As you may or may not know, the release of NESticle has been announced. With this release comes many new changes and evolutions into the NES emulation scene. There has also been updated on iNES (0.5 -> 0.6), the "Famicom" emulator written by Seil, and now NESticle.

Much continues to expand and grow in the NES emulation world, and many projects seem to "come and go with the wind," to say the least.

Therefore, I am sorry to inform you that all development on qNES has been halted. It has been halted by me, Y0SHi. Riff (Mike Perry) does not know of the discontinuation at this time. I will inform him when I see him next.

There are many reasons for this choice, so I will list as many as I can bring up off the top of my head:

1. Lack of moral support

   The emulation scene consists of childish annoyances, people who care nothing but for their own personal gain. No one cares about the actual technical aspects of anything anymore, especially in the emulation scene (if you can even call it that). No one cares about anything beyond just wanting some new software which plays their games -- oh and don't forget, the author is an asshole if he or she charges for their software.

   I have heard good things and bad things regarding the development of qNES in the past 6 months. Primarily, bad things. A lot of rumours were spread about the emulator, even some stating that the entire emulator itself was a hoax, invented solely to keep people wishing for something which would never be released. Vaporware. Well, looks like these people turned out to be right. Just like Chris George, author of VSMC, would say... When people put down your product and don't support you, you have no real desire to support your own product. In summary, the lack of moral support is what killed the qNES project more than anything else.

   Oh, and if you're one of those people who say "yeah, i told you qNES would never come out," I hope you're happy with yourself, and I hope the other members of the emulation scene rape your dog and blow up your house, because people like *YOU* were the type who killed qNES. Doesn't that make you feel good inside? Yeah, I'm sure it does.

2. Lack of time

   I, Y0SHi, have a very busy schedule. I own Parodius Networking, a network/security company located in Corvallis Oregon. I also do contract work for companies around the world; to list a few, E-ZNet, Electronic Arts, Full Market, Johnson & Associates, and some other companies.

   I spend more time working during my day than anything else. As most of the emulation "scene" consists of people under 17 years old, they cannot understand the hardships of living in the United States, on their own. They cannot understand the fact that paying rent is more important than a piece of software which plays NES games. They get their housing and their food from Mommy & Daddy, and with that in mind, you can see my point.

3. Lack of information

   Yes, it is true, I am developing (and will continue developing) a technical NES document which goes over every aspect of the NES itself. The authors of other NES emulators, such as LandyNES and NESticle, all use my document. This document is not available to the public yet, and if I find either of these authors giving out my document, I doubt strongly you'll be seeing them, or yourself (if you're the one who obtained it) on IRC or the InterNET ever again. I believe in people keeping their word.

   This document is called "NESTECH.DOC", and will be released to the public when every aspect of the NES is covered and documented with 100% accuracy. I currently cover every NES register, as well as have full sound documentation. I also cover two MMCs which Marat Marat Fayzullin's document does not. It is nearly 70K in size as of today.

   It is currently only available to authors of emulation products, excluding Marat Fayzullin, due to his inability to help me out with the distribution of free information. Nothing personal Mr. Fayzullin, but you seem to think YOUR NES document is complete, and refuse to update it for emulation authors because of some reason unknown to man. You are a very nice person Mr. Fayzullin, but you are *VERY* discriminatory, and are *VERY* cold. You do not care about seeing anyone succeed besides yourself, and therefore, your comment a few weeks ago about "Americans thinking only about themselves first" now applies to you as well. Thank god Alex Krasivsky isn't like this. Therefore, IMHO, you, Mr. Fayzullin, do not deserve the right to obtain my document, therefore learning something you claim you already know. You should know by now, the emulation scene, just like iNES, will only "sell" if you support your so-called "competition." Other- wise, you create a monopoly, just like Microsoft.

4. Competition

   Despite qNES's *SPECIFIC* rule that it is not to compete with anyone elses software or projects, it seems no one has taken this concept into THEIR minds.

   Except for one person: the author of dNESE, TaNdRuM.

   TaNdRuM once told me, he wanted to see the emulation scene thrive. He wanted to see the emulation authors join forces and create a really great project. Two heads is better than one.

   Well, TaNdRuM's dream is something I dream of as well, but it won't ever become a reality because of the competition and cold-hearted-ness of some coders. Some are afraid of losing money. Some just don't care.

   You could say I have a lot of anger against many people for what they have done to me, or against me in the past. You could say that, and you could also say that I find the emulation scene full of pure lameness. I'm from the "old-school," just like MindRape, DesAngel, and Ryououki. I believe in helping people out, which I have done in regards to iNES, NESticle, LandyNES, and other NES emulators. Hell, I wrote The SNES Document, one of the most popular public domain SNES documents in the world. I don't find this greed in the emulation scene today to be full of much satisfaction. Therefore, yes, I am angry.

   With all of this in note, I have also permenently left the EFNet #emu channel. I cannot stand to be around children who think of only how to get the "newest version of the krad-elite emulator" out there. They do not understand how stressful it is to write such a piece of code, nor will they ever. I will compare writing an emulator to having a child; a non-parent will never understand what it's like having a child of their own, something they helped create, until they have actually made one. You can see my analogy.

   Time will pass, and I will be forgotten. (shrugs) There's nothing I can do for the emulation scene anymore, because of it's inhabitants. The intelligence level of *EVERYTHING* *EVERYWHERE* decreases day by day, and I can't deal with that. I get on IRC to meet new people, to relax, to kick back and get away from work for awhile. Not to be bombarded with stupid questions and bothered with inqueries like "what's the UNIX command to get a directory listing?" I don't have the stamina for this any longer. On another note: there are two other NES emulators which none of you know about, which may or may not ever be released. They are by two different authors, which will remain anonymous for the sake of respect, and both products are very capable: one being more capable than NESticle. I would recommend to these authors as of right now, to never release your product. Give it to your friends, friends you trust, friends who won't give it out. Don't release it to the public. You'll regret it. Trust me, I know.

   Take care, and even though i'm not religious: God bless. I wish every emulator author out there the best, no matter *WHAT* you're emulating, and if you need any help, feel free to drop me EMail.

   JDC (Y0SHi)
   04/04/97
   

   -- | Jeremy Chadwick yoshi@parodius.com | System/Network/Security Administrator | http://yoshi.parodius.com/

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