Emulation Camp - Interview with Ages Author

By: Emulation X

As emulation continues to grow, authors are looking to various other systems to emulate. The follwing is an interview with the Sega 32x Author Jeffrey Quinn for Ages. The is an exclusive screenshot of Knuckles Chaotix running on the Ages Emulator. In addition, the author mentiones that Zoop has a copy of the emulator and it has been confirned in existence. Zoop was not available for confirmation on the existence of the emulator, nor for comment on the emulator at the time of this article.

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Emucamp Related Sites

Ages Emu Website
Meka SMS Emulator
SMS Zone
SMS Scene
JAG's Video Game Zone

When did you start making the Emulator -Ages (Sega 32x)
I first started the DOS version of the emulator AGES in August of 1997. Some of its original DOS code actually came from the source of my discontinued Turbo GrafX 16 emulator, Gemstone. I started Gemstone in January of 1997 and cancelled it when the first version of Magic Engine was released. In the summer of 1998, I began work on porting the DOS version of AGES to Windows because I needed a really good window environment in which to create AGES's powerful debugging tools. I have not worked on the DOS version ever since.

What is your Educational Background.
I graduated from high school in 1998. In a year and a few months, I will be graduating from college with a B.S.E.E.

Have you or will u make any other kinds of emulators?
A long time ago, I tried to write a Turbo GrafX 16 emulator. I may write a few more emulators as drivers for AGES. The drivers would have to be for consoles that would fit the AGES theme, of course

Why did you want to make a Sega 32x Emulator?
When I was a kid, I wanted to write a "game engine" that would allow me to play my old SMS games on my computer. When Sega CD came out, I thought it would be neat if someone could put their Sega CD games into their computer's CD-ROM drive and play them. More generally, I like consolidation of technology into a single place: a computer. I am the type of person to buy a printer and scanner rather than a photocopier, or a DVD-drive rather than a DVD player. These things are where the desire to write an emulator comes from. So why 32X? A few months after my brothers and I got into emulation, they started buying SMS, Genesis, and 32X games. When we all came home for the holidays, (starting in winter of 1996/1997) we would play them all. Because the 32X wasn't emulated, and it brings back fond memories of those days, I thought I would take a crack at it.

When do u hope to release this .Estimated ?
That is a tricky question. No commercial 32X game ever showed graphics before February 3rd, 2000. (Except when run with the incorrect country setting, but a country lockout message doesn't really count.) Historically, AGES has gone long periods of time without seeming to improve and then suddenly a billion games start working better. I don't want to release AGES publicly until its interface is vastly improved and its 32X compatibility is better. Right now it doesn't have any control pad emulation, it doesn't save configuration settings, it doesn't do full screen yet, etc. Even if it had control pad emulation, I don't think the games would be quite playable yet. Anyway, my guess is that it could be ready between one and six months from now.

Are there any Sega 32x games that dont work?
No games are playable yet. The following games are ones that do not show any interesting graphics: 36 Great Holes Starring Fred Couples, Cosmic Carnage, Darxide, FIFA International Soccer 96, MetalHead, Mortal Kombat 2, Motocross Championship, NBA Jam TE, NFL Quarterback Club, Pitfall, Primal Rage, RBI Baseball 95, Romance Of The Three Kingdoms 4, Shadow Squadron, Star Wars Arcade, Tempo, Virtua Fighter, WWF Raw, WWF Wrestlemania Arcade, Zaxxon Motherbase 2000

How did u first find out about Emulation?
In September of 1996, my brother, Eric, emailed the URL for Node99. I was instantly amazed by Massage and GenEm.

What are your favorite Emulation Web sites?
My favorite used to be Emunews :( Nowadays, I don't really have a favorite. I am not very involved in "the scene" anyway. I usually check Retrogames and Emucamp for emulation news, and I read the message board at Eidolon's Inn.

What are your favorite 32x games?
Space Harrier is my all time favorite. Others are Afterburner, Knuckles Chaotix, and Blackthorne.

What are your feelings about Cd compilations of Rom collections
If you mean the ones that people try to sell, I don't particularly object to them, because I don't think many people actually buy them.

What makes Ages run?
The world's most valuable resource: monkeys! (Curse of Monkey Island anyone?) AGES is written entirely by me in 99% optimized assembly and 1% is Windows/MFC garbage.

Do u think that the Sega Saturn could be emulated
Anything can be emulated. Too bad those Saturn docs aren't easily available anymore.

What are your feelings on the Emulator R.A.P.E - Ngpc emu?
I think that the name was in poor taste. I do not know anything about the quality of the actual emulator, itself, because I don't really care about either NGPC or Pokemon.

How much time do u play videogames.
Hardly ever, anymore. I spend must of my dwindling free time programming AGES.

Do u own a Sega Dreamcast?
Nope. Maybe I should get one and work out a deal with Sega to port AGES to Dreamcast and sell it to them. I doubt they would be interested though :(