Rlyeh's Interview

 

Rlyeh's Site can be found here.

 

and here's the christmas release of fZX32

 

Hooka: When did you get your gp32?

 

Rlyeh: I got my first GP32 at 15/May/2002... and one month later I released the first fMSX32 build :)

 

Hooka: What convinced you to get one?

 

Rlyeh: I had got an imported Japanese GBA previously just for the fun of spectrum emulation, but its poor screen resolution for ZX made me change for a GP32, which I had been expecting since 2000.

 

Hooka: What dev environment do you use?

 

Rlyeh: I use a mix of compilers (arm ads/arm sdt/gnu c 3.0.4/gnu c 3.4.0), edit.exe/cmd.exe for managing my sources (yeah DOS!), firefly's gp32 drivers, mr_spiv's b2fxec.exe & multifw2.bin, and DarkFader's pclink101.exe as well, and a bunch of .bat files since I don’t like makefiles :D

 

Hooka: Why did you decide to use the nick Rlyeh? It always makes me think of Ryleh from the Metroid series :)

 

Rlyeh: R'lyeh is a sunk city in the Pacific Ocean, where the dead god Cthulhu awaits to be woken up. I'd suggest everyone to read some books of HP Lovecraft & company like 'Dunwich's Horror' as a first one :) I love 'em!

 

Hooka: Porting 13 emulators at the same time, is it hard working on that many emulators at a time?

 

Rlyeh: Not really. It's funnier this way. If I get bored of a project I move quickly to another one and so on...

 

Hooka: In total what thirteen emulators are you porting?

 

Rlyeh: Gloops! I hope to not skip any of them! fZX32, fMSX32, fNES32, fGB32, fSMS32, fGEN32, fWS32, fMAME32, fPCE32, fCOL32, fCPC32 and fNGP32 (sigh!) I'm not including some dropped private ports, like two old mame sources I ported, a previous fGEN32 source based on Generator emulator, a mame based neogeo emulator (fNG32) (sadly gp32 had no ram enough to load the smallest neogeo rom), and fSNES which never displayed any interesting thing.

 

Rlyeh: If I'm right and if we count fOGG32, we got 18 ports so far, currently 12 emus and 1 app alive, and 5 dropped projects.

 

Hooka: What other programs are you porting? (I'm not sure about anything besides fOGG32)

 

Rlyeh: fOGG32 only, which is not dropped. Just delayed at the moment.

 

Hooka: Have you gotten Reesy's core all separated from the rest of the code?

 

Rlyeh: I had no time enough, but Reesy just informed he is finishing DrZ80, which is the Z80 ASM core + (C?) interface :)

 

Hooka: Did anybody ever teach Reesy how to turn his asm core into an object file for use with c code? (Atleast I think that's how it works ;) )

 

Rlyeh: Well, I don't mind about that. I was very impressed how Reesy coded DrSMS. It's a very elegant source code and clean to compile. And it's only one .s file for the whole emulator! :-) Sweet!

 

Hooka: Do you still plan on finishing fNES32 or do you feel that Little John is a complete enough NES emulator that there's no need?

 

Rlyeh: I think fNES32 has a much better sound, and supports more NES mappers (137!). I have been fixing unfortunately lots of InfoNES bugs for a year, and there are some graphical glitches to solve first which avoids me to release fNES32. I'm very happy too fNES32 runs flawlessly at fskip1 with a 100% C source code!

 

Rlyeh: Anyways YoYo has done a very graphical accurate and playable NES emulator indeed! There is no need for another NES emulator at the moment.

 

Hooka: Are you planning on new releases of fGB32 and fSMS32 with Reesy's asm z80 core? (OK, I kinda figured from your saying that you did some work on them in your last fGEN32 beta)

 

Rlyeh: I'm not sure yet. It could be easy to do with fSMS32, but I'm sure I would have to modify DrZ80 for fGB32.

 

Hooka: Have you tried integrating Dave's 68000 ARM asm core or Reesy's z80 ARM asm core into fMAME32? If so has it allowed alot of arcade games to run significantly faster?

 

Rlyeh: Haven’t tried yet. But after releasing fGEN32 and new fGB32/fSMS32 betas, I'll move to fMAME32 for sure.

 

Hooka: Do you think that full speed Bubble Bobble (Arcade version) with Reesy's z80 core is possible?

 

Rlyeh: I can guarantee you Snow Bros. is almost playable *now*... so Bubble Bobble... why not? :)

 

Hooka: What about Neo Geo AES or MVS Emulation? What about with Robster's 32/64 MB ram upgrade?

 

Rlyeh: Robster has offered me a free 32m/64m upgrade repeated times, and I'm willing to send him one of my gp32's. As soon as I got it I'll try that neogeo port I did sometime ago ]:) For the rest of users I hope NeoGeo CD would be worthy since RAM is very very limited in this case. Dunno really.

 

Hooka: In fSMS32 it has an option for multiplayer with either the GP-Link (by Black--) or USB Internet (by Pirotic) Do either of these work? (When I asked Pirotic about it he said he did make a usb Internet thing but never shared the source with anyone until I sent him a screenshot then he just said well maybe I did but good luck using it without the pc-client ;P)

 

Rlyeh: I had mailed Pirotic before the fSMS32 release asking for his tcp/ip usb based client and sources. He told me to send me the stuff and I added the option to fSMS32 but I never received the mail. At the time of fSMS32 release I forgot to remove the Pirotic option which is unused indeed. That's all. The option has been already removed on current source code until further notice.

 

Hooka: Do you plan on adding multiplayer to any of your other emu's?

 

Rlyeh: Yeah why not. As soon as I get rid of some desyncs bugs as seen in fMSX32 and fSMS32. Black--'s RF Lib’s rule! I have to ask black-- once again how he did his GpEngine multiplayer version so cute! His emu never desyncs! :D

 

Hooka: What's your cat's name?

Rlyeh: Luna, which means Moon in Spanish.

 

Hooka: That's cool, it looks like an older version of this cat I adopted after finding it in my garage, but her name is Cookie, which is English (slang) for the tanned skin around a nip... uh, nevermind!

 

Hooka: Could you give a quick status update on your emulators?

 

Rlyeh: OMFG! Well, something quick:

 

Rlyeh: Worthy: fGEN32, fMAME32 (2 months), fSMS32, fGB32, fMSX32, fCOL32, fNES32

 

Rlyeh: Non-worthy: fCPC32, fWS32, fNGP32, fZX32, fPCE32

 

Rlyeh: Incoming: fGEN32 first public release, new fSMS32/fGB32 betas (bugfixed), new fMAME32 with Cyclone+DrZ80

 

Rlyeh: Planned soon: new fMSX32 revision, fNES32 debugging, new fCPC32 port (Caprice based), new fZX32 port (Fuse based)

 

Rlyeh: No idea about it yet: fWS32, fNGP32, and fPCE32

 

Hooka: Animated savestates seem like a really cool idea, I'd never seen it before I saw it in fGEN32, did you get it from another emulator or just make it yourself?

 

Rlyeh: It was the product of an inspired day. Dunno if any emulator features that already. If so, let me know please :)

 

Hooka: Does fWS32 have sound?

 

Rlyeh: Yes, it has the OSwan 0.70 sound core but its not interesting at the moment (quite noisy). WSCamp emu sounds much better!

 

Rlyeh: Rattboi is trying to contact WSCamp author to try a very nice sound core! Let's cross our fingers!

 

Hooka: What is the compatibility of fPCE32 like? Will it play all the Bonk's? (lol microsoft word wanted me to call it bong's)

 

Rlyeh: fPCE32 is not worthy yet. Compatibility is high, but there are some sprite priority bugs, there is no sound... and its quite slow at the moment too! :P

 

Hooka: Do you plan to eventually merge all your projects into one super emulator?

 

Rlyeh: Yup why not... maybe I will leave a final gift before quitting the gp32 scene, whenever the time comes.

 

Hooka: What are your favorite games for all the emulators your porting?

 

Rlyeh: ZX: Myth - History in the making, Target Renegade, Sacred armour of Antiriad, The great escape, Head Over Heels, Batman, Firelord, Where time stood still, Rex, Kinetik, Dynamite Dan, Emlyn Hughes interational soccer, Back to skool, Jack the Nipper 2, Sir Fred etc! etc! :)

 

Rlyeh: MSX: Penguin Adventure, Firebird, Salamander, Nemesis series, Space Manbow, Metal Gear series, Kings Valley series, Knightmare series, Aleste 2, The Goonies, Treasure of Usas, Quarth, etc!! :D

 

Rlyeh: GEN: ThunderForce IV, Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier, Sonic 1, Soleil, Flashback, Another World, Shinobi 3, Story of Thor, etc

 

Rlyeh: MAME: Ghosts 'n goblins, Commando, 1943, Pooyan, Mr Do! Castle, Snow Bros, Bubble Bobble, DonPachi series, Metal Slug series, In the hunt, The Simpsons, TMNT, etc

 

Rlyeh: SMS: Golden Axe Warrior, Super Off Road, Ninja Gaiden, etc

 

Rlyeh: NES: River Ransom City, Adventures of Lolo series, etc

 

Rlyeh: GB: Super Mario Land 2... haven’t played any other O:)

 

Hooka: What is your favorite commercial gp32 game?

 

Rlyeh: Haven’t tried any yet! Unbelievable but true :)

 

Hooka: Do you think that the chatboard will ever become a common gp32 accessory? Would any of your projects benefit from using one?

 

Rlyeh: Yes, it will be very common at least in Spain (Anarchy is going to sell them for cheap). I will include support on fZX32, fCPC32 and fMSX32 soon.

 

Hooka: Do you think the 32/64 MB mod will ever become common?

 

Rlyeh: No way unless fNG32 runs fine! ;D

 

Hooka: What do you want to see for the future of the gp32?

 

Rlyeh: A reliable CPU & memory upgrade is all what I need (266/64M ? :) )

 

Hooka: Well, I think I've run out of questions! If you feel like I've missed anything or you would like to add anything feel free to do so!

 

Rlyeh(asking on Hooka's behalf): Do you plan to port any other emulator soon?

 

Rlyeh: Yes I do! More 8 bits are incoming, and probably another 16 bits system based on 68000

 

Rlyeh(asking on Hooka's behalf): Yay! Which ones please!?

 

Rlyeh: Top secret! Wait some weeks please, I need a little more time!! :D Btw, the 68000 system is not a neogeo port. As I said before I ported that already :)

 

Rlyeh(asking on Hooka's behalf): Are you doing any original work from scratch?

 

Rlyeh: Yes I'm making a game with the excellent artist’s the_wub & nachoyague. It's a platform game and the graphics are really cute! :D Lovely!

 

Rlyeh: On the other side I'm planning to do a BIOS if I get some time enough! Argh!

 

Rlyeh(asking on Hooka's behalf): Well, that's all... any greetings? :)

 

Rlyeh: Sure! I'd like to send some hugs to the following friends which are specially important to me!

 

Rlyeh: mr_spiv, darkfader, robster, skeezix, fdave, yoyo, thunderz, groepaz, karthur and the whole #gp32dev channels (Guyfawkes, empee, donskeeto, fosil, Inopia, jegHegy, karthur, Kojote, Hooka, MaDsk8tar, meonlyZzZ, Mr_TRaNS, Nuria[], rattboi, ref, the_wub, vimacs, WntrMute, woogal, _Anarchy_, nachoyague, enkonsierto, DJ_SYTO, horchata, Soup, etc etc etc etc) Hugs to aj0, black--, snaff, rino & Lyc wherever they are too! :)

 

Rlyeh: And of course my lovely girlfriend Diana and further wife who I love her too much! :D

 

Thank you for doing this interview it was great, and I can't wait to see how all your emulators progress ;)

 

*Interview finished 12/06/04*