EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW - JOHN DONDZILA

Introduction: Thanks for taking some time to talk to us in these hectic days before releasing a new title and ofcourse congratulations on your 10 years in vectrex game development. A marvelous achievement! MW> First of all, for those who've been living under a rock for the last 10 years, could you please give a short introduction of yourself? JD> I'm 41, single (divorced). I work as a tech manager for a local fun center repairing arcade games, rides, etc. I've been a video game enthusiast since I first played Boot Hill in the Two Guys in East Brunswick, NJ. I had always been a Vectrex fan and I had always wanted to write a Vector based game.

John at his desk

MW> How did you first became involved with the vectrex? JD> Back in the early 90's when I found a system at a flea market for $20. A friend of mine got me the Vectrex archives off the internet and the rest is as they say, history. MW> Which other systems where you into when you were younger? JD> All of them, however I was more of a computer geek as I preferred programming over playing games. MW> When did you decide to start developing for it? JD> Early 1996, I received my "Ram cart" for the Vectrex the day I was dismissed from Jury Duty. Since I had taken the week off, I spent that entire week writing Vector Vaders. MW> I can imagine it would take a lot of effort to get even smallest program running on the real thing without having good emulators or devsystems around. Could you tell us a bit more about the hurdles you had to take? JD> I was coding 6502 machine language in the early 80's in high school so I had a little machine code programming experience. Everything else was trial and error using the small handful of source code available on the internet at the time. Debugging was (and still is) done all in my head. I didn't even own a 6809 book so learning 6809 opcodes was a trial and error experience as well.

Getting personal:

Space Frenzy in box Gravitrex plus

MW> Which of your games is your personal favorite? JD> If i have to choose, i'd say Vecmania MW> Which of the original vectrex titles do you like the most? JD> I think Star Hawk and Star Castle are the ones i played the most. MW> Whats your favorite game (any system)? JD> Herzog Zwei for Sega Genesis, its an awesome game! MW> What kind of hardware would you like to see for the vectrex system? JD> An LCD 3D Imager/Color goggles would be nice. MW> What are your experiences with the vectrex community? Do you feel it has changed over the years? JD> Only for the better. There are probably more than double the amount of original Vectrex games written by independent programmers and there seems to be no end in sight. MW> Name 3 items you would take with you to a deserted island... JD> A laptop with wireless connection and my 2 cats. MW> Playing games or creating them? JD> Most definitely creating games. 20 some years later and I still can't get past the third maze in Pacman ;-). MW> Do you collect for the vectrex as well? JD> No, I don't collect at all.

MW> Which platform do you prefer, The Colecovision or the Vectrex? and why? JD> Vectrex had better arcade translations. Coleco games were rushed and definitely showed it. Compare Colecovision Zaxxon to MSX Zaxxon (cassette, version) same hardware, different programmmer and MSX is a perfect arcade translation. MW> Minestorm or Asteroids? and why? JD> Asteroids. Just a personal preference.

Now and the future: MW> Congratulations With the release of your 10th anniversary game "Space Frenzy". Will this be your last game for the vectrex system? Or can we expect another 10 years of glory? JD> Well, seeing that I said All Good Things was my last game back in 1996 I'd say I wouldn't be surprised to see yet another game surface some day. MW> What other arcade games would you like to port if you had the chance? JD> Star Trek and Speed Freak MW> Are there any other classic game systems would you like to develop for in the future? JD> I'd say Atari 2600 but I have yet to come up with a game that hasn't been done yet. MW> Anything you would like to add? JD> Greetings to everyone out there that played my games for the last 10 year. I hope to be able to entertain you all for another 10 years in the future.  John D.

Interview by: Martijn wenting for vectrexnews.com