Commodore Free 13/Commodore_Free_Issue_13_2007_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.iv klaus

Text File | 2007-01-01 | 8.2 KB | 274 lines

uInterview with Klaus Andersen
Commodore Scene Database (CSDb)
By Commodore Free
http://noname.c64.org/csdb/

Q Please introduce yourself?

A Hi, My name is Klaus Andersen (aka
Perff), & live in Aarhus, Denmark with
my girlfriend & Cat.

I got my first C64 in 1987, & have been
coding ever since. In the early days I
was rather isolated, so my only
inspiration was from intros & the few
demos that 'accidentally' tagged along
with the games I got my hands on. In 94
I met with Ghostrider of No Name, & at
The Party 4 I joined No Name & started
to produce for real. Actually I didn't
produce that much, but I guess most of
you have heard about M.O.O.D. :) While
studying Computer Science at Aarhus
University (1996-2003) I got  a part
time job as web developer (PHP/SQL), &
got some free hosting at the place I
worked. I wanted to use what I've
learned, & the new hosting spot for
more then just our No Name website, so
I began working on the idea for CSDb in
spring 2001.

Q Please tell us about 'the Scene 64
Database' What were the original
intentions of the project?

A I wanted to make a place where as
much information about the C64 scene
could be gathered at one place, with
heavy cross references, so it would be
easy to see who had made what & which
groups they were members of. Inspired
by IMDb I decided to make a site where
it was the users who provided the info.
I got Kilroy (our webmaster in No Name
at that time) on the project as my
skills in designing website is very
poor. I coded, he designed. (Later on
he started coding as well.) Also other
members of  No Name helped with ideas.
We named it the C64 Scene Database CSDb

Q How many people maintain the project?

A Originally we were two coders. Me &
Kilroy. After a few years he left, so
now I'm the only coder left. KBS &
Cyberbrain have been active as admins
since the beginning. Thats about it.

Q Our reader may be asking why create
such a database, what was the motiva-
tion behind the idea?

A Back in those days (late 90's) I
thought it was rather difficult to
figure out who was who & made what.
There were websites with bits & pieces
of information on this, but I thought
there was missing a place where it all
was put together.

Q Are all the database entries added by
volenteers?

A More or less yes. To begin with we
got hold of SAL (Sceners Addy  List), &
used the information about sceners in
that to start it up, but  except that
the database was more or less empty
when we went online.

Q Has the idea/project changed or
evolved over the years?

A The basic idea about the project has
always been the same. To make an open
database where the users maintain the
info in it, & use it. It has however
evolved quite a lot i guess. A lot of
new features have been added over the
years. It's a bit less open now than it
was to begin with, as people can lock
entries. Later on we got some 'trusted'
users who had more permissions than
others to help us keep the database
clean, & now weve got official
moderators taking care of that.

Q The 'open' nature of the database
makes it difficult to moderate what
have been your worst experiences?

A There have been quite a few episodes
that I don't like to think back on. I
guess my worst experience was one time
when a user decided to delete as much
as possible. When I found that out I
got pissed & acted so fast that I
accidentally hit the wrong button,
deleting the user AND the backup of all
the deleted entries. :( (That system is
now changed so that won't happen
again). That caused several 100 entries
of the most popular demos; groups &
seners to totally disappear from CSDb.
Luckily people were willing to add this
info again. :)Then there has also been
episodes with people like Wanderer &
Nata/Bamu & the like, where I, right-
fully I guess, was accused of inaction
to solve the problem. This is why we
started the moderator team to avoid
similar problems in the future.

Q Would it make sense to create a
companion database for games companies,
programmers & artists?

A Hm. Perhaps? It's not something I
plan on doing, but if anyone would do
something like this, I'll be happy to
cooperate with them, & create ways of
sharing info & linking between the two
sites.

Q What have been your favorite
additions (of any sort) to the database
since it began?

A Hm.. Don't think I have such a
favorite.

Q How much of your time does the
database take up, in an average
day/week/month?

A It's not very often that there is a
day when I don't check CSDb out to see
what is happening, but the time I spend
on it varies very much. Some times it's
just a few minutes a day. Others it's
several hours. I just checked the
stats. It says I've been online on CSDb
for almost 2500 hours. Dividing that up
over the aprox 2000 days CSDb has been
online, that comes to a bit over 1 hour
a day on average. :) (The top users
have been online for 3350 hours! I'm
only in 5th place)

Q Would you think of adding an online
emulator (like the Java JaC64 one) to
the database pages, allowing people a
brief look/listen to items in The
database?

A Thought about it, but only briefly. I
guess this requires that the files
people upload would be in specific
format like D64, T64 or something, &
There is no quarantine to ensure that
people upload in that format.
Personally I don't think it takes that
much time to hit the download link, &
let your OS open the file in your
favorite emulator. (Of course you
should transfer it to the real thing
for the true experience!)

Q How big is the database now, in terms
of Kbytes of data?

A The latest backup in txt-format is
267 MB. On top of that comes about 350
MB of screenshots /scener photos & some
MB of code. Additionally there is 2.7
GB of files which people have uploaded.

Q Have you ever thought of creating a
DVD of the database?

A The idea has crossed my mind, yes.
But I think that there might be to much
work in it, that could be  better spent
on other things. Also CSDb is online, &
continuously updated, so I don't see
the big use for such a DVD+ it would be
outdated the moment it was made.

Q Can you tell our reader about the use
of color, Can the color scheme be
changed by the user?

A The color scheme was made by Kilroy
back in the early days. We decided to
go with the classic blue C64 colors
with a black background. The color
Scheme can not be changed by the user.
At least not yet.

Q Has the amount of new information
slowed down or is it the opposite?

A The first years were rather stable.
After about 3,5 years something
happened, & people started to add even
more info almost doubling the amount of
new entries per. day. This speed of new
has more or less stayed the same, even
though it's slowed a bit down. On
average there are currently 30-40 new
entries added per day. You can see the
stats on: http://noname.c64.org/csdb/
 funstuff/entrystat.php

Q What can our reader do to help out
with the Scene Database?

A Sign up for an account, & start
adding/updating info. :) Remember to
take a look at the help/docs first. A
donation would also be nice, as the
hosting is no longer free. ;)

Q- The Mood project was a superb effort
to recreate a 3d game environment on an
unexpanded Commodore 64 are there still
plans to maintain this project or
release the source code, also have you
thought about using additional hardware
like the Super cpu, or even a C128
version in 80 columns, Many people
still think Doom is impossible on the
64 but this project at least gave us
hope

A: Even though the project has never
officially been declared dead, I doubt
that I'll get around to make a full
game out of it. Actually M.O.O.D
started out as a demo effect for
Obscene Code. As I saw it was possible
to add a few monsters etc. I had a
potential game. We released some
previews, but after that, & proving
that a 3D texture map game was possible
on a C64, I was kind of satisfied. Even
though there were plans for additional
levels, & putting it all together to a
game, I had a hard time finding the
time & motivation for it. :( I have
thought about releasing the source code
& I might just do that one day. But
don't expect a lot of documentation or
level designer tools! :)

There have been suggestions to use
additional hardware to make an
'improved' version of M.O.O.D, but I
don't want to do that, as it is against
my original idea of making it for the
original hardware.