Acerthief
Well-Known Member
Who-that? He-that!
Y'all should know him, the famous dev who, luckily , is an all-timer in our very own exophase.com. His famous works, including KeyCleaner, IDStorage manager, and recently ports of DOOM and other games, rocks the secene once again.
He's great. I mean like dude, we all want to know him better. So I hooked him up an internet interview with the man who saved my PSP (and many others!) -- Chilly Willy!
Let's get on:
Acerthief: What's your real name (or nickname) and how old are you?
Chilly Willy: Joe Fenton, 42.
Acerthief: I grew up watching Chilly Willy. (I actually had bad dreams about it) Why did you choose to use this name in the scene?
Chilly Willy: I mostly use linux, which has a penguin as its mascot. I also grew up
watching Chilly Willy cartoons, so I took it as an homage to the
cartoon.
Acerthief: Where do you work presently? Ever think of changing your job? (I need a maid currently, and I pay extra)
Chilly Willy: I'm currently a contract programmer. That allows me to work from home
by my own schedule (within reason).
Acerthief: What brought you to the world of PSP Homebrew? Do you program for any other consoles?
Chilly Willy: I was doing some traveling a couple years ago and bought a PSP for the
media playing capabilities - in particular, playing music as the
vehicle I had at the time didn't have a decent radio. About that same
time, Homebrew ENabler for 2.71 came out, and my PSP had 2.6 on it.
After trying a few homebrews, I decided the PSP had really good
potential in the area of homebrew.
I had already been doing little things on the PS2, so I was a regular
at ps2dev. I knew they had a PSP section, so the next time I was at
ps2dev, I went through the PSP sections, reading old threads and
looking at what development tools were available.
I haven't done anything really major on other consoles besides the PSP
- just little things. I do have some plans for something I want to do
on the Genesis when I get the time (among other projects).
Acerthief: What are/were the motives of keeping you coding?
Chilly Willy: Generally, I go by "Is it fun?" If I'm not having fun, I won't be
motivated and won't spend as much time on it. When you program for a
living, you get where you want the programming you do in your spare
time to provide something work doesn't - namely fun. I don't care
what others think of what I do. Sure, it's nice to have people post
how good they think your latest program is, but that's not really
enough to keep me at it if it's not fun.
Acerthief: KeyCleaner and IDStorage Manager really rocked my heart. (It even saved my PSP). Tell us why did you decide to put time on IDStorage Programs?
Chilly Willy: I used the original software downgrader for the TA-082. I knew there
were problems caused by that. USBHOSTFS-Fixer had been released, but
had problems. Someone else did an app called idrestore, but it had
serious bugs. I was one of many people waiting for it to be updated so
we could fix our TA-082 PSPs. However, at some point the author of
idrestore got fed up with all the people bugging him to release an
update and told folks he wasn't going to. So I read up on everything
that was out on the idstorage, did some experimenting, and turned
idrestore into idreset. I kept improving the app until I decided it
was time for something completely written from scratch that would do a
better job. That gave birth to KeyCleaner.
At the same time, I was still playing with the idstorage, so I needed
something for myself to mess with the keys. I knew other devs might
like it as well, so I made something decent that gave developers the
ability to mess with the idstorage. That was how IdStorage Manager
came about.
Acerthief: I see you taking time to port emulators or other games onto the PSP after the KC/IDSM v1.4 release. What brought you into porting all those neat stuff?
Chilly Willy: To give credit where it's due, some of the programs were already
ported, I was just making improvements. An example is Rise of the
Triad. Deniska did the initial port, I just made improvements. My
version of Doom was something I ported to the PSP completely myself
rather than improving someone else's port. Beyond those
games/emulators I ported or improved, much of my work on the PSP has
been at a lower level - making libraries and supporting code, or
improvements to existing libraries and supporting code. For example, I
just recently added TV support to SDL. I also rewrote the SDL_SlowRATE
audio sample converter so that games like Duke Nukem 3D and Rise of
the Triad would have better sound.
Acerthief: How often do you code? What's your time-table like?
Chilly Willy: Homebrew generally tends to be done in the evening, and on weekends.
I'll normally put a couple hours into it. If I'm really close to being
done with something big, I might put a full day into it to get it
done.
Acerthief: What would you most likely code in the future? Updates of released programs or something new to thrill everyone?
Chilly Willy: Improvements to existing stuff is easy and quick (usually), so that
tends to be the bulk of my work. But I do have some original stuff
I've been working on that will eventually be released.
Acerthief: What are your favorite homebrews on the PSP?
Chilly Willy: PicoDrive is my current favorite. I really like playing Genesis and
SEGA CD games on the PSP. They go really well together. I also like
first-person shooters which have exploration as a major part, like
Doom. I made my conversion of Doom because it was right after I got my
Slim - the existing port didn't work on the Slim, and had some
problems that bugged me as well. So I actually did my version of Doom
for myself. Y'all just got lucky I was a big Doom fan.
As far as puzzle games go, my favorite is still GoGoGoo. I suggest
people try it themselves.
Y'all should know him, the famous dev who, luckily , is an all-timer in our very own exophase.com. His famous works, including KeyCleaner, IDStorage manager, and recently ports of DOOM and other games, rocks the secene once again.
He's great. I mean like dude, we all want to know him better. So I hooked him up an internet interview with the man who saved my PSP (and many others!) -- Chilly Willy!
Let's get on:
=====
Acerthief: What's your real name (or nickname) and how old are you?
Chilly Willy: Joe Fenton, 42.
Acerthief: I grew up watching Chilly Willy. (I actually had bad dreams about it) Why did you choose to use this name in the scene?
Chilly Willy: I mostly use linux, which has a penguin as its mascot. I also grew up
watching Chilly Willy cartoons, so I took it as an homage to the
cartoon.
Acerthief: Where do you work presently? Ever think of changing your job? (I need a maid currently, and I pay extra)
Chilly Willy: I'm currently a contract programmer. That allows me to work from home
by my own schedule (within reason).
Acerthief: What brought you to the world of PSP Homebrew? Do you program for any other consoles?
Chilly Willy: I was doing some traveling a couple years ago and bought a PSP for the
media playing capabilities - in particular, playing music as the
vehicle I had at the time didn't have a decent radio. About that same
time, Homebrew ENabler for 2.71 came out, and my PSP had 2.6 on it.
After trying a few homebrews, I decided the PSP had really good
potential in the area of homebrew.
I had already been doing little things on the PS2, so I was a regular
at ps2dev. I knew they had a PSP section, so the next time I was at
ps2dev, I went through the PSP sections, reading old threads and
looking at what development tools were available.
I haven't done anything really major on other consoles besides the PSP
- just little things. I do have some plans for something I want to do
on the Genesis when I get the time (among other projects).
Acerthief: What are/were the motives of keeping you coding?
Chilly Willy: Generally, I go by "Is it fun?" If I'm not having fun, I won't be
motivated and won't spend as much time on it. When you program for a
living, you get where you want the programming you do in your spare
time to provide something work doesn't - namely fun. I don't care
what others think of what I do. Sure, it's nice to have people post
how good they think your latest program is, but that's not really
enough to keep me at it if it's not fun.
Acerthief: KeyCleaner and IDStorage Manager really rocked my heart. (It even saved my PSP). Tell us why did you decide to put time on IDStorage Programs?
Chilly Willy: I used the original software downgrader for the TA-082. I knew there
were problems caused by that. USBHOSTFS-Fixer had been released, but
had problems. Someone else did an app called idrestore, but it had
serious bugs. I was one of many people waiting for it to be updated so
we could fix our TA-082 PSPs. However, at some point the author of
idrestore got fed up with all the people bugging him to release an
update and told folks he wasn't going to. So I read up on everything
that was out on the idstorage, did some experimenting, and turned
idrestore into idreset. I kept improving the app until I decided it
was time for something completely written from scratch that would do a
better job. That gave birth to KeyCleaner.
At the same time, I was still playing with the idstorage, so I needed
something for myself to mess with the keys. I knew other devs might
like it as well, so I made something decent that gave developers the
ability to mess with the idstorage. That was how IdStorage Manager
came about.
Acerthief: I see you taking time to port emulators or other games onto the PSP after the KC/IDSM v1.4 release. What brought you into porting all those neat stuff?
Chilly Willy: To give credit where it's due, some of the programs were already
ported, I was just making improvements. An example is Rise of the
Triad. Deniska did the initial port, I just made improvements. My
version of Doom was something I ported to the PSP completely myself
rather than improving someone else's port. Beyond those
games/emulators I ported or improved, much of my work on the PSP has
been at a lower level - making libraries and supporting code, or
improvements to existing libraries and supporting code. For example, I
just recently added TV support to SDL. I also rewrote the SDL_SlowRATE
audio sample converter so that games like Duke Nukem 3D and Rise of
the Triad would have better sound.
Acerthief: How often do you code? What's your time-table like?
Chilly Willy: Homebrew generally tends to be done in the evening, and on weekends.
I'll normally put a couple hours into it. If I'm really close to being
done with something big, I might put a full day into it to get it
done.
Acerthief: What would you most likely code in the future? Updates of released programs or something new to thrill everyone?
Chilly Willy: Improvements to existing stuff is easy and quick (usually), so that
tends to be the bulk of my work. But I do have some original stuff
I've been working on that will eventually be released.
Acerthief: What are your favorite homebrews on the PSP?
Chilly Willy: PicoDrive is my current favorite. I really like playing Genesis and
SEGA CD games on the PSP. They go really well together. I also like
first-person shooters which have exploration as a major part, like
Doom. I made my conversion of Doom because it was right after I got my
Slim - the existing port didn't work on the Slim, and had some
problems that bugged me as well. So I actually did my version of Doom
for myself. Y'all just got lucky I was a big Doom fan.
As far as puzzle games go, my favorite is still GoGoGoo. I suggest
people try it themselves.
