Yes, what EvilDragon described happened years ago. I am not proud of it either, however, do take into consideration that we were going through dozens, and dozens, and dozens of these same entrepreneurs all doing the same stuff at that time, and us never even seeing so much as a single penny back. I was honestly just extremely paranoid, and as you can see, ever since 2016 this stuff has just accelerated. My initial idea was to do something together with Libretro/RetroArch for the Pyra, and kivutar from the Lakka project thought this was a good idea. EvilDragon then came up with that other idea, and for whatever reason, back then I saw it as some sort of backstab, of wanting to do the same thing Hyperkin had been doing, or whatever. I think that must have been my state of mind back then. Maybe I should have given it the benefit of the doubt, somebody back then was whispering in my ears that moulds didn't cost that much, etc, and hence I started doubting everything that was told to me. That is a honest account here of what happened. In retrospect, I wish we could have avoided that, that you would have catched me back when there was less stressful shit going on, and maybe then I could have seen the value in it.
We had denied ourselves any kind of income for years really ever since 2010, we only started doing a Patreon since October/November 2016 and at least that has been moderately successful for our aims. So things have been looking up. Back then, it was honestly like the walls were closing in on us, and it was honestly a really depressing period back then.
Anyway, I apologize to EvilDragon for how I responded back then, but truthfully, I still don't know if it would be the right thing for the project or how we should do that thing so that both parties are satisfied. I guess I would be willing to give it a shot now and try to give this a chance if you were to show me at it now. To tell you the truth, after these numerous examples of what happened in the past with all these random companies, the various ways they have just completely shattered the enthusiasm I had for my project, I simply don't know whom to trust anymore, and I happen to see then an enemy under every rock. As simple as that. I'd really wish you would have gone through the same process since it's always easy to judge, but it's harder to walk in somebody else's shoes for a day. I had the best of intents for the project, and I just regret at where this 'emulation scene' has ended up with. We are STILL dealing with issues right now to this day with Hyperkin/Cyber Gadget, I am still talking with journalists, it is honestly not a fun experience at all.
As for the Open Pandora, yes, I sometimes promise too much and put too much stuff on the back burner, but the intent is fully there. I am still intend on putting rolling nightlies/releases on the main site, unless you guys no longer want that, but it is still my intent to do that. I am sorry if it took a long time and I do apologize for that as well. Please take a look at what we do each day on our various repos, it is an inhuman amount of work, and yes, I am guilty of sometimes not getting to certain stuff and overpromising too much, or not being able to keep deadlines. It will be a newyear's resolution on my end to not let those protracted delays happen again when somebody takes the time and effort to give hardware so that some port can materialize. I am sorry for that.
As far as I am concerned, it is possible we can put this behind us, the last thing I want to do at this point is to fight with other independent hobbyists when there is so much stuff going on. Recognize we do the RetroArch/Libretro project not for money, not for fame, we do it for the genuine passion and because we want to give people something nice to enjoy. That is honestly the only reason. Can I tend to lash out in the face of perceived subversion? Maybe I have been guilty of that, but honestly, as I said again, try to walk a mile in my shoes here. It's easy to judge, it's harder to sympathize with one another.
PS. I hope we can prevent any and all slinging of insults at one another, that is not what I am posting here for. I am posting here for the sole intent of resolving this situation and for showing that I indeed regret what happened in the past but that you must also understand what I was currently going through at the time, and it was hard to distinguish friend from foe. It still is to this day honestly. I would be willing to give things another sincere shot if ED feels like it, but we'd just want to get something back in return as well. Me and my team have spent a ton of time into all this, we still have numerous bounties open on our site, there is still tons of work that could be remaining to be done, if we as an open source scene can have each others' backs, support each other, then these corporations would have less to parasitize off. If we just act like crabs in a bucket and just try to put each other down and prevent each others' success, then yeah, it will never amount to anything. And I will admit that maybe back then when me and ED had that discussion, in my determination not to want to see my project being usurped or used/taken advantage of I might have been guilty of unwittingly falling into that same trap. It has been 2 years, people have changed, the stress and dedication to the project hasn't though, so I hope you guys can accept my roundabout apology and there can be a turning of the other cheek here.
I hope finally in this scene, despite past misgivings and transgressions, we can leave the past for what it is, and maybe when we make all those new year's resolutions, we actually mean what we say, and we try to undo the mistakes of the past and try to move forward positively. In this scene, we try too much sometimes to harbor decade-long grudges instead of being willing to forgive each other, give each other the benefit of the doubt and understanding that times maybe were tough on both of us. I'd be all willing to talk with ED again and maybe try to see where we can work together on some stuff. I am a very honest down-to-earth guy; maybe temperamental to a fault, but the sincerity has always been there, I don't talk behind people's back, and if I can sense that there is sincere intent, it will be wholly reciprocated. Yes, looking back on it, I was much happier back in 2012/2013 before all this nonsense with Hyperkin and all this stuff happened. It really put me in a downward negative spiral that really started chewing at me and the rest of the project. I hope that with 2018, I will no longer feel like that and things will be moving in a positive direction for us. There is a lot of very nice things I want to do with the project and other projects as well, it has just been a very, very bumpy ride and honestly the abuse over the years has been nothing short of depressive. There were numerous moments in time where my commitment and resolve in open source began to waiver and people wanted to move in the direction of closing it all up, notice I am still here. There is genuine passion and commitment here despite all the crap we went through. I hope that can be recognized as well.
I also made up with byuu, we have donated to his preservation projects, I have also helped him when he was being disrespected and mistreated by others, etc. I am starting to sense that all of us in opensource land all have a genuine passion for all of this stuff and the only way we will get somewhere is if we all collaborate and work together with each other and put our misgivings to the side, and just treat each other fairly. This has always been my intent since Day One with a lot of people, it just took a long time for people to give us the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, as this is the beginning of this year, I am all for putting the past to bed and starting over with people. I am not a bad person, I simply have been dealing for years on end with these constant struggles, and it just became all too much. I have become battle hardened over the years, and I guess I am more willing now to give people a chance and not dismiss them at face value or paint everybody with the same brush.
Well, this is once again another Wall Of Text, as I am known for, but honestly, it is well intentioned, and I just try to be verbose and try to explain my position in a lot of detail for the purpose of clarification. In short - I am sorry for what happened, I maybe misjudged or misanalyzed the situation back then because of some pretty depressing shit that was going on at the time, and I would maybe want to give things another shot if you feel like it. I just want us all in open source land to give each other the chance to put the past to bed and to try collaborating and having each other's backs from now on, too much damage has already been done because of infighting and we can all start to see the side effects of that. I realize you have your struggles and you have your grind, but so do I and my project. In my struggles and frustrations with the struggles I went through, I might not have taken yours into consideration which led to the unfortunate incident. And this is where we are at right now. Hopefully we can both get to the stage where we agree we share more in common than what divides us and we leave this in the past and try to still do something positive together. ED can PM me at any time or visit our Discord and I am willing to start over on a completely new page and give ED's projects, site and store the backing it probably deserves.
I know RetroBit IS trying to license everything properly. They even licensed the retranslation of Magical Drop 2 from Aeon Genesis instead of just using it.
And the link you provided clearly shows that RetroBit tried to license RetroArch itself as well.
Sorry to interrupt here though, but this is simply not the case. One of my colleagues kept tabs on them through an associate for the entire year, they never did due diligence, from what he tells me, they never checked into what their contractor was selling them, they never paid this associate so much as a single penny for his time, no royalties were ever offered, no contract whatsoever. They apparently were interested in knowing what pitfalls to avoid in terms of licensing, but honestly, they never cared, judging by their actions and the final product. But that did not prevent them from keep wasting one of my teammembers' time even though a week or so before they started selling this thing, they still had no idea what emulators they were using in conjunction with RetroArch. They had an entire year to figure this out. They were too busy selling something to Capcom/Jaleco/Data East etc. based on software they have zero rights to, based on software they never lifted a finger on, based on software that is even licensed noncommercially like Snes9x.
Honestly, from looking back at that situation, there was no sincere intent there. The only 'intent' there, was to basically jerk around some open source volunteers that they know wouldn't ask for much, treat them as free consulting, strike up some deals with game companies, and laugh all the way to the bank. Well, that must feel great, for your valiant efforts of the past 6/7+ years to be recouped in such a way, and for them to just start selling it even though they still don't know what they are selling, and well, you can already guess what the SNES module is going to be...
And it's because of things that continue on like this, that we are going to start up our own company, because quite frankly, we are tired of this nonsense. We are tired of us putting all the work in and these guys putting out these mediocre slapdashed crap products that even make them rich. Yes, I am upset about that, as I should have every right to. Running an open source project does not mean you should be slave labor, and apparently we need to start thinking of ways so we will be properly respected and treated by companies like this in the future, since morality is not an issue for them, only the least amount they have to give back in order to make the most amount of money off your sweat and labor. It's like communism and capitalism had a baby and called it 'capitalism', but it isn't, it's socialism for the ones that can set up VC-funded companies and screw the pooch, while everybody else (me, ED) is peddling up shit creek.
