Dwedit wrote:Because when this came out, the free emulators did not even exist yet.
At this rate, I'm going to have to start keeping a list of all of Espozo's posts that demonstrate failures in the generational gap. *chuckle* ;-) I knew this type of thing would happen (speaking generally, not about Espozo), because for whatever reason, the younger gens really don't seem to care about learning about the history of how things got to where they are now (this is especially the fields of retro console dev, emulation, and romhacking).
It's pretty simple really: when talking about (or asking questions about) something that relates to "a thing that began {in the past, before I was born, before I was old enough to get interested in it}", the thought at the forefront of your mind
every single time should be: "how things are
today are probably not how things were
then". This in turn should make you ask questions to learn, not make ignorant statements like "you had to pay for it?! but there are so many free NES emulators!" The state of emulation and emulators today is absolutely nothing like what it was in 1996.
And as I said, Mr. ANDOU was certainly a NES/FC emulation pioneer -- one of the first. If you weren't around during that time, or if you were but weren't part of nesdev or emulation communities, then yes, a lot of this is going to be eye-opening. It's actually quite sad how so many of the original pioneers have been ignored; the giants upon whose shoulders today's emulator authors stand have been forgotten. When I met with JoeGtake2 for his The New 8-Bit Heroes documentary (the footage of which was not used), most of what I talked about with him was
exactly that. I was sure to mention many names of the original nesdev/RE/homebrew and emulation participants, names which now only seem to exist in what might as well be considered the Dead Sea Scrolls -- because all of those folks deserve mention.
Anyway... Two other things I wanted to mention (one relates to Espozo's comment sort of, while the other doesn't):
1. What isn't exactly made clear in the Japanese text written by Mr. ANDOU's son: there are certain words and phrasing used (mainly in Item 1) that imply Mr. ANDOU may have been hired or doing some sort of general emulation work for clients. This is completely speculative, but it may indicate that people were hiring him or buying parts of PasoFami's core to use in other products (likely commercial). I do not want this paragraph to cause a bunch of grassy-knoll-shooter type theories. But this is a good example of what happens when someone (esp. with children) passes away without the details of things being passed (to family, a family attorney who handles such matters, etc.): those unaware are left confused about the nature of what the deceased was doing, and there is an uncomfortable nebulous feeling to it all, often occurring alongside the grieving process. It's difficult to explain, and even more difficult to go through (hopefully none of you do). As such, I think some of the vague wording is understandable.
2. I'm aware of Japanese cultural aspects (both personal and social) regarding death and the passing of someone, and did my best to have a decent translation done while respecting those. Sometimes depending on the nature of the situation, it can be a walk-on-eggshells type of thing, so I always approach it with respect.
Thanks.