KRYPT
kRYPT was a Dreamcast programmer. He released DCFactory, a very well known selfbooting kit, DreamSNES ROMS.LST Creator and he also found out some significant technical details about the Dreamcast webbrowsers. An interview with him is available.
This interview was done by wraggster on 19th March 2002 for ConsoleVision.com.
Consolevision: Where were you born, where do you live and what about your family?
kRYPT: I'm 18 years old, I was born in St. Petersbourgh, of the former U.S.S.R., but I've been living in south-eastern Ontario, Canada ever since I was 8. Religion wise, my folks tell me I'm Jewish, and I smile and nod, but in reality I don't believe in any form of organized religion.
Consolevision: What qualifications do you have?
kRYPT: Officially, I'm a High School graduate, hoping to get accepted to University this year... unofficially, I have many years of experience programming various languages (*BASIC, Pascal, Turing, Perl, PHP), web design, as well as computer maintence and support.
Consolevision: What made you get into computers?
kRYPT: I thought it was kinda cool that you can make a box do whatever you want it to.
Consolevision: What made you get into programming? What was your first program?
kRYPT: I think my first program was a batch file, a menuing system I wrote for myself..
Consolevision: What projects/coding have you done previous to any Dreamcast programming?
kRYPT: I've written numerous websites (MP3 Search Engines, Software Sites, and a few other things). I've also designed and implemented a scalable distributed application platform, upon which corporate intranet services may be based (unfortuately, due to compiler limitations of the language I wrote it in, it was abandoned).
Consolevision: What got you interested in DC coding in the first place?
kRYPT: I had this DC sitting around, and then someone told me I could play NES on it... ;)
Consolevision: Your DCFactory is a great app for helping people, how do you see it progressing? and is there any features you would like to add to it?
kRYPT: Well, It's currently marketed towards newbies, but I plan to gradually change that with the release of power-user scripts (such as an elf->bin wizard, and a directory -> self-boot cdi wizard). And of couse more applications will always be supported, as long as people continue to submit scripts ;)
Consolevision: Do have any projects in the works? Or would love to do?
kRYPT: I have a few projects in the works.. most promiment is a decent menuing system for the DC, so that multi-emulator CDs don't have to use (the kinda ugly) DemoMenu as an interface..
Consolevision: Apart from your own projects, has there been a homebrew game/project that you have played more than once? Or something that you can't wait to try?
kRYPT: Nester is the thing that really brought me into DC emulation, and as such is my favorite project.. although DCDivx is starting to look appealing, once they get the bugs ironed out of it.
Consolevision: What are you thoughts on the DC homebrew scene, How do you think it could be improved?
kRYPT: Aside from the lamers, loosers, and whiners on the message boards, I like the scene, and enjoy being a part of it. People need to realize that nobody is doing any of this for personal profit, but rather because they want to, and to stop looking gift horses (such as DreamSNES) in the mouth.
Consolevision: What's your opinion of the new super consoles like X-box, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance and the Playstation 2?
kRYPT: I would never pay over $150 for a console, as I don't think a *console* should cost much more then that. If I want to buy a computer, I'll go buy a computer. If I want a dvd player, I'll go buy a DVD player. I think that some people may have a use for these all-in-one boxes, but I don't, and I don't think the games are so great that it justifies the investment.
Consolevision: And the mandatory question.. What are your favorate games on every system you've owned?
kRYPT: Bad Dudes and SMB2 (I spent weeks playing that) for the NES. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Genesis. SF Rush 2049 for the DreamCast. Red Faction for the PC ;)