I'll Pay For Full Speed SNES Emulation

[davey g]

Yeah this is total crap, I can't believe you are all talking about paying people to make emulators and I don't think this is the right way to go. This is all supposed to be freeware, and open source but its gettting less and less as time goes on. So you guys are saying you would pay $50 for a fullspeed snes emu yet no one has mentioned paying rlyeh any money for the countless emulators he has made. Why? Because he has the right attitude. He does it for the community and for a hobby. Intellecto seems to do it for no reason other than recognition and I don't think he deserves all this. That and I don't think he could get anywhere near full speed with sound which is what we should all be aiming for.

The next thing you know people will be charging people to help them set up their gp32s.

 

[Chip]

Angrypants has a really good idea. In the early 20th and late 19th centuries, a LOT of "firsts" were paid for with prizes. Some company would offer a big cash prize for the first man to climb Mt. Everest, or get to the north pole, or fly non-stop across the US. You don't see it as much anymore, since there aren't very many firsts left.

Some sort of cash award would probably spark renewed enthusiasm in the current SNES emu authors, and perhaps convince some more coders to start one up.

We should set resonable goals for the winner. I don't think anybody expects someone to get Starfox running at frameskip 0 (or even at all), but we should make up a short list of "benchmark" games that will have to run at full speed at FS 2 or lower WITH sound at 133MHz. Additional features that have to be included in the emulator to qualify for the prize could contain:
working SRAM saves (save states would be nice, but lets be reasonable)
zipped ROM support
load ROMs from directories other than /GPMM
Overclock option (like GPEngine)
Some sort of long name support (either ROM header or database)

After the contest is over and the prize has been awarded, the rules should state that the winner MUST release his source (even if it's sloppy).

There IS one probable down side, though. Until the prize is won, you can be sure nobody will be releasing any code. Not with all the compitition and actual money on the line.

In any case, I'd gladly donate $10 to the SNES emu prize. We just have to find someone responsible and trusted to manage it.

 

[generalnmx]

I don't think we should turn this into any type of competition. If the competition idea becomes popular and we get enough of a pot, that would segment the emulation community and discourage cooperation.

I still think donations are warrented. Donations WITHOUT any strings attached - just to show how much we enjoy their work. And yes, I think Ryleh deserves donations too - if he/she had a donation site opened up, I would donate a couple of bucks to show my appreciation of his/her hard work. Many, many freeware sites have PayPal donation links.

 

[shotaway]

i agree...prize's for first
i think it will spark more intrest for the coders to do a bit more work on emu's they are getting bored with coading..i'm no expert but i would think emu's are hard to code.
also remember the autor of snes9x is looking for work..so he might spend a bit more free time working on it..
the other snes emu...(the one i use for cannon fodder and sensi soccer)...runs at 90% with no sound or savestate...but is only the first release....and i haven't heard anything about it since i got my gp32 about 6 week's ago.
so i think coader's should be rewarded for there time and effort..but i wouldn't
reward myself for saying i could do someting i couldn't do....
i also agree the prize holder's should get to say what options should be use..
without being unreasionable...
so with this...I'M IN...
10 english pound's for the first
snes....
megadrive....(genesis)....
amiga....
mame....(konami,capcom and neogeo drivers)....

 

[SephirothIce]

I would glady donate to Ryleh but the truth is I don't use any emulator he has made, the only emulators on my smc right now is SNES9X, and the only other I plan on adding is a Sega Genesis. Plus it's our money so we can do whatever we want with it. Unlike some others maybe we believe we should give back to the authors instead of just taking all the time. I do think the source should be released though after the money is paid, that way there is some way to improve afterwards.

 

[Klown]

I'm so going to hang myself

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

Ryleh is welcome to my $20 for MAME. In fact, the only working MAME screen shots I've seen were his. I wish he would release the source if he's never going to finish it.

You clowns are way off base bitching about incentive money. Ever hear of shareware?

As to time being needed, money buys time. Time off from work, to work on hobbies (porting).

It's not like we were trying to buy ROMs, which would be illegal. We are just offering incentives for people to code.

 

[vic20-ian]

Rlyeh is entering Mame in gp32spain emulator competition which ends next month so wait and see what gets released or place your donation pledges there for prize money.

 

[Seb]

Oki guys !

Well, I plan to organize a new GP32 Emulation Contest, and I hope with your help to start it very soon !

This contest would be about coding in six months a full speed emulator (with or without sound) for GBA, Snes or Genesis !

Everyone can participate, but there will be some important rules :
- 1) you need to have a paypal account to be payed with your prize
- 2) you need to give the full emulator source with the compiled emulator
- 3) some other rules that will be shown on the website

The prizes will be huge (by now here is what they are) :

100 euros for each working emulator (standard prize, can grow up as long people make donations)

+ more euros if emul has some nice features like zipped roms zupport, load/state support, cheats support ....

There are no loosers in this contest, as long as you send us a working emulator with its source, you earn money !

If the people here who are willing to donate agre with my idea, the prizes can becomes really bigger (up to 300 or more euros by working emu)

If you are willing to donate money for this contest, just send me a pm on this forum, I may open a irc channel for the contest too if people agree with my idea !

I hope this will help the community to grow faster and have better stuff !

 

[Klown]

100 euros for each working emulator (standard prize, can grow up as long people make donations)

Dumbest idea ever

 

[T3dium]

Humm.. Would the repective companys that own the systems that are being emulated not get the ache a little?
If people start making emulators with the sole aim of getting paid.
I mean companies Eg: Sega and Nintendo might not take to kindly to someone making money off a product that is being sold to people, the majority of wich are running illigal roms.

I just wondered.

 

[Dolfhin]

30 euro BUT :

It has to be opensource!!
The're have to be a full free version without any limits
The're must be a way to transfer this money from a dutch bank account
It must be updated and the people who payed must recive WIP's

 

[Phil]

ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLERS!(puts little finger into mouth).
not really thought. but wouldnt this be really breaking the law because your profiting from some one else property.

 

[NeoAP]

but wouldnt this be really breaking the law because your profiting from some one else property.

I've been wondering that too, but emulators aren't really illegal, isn't it the roms that are the crime!? Oh, yes it would be really fun with more fullspeed emus, especially a SNES emu, but I wonder if people really would pay like they say!? Maybe some, maybe none, just a thought... :rolleyes:

 

[Shane]

I have never heard of a discussion about paying for emu's <_<

 

[thebluenewt]

ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLERS!(puts little finger into mouth).
not really thought. but wouldnt this be really breaking the law because your profiting from some one else property.

Emulators themselves aren't illegal as long as they don't use anything copyrighted, hence Sony patented everything in the PS2.

There are a few emulators that cost money, but I don't see the point when there's usually a free alternative!

 

[Chip]

It's not really "paying for emus". It's more "rewarding a great accomplishment". As I stated before, there is a long standing tradition of having a prize for the first person to do something big. I'd say a fully playable SNES emu for the GP32 is something big.

Lets face it, if making a full speed SNES emulator was easy, we'd have several by now. It's a very difficult coding challenge that is extremely time consuming, and most of the posters to this board could not accomplish it in any time frame. A contest like this would give the coders working on emus some more incentive than just bragging rights.

Nobody will be paying for an emulator, they'll be making a donation in advance.

And as far as donations for completed emus, I support that too. I'd gladly send a few dollars to the authors of FSMS and GPEngine, since I use those all the time. I've sent donations to freeware authors, web-comic authors, and in one case, the author of a really funny personal website. The fact that they don't DEMAND money for their work makes me want to help them out.

 

[Miles McCloud]

A few months ago the Xbox emu scene put together a reward for a decent N64 emu. More than $1000 accumalated and we had our emu within a few weeks.

I'd actually rather see Genesis emulation, but SNES would be awesome as well.

 

[Octavius]

i would shell out a few bucks.. maybe a good 10-15$ to whoever wrote it at full speed. we could all make some sort of pledge or something. Like Guyfawks could collect money (so the authors know that it's not just talk) and whoever finishes can be awarded the money.


It's really not a bad idea if everyone in the GP32 community helps out.

The only problem is that maybe other authors would start wanting money too..

 

[theoriginalmogwai]

It's really not a bad idea if everyone in the GP32 community helps out.

The only problem is that maybe other authors would start wanting money too..

And what is the actual problem with that??!!! :angry: These developers have spent many, many hours developing very complex pieces of software for a machine that should have been killed off already (based on the "quality" of the relased games). Think about how many of the official pieces of software come even close to some of the amazing free software we have been given?

Look at the quality of GPEngine, CaSTaway, and others. I wpuld prefer it if the emualtors were commercial, as this would force people (me included) to give developers some money for what they have done.

I have been watching the GP32 scene since May 2002 (when I got my GP32). And believe me, the scene from a development has grown (which is great). However, it seems like there is more and more unfriendliness, and conflict. We almost lost the brilliant Neogeo pcoket emulator due to people not having respect.

These guy's deserve our respect, and money.