Zoop - Hello Breakpoint!
Breakpoint - Hey Zoop

Zoop - Can you present yourself to our readers and to people who recently got interested in emulation?
Breakpoint - Sure. My real name is Mike Tedder (aka Breakpoint), and I've been into emulation since Pasofami. I'm the previous author of Project UnReality, an N64 emulator for PC.

Zoop - We didn't hear from you since you dropped your emulator and re-appeared recently, releasing its sources and starting a brand new project. So you were still here, just behind the scenes?
Breakpoint - Yeah, I've been here -- I check the usual sites every day and see if there's anything new. About the only thing that interests me nowadays is what's legally happening to Bleem! and the status of N64 emulators (like Nemu64, etc).

Zoop - How did you feel when UltraHLE was released?
Breakpoint - Hmm.. I was kinda depressed actually, as I didn't get the chance to achieve what I originally set out to do.. but just seeing Zelda 64 on my PC was really cool. :)

Zoop - Well, your emulator was like 18 months older. Did you actually continue working on it, after its official drop?
Breakpoint - No. I did fix one buggy opcode which I found when I was testing some N64 stuff on my own. But there weren't any new features added after I dropped the project.

Zoop - You got hired by a video game company, right? Which was it, and could you describe you job at it, knowing that the company who hired you knew the existence of your emulator?
Breakpoint - I work for Z-Axis, Ltd. in San Mateo, CA. I'm a PSX coder there (ironically), but I enjoy it. In fact, I really don't like the N64 anymore.. :) The fact that I had done an N64 emulator was not an issue for the company, as long as I stopped development on it.

Zoop - Arriving to the PSX topic. You are working on an emulator for the PSX2, which is not supposed to be even available for developers right now. Do you have special information about it, and/or a contract with Sony?
Breakpoint - Z-Axis does not have a PSX2 development system yet. The only PSX2 info I have is from Sony's webpage (press releases), and information obtained from a PSX2 conference -- which, as I am under NDA, cannot disclose information about.

Zoop - Then, isn't your emulator, although it is in a primitive state, for the PSX2?
Breakpoint - Yes. Let me explain :) I don't know that much about the PSX2. Right now, the only thing that is important is getting a dynrec CPU core working. To do that, you'll need to know the source processor (x86) and target processor (MIPS-IV, R5900). This alone will take quite a bit of time to get into a working state. By that time, I hope to have a PSX2 and begin reverse-engineering the hardware to see how it works. :)

H-Clone - Why did you choose open source?
Breakpoint - I would prefer to have a personal life while developing this emulator. :) The best way to do that is to not try to do everything myself, and allow others to contribute to the workload.

Zoop - Assuming you won't be able to complete the project without having access to developer's documentation, meaning you will have to sign an NDA, won't releasing the emulator with it's source break the NDA?
Breakpoint - Yes, that would obviously be a breach of NDA. I will not utilize any of the documentation or information in the PSX2 devkit in order to further the progress of the emulator -- which is why I'll be tweaking with the hardware as soon as I get my hands on it. :)

Zoop - Sony chose Linux at it's next development system, chances are that they will distribute a modified version of the GNU compiler, which, due to it's license, must have the modified sources available (just like MAME). So do you think the information will be kind of free and available to anyone, and then a source-free emulator wouldn't be a problem?
Breakpoint - I don't know how the whole thing will fly with Sony. Yes, the sources are under the GNU license, and yes, the source will be released. However, I think Sony can still restrict who can obtain the source, so the general public may not be able to access it while developers will be able to. (That's just my opinion, I don't know if it holds true or not.)

H-Clone - Have you had many people downloading the source code and asking to help?
Breakpoint - I haven't checked the web logs to see how many times the files have been downloaded, but no-one new has asked to help with the project. There are two other people who are helping, and have been helping from the start: JL_Picard and Refried.

H-Clone - What do you think of Sony's views on emulation? How do you think they would feel about an emulator running on *their* platform?
Breakpoint - I don't think Sony likes it at all. I mean, look at what they're doing to Bleem!. :) Having an emulator run on their platform may be different... buf if at any time Sony (or my work, for that matter) requests I stop, I'll have to.

Zoop - You mention on your site running HalfLife on a PSX2, through emulation. Do you really think the PSX2 will be powerful enough to handle Pentium-class emulation? On the best case, high level emulation could be feasible because of the high level layers (like DirectX) programmers have been using in the past few years.
Breakpoint - I would expect around P2-266 performance from the emulator. This may be a bit high still, but it's quite possible. Most of the opcodes I've been looking at that are converted average 3 or 4 MIPS instructions per x86 instruction. There's also the fact that registers are a 1:1 conversion from x86 to MIPS. It's nice that MIPS has 32 registers, while the x86 has 10 (and a few extra segment registers). When the project gets far enough to boot Win95, I'd really like to write specific DirectX drivers which can access the PSX2 hardware directly. Glide, OpenGL, etc. would be nice, but that's a long way off from here.

H-Clone - What's your "Golden Vision" of PS2PC in the future? What kind of timescale are you working on?
Breakpoint - When I can play Quake3 Arena on my PSX2 over the 'net, I'll be content. :) I don't have any real schedule set... I'm not rushing on this project like I did Project UnReality. However, I would like to have the CPU core done by the time the hardware is available.
Zoop points out that Quake 3 will most probably be released for the PSX2
Breakpoint All the more to do a side-by-side comparison. :)

Breakpoint mentions that he will be getting a Dreamcast
H-Clone - So do you think the DC will survive?
Breakpoint - Virtual On 2.. Hydro Thunder.. Ecco.. mmm. :) I don't know... possibly -- Sony's hardware is just really kick-ass. could be bad for Sega. Sega should stick to arcades, I think they'd be really good there. :)

H-Clone - Ok, thanks for the interview BP. I hope we weren't too disorganised <g>
Breakpoint - Hehe, not a problem. You're welcome.