Slowing Down

Saturday, September 18, 2021

I realized it has been months now since I posted an update here. In truth, I haven't been working on my projects lately. I split my free time between whatever is fun for me at the moment, and as my last spoof post indicated... I had an issue with WoW. I pushed myself too hard to tough it out through the non-fun things, and it kind of ruined the game for me. I did go play retail, and that's was a band-aid for a little while... but it's just not fun... Even TBC Classic only was fun for like a week or two for me.

I lost interest in my SNES projects, simply because my focus was shifting heavily towards my complete VC/CC Tool, CaVE revamp project. I was building up steam with that... and well, it sucks how this happens but... I was contacted by someone willing to donate a Switch and 3DS. That of course was great! But quickly the Switch got removed from the table, so the hope of bringing back anything of CaVE 1.0 was placed back on the shelf. No matter though. A 3DS is plenty! And just what I needed to get focused and stay motivated on my new project. But... the bad part is... I put my project on complete hold until I got the 3DS... I patiently waited weeks, maybe a month. Even checking for its delivery every day. But I came to find out it wasn't sent. Fine. That's cool. Not everyone is used to mailing stuff, as was the claimed issue, and things are hard for people. I get it. So I waited more... and more... and more... I contacted the person again, and... silence.

So... in the end, I put the project on the shelf for no reason. I was back to square one with several months lost, and... even less motivation to work on the project than when I started my wait.

I can't 100% blame that though. Over that time, to fill the void of a lack of project to work on, and WoW becoming less interesting, I started working on story writing. I'm utter crap still, but I find that I'm enjoying it and spending a lot of my free time on it.

My WoW account has completely lapsed at this point, and while I enjoy the writing still I need to take a step back from it. I did dabble with working on the VC/CC Tool again. I got some work done on the patching UI, but lost interest again.

In other news... I'm learning of plans for N64 and Gameboy online apps for the Switch. I... still don't own a Switch, so its a difficult subject for me. I can update CaVE 1.0 easy enough to support them... in theory. I already laid such groundwork. But... CaVE 1.0 has gone private. I gave it out on discord to new people who asked with sob stories, but that period has passed. I don't think even a single person asked for and was sent the last private updates I made for it and the last release. Interest is dead. Each release adds little. Just games no one asked for. New platforms might help, but... I don't know. Maybe I should just wait for CaVE 2.0 (The VC/CC Tool) like planned. I'll see what kind of interest there is for an update for those platforms for 1.0, but I wont go searching for it. I'm done with toxic forums and greedy communities.

I'm still of the mind that I would work on it again publicly if I had an invested interest in it. Having a Switch myself. But I'm also still of the mind that I wouldn't buy one myself as I wouldn't enjoy it as much as to be worth the money. I'm just not interested in many modern games. Maybe SMM2? But as I would have a modded Switch, that kind of doesnt work out. So it would just be a development device.

That said, I may as well point out the donate link on the side, for those that may be interested in helping out. While the above mentioned thing didn't work out, it shows its not out of the realm of possibility. Or if I have to go that route, I'm about 25% of the way there with savings.

Update (09/23/21):

So its now known that its the N64 and Genesis Onlines that are coming. Gameboy may be later.

Well... I am still not 100% sure what my plan is for CaVE 1.0. I will most likely try to make a minimal update for it for N64 and Genesis. But the update will be purely for supporters and donors, through the Discord channel (#nintendo-vc-cc-nso). Not just anyone that drops by and asks for it. By supporters, I just mean people who have previously been involved with discussions and providing feedback or testing.

I doubt it would work, but I suppose its my hope that enough might get interested enough to donate and see me through getting the device myself, so I'm invested in seeing it developed too. There's a long way to go for that though...

At the very least, I updated the side bar to bring more attention to those goals.

As for thoughts on the things with N64O and SGO...

The N64 line up is lackluster. Its short, with a few promised for the future. And... you can already see them starting the trend of adding random games you have never heard of, like they did with SNES Online. If I had to guess about the short roster... its probably due to having to work on the emu code to increase compatibility. But... they could still have done better with Rare games...

I cant comment much on Genesis. A few major games, and mostly notable ones. Selling the west the 3 button pad, and Japan the 6 button pad is kind of lame though. They are limiting the western apps selection of games, and really... with both consoles they are giving the west the shaft...

2 comments:

Amirul Ashraf said...

Definitely a lot of interest out there in the works you're doing. It might not gain the monetary benefit or accolades that you've wished for but I'm sure any future endeavor that you're may put out will be well received.

Again as you've mentioned in your past posts, your work here majorly benefits pirates, who do not pay and as such, expectation for gain from pirates should not be seen. Perhaps look at the development of this project with different views? Many homebrewing devs don't expect much either, their satisfaction come in different form I guess, and any side benefit is an added bonus.

Best of luck in any case!

DarkAkuma said...

"Definitely a lot of interest out there in the works you're doing."

Evidence has shown otherwise. Between the utter silence I was getting, and the constant comments from Retroarch users looking down on modding the app like it doesn't make sense. It just wasn't leaning that way.

I'm sure things will change next month, just like when SNES Online first came out. But interest dropped quickly, and likely will again too.

To be clear, as your comment can be taken to imply otherwise... I did not develop CaVE or any other app to make money. They were either for myself or for people who truly appreciated the work. The donations thing is just something I started to bring up after my last official CaVE failed so miserably. It was a way for people to get me back, simply by me being personally invested in maintaining it like I was for SNES Classic. A device I do own.

I don't need to look at it from a different direction. At least not now. Before I was making CaVE purely for the appreciation, and not for my own fun or benefit like I would 99.9% of my other projects. If I had looked at things from a different direction back when I first made CaVE, Id have likely either not have made it, or just stopped updating it after the first release or something.

I don't expect much from my projects. Definitely not any donations. I have had that option for years, just I drew no attention to it. As far as appreciation goes... at the most, I did have an issue with SFROM Tool at first. It... kind of had a delay before people realized what it offered, or how much work I put into things. It's appreciated enough now. But I did feel bad for a bit shortly after I first released it until then. But even then... I still made it for myself at the end of the day. CaVE was not like that, ever.

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