Nintendo N64 emulator programmer quits

One of the authors of the controversial Nintendo N64 emulator, UltraHLE, has decided to abandon not only that particular project but work on any kind of emulation -- "for good". In a statement, the developer, known only as 'RealityMan', said threatened legal action from Nintendo, time pressures and users only interested in using emulation software to pirate games had all contributed to his decision. "This decision has not been made lightly," he said. "The concern about the legal issues with Nintendo alone was not enough to drive me to this decision... There are 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 may a nuisance of themselves. Quite frankly, I am sick of this, the increased back-biting and derogatory comments being made. "I have decided to look at new projects outside of emulation and will not be able to devote enough time to emulation [now]," he added. RealityMan's departure still leaves his collaborator, 'Epsilon', still working on the project, at least theoretically. As yet, he has not commented on his colleague's decision. However, with Nintendo legal action still pending, he too may quit the emulation scene -- probably exactly the planned effects of Nintendo's aggressive stance on UltraHLE (see Nintendo will sue UltraHLE developers). If Epsilon does abandon UltraHLE, it will be interesting to see whether he or RealityMan releases the emulator's source code to the open source community. The strong demand for that code was demonstrated earlier this year when a UK-based programmer released what he claimed was UltraHLE's source but which was soon exposed as just a disassembled version of the application of little use to anyone keen to continue work in it (see Programmers slam 'useless' UltraHLE source code). ®