Hooka: When did you get your gp32? (I'm figuring you have a BLU though from your response to the "do BLU's still have the reversed speaker problem?" ;) )

Dalto: I got my gp32 recently, June of this year.  I got a FLU model about a week or two before the BLU's came out because I was impatient.

Hooka: What made you decide to get a gp32?

Dalto: Actually, I am a big fan of retro gaming.  I keep all my old consoles.  I had been playing my TurboGrafx 16 and had been thinking how great it would be to play those games while I was on the road.  So, I decided to get a TurboExpress. While I was searching for a place to purchase one I stumbled across the new Lik-Sang.  While I was at Lik-Sang I noticed several handhelds I had never heard of.  One of these was the gp32.  I spent a day or two researching it and it seemed pretty cool so I bought one.  I bought it mostly for the emulators.

Hooka: Yeah, I got the TG-16 sitting on the shelf beside me... it's been neglected since I got my GP32 (not saying I haven't been playing TG-16 games ;) )

Hooka: How old is your kid? (I remember you saying you made gpPaint for your kid... boy if I remember correctly)

Dalto: My son is 5, I also have two daughters.

Hooka: What made you decide to start developing for the gp32?

Dalto: Good question Hooka, I had not done much (if any) development for the last 6 years.  Since I was no longer doing it professionally I thought it might be a good outlet.  Since I had just recently received my gp32 and it seemed like the perfect platform. It was fairly simple and there wasn't a large base of applications already developed for it.

Hooka: So, how did someone as inept at graphics as you end up developing a paint program?

Dalto: When I first decided to start doing gp32 development I was playing around with Mr. Mirko's SDK.  I decided that my first task would be to write something that moved a simple pixel around the screen.  I forgot to clear the previous pixel as I was moving which of course caused a line to be drawn.  I was playing with this when my son popped in and saw it.  He told me that I had to make a drawing program so I made a simple drawing program.  At first it was really simple.  Just used two colors, one on A and one on B.  I just kept adding features and eventually I showed it to you.  You made some recommendations if I remember correctly.  I think I implemented most of them.  After that I released it in the beta test forums on gp32x.  

Hooka: Do you plan on updating gpPaint or do you feel it's a pretty finished product now?

Dalto: I don't feel that gpPaint is finished.  However, it doesn't seem like there is much need for a paint program on the gp32.  As of this writing the latest version has 16 total downloads.  I much prefer to spend my free time coding something that people will actually use.

Hooka: How is progress on Mythical Chess going?

Dalto: Quite good actually, it plays fairly well.

Hooka: What features do you plan to include for the first beta and what do you plan to have added by the final release?

Dalto: I have a couple of changes I want to make visually and then I will be releasing a beta.  After that, since I almost never write software that I know a damn thing about I will probably just add features as people request them.

Hooka: What other systems have you developed for? (I've noticed your VERY good at C from the help you've given me)

Dalto: I don't know about that.  I hadn't developed for quite some time until recently so I had to relearn quite a few things.  I was a commercial developer for about 6 years.  Mostly business applications.

Hooka: Why would you want to change it from "BAD MOVE DUMBASS!!!" to something else when somebody makes a stupid move in your chess game? atleast they'd know and get a laugh at their own expense if they have a sense of humor ;)



Dalto: Hmm....perhaps. Do people who play chess have a sense of humor? ;)

Hooka: What prompted the creation of Image Convertor?

Dalto: The fact the current image converters required two phase processing or only supported certain limited types of BMP's.  I was constantly opening BMP's and converting them to different kinds of BMP's.  I already had libraries to load BMP and GIF files from gpPaint.  I just converted them to work under a Windows/UNIX environment and added some output types.

Hooka: What features do you plan to add to it? (I figure you plan on something seeing as it's v0.9)

Dalto: I'm not sure, I was thinking someone might request something.  Actually, that reminds me, Mirko asked me to update it to add support for his latest header.  I did that but never released it.  I should do that.

Hooka: Who's the host of www.gp32.us?

Dalto: That would be me.  I am actually going to move it to real hosting at some point.

Hooka: Why does it say "assmonkey.org - no browsing" when I type just www.gp32.us?

Dalto: That would be because I reused the storage for one of my other domains because I was too lazy to create a directory.  Chances are you can get the files from assmonkey.org if you would prefer.

Hooka: Do you plan on making a website for all your projects? you've got quite a few but no website of your own...

Dalto: I would like to have one.  There are two problems though.  The first is that developing a web site to host my projects is not nearly as interesting as developing the projects themselves.  The second is that I SUCK at designing web pages.  They always look like crap.

Hooka: *cough*

Hooka: What other projects do you have planned for the future?

Dalto: None right now, but I am sure something will pop up.

Hooka: What are your favorite commercial/homebrew games or apps for the GP32?

Dalto: Little John, GPEngine and NUMO.

Hooka: Did you help with the coding of pintsized or did you just compile it for them? If yes, what else did you help with?

Dalto: I wrote the viewer that displays pintsized and converted the images from GIF's to RAW images the viewer could use.

Hooka: How's life at 30? (for those of you who don't know he just turned 30 on Wednesday, August 11th)

Dalto: Most excellent.

Hooka: How come your so helpful when it comes to helping others to code/ learn to code? (I'm sure it's appreciated by ALL of us ;) )

Dalto: I enjoy helping people out.  Thats part of why I write software for the gp32, I like that people might enjoy using or playing with my software.

Hooka: What do you think of some of the hardware Mod's/external port peripherals that are available for the GP32?

Dalto: I like the chatboard.  I am still looking for something to add chatboard support to.

Dalto: The voltage mod and the memory mod are also pretty interesting. I wish someone would sell gp32's with the memory mod done.

Hooka: What do you see for the future of the GP32?

Dalto: I think people will continue to try to get more out of what hardware we have and people will continue to mod it to make it more than it is.  The landscape for the gp32 is still fairly open.  There are plenty of things to port or develop.

Hooka: What would you like to see for the future of the GP32?

Dalto: I would love for gamepark to release one with 32MB of RAM and a second processor.

Hooka: Is there any other projects for GP32 you may have done that I have missed?

Dalto: Nope, just the three plus image converter.

Hooka: Why did you chose the nickname Dalto?

Dalto: I have no idea.  I have used it for over 10 years now.  I made it up I think.

Hooka: And finally, what's your opinion of Bush? (I noticed you are from Austin Texas, or atleast that's what your IP lead me to believe... so I figured you'd have some opinion on this)

Dalto: I am going to assume you are talking about the president here. ;)

Dalto: But seriously, I try not to pay attention to politics.  Although, I am confident the US will have a president next year.

Hooka: Well, I left this one open to imagination by not specifying George W. Bush Jr... because I have an interesting quote: "Master's type is a beautiful triangle shape!" - Ebichu the House Cleaning Hampster. But yes I was wondering about your stance on the man who's "turning a corner"... into a brick wall ;P well, possibly. (any man who admit's to putting microscopic tracking devices into the arms of known criminals to stop crime is going a little too far... p.s. Bush I want this thing outta my fucking hand NOW! and if it was someone else... I'll get you someday!)

Thanks Dalto for taking the time to do an interview, it's appreciated and I can't wait to see your projects progress :)