Commodore Free 36/Commodore_Free_Issue_36_2010_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/iv mike

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 14KB | 482 lines

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    Interview With Mike Dailly
        By Commodore Free
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Mike Dailly is a 20 year games
programming veteran, and cut his
teeth at DMA Design working on some
of the most famous games ever
created. He can lay claim to having
inspired and worked on both the
Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto series,
as well as many other well known
titles. He specialise in
multiplatform hardware has worked on
a large number of systems, from the
Spectrum, C64 and Plus/4, to the
Xbox, Playstation and mobile phones.
Although a coder at hart, Mike also
dabbles in various bits of art from
2D sprites to 3D modelling using
packages like ProMotion and Lightwave

Q. Mike Please introduce yourself to
our readers

A.  Hello everyone, I'm a 39 year old
coder from Dundee, Scotland, where I
live with my Wife Frances and my 3
kids (soon to be four!). I don't
really have many real hobbies outside
of computers and retro coding,
although I do enjoy home cinema,
reading, electronics and keep fit. I
love dabbling with old my 8-bit
machines as they offer difference
challenges from the kind I get during
the day; you just don't have to tune
code the way you used to on old 8bit
machines, and you can still learn
things from them - great fun.

Q. Can you tell our readers how you
became involved in computing?

A. I became interested in computers
when I was about 13 years old, and a
school friend had just received a
zx81 as a gift. I used to go up to
his house and play games, type in
listings from magazines and try to
make our own little programs. When my
friend upgraded to a ZX Spectrum my
mum purchased the ZX81 for me, and
after that there was no stopping me.
I started to coded in Basic, but the
real change came after getting a
magazine with a listing of a snake
game coded in assembler, but this
time it had a full mnemonic listing!
Not just HEX. All of a sudden, I
could see how it was all done, no
longer did I think coders sat with
HEX numbers, it was simply another
language to learn. I played around
with the border redrawing routine
from the SNAKE game, and was amazed
at how quickly the ZX81 was able to
redraw it.

A year or so later my mums office
needed a database, and my mum somehow
convinced them that I could write it
cheaper than they would pay for a
commercial one. They purchased a ZX
Spectrum, a disk drive  and a proper
typists keyboard and gave me the lot
to work with. I was about 14 and it
didn't take me long to write the
database using the spectrums basic.
They were amazed. I allowed you to
search for a client by name (thanks
to the simple Basic command), whereas
all current commercial database
programs required a rolodex to find a
users ID so you could type in a
number. A rolodex is a ring of cards
with the user/clients name on the top
(like a file), and some basic info
written on it - like the client ID).
I avoided all that for a fraction of
the cost that they would have had to
pay. I've no idea if it was ever used
though....

After giving the spectrum back, my
ZX81 died and I was then left without
one for about a year until my mum got
me a Commodore Plus/4 for Christmas.
It was very nearly a Mattel Aquarius,
and I dread to think how my life
would have changed if it had been!
However the Plus/4 had a built in
machine code monitor and I was able
to jump right in.

I joined a local computer club and
teamed up with other users Steve
Hammond, Russell Kay and Dave Jones
(these were the founding members of
DMA designs), and a few years later I
managed to obtain a Commodore 64 from
another friend as his interests
changed and I was well on my way to
my future career.

I applied for Art collage and was
accepted, but on a chance application
was accepted to a simple HNC in
computing. While the coding was
simple, the rest of the course was a
joke and I quickly tired of it. I was
kicked out of college for basically
not attending much to the disgust of
my mother who then started to push me
to get a real job. Fortunately Dave
had decided to open an office a few
months later and I got the contract
to do Ballistix. I officially started
working for DMA Designs in August
1989 and stayed there for almost 10
years.

In the early years, DMA Design was a
blast. Lots of games, lots of playing
around and trying new things.
Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto both
came from letting me play with
concepts, both in art and in coding.

I left DMA Design in May 1999 and
moved to Visual Sciences as Head of
Research and Development where I
started looking into technology we
could use for the new PS2 platform.
During my 2 years at Visual Sciences
I worked on some really fun things,
including making our own Devkit for
the original Playstation, I even
managed to make a snapshot carriage
and hacked the PS2 bios to allow our
own custom profiler. All this came to
an end when we started doing an F1
game for EA, and they annoyed me so
much I ended up leaving after just 2
years there.

I moved to Simian Industries to
become Technical Manager where we
wrote games for the new "3" mobile
phone. We actually had the first
games out on these phones and worked
closely with them in the early days.
However, I tired of mobile phones as
I seem to spend all my time porting
the same game to yet more new
handsets, and even though I could do
a port of a game in under an hour at
times, it was never fun. Simian
finally went down after 2 of the
directors basically stole money from
the books and there was nothing left
to pay the rest of us, and so in Feb
2005 I moved to Dave Jones new
company, Realtime Worlds.

They were gearing up to write
Crackdown but Dave wanted me to try
and make another concept work. The
company had tried it before and
failed, but he wanted to give it
another crack. So I started doing R&D
once more on that. After proving it
was all possible, I became a core
Engine coder and we've now moved into
full production mode.

Q. What games are you currently
working on

A. Can't say I'm afraid, but it's big
- really big - you just wouldn't
believe how vastly, hugely
mind-bogglingly big it is. You may
think it's a long way down the road
to the chemist, but that's just
peanuts to this game...

Q. Retro systems seem to be making a
come back do you think this is people
realising a game is more than fancy
graphics and gameplay is the most
important "feature"

A. There's some of that for sure, and
in some respect iPhone coders are
rediscovering this freedom. But a lot
of it is also just folk reliving
their childhood and games they used
to love, or like me, hobbies they
used to love.

Q. How do you rate the current
Consoles, the Xbox, PS3 and Wii do
you think the methods of interacting
are more important than the actual
games.

A.  The Wii has proved to be a winner
thanks to it's mass market games,
while the XBox is the better of the
other two. However this is only
thanks to the games as the hardware
is much the same. I have all of the
consoles - since that's my line of
work! (what a great excuse that is!),
and I can't find any PS3 games I
actually want to play. It's a much
better media centre, but as a
console, I'm not a fan. The Wii is
fab and the XBox360 online
store/arcade stuff is great. I just
wish they would allow games though
quicker as I'd love to more old
arcade games appearing.

Q. How was it working for DMA designs
and Psygnosis

A. Early on it was a blast! Doing C64
work was great fun, and although I
really struggled doing PC Engine
Shadow of the Beast, the SNES and PC
work I did after was very enjoyable.
One project teams started getting
big, it got harder and harder to take
a risk and try some of the ideas that
were floating around. Psygnosis were
pretty good, and although they gave
Dave some pressure, we never felt it.
We got the occasional freebee and
they were all pretty nice chaps.

Q. Was it hard to find any backing
for Grand Theft auto due to its age
rating of 18?

A. It wasn't an 18 at the start, and
because BMG had followed its progress
they realised (after a bit of
persuasion), that it was the way to
go. So it was a fairly simple change
for the team.

Q. Current games all seem to be 3D is
there still room for a 2D game

A. Oh hell yeah. 3D games have their
place, but so do 2D games. There's no
need to put some into 3D but many
people still think that 3D=great, and
that simply isn't true. I'm fairly
sure Tetris wouldn't sell anymore if
it was in 3D, in fact it would
probably reduce sales. A good game is
a good game, regardless if it's in 3D
or not.

Q. What in your opinion makes a good
game?

A. Fun. Over and above any
"gameplay", it has to be fun. That
means you have to enjoy just being in
the game even if you're losing! Look
at the best games, Mario, Lemmings,
GTA, Sonic, Call of Duty - the list
can go on and on. Each of them has
this in common. Your enjoy just
running around inside the game. If
you can get that, then adding game
mechanics will just enhance the game.

Q. Can you tell our readers a little
about one of your projects entitled
"FRAMEWORK 64" what exactly is it, a
framework of what?

A. When I started the C64 port of
XeO3, I needed a basic framework.
That is a skeleton program that I can
add to. These programs usually have
all the basic stuff I always end up
needing; multiplexor, keyboard input,
interrupts, main-loop etc. They are
normally a little rough and ready,
but I decided to clean it up a bit
and release it for everyone else to
use. Because of this I added some new
toys to it.

I've added 3 different multiplexors
so you can pick whichever one is
best. There is now some very simple
collision detection so using the
joystick you can move "the player"
and collide with other blobs. There's
a VERY fast 8x8 bit multiply, a
simple random number generator, and a
simple animation system for baddies.
The keyboard and joystick routines
have game level performance (unlike
system keyboard reading!).

But what I'm most happy with is the
MMC64 file loader. This is a very
small (about 1k including data) file
loader using the MMC64 (or
compatible) plug-in card. This lets
you develop multi-load games using an
MMC64 card and not a disk drive. It
means putting files onto a C64 "disk"
is very simple as you just copy files
to the card. It also means loading
will be very quick, and you can
distribute a ZIP for the game.

I thought it was time the C64 started
using the very popular SD card add on
for new games, so I'm very happy to
have a simple loader for everyone to
use.

All this source is completely free to
use, and highly commented making it
much simpler to follow. The only
thing I ask is if you use it, credit
whoever has contributed to it (which
is currently only me).

There's also a very simple bomb jack
game sample to show how you could use
it, and my assembler on which it's
all based.

Q. I famously now criticised
Protovision's Metal Dust, I was
hoping for so much with the SCPU I
think something like 80% of the SCPU
processing power went to the
digitised play music at the risk of
being flamed would you like to
comment about the game?

A. I did the same. I'm just not
impressed with Metal Dust. I think
the use of DIGI sound is a waste.
I've played a little with the SCPU
and would like to do more with it
(given some free time!).

I think you can do some pretty cool
things with it. Lots of software
sprites would be cool, or 3D baddies
as well. I would also like to do a
proper dual playfield (vertical
scroller). I speculated before that
you could do a GTA clone. As soon as
you do anything 3D(ish), you can take
longer to draw the screen, and that's
a HUGE amount of time. You could
probably do a proper DOOM clone too,
but why bother? If you want to play
DOOM, use a PC.

Enforcer has shown how much you can
do on a C64, and I suspect most of
Metal Dust could be done on a stock
machine. With the amount of RAM and
SPEED, Metal Dust should have been a
much more interesting game. That
said... they did at least finish it,
which is commendable.

Q. Can you tell our readers about the
game XEO3, and how far you are into
the project, I know some readers
wanted the game porting to the C64
with SCPU, but having watched the
demos on YouTube with a bare
Commodore 64 it seems to be both
smooth and fast enough, I know Jason
Kelk TMR was loaned a SCPU and after
getting to know the device famously
said "Its just I don't know what to
use it for" can you comment?

A. We're pretty far into the game and
have most of the code written.
There's still some way to go, but
mainly with Level design and
scripting although there's no
hiscore, and some primary code needs
tied together. Leading on the Plus/4,
I've also ported it to the C64, and
there's loads of CPU time left on
that version as it doesn't have to do
all the software sprites. The C64
version does have more baddies than
the Plus/4 version (16 over 9), but
that doesn't really affect things.

I've lots of ideas for my SCPU, in
fact that's the easy bit! Time is my
problem. A full Lemmings, a GTA
engine (top down 3D), 3D baddies over
a 2D scroller - hell, a 3D background
(of sorts) with a 2D scroller....
there's LOT'S you can do.

Q. Isn't XEO3 a heavy metal band? Why
choose this name?

A. Luca came up with this. XeO3 is a
chemical, and Luca is a Chemist - ask
him :)

Q. Do you think the loan programmer
could still make a commercial game
from his bedroom.

A. With the emergence of the iPhone
and XNA, yes. As I said before, games
have to be fun first and foremost.
The rest is fluff. If you can come up
with a simple concept and get it onto
the iPhone/XBox, a bigger player
might see it and hook you up with
some real resources.

Q. Can you list you 5 favourite games
or utilities for any platform

A. Not in order

Lemmings - Lots of reasons (lots)
GTA - Just love driving around (lots)
Mario World 4 - Best game ever! (SNES)
Monkey Island games - Best series
                      ever! (PC)
DPaint - Never been equalled. (Amiga)

Q. What are you currently working on

A. Can't say I'm afraid.... Both the
stuff at home and the stuff at work
is secret. I hope that my current
home project will get announced soon
though.

Q. Do you have any final comments you
would like to make

A. I wish days were 32 hours long,
then I might get to do some of the
other things I want to do!

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