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UltraHLE Author Calls it Quits
Randy Scott writes "RealityMan, co-author of UltraHLE, is dropping out of the emulation scene. He states his reasons here. The rumor that UltraHLE would make a return in one form or another is confirmed by Foxy's Weekly Column, but this was before RealityMan's departure. I'm not sure what the state of UltraHLE is at this point... "
Nice emulator, too bad to see it end this way. At least one of the co-authors (Epsilon) hasn't mentioned leaving yet.
Release the source? That would be nice. But remember, the cat is out of the bag -- UltraHLE is based on High Level Emulation... NOT hardware emulation. Like the atom bomb, all of the secrets can be reconstructed, knowing that somebody else has been able to make it work.
UltraHLE is a great emulator... I downloaded it and Zelda, played for 2 hours, then went out and bought Zelda (even though I don't own an N64). I can't afford an N64, but I can afford to buy games, and I'll buy them as long as I can play them somewhere.
The PSX2 is supposed to be backwards compatible with the PSX... Wonder if that will be via an emulator? With the power that the PSX2 is supposed to have, I can see potential for an N64 emulator for the PSX2 -- you think Nintendo is having fits NOW...
I never did understand what makes it a "scene". But, related to what's his name getting out of the emulation "scene", I want to get a new job where I'm not in the windows programming "scene". This "scene" sucks. I'm happier at home with gcc, gtk+ and Linux. Sigh.
I've tried to unsubscribe from this mailing list for days to no avail. Could someone please have mercy on me and remove me from the list. I can't stand this constant flow of nerd news!
Bill S B
Another emulator author comes, another emulator author goes...when will emulator authors GET USED to the fact there are a bunch of idiots out there who don't give a **** about the technical beauty of emulation and only want to play pirated ROMs on their PCs and will attack the emulator author for making an emulator which isn't perfect?
Emulator authors need to do it out of their own love for the technical beauty of the art of emulation, and not listen to what the unappreciative idiots say.
Then again, the legal issues could cause anyone to give it up...
This is good news. Now all the 16 year-old kewl WaReZ D00dz will be crying.
au contraire!
i learned a lot about computerz from downloading and installing all those romz. i learned how to click on the ok button, i learned how to save filez, and how to double click on the ultra hle icon.
these are very important skills in the windows culture!
Uh the point of the emulation scene is not so you k1ddi35 can play games for free. It's this surge of people wanting to just play games that's cause the recent degradation of the scene.
Bullshit, what did you do, plus the cart into your PC?
By buying the game on cart, he effectively bought a licence to play the thing legally.
OK?
Don't you remember there was a story that all he had was garbage assembly code that anyone with a decompiler and a hookup to their N64 could get. And the assembly code was so worthless it would be easier to write the hole thing.
What'choo talking 'bout, Wilils? The garbage assembly code was the result of somebody else disassembling the exe file. The original source code (in Visual C I believe) by the authors wasn't released.
You posted this somewhere else too. You're a fucking idiot.
There are still many skilled and dedicated programmers out there who, like me, write emulators as a hobby, however, there is a growing element out there who just want to peddle illegal ROMs, openly bash our work and generally make a nuisance of themselves.
I've been following this story for a while and I've read much of what's been posted and referred to (I'm sure not everything, though). Why the hell did this guy build the infernal thing if he didn't expect people to "peddle illegal ROMs". It's like a guy who makes a gun and then cries about people using it to fire bullets (I know, I know, this analogy has been drawn before, but I've never heard anybody bring up a valid argument against it). Did he do it for the purposes of theory? If so, then why release it to anyone? Just curl up with the damn thing at night.
To quote Dr. Strangelove (regarding the doomsday device): "Vat use iz a doomzday machine if you keep it a secret?! Vy didn't you tell za vorld?!"
Now before anybody gets all huffy and flames me, just know that I'm really trying to understand this. I'm not one of those Warez morons, I prefer to use an actual console for playing games. I just am baffled by any "scene" that would exist around the time expenditure it would take to create an emulator this complex (or any program for that matter) that no one is supposed to use. I mean, if he created a Microsoft Word emulator (silly, I know) would he expect people not to use it to write letters? (Frankly, I'm delighted he's leaving emulation and focusing his obviously vast talents on something useful).
Somebody...please...somebody explain this to me without flaming me. I really want to understand.
My computer has a 128bit graphics processor.
Duh, really?
Heh...we'd all be a lot better off if RMS were to quit the Linux scene...
I take that to mean that
1) You use Linux
2) You do not use gcc, gdb, bash, gawk, bison, gzip, gnu tar, gnu shell utils, gnu bin utils, gnu libc etc on your linux machine.
3) Given that you have somehow managed to write and/or procure replacements for the above mentioned utilities, you are willing to maintain and freely distribute them.
If condition 1 is true, and either of conditions 2 and 3 are not true, then you are a hypocrite. Given that number 2 is basically impossible, I would be willing to bet that you are a hypocrite.
1) Get emulator.
;))
2) Get ROM. (Dump it, or otherwise.)
3) [F]ile/[L]oad/[F5]
4) Smile.
(And heck, you don't even NEED Windows 95 to play
it. Wiiiiine.
Oh aren't we the bright one. And you call what
HE said bullshit? You're clearly out in left field,
and likely don't get what all this "emulation" stuff
is at all. Or, you're a Pet Rock that has gained
sentience and grew arms to type. Either way -- you're
dumb as a rock. >;)
Not very orignal.
Sounds like a joke to me. Albet, if you say it's ;P
been seen before, then an overused joke. Sure made
me chuckle.
Dont think RMS is in the Linux scene. Duh! Get a clue. It would be more valid to say.. let alan cox quit or Linus quit..
DUH!
I bet you spank your monkey evertime you get a kernel to compile.
If I have to hear that fucking "FREE THE SOFTWARE"
song he sang, I *WILL* go fucking postal on everyone.
He...doesn't....STOP...was he drunk then or something?
Can anyone be THAT unstable as to sing (and I use that
word with GREAT generosity) about Free Software in
front of a crowd??
I don't totally agree with RMS, and I rather doubt
he had a hand in ALL those packages. Stop being such
a GNU slave. It's turning into the same kind of mindless
loyalty as people had/have with Microsoft.
I was under the impression, from an interview with
this guy a week or two ago, that he was NOT the
author of UltraHLE, but is always thought of as
one of the authors since he had a hand in it's
release. Check some of the recent emu news pages
for the interview.
Same AC that you responded to here...
:-) Ok, so its a little out there in a wacked out RMS-kinda way, but its not harmful or anything. Kinda like St. iGNUcius.
About the song: Calm down...its funny
About being a GNU slave: I actually have very mixed feelings about different licensing terms and what is the One True Way(tm) of doing things, but I am sick and tired of people badmouthing RMS because they find it uncomfortable to listen to what he has to say.
I can understand people that disagree with him -- RMS and the FSF have very strong political views. I do, however get angry when people use FSF software because it is convienent for them to do so, then turn their back and publicly state something to the effect of "I wish RMS just leave us alone." This is wrong. If you use the software, you dont have to agree with what they are preaching, but you can't honestly expect them to go away. If you dont like it, go write your own operating system.
So you have money to bug a great computer to run the emulator and you have the money to buy an expensive game but no money to buy a console?!
They really shouldn't have released the binary for this emulator, they should have released only the source code and stated in the license that it would be illegal to distribute the compiled version
Next thing RMS will take credit for Gnome and anything which uses it will become a GNU/* system.
Someone would have to be a TOTAL idiot not to realize what the reaction would be to a really good N64 emulator. Since the guy wrote a damn fine emulator, one must assume that he is not an idiot. Hence, all this B.S. is some sort of affectation, either to keep himself out of legal problems, or MORE LIKELY to attract a hell of a lot of attention to himself, and let the job offers roll in. This way, he has it both ways. He creates a tool for piracy that gets a hell of a lot of press, yet by spouting off this bullshit, he doesn't wind up looking like some sort of criminal to his potential employers.
If Realityman gave two squats about emulation's "beauty and perfection" then there would have been some source code so all us plebs could truly admire his brilliant god-like work.
Give me a break. If he releases binaries only then there's nothing to admire, just a game. I see no value in the game. I see value in the way the emulation is done. But that's hidden from view!
Realityman is just another ego-ridden emu warez dude, despite all his protests otherwise. They are so full of themselves: "I'm the greatest, nobody will ever match my skills, once I leave the entire community will collapse". Get bent, loser. If you weren't just after the glory and praise, then we'd have seen source by now. You keep it binary only so you can be the only game in town.
And the inevitable "If you're so good, why don't you write an emulator" response (oh what wit I'm stunned) is pathetic in all respects. I have zero interest in games, and zero interest in game emulators. I write REAL emulators for a living: full blown transistor level emulators. I'm not even mildly impressed by ASIC level emulation. That's the sort of stuff you do in your lunch hour to verify your transistor level emulation worked.
There is no honor in the games console emu "scene", just as there is no honor among thieves. Realityman was never interested in "beauty". He was interested in kudos from his fellow thieves. Actions speak far louder than words, and all his actions have been in direct contrast to his words.
I've read the interview you're talking about, and
he definitely co-authored UltraHLE. What he said in the interview was that many people think he was
the sole author, which is not the case.
Here's the relevant stuff:
>>
Q: Can you remember the first time you saw something appearing in your emulator?
A: We have to clear something up here first, this emulator was a joint project by Epsilon and myself.
The impression that this was my emulator has come from the fact that I have stayed resonably
public, however, Epsilon, probably much wiser, stayed well out of the spotlight. Anyway, I do
remember seeing Super Mario 64 run first after Epsilon sent me the current build at that time
(development was a case of doing some work and sending the source back and forth between
ourselves). I just sat there totally stunned even though it did not have sound at that time. I am
sure that many of you felt the same when you first saw something run ont he released version.
the "scene", that guy must be some l33t hax0r, see there's all these p33ps tryin to steal his sekret code and use it to play war3zed games but somebody else in the "scene" must have called him a doody head so i guess its time to quit cuz its cooler when you say "i quit the scene" cuz then you get mad props and shiz.
... man gimme a damn break.
Nowhere do any of these immature, self-centered, egotistical, megalomaniacal assholes answer the obvious question:
If you want the state of emulator development to move forward, why not release the damn source?
What is wrong with you people? Too concerned that somebody else might steal your l33t code and actually make it better? Oh right, I forgot, they'll take credit for it from you and you wont get those warm fuzzies from being the l33t3st hax0r in your "sc3ne."
Pathetic.
- DEATHSTALKER aka MiNDpUmmeleR aka Mast0r of the Universe aka KenDoll aka DragonWrider aka GangKilla aka
Well, that's bogus. Either they violated patents (or copyright) or they didn't. Let's assume they didn't. Then the emulator is perfectly legal (Nintendo's threats aside), compiled or no. If they did violate copyright (through improper reverse engineering practices, or including actual decompiled code, etc.) or if they are actually violating patents (and putting aside the debate about whether those patents are valid), then I would think they would have the same legal problem whether they released source-only or binary-only.
Needless to say, IANAL.
And you really think that people who are pirating games would care about the license to the emulator?
Its 1999 and we are still working with 32 bit processors on PCs, while video game systems are taking huge leaps forward. I bet proprietary consoles will replace PCs one of these days. I can see it now: MS Excel 64, Netscape 64
I wish that bitch would make up his damn mind!!!
You can afford a Pentium II and a 3DFx card, so that UltraHLE is usable, but you can't afford an N64 which costs slightly more than $100? Bizzare. I never played N64 (besides Goldeneye which Quake beats any day) until I tried N64. UltraHLE kind of convinced me to get an N64.
Personally I can't wait until Bleem! is released. Everyone hates how I hog the TV with my PSX. It would be great if I could play my PSX games on my PC.
You expressed my thoughts exactly. (And the suggestion about wanting a job was interesting, too.) What I find disturbing is that it seems whenever an emulator programmer quits or gets upset with those who "just don't get it" they never seem to EXPLAIN what it is that is not being understood. What is it that I do not understand about emulators?? Am I to appreciate a piece of software that works great, but is illegal to use? If so, then why have it on my own computer? Don't put the emulators up for download. Put up websites with pictures of your computer running the emulator. Exchange the code and binaries via email with people who (in their opinion) understand what emulating is all about. But, stop putting them on the web if you don't want them downloaded. It would be like id putting Quake (full version) up for download on their web page and then complaining that no one who is downloading it is paying for it.
I _really_ want to understand what it is that the emulation people think that I don't understand.
Me too.
Oh gawd, I was ROTFL when I read his "letter"
Move to Canada for more opportunities.. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA you cant emigrate to canada for no frigging reason! you have to prove that you bring some special skill that is needed. and programming is not needed in Canada. I know at least 20 "programmers" in canada that are doing ISP technical support because of the lack of jobs. and the job scene in canada along with the housing is a very grim thing to look at. While wandering toronto I seen at least 30 people living on the street, a fine example for a socalist country. Here in the states we have street people, but we opress them to become street people! Canada is supposed to have a nice socalist system for these people! Yup! take your UltraHLE and go to canada.. Have a nice time, and remember to ask for Twonies.. they're worth about a buck (USD).
Okay. Thank you for the reminder. :)
He 's a damn good programmer then! writing a program that runs on a pc that uses 3d chipsets without source code! the sucker wrote it completely in binary!!!! directly in machine code!!!! Seee this ultra HLE was an awesome program! they are the gods of programming that never had source code or used a compiler.... All bow to the god's that wrote the crap that we call UltraHLE...
See the N/M that means NO MESSAGE you Ankle biter!
Me too. I didn't join AOL to get this spam!!!
yea, the guy is a complete MORON and idiot
Releasethe source you damn honky, or are you a typical windows programmer that has no clue.
Either that or its a Sony conspiracy and sony made the Emu and Realityman is a fake and sony is laffig at nintendo all day long.
hahah, yeah right and people actualy listen to licences let alone read them?
Give me a break
Okay -- Deathstalker -- I agree with you (wouldn't want to disagree with a guy/gal named Deathstalker). But I'm getting so sick of all this friggin' hacker graffito: l33t, haxOr, p33ps, ware3z, sc3ne, etc. (the list goes on ad nauseum). I mean, do you speak like that? It's so disgustingly elitist. You need to read some books every now and then and get your head out of the hex code.
hello? its called sarcasm. you need to read a book like a dictionary every now and then and get your head out of your ass.
Indeed Very *CLEAN* with lysol
Save me the trouble of downloading it and watching wine segfault
----------------- ------------ ---- --- - - - -
----------------- ------------ ---- --- - - - -
Your honor is perfectly understandishable.
UltraHLE was some piece of work too.. It plays Super Mario 64 at near-normal speeds (and at higher resolution) than my N64 does.
It doesn't help for everything; 3D rendering I could see it being useful for, but not your average integer math most computers do.
In non-graphics ops, I seriously doubt the "2 or 3 PII's" thing... care to document? (Maybe it does womp up on floating point performance... but if that kind of all-round performance could be done that cheaply, would someone not have one out for the computer?)
[Disclaimer: I'm not taking my Systems Architecture class 'till next year, and may be talking out my ass]
Posted by The Mongolian Barbecue:
How his complaints don't amount to:
"there are people who take advantage of the work I do for their own personal use. They aren't l33t like me and don't like to make emulators. Therefore I resign"
What a stupid immature attitude. What if linus had said the same thing? What about RMS and co. If they had all quit the second the suits moved into linux, it would be a big loss.
So fine. Get out of emulation if you want. Someone else will come along, who is hopefully not so unbelievably obtuse.
Posted by The Mongolian Barbecue:
1) I am not RMS
2) My reference to him was utterly tangential
3) My original post had little to do with the free software movement
4) As someone else mentioned, if you run linux you are indeed a hypocrite.
Posted by OGL:
Which he deserves...without him there would be no concept of "free software" or the GNU, and GNOME (as well as most of Linux) would never have existed.
-W.W.
--
Remember Motorola's AltaVEC? KNI? both are 128 bit that I remember. The wider data bus usually does improve throughput - it helps on Alphas at least. The intense 3D is very parallel capable in nature.
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now. Besides, have you seen the MPEG movies? They claim they were made in real time.
'Scene'?
Umm - My understanding is that people make apps in order to fill a need. I am also under the impression that a video game emulator fills the need of a 'game player'. Put two and two together, you get four. How can the 'scene' possibly go downhill when there is demand for the main function of a program? What the hell is up with that? What SHOULD people do with emulators, replace their word processor?!?
Sounds to me like we're getting into the 'more 31337 than you' mentality. The moment something gets popular, it suddenly becomes uncool or supposedly ruined.
Err, yeah.
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
- Jeff
Yes, it works as of Wine-990226. There is even an HOWTO, but it doesn't really require any special magic.
I can almost certainly say that RMS had a hand in the development of ALL those packages because their authors probably used gdb and emacs as a development environment. Not to mention that the license under which those software have been released (and which has allowed you to use them with such freedom) was RMS's idea.
Has your own work even had a fraction of the impact of RMS's on the lives of so many people?
Actually, the PSX2 actually has an upgraded version of the PSX1 CPU inside it to use as the I/O controller. It's supposed to have a bigger data path, more memory, and be slightly faster. It's not too far of a stretch to see that being used as the emulator.
I meant "slightly faster" about the I/O controller/PSX1 CPU, not about the main CPU or graphics co-processor.
you're making a very dangerous mix-up. writing software like an emulator is *not* and *can never* be a crime (morally at least; countries have made stupid laws before). people may *use* your software in criminal ways, but that's not the software author's fault, unless he actually went and encouraged them to do it.
As much as I agree with the enjoyment of emulating game machines (thus giving the author a fun goal), there are other things to emulate: older systems, video or telephony chipsets like MWave (which would really help in creating a driver) and Sound Blaster, non-console/computer devices such as telephone networks or power grid. Thus providing the technical joy of emulation programming. Don't get me wrong, the best emulation is still in gaming (cause it's easier to test and infinitely more fun) but roadblocks in that area shouldn't be showstoppers for those who enjoy the technology. Heck, just mentioning trying to emulate the MWave is making me want to get into the "scene". Jesse
Think of it as in between the USA and Sweden, politically speaking. Or think of it as the USA plus social services and a little more tax. I wouldn't call it socialist seeing that the NDP isn't big anymore, except in BC.
--=:[GeNERiC^ANSi^PRoDUCTioNs][iNC][o2.o3.96]:=--
That 128 bit processor is almost certainly just two :-)
64 bit wide chips (or worse
TA
Yeesh.. You might as well just go out and BUY the damn console, for all the headaches. Heh.
Bowie
Bowie J. Poag
Sorry to see the guy go, tho.
Bowie J. Poag
Its the double-edged sword he referred to in his announcement.
Building an emulator so people can learn from it, and perhaps even develop for it is one thing (and thats cool) but to abuse it for the sake of running pirated ROMs is quite another. One is a learning experience, the other is essentially a crime.
Bowie
Bowie J. Poag
KNI (Pentium III) is not a 128bit processor - it has exactly the same core as the PII and Celeron. Some of its registers may be 128bits IIRC (either the floating point or the ones for the KNI instructions).
john
SLIGHTLY faster? The PSX2 is supposed to kick the ass of the PC sitting on your desk. At least at graphics stuff. It's got a 300-MHz 128-bit processor (which is like the equiv. of 2 or 3 PII's... hey, why don't computers get 128bit?) and a whole bunch of other stuff that's way cooler than anything a PC will have in the next few months.
I think that, if RealityMan really care about the future of emulation, should RELEASE the SOURCE CODE of the UltraHLE emulator. That should be a good starting point for others.