Software Engineering Daily Game Emulation on the Carbon Engine with Dimitris “MVG” Giannakis
Jan 8, 2025
Dimitris Giannakis, the Lead Developer of the Carbon Engine at Limited Run Games and creator of the popular YouTube channel Modern Vintage Gamer, shares his journey into game development. He discusses the intricate process of building emulators and the balance between homebrew and official SDKs. The conversation dives into restoring classic games with respect for their original designs, enhancing titles like Chrono Trigger, and the challenges of accurately replicating hardware functionalities. Time management tips for balancing a full-time job with content creation round out the discussion.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Non-Traditional Entry to Game Industry
- Dimitris Giannakis entered the game industry through hacking and modding consoles like the Dreamcast and Xbox.
- Porting Diablo to the Switch led to his recognition by Limited Run Games.
Carbon Engine's Purpose
- The Carbon Engine isn't a game engine like Unity or Unreal.
- It wraps various emulators and tools, facilitating work with ROMs without source code.
Emulator Development
- Limited Run Games uses a mix of licensed and in-house emulators in the Carbon Engine.
- Dimitris built a Game Boy emulator from scratch in six months, aided by community resources.
