Interview with Drac... (9/21/98)

<DragonYen> Give me a little background on "teaser/gekko"
<Drac> Hm, ok. I worked on a convertion from the NeoGeo system about 5 years ago. It was Samurai Shodown 1 converted to SegaCD. So, 5 years later I sort of had nothing to do, so I did an emulator.
<DragonYen> And at that time, you only allowed people to play Nam on it right?
<Drac>  Thats correct.
<DragonYen> What was the reasoning behind creating an emulator, and only allowing one game played on it?
<Drac> It was suposed to be a new release 1 week later that played all of the games. But stuff came in the way. The reason was that NAM was the only game that worked 100%.
<DragonYen> I see... Can you elaborate on the word "stuff"...
<Drac> Well, intermetrics had a deal with SNK, I cant go into details, but the boss of intermetrics asked me to not release a new version because of complications with SNK.
<DragonYen> That makes perfect sence, when you move back to the US, will you still be working for intermetrics?
<Drac> Thats right.
<DragonYen> So the hopes of seeing anything new with teaser/gekko is pretty much false hopes for the public?
<Drac> No.
<DragonYen> Can you elaborate on that?
<Drac>  I'm currently working on a comercial version of gekko to be released this winter.
<DragonYen> Ahh, will it be released with approval from SNK/Intermetrics?
<Drac> Yes.
<DragonYen> That is very neat... so will this product have full game support, sound, cd support ect?
<Drac> No cd support, and because of legal reasons only run a specified number of games. Included on the CD.
<DragonYen> So it will come prepackaged with an assorted number of games...
<Drac> Yes. Like the other arcade packs on the market. We are not trying to reach the emulator "scene" but normal joes with a computer.
<DragonYen> Very Interesting.. Will it be early winter, or is it to early to tell/know?
<Drac> I dont know right now.
<DragonYen> So "dumped" games won't work on Gekko.. only the games that come with it?
<Drac> Thats right.
<DragonYen> Alright... I am going to move to some questions that people in #neogeo asked me to ask.. and we might go back to that
<Drac> Sure.
<DragonYen> Asiliat wanted to know : I just wonder if he gets "jealous" at the fact Neorage has become the darling of the Emu scene these days. He was the 1st one w/ an emu.
<Drac> No. I dont know what to say, I dont mind at all. I dont compete in the emu scene.
<DragonYen> Simply Put... Are you looking at writing other emulators? either commercially or for pleasure
<Drac> I dont know. I might get bored again sometime :) I have made 2 other emulators. So i guess you could say I make them from time to time.
<DragonYen> What do you think about the whole NeoGeo Emu Scene?
<Drac> Its like the Snes scene was. A bit childish. Lots of people beeing cool while trading games. I dont know. *shrug*
<DragonYen> Alright.. How about those other two emualtors... tell me a bit about them
<Drac> The nemesis and the Salamander emulators? Oh, they are there. You can download them if you like. nemesis even got sound :)
<DragonYen> What do they emulate? [Looking like a moron - Give me a break, I didn't play many games in arcades in the 80's - I was playing Nintendo]
<Drac>  Well, hehe, as the names say, the nemesis arcade and the salamander arcade :)
<DragonYen> Oh, they are both 1 game emulators.. ok
<Drac> 2 shootemups from the 80's - Here is the homepage: http://www.netg.se/~drac/nemesis.html
<DragonYen> Now as you may, or may not be aware... People really want NeoRage to put out sound... has your Gekko Project got at least partial working sound yet?
[Long Pause here.. I though we had splint, but I think I was just laggin]
<Drac> On the current emulator im working close to SNK, so I have all the hardware documents to the console. Sound is finished but does not sound 100% like the original yet. Im working on this.
<DragonYen> It must be really nice to work with the company on this.. did they come to you, or vica versa....
<Drac> SNK or intermetrics?
<DragonYen> Either, Both... How did you get involved in the project
<Drac> Well it was just a hobby project. My boss thought it might sell and contacted SNK. Thats it.
<DragonYen> kruger123 asked : ask him to implement opengl filtering or som kind of interpolation in Gekko [I'm not even sure what that means... God I feel stupid asking that...]
<Drac> I have something now called overlays wich is something simelar to the filtering he is talking about. It makes the screen look smoother, if your gfx card supports it. It is a hardware feature, so no cpu time is lost. [I let out a sigh of relief]
<DragonYen> RoAMER wanted to ask : if you could emulate anything and actually release it, what would it be?
<Drac> GTI club. That would be a 3dfx only though :)
<DragonYen> __Mark__ wanted to ask what was going on with "shark"....
<Drac> Shark is an emulator produced by my friends. But, since it is their emulator, I can not answer any questions about it. You will have to ask them.
[I got their email -- we might do something]
<DragonYen> Ok lets go back to gekko for a minute... do you know the approx number of games that will be coming out with it?
<Drac> 8
<DragonYen> Will there be like Version 2, with 8 more games?
<Drac> That is the plan :) Depends on how good the first one sells.
<DragonYen> How many sets are planned if they sell well? & do you know the 8 games that will come out first?
<Drac> Im not sure. I guess the company has people that gets payed to plan this kind of stuff.
<DragonYen> You just make it work :) - Have any idea what they are planning on pricing it?
<Drac> No, not sure. I'm the programmer, I dont plan that kind of stuff.
<DragonYen> OK, thats basically all I have to ask.. is there anything you would like to include? to tell the NeoGeo Emu Scene.. or any other Emu Scene for that matter?
<Drac> Oh, I don't know. Guess not.
<DragonYen> Alright, I really want to thank you for your time...
<Drac> No problem.
<DragonYen> It's been great talking to you... thanx a lot
<Drac> Nite.
<DragonYen> No it's Afternoon :) Night!

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