Kaiser: Thanks deniska for allowing me to interview you. I've been a fan ever since the first version of KETM. As usual I'd like to start this off by asking you to tell us a little a bit yourself.
Deniska: My name is Denis. I am 34 y/o. Although originally from Moscow, Russia, last 14 years I live in New York, USA.
K: What education/qualifications do you have?
Deniska: I work as a software developer for a pretty big firm, developing web based applications. I have a degree in computer science.
K: What was your first video game experiance?
Deniska: Some 20+ years ago I ran across some zx80 based pc from Yamaha at school, running a pretty cool 2d shooter ( I forgot the name). That's then I realized I needed my own computer. Since not too many of them were available in Russia at that time, I put together my own version of Sinclair's ZX Spectrum and pretty soon was playing Commango and 1942.
K: Do you have any past homebrew programs previous to working in the PSP scene?
Deniska: I wrote a couple of java games for my symbian smartphone, SX1, from Siemens. One of them, an Arcanoid clone, called Javanoid :-) was ranked pretty high by JARS... Then, I lost that bulky phone during waterskiing and stopped writing code for it...
K: What/who got you into the PSP and in-turn developing for it?
Deniska: I was pretty excited when kxploit/Hello_world_psp came out, but PSPSDK realy triggered me in to trying to compile something for PSP.
K: Mind telling us your first homebrew game/app for the PSP?
Deniska: Kenta Cho's Noiz2sa was the first game I ported. I always liked that small and somewhat strange shooter. I desided to port it to PSP so I could play it on my way to work. It took me a while to finish the project, since some of the currently available calls and libraries were simply not there at that time. I got a bit creative with Noiz2sa, changing the color scheme, rotating the game 90 degrees, adding background, etc. Technically, it was not a straight port, but original author did not mind. It all worked out for the best and Noiz2sa won the 1st prize on one of the DCEMU coding contests. I still sometimes play this game on a subway.
K: What was your favorite past homebrew project?
Deniska: Probably KETM. Although the original linux version had a pretty cool 2d engine, it did not shine much, mostly due to bad graphics and lack of level data. With some help from bourbon_bot I turned this game in to a pretty good 2d shooter for PSP with 5 levels, tons of enemies and powerups. The funny part is that the original author back-ported it linux.. He said he liked my version better :-)
K: What current projects are you working on or plan to start on in the near future?
Deniska: Mapviewer takes up most of my time now. The link below has some details about this project:
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29040
K: So what homebrew/apps do you keep on your own PSP?
Deniska: Currently, I only have IRShell, PSPLink, Noiz2sa and KETM. I had to delete everything else for now, since I am experimenting with numerous maps for the mapviewer and they take up a lot of space.
K: Do you have a favorite coder?
Deniska: I don't really want to pick favorites, but there are ~20-30 people (and I am nowhere near them) who really shape the PSP hombrew scene. Some of them get the credit they deserve and other don't. I think that the creators of psptoolchain, PSPSDK and PSPLink should get more recognition.
K: What do you think about the PSP scene in its current state?
Deniska: Obviously, the scene is blooming now, with all the downgraders, custom firmware and custom chips available. This all draws a lot of new and talented people. Almost every day some new good game or application comes out. As for the fans - most of them are great, although some act a bit childish. A little more courtesy and respect would definitelly help the scene...
K: As for commercial gaming which consoles, games and/or genres do you find yourself playing the most?
Deniska: I have a few games for xbox 360. I play Ghost Reckon and Burnout the most...
K: Would you mind leaving us with a few words of wisdom to aspiring PSP coders?
Deniska: I am not that old to preech yet ;-)
K: LOL:p Thank you so much for taking time out of your life to allow us to interview us. I look foward to your next big release.
