Recently, I caught up with one of the emulation and homebrew community's most dedicated coders. Ludovic Jacomme (aka ZX-81 or simply ZX for short) has ported dozens of emulators and other applications to the GP2X and PSP handhelds. If you own a PSP and you're into running homebrew applications and emulators, then you've likely heard of ZX or at least installed one of his programs.
Many of Jacomme's projects are still in active development and can be found on his homepage. He also maintains a development site over at DCEmu and a release forum on qj.net. Both are great places to discuss his projects or to get community based technical support for any issues you may have. Finally, there's also two support forums hosted on Coyotte.info where those who speak French (ZX's native language) may go to discuss his projects or to get community based technical support without having to resort to web based translators. Go here for PSP and here for GP2X.
Six of ZX-81's emulator ports have their own pages here on Bazzie Bizzle.com including PSP2600, PSPAtari, and PSP7800 for the PSP and GP2600, GP2X-Atari, and GP2X-7800 for the GP2X. These pages provide mirror downloads and you'll also be able to rate or comment on each emulator.
This interview was carried out via email about a week ago. In it, ZX and I discuss several different topics including what he does for a living, his favorite video games, what coding projects he has planned for the future, and several other topics of interest. For further reading you may also want to check out Kaiser's 2006 interview with ZX-81 on DCEmu. Without further adieu, we're proud to present our first interview. Enjoy.
Jay: Hello ZX, Thank you for giving us a chance to do this interview.
ZX-81: Hi Jay :) It's a pleasure to answer your questions.
Jay: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
ZX-81: I'm from France and I live close to Paris. I'm 38, married. My son is 10 and he likes all computer stuff and games so much. He is my favorite beta tester for all the projects I'm involved in.
I have a PHD in computer science and I'm working in Electronic Design Automation domain, more precisely in Hardware Emulation to help well known companies to design their processors and other chips.
Jay: How did you get into computers and programming?
ZX-81: As far as I remember I had begun to write my own games in assembler and basic when I was 13. At that time I had a Sinclair Zx 81 (it might explain my pseudo :) ).
Jay: What are your top three favorite game systems and what's your favorite game for each one?
ZX-81: I haven't so many game system experiences. My first console was a PS1, the best games on PS1 are Gran Turismo, Tekken and Abe Oddworld. My favorite games on PS2 are Gran Turismo and Tekken. I also have a Wii, and I like to play Family Sky with my son so much. Mario Galaxy and Donkey Kong are fun.
I spend a lot of time in public transportation so I have more experiences on portable consoles such as GP2X, DS and PSP. On PSP my favorites are Ace Combat X, Tekken, and Burnout. On DS I enjoy a lot of games such as Phoenix Wright or Layton.
Jay: What was the first emulation project you were involved in?
ZX-81: I've never developed my own emulator, but I'm always porting and improving existing ones. My first PSP port was in March 2006 for the HP 48 calculator. Earlier in the 90's, I had ported and compiled this emulator (X48) to my Sun Sparc Station, so I knew a bit about the source code. It was then easier to port it to PSP. After that, I ported something like 20 different emulators on both PSP and GP2X. Some of them have never been finished (such as my VirtualBoy or Apple II emulators) and I didn't release them.
Some of ZX-81's favorite games for PlayStation and PSP (click to enlarge).
Jay: What emulation projects are you still actively developing?
ZX-81: Mainly PCE Engine and Caprice 32 (Amstrad CPC) emulator but, I will probably modify all my previous ports to make them work with IRDA joy stuff.
Jay: Out of all the applications and emulators you have released, which was your favorite?
ZX-81: My favorite emulators are PSP-Cap32 & PSP-Hu-Go. For apps, my favorites are PSP-SSH & PSP-IRC and for games PSP-Gnu-Chess.
Jay: Any top secret projects you care to announce or hint about? ;)
ZX-81: I'm still working with my good friend Buzz, on a Wireless IRDA Joystick adapter for PSP. It's not a secret project since we have already released schematics, photos, videos, and anybody with electronic skill design can now design their own.
Jay: What is the most powerful system you think can be emulated on the GP2X and PSP?
ZX-81: On GP2X I would say GameBoy Advance (Exophase has done a really good one). GP2X only has 200Mhz ARM processors, so you can't emulate complex engines such as PS1 or N64.
Jay: Which is the easiest to develop for, the GP2X or PSP?
ZX-81: GP2X of course, mainly because I'm working on Linux and GP2X is a Linux based system. So you can debug your software/port on a Linux PC host, and when it's working fine you just have to compile it for GP2X and it works 99% of cases. On PSP it's a nightmare, the debug environment is very poor and you need to have good development experience to make as little bugs as possible since it's very hard to debug when the software is running on the PSP host.
Jay: When porting an emulator, do you often back port improvements to the original emulator?
ZX-81: Most of the improvements I have made are to increase speed using specific code to use PSP hardware. So it is pretty pointless to back port them in the original emulator. Sometimes I've found bugs that can be fixed in the original version, but I haven't so much spare time, and I just can't work on original emulators. Most of them are multi-platform and I'm working only on the Linux versions so it might be difficult to verify that my fix didn't add regressions.
Jay: You've done ports of emulators for Atari's 2600, 5200, and 7800. Any plans to work with the Jaguar or Lynx?
ZX-81: Why not?, but I'm a bit bored with emulators on PSP. I prefer to improve my existing ports before I begin another one. :)
Jay: What's your favorite emulator?
ZX-81: If it is emulators on PC, I like Hu-Go, Snes9X, CaPriCe32 and ePSXe...
Jay: What emulators do you use or have installed?
ZX-81: On PSP I have all my emulators installed (for testing purposes) and Snes9X from Laxer and gpSP from Exophase.
Jay: What advice would you give a person who's considering writing or porting an emulator?
PSP-SSH (top) and PSP-IRC (bottom) running on the PSP (click to enlarge)
ZX-81: If you want to write an emulator from scratch, you need to have a lot of time (it takes months/years to develop a good emulator of a complex console, I'm not talking about a chip4 emulator). You also need to have very good hardware/digital electronic knowledge. And finally, you need to have very good development experience.
For emulator porting, it is a bit easier and it depends on the target. For example, to port an SDL based emulator from Linux PC to GP2X, it's pretty simple and it would take less than few days to do it. But if you need to improve the speed, to rewrite the sound and graphical parts to take advantage of the target host hardware, then it may take months! (as was the case for me on my PSP-Cap32 and Hu-Go ports to PSP).
Jay: PLynx did a quick port of Virtual Jaguar GCC/SDL to the PSP for fun, but it's too slow to actually play. Do you think the Jaguar will ever see playability on the PSP?
ZX-81: We need someone to work on it. You may ask Uberjack, he has ported many emulators too with a very nice UI etc...
Finally Jay, I wish you good luck with your website. It's cool to have old school console websites to remember the good times of Pong and Pitfall. :)
Jay: Thank you for your time, ZX. On behalf of everyone at Bazzie Bizzle.com, I'd like to wish you good luck with all your endeavors. We'll continue to follow your emulator ports for as long as you continue to release them, keep up the good work.
