2) The David Michel Interview
Interview conducted on the
6th October 1998
by Steve Jones.
| When did you first get into emulation? |
| A bit more than two years ago, just after I got an Internet access. One day, while searching web pages on old computers, I found a page with a MSX emulator, Marat's fMSX if I remember well. That got me started. Since this moment I always followed (more or less) the emulation scene. At first it was to play games. :) But quickly that interested me, and not too long after I had discovered emulation I started seriously to think to make an emulator. And MagicEngine is born. |
| What emulators do you use on a regular basis and what's your favorite (excluding your own)? |
| Not specialy a favorite emulator, although I like a lot KGen... I use mostly arcade emulators like System16, Callus, Rage and Raine. |
| And what game(s) do you spend most time playing? |
| It's hard to say, I don't have a lot of free time for playing. I would say arcade games on emulators. Specialy beat'em all games, ala Final Fight. I like a lot RPG games too (the old ones on SNES, PC-ENGINE) but I rarely find enough time to play them a lot. |
| What system/game would you like to see emulated in the near future, and do you have any plans to emulate it yourself? |
| Good emulators for Japanese computers would be nice. Either for the PC-9801 or the FM-TOWNS, or both. :) Make one myself? Hmm no I don't think, not I wouldn't want, it could be interesting, but for now MagicEngine takes all my free time. |
| Are you working on a new version of MagicEngine. if so what do you want implemented before the next release? |
| Yes version 1.0 is in work since a long time now. I'm waiting to implement all the missing parts, like the Supergrafx and Arcade Card emulation, and to finish a new user interface. A few new features are planned too, like machine state save/load. |
| Supergrafx support is something most people would like to see. How's your progress with this coming along, and will it be in the next version? |
| Yes that will be present in the next version. Progress on this is good, it almost works. The emulation works but the sprites are not yet visible - I'm re-writting the graphics engine. Once this will be done, that should be ok. |
| What are your future (long term) development plans for MagicEngine? |
| I don't see that far, for now I do my best to try to finish version 1.0. I will see later - If I survive to this release... |
| When (roughly) will the next version of MagicEngine be released? |
| I prefer to not advance any date, let's say in a few of months. :) |
| That's it. Thank's for your time David. |
| No problem. |