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An interivew with
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CYBACOLT and PACKRAT of |
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agrajag |
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What
are you trying to acomplish with the cheats database? |
CYBACOLT |
Trying to provide
something for all I have taken from the scene over the
years. I was sick of people trying to sell things on the
net, and I thought it was time to give rather than take. After seeing so many great text
files like the Jargon File, and the Anarchists Cookbook
and such, I thought i'd try my hand in developing my own
txt compilation.
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Why did
you think there was a need for it? |
CYBACOLT |
There where vague cheats
compilations all over the place, but none ongoing. I also
got annoyed with recent cheats compilations that required
payment, or had cripple-ware/nag-ware attached to them.
(I think I'll refrain from naming packages :) |
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What
was the most difficult part of all this? |
CYBACOLT |
Aahm. I don't know if i
can answer that. There have been many parts that were
difficult. I guess the two hardest parts were editing and
checking the data file, and (tho I didn't do much there)
packrat's coding of the viewer. I cant recall how many
times I combed through the data file comparing cheats and
updating them... It was quite draining and monotonous at
times. |
PACKRAT |
*snort* Don't even talk
to me about the sorts of problems you can have with
compilers and working under DOSs broken architecture. It
almost seems as if coding the viewer for this gave me an
opportunity to find and activate every bug in DOS. It
could be written off as a challenge I suppose. |
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Do you
think it would be good for someone to do a compilation
like this for cracks, fonts, patches, or other small
files? |
CYBACOLT |
it's hard to say. Cracks
and patches would take alot of maintanence, considering
you'd have to have cracks for each version of the ware.
The size of such a compilation would be perhaps
unattractive as well. A fonts compilation could be
interesting tho. |
PACKRAT |
Actually, I only think a
compilation of the type we have done is only useful for
things like cheats that can be viewed and remembered
easily. Cracks, patches, and most other small files need
the files to be extracted and used, whereas the cheats
can remain more or less monolithic. While the cheats
database could be very easily adapted in its current
state, we do have plans for it. More later... |
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Would
you be interested in doing a compilation like this? |
CYBACOLT |
At the moment I have too
much on my plate. Certainly not in the foreseeable
future. |
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What
would be your suggestions for someone who wanted to put
together a project like this? |
CYBACOLT |
just get out there and
start doing it! There are always a lot of hurdles, but
you take them when you come to them. You just need faith
in your idea, and it spawns from there on in. |
PACKRAT |
There have been a few
setbacks, even a few month or two long gaps where one or
both of us couldn't manage the enthusiasm. Of course,
cybacolt has put many times more hours than I did, I only
ever had to worry about getting a final product out. I
did do some proofing as well, so I can appreciate the
amount of effort it took. Basically you need to keep hammering at it.
If you ever do work on a project like this, you are going
to want to put it down before you have finished. You just
have to put it down not to far away...
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What
kept you doing this, assuming that after 500 hours there
would be times when you'd get really really frustrated... |
CYBACOLT |
Work tended to happen
fairly sporatically. say, I'd do 25 hours one week, then
leave it for 2 months. I did occasionally wonder _why_ I
was doing it, or if infact anyone would find a use for
it. But what really spurred me on was seeing other crappy
releases with more ANSI than content, and half the cheats
of the agrajag database. I thought the scene deserved
more than that. This
database started when I was my second last year of school
when 386's where hot machines. It's taken quite alot of
frustration to get it into true form. Even packrat, has
spent many sleepless nights trying to get Borland C to do
what the manuals _say_ it does :)
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PACKRAT |
I remember some of those
nights. The last one involved a particularly nasty bug
which I could only find my dancing around it and trying
to see how close I could get before the machine crashed.
Turned out it wasn't even anything I'd done. The
sleepless part was mainly due to cybacolt and another
friend sitting behind me for 8 hours while I worked on it
sniggering and making smart comments. Neither of them, I
might point out, had done any serious programming under
DOS. |
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How can
people help to make the cheat database even better? |
CYBACOLT |
It's like anything good
in te scene today - support us and we'll support you. It
would be great if people could spread the database as
much as they could. Anyone who has cheats that aren't in
the database could post them to me,
([email protected]) i'd be more than happy to credit
them for it. We are
still lacking in distrobution BBS's and netsites as well.
It would be greatly appreciated if someone could help in
this area.
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What's
your next project going to be? |
CYBACOLT |
Well, for starters, the
next version of the cheats database. Trying to put the
number of games over 1000, adding compression, perhaps
adlib music and some conservative use of graphics. (after
all - content over clutter is agrajag's main aim.)
possibly movement into N64 console cheats, and viewer's
for different OS's (such as linux) Then there's the expansion of the
agrajag music archive.
(http://www.iinet.net.au/~packrat/music) which must
happen soon - we are running out of archive space.
Perhaps even making a real
group out of agrajag, rather than a two man band. (as it
is now)
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PACKRAT |
My own pet project with
the cheats database is to move the whole things into some
sort of generalized markup language rather than the text
it is in right now, then perhaps viewers for different
platforms. Windows is almost a certainty once we can
bring ourselves to do it. A webbed interface would also
be nice. |
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Signing Off, cybacolt ([email protected])
and
packrat ([email protected])
of
agrajag (http://www.iinet.net.au/~cybacolt/agrajag/)
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