About

Who?

Quickly! Click the back button now, before you waste any more of your precious life minutes reading about mine. Still here?... Well, in that case, I write programs for fun, enjoy video games like most kids at heart, invent little worlds of my own, play the piano, love to figure out how things work, and often take them apart to satisfy my curiousity (whether tangible mechanical devices or intagible software). Qbasic was my first language, which I learned mostly on my own just messing around with commands and reading through the help. Then I was introduced to C by the book "Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus", and later dived into the fun of raw assembly to really learn what's happening under the covers (from which I've now withdrawn a bit, after enduring the tedium ;). Currently, I work on a little known thing called DirectX (seriously, so many people give me blank stares), after having graduated from Oregon State University with a focus on graphics.

Thanks To...

John McCubbin for writing a front-end for my utilities!
Zophar's Domain for letting the rest of the world know about my utils.

ZsKnight for answering all my SNES related questions and writing an excellent emulator!
AntiRes for a copy of the Super Famicom SPC manual.
_Demo_ for the SPC info, and major contribution to ZSNES.
Qwertie for his emulator SneQr and SNES Knowledge Base.
Yoshi for all his helpful documents.
Gaz for his assembly library and help on protected mode.

Greets To...

Koro, CSF Mania.
John McCubbin (CyBeRGoth), Cybergoth's Domain.
AntiRes, author of SpcTool.
Magnus Runesson, author of Smc-Ripper.
Louis Bontes, author of Naga.
Jay McGavren, Rage Hacks.
Kent Hansen (SnowBro), utility author.
Mike, SNES HQ.
Savoury Snax, author of SNeSe.
Lina Chan, the ever cheerful translator.
and anyone else who emailed me.

Why "PikenSoft"

The SNES was my first real console (yes, I was behind all my friends, who already owned Nintendos/SMS/Gameboys). With the console's impressive graphic effects, catchy music, and great games, I became infatuated with how it worked. I looked everywhere for information on how the graphics were displayed, how the code worked, and what it looked like on the inside. The only part of that which I did find out was what the inside looked like, and that was only because it broke and the repairman let me watch him as he worked my precious toy. Not until I found out about emulation, by means of the wonderful thing called the Internet, did I finally get all the info ever wanted.

With near flawlessly emulated graphics rendering and audio playback, in some ways better than the real thing, what is there left to figure out? A lot! And that is my pointless purpose... PikenSoft is a fitting name to describe what my utils do; they peek into the workings of whatever I happen to be curious about. That is why they mostly view rather than edit, because I'm more interested in knowing how they work than in changing how they work. Of course, to learn how things work, every now and then a little destructive distillation is required ;)

Correct Definition of "Hacker"

A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to strech their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. A person capable of appreciating the motivation for expending effort towards a seemingly useless goal. A person who is good at programming quickly. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it .... One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations....

Not to be confused with the less desirable cracker :
A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around.

The New Hackers Dictionary, Second Edition 1994, p.218

And so, by that definition, I dare call myself one "hacker".

Things Owned, Things Liked

I've heard that one can can learn much about a person from his trash... Imagine how much more you can learn from what hasn't been thrown away yet ;) A few of my possessions:

Games owned	Zelda LTTP*, Zelda Ocarina of Time*, Zelda 2, Zelda Link's Awakening, Zelda Wind Waker, Zelda Twilight Princess*, Zelda Four Swords* (hmm, you'd think I like Zelda?), Mario RPG*, ChronoTrigger*, Tales of Symphonia, Secret of Mana, Metroid 3*, Metroid Prime, Starfox*, Starfox 64*, StarFox Adventures*, Starfox Assault, FF6, FF Crystal Chronicles, Secret of Evermore, Illusion of Gaia, Robotrek, Kirby Superstar*, Mario All-Stars*, Mario World*, Mario World 2*, DKC 1-3*, Actraiser 1*&2, Megaman X, Gradius 3, Super R-Type, Phalanx, Vortex*, Alladin*, Lion King, Goof Troop*, Hook, Aero the Acrobat, Prince of Persia, Cool Spot, Cybernator*, Lemmings, Super Star Wars*, Empire Strikes Back*, Return of the Jedi*, Lego Star Wars 1-6, Killer Instinct*, Soul Caliber*, Jurassic Park, Mario Paint, Superscope 6 (and yes, these games are all the original cartridges/discs) Quest For Glory I & V, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Gold, Quake 1&2, C&C, Baldur's Gate, Myst, Titanic, Descent: Freespace
Books read	Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus, Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Upgrading and Repairing PC's, Programmer's Guide to Microsoft Windows 95, Multimedia Developer's Guide, Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days, C++ How to Program, The Quicktime How-to Book Star Trek Encyclpedia, Star Trek TNG Technical Manual, From Star Wars to Indiana Jones, The Best of the LucasFilm Archives, Human Anatomy and Physiology, The Official Pokémon Handbook (I think some of the odd creatures are cool), The Dinosaur Handbook (and these creatures though are even cooler)
Shows watched	Star Trek TNG/STV/TOS/DSN/Enterprise, StarGate, Smallville, Pretender, Seven Days, Charmed, Relic Hunter, X-Files, The Lone Gunmen, The Outer Limits, Angel, Buffy, RoboTech, Inuyasha, Cowboy Bebop, Ranma ½, Slayers, Card Captors
Shows hated	South Park, Beavis & Butthead, Hysteria, Ren & Stimpy
Movies enjoyed	Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, The 13th Floor, The Sixth Sense, Star Trek 1-7, Star Wars: A New Hope, ESB, ROTJ, TPM, Armageddon, Titan AE, Macross, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Cowboys, The Cell, Con-Air, Face Off ... and mostly any thought-provoking science fiction
Known languages	English (quite fluent in that one), BASIC, VB, C/C++, Java, Javascript, HTML, SQL, Intel ASM, dreadful COBOL, and very little Japanese (sukoshi dake Nihongo, so basically just enough say how little I know).