Xbox-Scene Interview with Xport (xport.xbox-scene.com)

Xbox-Scene:: Could you introduce yourself? (your age/country (if you don't mind answering that), coding/engeneering experience, projects you are working on, what do you do in 'real life', ...)

Xport:: I am a father and husband situated in the US who is a mid-life crisis survivor. As for my past experiences with computers, let's just say that I have professional experience with most computer technologies ranging from punch cards to (#insert favorite technology-of-the-month here). The work that I get paid to do is interesting and lucrative enough to keep me from looking for a different job, but I daresay not quite interesting enough to warrant details. Let's just say I "work with computers."

Xbox-Scene:: What made you get into computers and programming?

Xport:: It was a simple matter of "find something you're good at (preferably something you like to do) and get paid to do it." I've always had a penchant and aptitude for logic, so that was probably a large factor in my vocational decisions.

Xbox-Scene:: Did you work on other emulators in the past on PC or on other consoles?

Xport:: Not much with emulators, but I've done lots of tinkering with a variety of console systems. I was never much good with a soldering iron, so I didn't get into fiddling with the hardware, but over the years I've made numerous contacts with people in official development circles which allowed me access to various interesting doo-dads. For example, I still have an Atari 7800 development system which I used back in the day to fiddle with the workings of existing Atari 7800 games. Picture a PC motherboard with an A7800 cartridge connector - that's what this beast looks like. I either own or have had access to many other similar console-related hardware devices.

Xbox-Scene:: Did you learn something while developing Xbox software?

Xport:: I certainly learned about the XDK and its quirks. I'm more proficient with DirectX programming now, but I was never very artistically gifted so DirectX is not really something that interests me very much. I know enough to do what I wanted to do.

Xbox-Scene:: Besides developing, do you also use your Xbox to play games or use some homebrew programs?

Xport:: Not as much as one might think. Once in a rare while a commercial game will be released on the XBox that interests me. Apart from that, I'll also use XBox Media Player from time to time. I'd say that about 95% of the time that I have an XBox on it's being used for development.

Xbox-Scene:: What's your favorite game (all time - any consoles/PC)?

Xport:: It's tough to label anything as an all-time #1 favorite. There are many games that provided much enjoyment over the years as well as many that I hold dear even though the gameplay by today's standards is downright primitive. "Lawn!" for the Commodore PET is one such example. It was my "Tetris" - I burned countless hours playing with that and making my own playfields.
There are also many games that I loved that I cannot play anymore because they have no real replay value. In fact, there are scant few replay-able games that I do like. As with most computer scientists, I'm extremely goal-oriented - so I usually play games that have a specific goal(s) and once that's accomplished, the future enjoyment of said game is fairly low.
I can say that my favorite genre of all time is Action/RPG or Action/Adventure. If I had the option of completely forgetting everything I know about one game in order to play it again like the first time, I would select Castlevania Symphony of the Night on the PSX. Visually beautiful, fantastic soundtrack and SFX, diverse gameplay, lots of "secrets", and *long*. Truly exceptional.

Xbox-Scene:: You ported emulators for lots of hardware. Which of these game consoles is your favorite?

Xport:: I don't really think about consoles that way, but if I had to choose one console that provided the greatest number of hours of entertainment, I'd probably select C64. The C64 is closer to the PC definition than a console, however....and if PCs are lumped into the equation then x86 PCs would top the list since I've spent the most hours using those than anything else. So if it can only be a console, then I cannot really name a favorite.

Xbox-Scene:: Do you own a dev/debug xbox or did you make one yourself based on a retail Xbox?

Xport:: I made one based on a retail XBox.

Xbox-Scene:: You have ported tons of emulators and some games to the Xbox, what motivated you to put so much work and time in this?

Xport:: It's just my current hobby. I've always tinkered with gaming systems and miscellaneous extracurricular computer projects, but this is the first time my endeavors have been "public". The difference between the projects I've done on the XBox and all the other projects I've done on various other platforms is the interest level of my kids. They were really interested in playing around with them and they showed them to their friends when they visited. Those friends told their friends, etc. Making the projects as public as they could be at that point just made sense. To specifically address the question of my motivation, it's something I enjoy doing. I describe it as "candy programming". It also keeps my mind active which I feel becomes more and more important for old fuddy-duddies like myself as I approach my "golden years."

Xbox-Scene:: I was wondering, do you actually still have time left to PLAY on the emulators and games you port?

Xport:: I actually rarely play with the projects I've done once I'm done developing them. I leave that to my kids.

Xbox-Scene:: Which port are you most proud of?

Xport:: As far as overall completeness/compatibility is concerned, I'm very pleased with FCEUltraX and NeoGenesis which do just about anything/everything a NES/Genesis gamer could want. Most of that is a credit to the authors of the emulators, however.
Although the compatibility is often criticized, I'm also happy with PCSXBox because of the complexities involved.
I'm also pleased with myself for fixing certain problems with XBoyAdvance that plague other ports of VisualBoy Advance to the XBox. (e.g. getting past the opening of Tactics Ogre, playing the reflect game in Wario Ware, playing Circle of the Moon without a real BIOS and without the graphics getting garbled.) Fixing those particular problems took a *lot* of time and effort.
Honorable mention goes to the light-gun feature of SMSPlusX because I figured that out from scratch by tracing through SMS instructions.

Xbox-Scene:: Which one was the most difficult to port?

Xport:: That's a toss-up between PCSXBox and Bochs. PCSXBox had a large issue with plugins and there was one particularly nasty bug which took a long time to fix.
Bochs was just a mess. I may have spent the most time working on V1 of Bochs than on any other project. There were lots and lots of little problems as opposed to PCSXBOX which had just a handful of big problems.

Xbox-Scene:: Can you tell us a bit about the steps you have to take to port an emulator/game to Xbox?

Xport:: Each project has their own set of challenges, but I'll try and give a broad overview. It's simply a matter of stripping out everything that is UI-related or OS-specific from an existing project and writing in hooks to redirect audio/video to the XBox.
Strip out everything until you have a compiled project that simply loads up a gamefile and churns emulator cycles. Most of the time audio/video data is simply written to buffers which are then interpreted in specific ways depending on the OS for which it was built. You just need to locate the audio/video buffers and write routines that output them to the XBox.

Xbox-Scene:: At the end of your nfo you always include:
"Stella, Gnuboy, SMSPlus, FCEUltra, HUGO, NeoPop, DGen, Bochs, HUGO-CD, FMSXBox, Bliss, WinSTon, Gens, Z26X, StepmaniaX, PCSXBox, XBoyAdvance, DOSXBox, AtariXLBox, MirrorMagicX, KoboX, MaelstromX, MarblesX, Vice64X, Vice20X, VicePETX, KegsX, XPired, AdamX, WonderSwanX, BeatsOfRageX... what's next?"
... so my question: what will be next?

Xport:: I really don't know. There isn't much left in the world of open-source emulation that interests me. I'm still patiently waiting for the Diablo 1 source, but that may never happen. I've jotted down some open-source games that interest me. There's one multiplayer game in particular that I have my eye on, but I don't think it would be much fun without an option for a computer player. It's not a very well-known multiplayer game, though, and it was never a commercial product. I steer clear of saying "I'm working on <project>" because if I do, I'm then bound to it and I may not wish to finish it. It's better for people to be pleasantly surprised than to be bitterly disappointed.

Xbox-Scene:: MS released the Allegiance sources some days ago (http://research.MS.com/research/allegiance/), do you think a port to Xbox would be possible? (generally speaking)

Xport:: I haven't looked at the source, so I really don't know. Offhand, it seems feasible, but I have no interest in this project myself.

Xbox-Scene:: Your ports are really fast and stable now, do you still plan to make big changes to some of them?

Xport:: There are new versions of the emulators themselves that I would like to incorporate into the XBox versions. Time/motivation and effort vs. reward are the relevant factors involved with the timeline of those updates happening. I'm also trying to get around to implementing a true UI for DOSXBox.

Xbox-Scene:: Can we expect any big changes to the UI (that is shared across all emulators)?

Xport:: There may be minor tweaks from time to time, but I can't think of anything significant that will be changed.

Xbox-Scene:: Any other Xbox related projects you are or will be working on?

Xport:: Don't know - I can't really add anything to what I've already stated. Who can tell the future, though?

Xbox-Scene:: What's your opinion about emulation of systems which are still sold? Do you think the DMCA/EUCD might affect your work?

Xport:: I don't have any strong opinions one way or the other on the subject. If the author of an emulator chooses to prevent certain recent games from working, then they are doing what they feel is right. I have no problem with that. I think it's a bit disrespectful to bypass these restrictions, but my feelings on the matter won't stop anyone from doing so. It doesn't really affect me so it's rather pointless to devote much thought to the subject. The DMCA wouldn't really affect my work so much as the work of the original authors. Nothing much has come of that, however, so this is another area that warrants little consideration from me.

Xbox-Scene:: Is there any way people can help/support you?

Xport:: It's always nice when other people answer questions posted on the forums or when they direct them to the relevant documentation/FAQs. I don't answer as many posts as I used to on the forums because more than 90% of them can be answered by reading the documentation.

Xbox-Scene:: Anything else you'd like to add to this interview?

Xport:: I'd like to thank the authors of the emulators/games themselves. Obviously, without their work the XBox ports would not be possible.
Thanks also to netizens Lantus, TJ, Iriez, oDD, Carcharius, DZ for providing moral support, encouragment, and a (relatively) sane mini-community.
Special thanks to J-Red for making the various exceptional skins that are on almost every single project I've done.

Xbox-Scene:: Thanks for your time.