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I've probably tackled most of them by now, but I'm going through a great interview with the programmer of R.C. Grand Prix, so if you guys can think of any questions you'd like answered, let me know, and I'll send them if I haven't asked them already. It will, of course, be part of the main articles section on 8Bit.

Obvious questions:

- Was it "inspired" by R.C. Pro-Am, or was it more independently conceived?
- What's with the Seismic branding on the US version? Was there some kind of custom deal going on with Sega?
- Any stories about development - documentation, size limits, problems, politics, etc - are always interesting, but can't be anticipated directly...

Thanks Maxim, got most of those already, pretty much FULLY answered. He's looking for anything he has left like sketches and such, just sent me a PDF of the original write-up he proposed to Absolute, so I'll be including that in the article. Still have a ton of questions to ask, and luckily, unlike Steve Hanawa, he's a lot more willing to say whatever he can.

I'd be happy for data splurges - code, docs, etc that we can look through - but legality might be an issue there.

It's hard to make detailed questions without knowing what's already been said, especially in the more technical parts (no point asking probing sound questions if the sound driver was by someone else, for example).

Good one, I'll ask about that. I know it's hard to think of questions without knowing what I already asked, so I'll sum it up quick. Basically, I asked him everything dealing with the background of the game, the company he worked for and how they wanted it, RC Pro Am, who he worked with, Seismic, game mechanics (things kept out, things removed, etc.), and so forth. Right now I'm getting him to explain details on how he programmed everything, so those questions there will be good. Already got the go ahead on some documents, so maybe code and such too.

Hey, sweet, he gave me some code. He says he has tons, so if there is anything in particular you want to check out let me know, it will be in the interview as a file or part of the interview itself just pasted.

Oh, the more code the better. Some people would love to dig into full RC Grand Prix sources if he still has that.

You may also want to ask if he has unfinished projects, demos, etc.

He's looking right now and I believe he has all the code. I think he'll be more than willing to give it all.

Full source is very interesting but often lacks the build tools. I don't think anyone's ever got anywhere trying to make head or tail of the Columns source we have. I strongly doubt he still has a functioning compiler toolchain set up that builds it... but still, code == good.

Maxim wrote

...I don't think anyone's ever got anywhere trying to make head or tail of the Columns source we have.

We have? :-D Where?

That's a dev secret *cough*

Maxim wrote

That's a dev secret *cough*

O.o

/me prepares the torture chamber

On another note, this sounds quite fantastic, any ETA when we can expect to see the fruits of the interview?

Well, we're still talking, but I plan on starting to write it up this week. Realistically, assuming I'll be asking more questions, I'd say about three weeks.

Not to be pushy or anything but any chance we'll see the interview by christmas :D

I finished talking to him not too long ago. I'm currently writing it up and he's going to get me some pictures. I don't plan on posting it until after Christmas because we're doing something else with a theme for the holidays like we always do. The interview will be something good to start out the new year I think.

Well, I have to say I'm pretty sure this is all done. I should have it up on SMStributes in about a week, I'm having ian and play look over it quick to see if they think I need to add anything or explain anything further about the code. I think you guys are going to be pretty impressed with this, it's definitely my best work for the community thus far, so I'm pretty psyched to see what you all think, especially people that know more about programming than I do. Heck, if you read it and have more questions, I can ask him and add the data to the interview afterwards.

Stans interview with Scott is finished - http://www.smstributes.co.uk/view_article.asp?articleid=35

That's positively awesome, great job.

That was always one of my favourite games but I totally forgot about it. It was the creators distinctive mug in the part shop that brought back memories of playing it.

It was very interesting to note that we did not stray far from the path at all in our own efforts to program the SMS. A lot of the techniques and quirks he describes have been documented by some of the clever people here at SMS Power and its amazing how accurate they got things.

Although the existance of programmable cartridges negates the need for any fancy programming hardware, I can't help but wonder how possible it would be to construct a CPU emulator akin to the one he described in the interview.

This is a cool interview, Stan please check your writing, there are some spelling errors in there, cant exactly remember where they are though.

great stuff
thanks

Here's those TIFF files as easier-to-see PNGs.

It's interesting to see the collisions code. I always thought the collisions were kind of sucky in that game, but at least they were almost pixel-perfect (looks like 2-pixel accuracy). The "magnify forces" hack is probably what screws it up given how often that happens. The aim to make a "realistic RC Pro Am" certainly explains a lot about the game. Maybe I'll map it out too..? I forgot it's a huge interlinked world, they're the most fun to map :)

Racetrack.png (21.99 KB)

Track Sections.png (42.63 KB)

There's a lot explained in that article. Such as I always thought the flashing was intended as a ghost car effect, so it was distinct which was your car and which were theirs.

It was also an ingenious idea to throttle the lead cars to make the race seem more matched, like your always just on the edge of catching up.

Thanks a lot guys, glad you enjoy it. Working with him got me interested in programming, so I'm going to start the long, tedious process of learning how to rape the Z80. Let me know if you can think of any further questions to ask him. I know there were some typos, always good to have a non native speaker of English find them for me because I won't notice them most of the time since I read so fast.

Author	Message
Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	New Interview Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:45 pm
Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	I've probably tackled most of them by now, but I'm going through a great interview with the programmer of R.C. Grand Prix, so if you guys can think of any questions you'd like answered, let me know, and I'll send them if I haven't asked them already. It will, of course, be part of the main articles section on 8Bit.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 7:42 am
	Obvious questions: - Was it "inspired" by R.C. Pro-Am, or was it more independently conceived? - What's with the Seismic branding on the US version? Was there some kind of custom deal going on with Sega? - Any stories about development - documentation, size limits, problems, politics, etc - are always interesting, but can't be anticipated directly...

Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 12:55 pm
Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Thanks Maxim, got most of those already, pretty much FULLY answered. He's looking for anything he has left like sketches and such, just sent me a PDF of the original write-up he proposed to Absolute, so I'll be including that in the article. Still have a ton of questions to ask, and luckily, unlike Steve Hanawa, he's a lot more willing to say whatever he can.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:02 pm
	I'd be happy for data splurges - code, docs, etc that we can look through - but legality might be an issue there. It's hard to make detailed questions without knowing what's already been said, especially in the more technical parts (no point asking probing sound questions if the sound driver was by someone else, for example).

Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:41 pm
Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Good one, I'll ask about that. I know it's hard to think of questions without knowing what I already asked, so I'll sum it up quick. Basically, I asked him everything dealing with the background of the game, the company he worked for and how they wanted it, RC Pro Am, who he worked with, Seismic, game mechanics (things kept out, things removed, etc.), and so forth. Right now I'm getting him to explain details on how he programmed everything, so those questions there will be good. Already got the go ahead on some documents, so maybe code and such too.

Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:10 pm
Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Hey, sweet, he gave me some code. He says he has tons, so if there is anything in particular you want to check out let me know, it will be in the interview as a file or part of the interview itself just pasted.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8652 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 8:57 am
	Oh, the more code the better. Some people would love to dig into full RC Grand Prix sources if he still has that. You may also want to ask if he has unfinished projects, demos, etc.

Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 3:22 pm
Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	He's looking right now and I believe he has all the code. I think he'll be more than willing to give it all.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:49 pm
	Full source is very interesting but often lacks the build tools. I don't think anyone's ever got anywhere trying to make head or tail of the Columns source we have. I strongly doubt he still has a functioning compiler toolchain set up that builds it... but still, code == good.

PrOfUnD Darkness Joined: 29 Jun 1999 Posts: 383 Location: Brazil	Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 11:17 pm
	Maxim wrote ...I don't think anyone's ever got anywhere trying to make head or tail of the Columns source we have. We have? :-D Where?

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 7:23 am
	That's a dev secret cough

thatawesomeguy Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 732 Location: Melbourne, Australia	Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:37 am
	Maxim wrote That's a dev secret cough O.o /me prepares the torture chamber On another note, this sounds quite fantastic, any ETA when we can expect to see the fruits of the interview?

Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:55 pm
Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Well, we're still talking, but I plan on starting to write it up this week. Realistically, assuming I'll be asking more questions, I'd say about three weeks.

thatawesomeguy Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 732 Location: Melbourne, Australia	Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:54 pm
	Not to be pushy or anything but any chance we'll see the interview by christmas :D

Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:33 pm
Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	I finished talking to him not too long ago. I'm currently writing it up and he's going to get me some pictures. I don't plan on posting it until after Christmas because we're doing something else with a theme for the holidays like we always do. The interview will be something good to start out the new year I think.

Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 7:01 am
Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Well, I have to say I'm pretty sure this is all done. I should have it up on SMStributes in about a week, I'm having ian and play look over it quick to see if they think I need to add anything or explain anything further about the code. I think you guys are going to be pretty impressed with this, it's definitely my best work for the community thus far, so I'm pretty psyched to see what you all think, especially people that know more about programming than I do. Heck, if you read it and have more questions, I can ask him and add the data to the interview afterwards.

james costello Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 537 Location: England	Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:47 pm
	Stans interview with Scott is finished - http://www.smstributes.co.uk/view_article.asp?articleid=35

thatawesomeguy Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 732 Location: Melbourne, Australia	Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 2:28 pm
	That's positively awesome, great job. That was always one of my favourite games but I totally forgot about it. It was the creators distinctive mug in the part shop that brought back memories of playing it. It was very interesting to note that we did not stray far from the path at all in our own efforts to program the SMS. A lot of the techniques and quirks he describes have been documented by some of the clever people here at SMS Power and its amazing how accurate they got things. Although the existance of programmable cartridges negates the need for any fancy programming hardware, I can't help but wonder how possible it would be to construct a CPU emulator akin to the one he described in the interview.

Jacko Joined: 01 Feb 2004 Posts: 1464 Location: Sunny ol Tamworth, New England NSW AU	Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 10:38 am
	This is a cool interview, Stan please check your writing, there are some spelling errors in there, cant exactly remember where they are though.

D Joined: 01 Apr 2005 Posts: 252 Location: Almere, The Netherlands	Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:36 am
	great stuff thanks

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:03 pm
	Here's those TIFF files as easier-to-see PNGs. It's interesting to see the collisions code. I always thought the collisions were kind of sucky in that game, but at least they were almost pixel-perfect (looks like 2-pixel accuracy). The "magnify forces" hack is probably what screws it up given how often that happens. The aim to make a "realistic RC Pro Am" certainly explains a lot about the game. Maybe I'll map it out too..? I forgot it's a huge interlinked world, they're the most fun to map :) Racetrack.png (21.99 KB) Track Sections.png (42.63 KB)

thatawesomeguy Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 732 Location: Melbourne, Australia	Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:32 pm
	There's a lot explained in that article. Such as I always thought the flashing was intended as a ghost car effect, so it was distinct which was your car and which were theirs. It was also an ingenious idea to throttle the lead cars to make the race seem more matched, like your always just on the edge of catching up.

Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:49 pm
Stan Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 187	Thanks a lot guys, glad you enjoy it. Working with him got me interested in programming, so I'm going to start the long, tedious process of learning how to rape the Z80. Let me know if you can think of any further questions to ask him. I know there were some typos, always good to have a non native speaker of English find them for me because I won't notice them most of the time since I read so fast.

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