Ken Friece Interview

Ken Friece is the author of NesterDC. This interview was conducted by WHurricane16

DCEmulation.com: So, Ken where are you from and how old are u?
Brian Peek: I am 24 and originally from Columbus, OH. My current job took me to the Washington DC area, where I have been for the past year.

DCEmulation.com: How long have you been programming?
Ken Friece: I started programming around 3 years ago, and have been hooked ever since. :)

DCEmulation.com: Currently, you have gotten a good grasp of Dan Potter's Libdream, but what did you start off programming with (pc and tools) when you first started to seriously program as a hobby?
Ken Friece: I started programming in C++ using g++ in a unix environment, doing college programming assignments. Most of the programming that I have done has been in unix, linux, or cygwin, using C or C++.

DCEmulation.com: What past projects have you done? (hobby projects)
Ken Friece: Nothing major. I wrote a Yahtzee game in java to learn the language. Other than that, the most challenging thing that I did was code a simple compiler in C for a college project.

DCEmulation.com: What are you working on next with NesterDC? Do you have any other projects in the works? :)
Ken Friece: Sound will be my number one priority in version3. Another possible improvement is a better user interface. I have received many emails from people about how difficult it is to navigate through the game selecton menu with 1000+ games. I really don't understand why people have that many games, considering only a handful of them are GOOD!!!

Although I haven't started another project yet, a few other ports have been getting some serious thought lately.

DCEmulation.com: When did you come up for the idea for NesterDC?
Ken Friece: I stumbled upon Dan Potters site and compiled ghetto pong. The idea of programming for a console was awesome. I started to change things around in ghetto pong, and was also looking at the source code to nester. That's when the idea came to me. The Dreamcast already had ngine-snes9x, sintendo, and DreamSNES, so another SNES emu would be pointless. I knew that I could port nester from looking at ghetto pong source, libdream examples, and nester source. I looked at the source code from many emulators, and nester seemed to be one of the most well organized and coded.

DCEmulation.com: After your last release, I've been salivating. When might the next release be?
Ken Friece: If I told you then I would have to kill you :) Just kidding, I don't even know when the next release will be. Giving a date will just disappoint people if I can't make it, and add stress to the project. Remember, NesterDC is a hobby.

DCEmulation.com: Ken, when did you get into the DC Emulation scene and what do you think about it?
Ken Friece: I got into the DC Emulation scene around 7 months ago,
and have enjoyed every minute of it. Its great to see
a new project pop up, and existing projects improve.