Frika C authors the FrikBot for Classic Quake.
Ze0: Could you give us a little bit of a background on yourself?
FrikaC: Well I live in Plymouth Massachusetts, the place where the American tradition of Thanksgiving got it's start. I started in computers in the mid eighties with the Commodore 64. I was a fan of DooM, but never tried editing it. Eventually I moved to Quake and there I stayed.
Ze0: How did you first get into programming?
FrikaC: Well I really started programming on the C-64. That was about all you could do on that computer. I became an expert in the code and learned 6510 machine language over time. I had an affinity for game programming, and I still consider my best work a side scrolling adventure game for the Commodore, it made perfect use of the limited features the C64 offered. I seem to have a love for working within limitations.
Ze0: Who or what inspired you to start on FrikBot?
FrikaC: Coffee's Tutor Bot was the primary inspiration. Actually, I had the idea for a long time, but when I heard about the Tutor Bot I thought Coffee had beaten me to the punch. Well, I downloaded his bot, and discovered I was wrong, but at the same time I was impressed with the simplicity of his code. I was then convinced that my long standing concept of how a bot should be structured was feasible, and set out to do it right then and there.
Ze0: How do you feel the Quake bot community is going?
FrikaC: For a while it was drying up. When Quake2 came out, everyone promptly dropped all their Quake 1 projects, moved to Quake 2 then discovered it was harder than they thought and dropped all their ideas altogether. Since then any new bots for Quake 1 have been over shadowed by the Frog Bot, and not really taken seriously. I think the Tutor Bot finally broke that trend and let people have a look at some simple easy to understand bot code
and everybody discovered it was easier than they thought. It has really envigorated the bot scene.
Ze0: Are you planning to support any other mods in FrikBot?
FrikaC: People misunderstand the whole reasoning behind why I made the FrikBot mods in the first place. I never really did it to offer new mods, I did it more as a publicity stunt. I had a tough time convincing people in the beginning that the bot could be plugged in with relative ease. The long list of them on the page serves to demonstrate it's capability. To answer your question though, yes, I do have plans to do more.
Ze0: When will we see a new version of FrikBot?
FrikaC: Whenever I'm done with my current project.
Ze0: What advice would you give to aspiring bot authors?
FrikaC: Back up your source code.
Ze0: Thanks for taking time for this interview.
FrikaC: No probs, dude
