, and I've been hooked ever
since. I started coding in 2nd or 3rd grade in Applesoft BASIC and them
moved over to PCs when I was in middle school. I've been coding in C since
my freshman year of high school when I taught it to myself.
Wraggster: What made you choose the projects you have worked on so far?
Brian Peek: NeoPocott was a fluke. I wanted to start working on the Dreamcast
but wanted to get a test project up and running quickly using libdream which
had been recently released. I found NeoPocott, contacted the author, and
I had it up and running in a few hours. It grew from there into an actual
release for the Dreamcast.
After that I wrote DreamPac because I was bored while working on Marbol,
our puzzle game, and it was a nice diversion.
Marbol, our forthcoming title, was a game that I thought of on the drive
back from Boston after a miserable training session I had to attend for
my real job.
Wraggster: What problems have you had and how did you overcome then?
Brian Peek: I haven't really had any huge issues. The biggest problem was
just getting everything set up with regard to the compiler, libdream/KOS,
Cygwin, etc. Other than that, not too many problems at all.
Wraggster: With Neopocott and Dreampac do you see any updates on these
rather great emulators?
Brian Peek: NeoPocott will only be updated if the original author decides
to update it. It's his code, so he knows it best. Right now he's working
on Boycott Advance, a GBA emulator. And no, there is no plan for a port
of Boycott Advance to the Dreamcast.
DreamPac will be updated at some point but I've been quite pressed for time
since E3 so it hasn't been touched in a while. But I will get back to it.
I'm more concerned with writing a real game instead of an emu at the moment
so that's my first priority.
Wraggster: How was E3 and congratulations on the release of the DcTonic
cd,and how did the public take to it?
Brian Peek: E3 was a disappointment this year. Hardly any free stuff, XBox
was pretty disappointing, and there just wasn't a whole lot going on. Though
the GameCube looks extremely promising, for as much as I hate Nintendo.
:)
DC Tonic has been taken quite well which makes me, and all of the authors
that contributed to it quite happy. Just take a look at the "Polls"
section on our site to see what people thought of it. I'd be extremely happy
to see it written up in one of the major gaming mags, but I don't think
that will happen.
Wraggster: Do you have any new projects in mind?
Brian Peek: We have lots of projects in mind, just too little time. We're
currently exploring the GBA at the moment and plan on putting out a title
or two over there. But we're not done with the Dreamcast quite yet...
Wraggster: What is your favourite Dreamcast emulator?
Brian Peek: So far, it's NesterDC. I'm hoping the author keeps up the project.
It's one of the more impressive things to come in the hobbyist scene.
Wraggster: What is your opinion of the Emulator Bleemcast from a technical
point of view?
Brian Peek: I think it's impressive, but I'm disappointed with the hype
they gave it and what actually came out of it. I saw it at E3 last year
and it was running a few games with the promise of hundreds. We got 1. And
even that doesn't run at full speed all the time like they claimed. But
hey, NeoPocott doesn't run at full speed either. :)
Technically it's good, but I would have thought more of it had the hype
not made it out to be something it wasn't.
Wraggster: What is your favourite game for NeoPocott?
Brian Peek: I have a few...Metal Slug ½, Sonic, and Cotton. Wish
they made more shooters...
Wraggster: What is your opinion of the Dreamcast Scene ,Wraggster,and what
would you do to improve it to make it more accessible?
Brian Peek: I'm quite impressed with how far it has gotten, but I'm starting
to see it slow down which is a bit disappointing. I wish people would concentrate
on making original games instead of emulators. We've got a ton of emus,
it's time for something else. As for making it more accessible, I'm not
sure how that could be done. It's already very accessible. As long as you
have a CDR drive and DiscJuggler or Nero, you can play anything that's released.
No hardware mods, etc.
Wraggster: What is your view on the other new super consoles and the possibilitys
of hobbyist development on them ie gba etc?
Brian Peek: XBox is in trouble, PS2 is hyper-disappointing, GameCube was
very cool, and I love my GB. The GBA scene has already exploded. We're going
to join it quite soon. I belive XBox will be very easy to develop on since
the hardware is so standard. I don't think it will take long for someone
to find a way to run code on it. PS2 is a pain in the ass to do anything
on and until someone comes up with an EASY way to either upload code or
run CDRs on it, I think it will remain quite stagnant. And finally, the
GameCube will probably be extremely difficult to code on. The media is proprietary
and not even a standard size. But, you never know...I hope we can figure
something out on that one.
Wraggster: May i say thank you for your time and good luck with your project
on behalf of DCEmulation and the rest of the emulation scene.
Brian Peek: Thank you! Keep up the good work on Wraggster. It's a great
resource for the DC community.
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