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DS-Scene.net:
Whats your name, age and where are you from?

adree:
I'm adree, 25yrs old and I'm french

DS-Scene.net:
What first attracted you to the Nintendo brand of products?

adree:
Maybe the first day I played with zelda on the snes, before i got a sega gamegear. My brother had a master system and megadrive. I played for about a month with this game and since that time i've been a nintendo fanboy . I sold my gamegear soon after to buy a gameboy, the gameboy was way less powerful but with a lot more great games.. It's quite like todays contest between the DS compared to the PSP

DS-Scene.net:
What is your programming / development background . Are there any other projects on other platforms you have been involved in?

adree:
I've been programing freeware apps for PC since about the year 2000.

DS-Scene.net:
When did you think of starting to develop for the Nintendo DS?

adree:
I thought of programing on the GBA for some time and just started to dev on the ds about 3 or 4 months ago. On the PC I only programmed apps (http://adfware.free.fr/?nav=tools), it was my first attempt to code a game when i started to code for the DS.

DS-Scene.net:
Why did you choose to code for the DS above any other console? Do u find it easier than coding for GBA?

adree:
Since the very the GBA was released I played with linkers and homebrew but i never had a good enough idea to start a project.. With the Nintendo DS and the new possibilities, like the stylus and wifi, I started to think of all the cool things that can be made and started to learn.

DS-Scene.net:
What projects have you worked on for the DS?





adree:
My first project was a game and watch simulator, it was a good start to learn programming the ds because it doesn't use a lot of functions. Two days after i finished that one i started to work on a port of sokoban which was a more complex project.

DS-Scene.net:
Did anyone help you on a large scale for your projects or are they created entirely by yourself?

adree:
On MarioBroDS i've contacted MADrigal, the developer of PC version of that game (he's the one who did the first conversion of the game) and he helped me a bit with the timings, but without that i'm working alone. The hard part for me is the graphics stuff, because i'm not really an artist.. Thus it's hard for me as i'm always trying to have a pro overall look for my projects.

DS-Scene.net:
What do you think is your best coding achievement for the DS and why?





adree:
Definitely it's dSokoban because it can be considered like a real game, i've tried to challenge the player with unlocking features and even create an ending for the game. MarioBroDS is more of a tech demo and is only pleasant if you know the original version and want to remember those times..

DS-Scene.net:
Have there been any development problems that have been hard to overcome and how did you do this?

adree:
The main thing that quite disturbed me when i started to code on the ds was that there is no debugger available, so i'll have to do test driven development. I'm always learning and thats what i appreciate, i mainly use PAlib to code on the DS and there is a great community behind it. There are also tons of helpful websites around talking about GBA and DS programming, they were really helpful for things like hardware compression and register timers that i used for example in MarioBroDS (those features were not present in PAlib)

DS-Scene.net:
Which homebrew applications or games do you use yourself and which is your favourite?

adree:
I like retrogaming so generally all emulators (and especially DSMS and scummvmds) and also gameport like REminiscenceDS and hexends. For the applications i like beup and i'm waiting for a stable version of ndsmail. I cant say which one is my favorite, there are too many great homebrew out there.

DS-Scene.net:
We hear you have some news on a new game you are developing for the DS. Any chance of some information?





adree:
Now i'm working on a conversion of North and south, I want it to be multiplayer.

DS-Scene.net:
Haven't heard about this before. Is this an exclusive?





adree:
It's an exclusive

The game will be a close conversion of the original game in terms of graphics and sound (very funny for the one who remember), and the gameplay will be a bit different (AI recoded from scratch and should include two players wifi). I'm at 30% of a final version maybe but i think North and South will be my best achievement. I've already ripped all the graphics from the Atari version, but it's a lot of work for resampling everything and i still need to grab all the sound effects.

A preview game which shall feature only the action parts of the game (no tactical map) should be out next month.


DS-Scene.net:
Awesome.... I'm sure there will be a lot of people interested in this.

adree:
I hope I remember playing for hours on this game years ago.

DS-Scene.net:
We have a lot of retro fans on the site. (Ed, Check out this site for North and South info)

DS-Scene.net:
Well, here at DS-Scene we would like to thank you for your work on the DS do you have any last thoughts to say to our readers?

adree:
I hope everyone playing with my homebrews will get as much fun as i had to developing them.
Thanks for your support and all the nice comments i've got over the past month.

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Once again I would like to thank adree for taking the time to speak with us here at ds-scene. It was a very insightful interview with some great exclusive information.

Links:
HomePage
DSokoban
MarioBrosDS