I’ll be live tonight at 8pm EST continuing our Disco Elysium playthrough! If you watch via the desktop (not sure it works on mobile), you can vote on which dialogue choices I pick!
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Emulators and third-party peripherals are the backbone of a gaming community. Or maybe, like, the pelvic bone. Nobody pays attention to it, it’s full of crap, but you very much need it to sit down and be comfortable.
I enjoyed this analogy
Analogy.
I see what you did there.
Yeah, let’s get to the very bottom of that analogy
If older games were the foundation structure newer games were built on, emulators would be the things that keep them in good shape. Because the companies sure don’t seem to give a rats ass about keeping these games accessible…
…and why would they?
Games are, after all, products of commercial software development processes. Development teams are assembled dynamically and often enough disintegrate after the completion of a project. You’re asking for free maintenance, sustained for decades. Yet the manifest purchasing behaviors of consumers suggest that nobody is willing to pay for such effort. If there’s no money to be made with keeping a platform-dependent title viable after the commercial end of said platform, well, it won’t happen.
Really? Because I was buying plenty of old games on Wii, Wii U, 3DS, and PS3. Then Nintendo and Sony stopped selling them.
Besides, define “free maintenance”. All of these companies rake in loads of money for nothing with these overpriced subscription models and endless microtransactions. They make more than enough money to subsidize developing a few emulators even before you consider people buying the games.
Console Manufacturers and Game Developers are not the same. Whether or not a game developer profits beyond the delivery of the game software to the console manufacturer who usually holds a monopoly on the market depends on the negotiation leverage that the game developer may or may not have. Old console games were never supposed to receive an update to begin with. Allegedly they underwent more rigorous acceptance tests by the console manufacturer because once that the production process of media duplication starts the only way to issue an update is a recall of all the previously made copies of… Read more »
Whether or not the company continues to support a game after its release wouldn’t be NEARLY as big a deal if you could count on games not being released until they were FINISHED. The very idea that a “Day One Patch” is an acceptable practice, much less 1-3 months of extra support on average before MOST modern game releases can actually be turned over and considered “finished” by the developer means that we have to expect them to continue maintaining the game they sold us, because they typically sell us a half-finished product at full price and if they drop… Read more »
Well, define “finished”. After spending 25 years on essentially the same title our bug tracking database contains about 10,000 entries, with between 75 and 80% resolved as fixed. Of the remaining ones, more than half are expressed wishes for feature additions or other forms of enhancements, not exactly “bugs”. Our software is “very mature” and has been lauded as “low in bug content” for the entirety of the last 20 years. It was never “bug free”, and yet it was never “finished” either. Now, we’re clearly falling into the category of a “single title developer” who treats its product as… Read more »
For the same reason we can still buy movies from the 30s on Bluray today. Art/Entertainment shouldn’t have to come with a technological expiry date.
Well, the pre-installed emulator on the PS4 does a good job for the PS2 games…
Till they removed it because too complex.
Wow.
Considering the Bsnes dev committed suicide, this was in really poor taste to be released.
I had no idea. It’s sad but really, no reason to get butt hurt over this comic. Hell, you could even see this as an homage to emulators (by involving them in the comic) instead. It’s all a matter of perspective buddy!
What’s in poor taste is you using the comic as an excuse to fuel your outrage addiction, take this shit on Twitter where the likes of you belong.
So you’re outraged at his alleged outrage – really all he’s pointing out is that an active and influential Emulator and Translator committed suicide – and you don’t find any irony in that whatsoever?
The comment was calling this in poor taste while the content has nothing to do with that guy’s suicide; the author doesn’t even know who he is and the comic was prepared days in advance anyway. To be saying that he was just pointing out that a suicide happened you have to be dumb, in bad faith or likely both.
Things can be in poor taste and completely coincidental. But being a dickhead like you isn’t.
Actually you are way more of a dickhead than him. Op came in and whined about how releasing this was in “poor taste” which you flat out ignored in your initial reply btw, classy. So he did a bit more “than just pointing out a suicide” to begin with. How is something poor taste if people connect it to an event pretty much no one knows about in the first place? The strip itself content wise is not related to the suicide or the like anyway. The only poor taste is to artificially create a connection to a suicide when… Read more »
I dunno, the timing kinda sucks and I get that, but this reads much more like a critique/callout of how shitty Nintendo’s always been to the emulation community.
He drew this before that happened.
Wow. Wasn’t expecting a dig at emulators today, with the Near suicide story. Classy, Tim.
Since I and a lot of people don’t know who that person is, it’s safe to assume Tim does not know about this suicide. A simple unhappy coincidence.
Your judgmental attitude is misplaced. I am sad to hear someone took their own life. However, I had never heard of this person until today. On a stream last week, someone asked me about modded consoles in the Console War, and I mentioned an idea I’d been carrying for emulators, which put it at the forefront of my mind :https://clips.twitch.tv/PrettiestScaryMelonKippa-88rcWtjlB6qTf76l On Saturday I wrote the script for the comic, and on Sunday morning, I sat down to draw it. I published the finished comic for Patreon at 4:30 EST Kotaku published their article about this two hours later (perhaps other… Read more »
I’m so sorry. Now I see who the real victim is.
Grow up, dude.
You are the real victim, unfortunately Mother Nature made you dumb.
No just bad parenting or bad college professors that gave him an entitled personality to judge everyone else but himself.
Thing is, why are you looking for a victim anyway ?
And why assume by default that an unfortunate coincidence was done with the worst intent in mind ?
There is such a thing as the benefit of the doubt, but also, Tim is not exactly known for being an asshole about these things, on the contrary he seems quite respectful.
So assuming he was ill-intended this time is…insulting, at best.
Yes. Everybody around you.
When you have to resort to aggression to grieve, it’s pretty obvious.
Ouch. That’s unfortunate timing Tim. ?
I didn’t know Near nor his emulator. Am I not entitled to make fun of emulators then? Was Near only known for emulators? Was he harrassed for making emulators? As far as I read he was picked out by this kiwi group for no particular reason. Hence a comic about emulator has nothing to do with this person. It’s sad when someone takes their won life and my sympathy goes out to their family.
But keep in mind that these jerks probably also didn’t know who Near was so really Tim’s comic has nothing to do with it.
considering how kiwi farm operates; tagging likely came from social media presence and political opinions shouted into SoMe
… What is offensive in this comic, really? You’re just being ridiculous here.
I’m curious how this comes across as a dig at emulators tho. This feels like a dig at Nintendo to me.
Okay guys, in fairness… its entirely possible that Tim didn’t know about the BSNES dev. Hell I didn’t even know about BSNES at all until I took a peek at the comments.
Agreed, given the likely timeline to plan it into the series, write/draw, posting and how recently the death was announced – it looks to be a horrible coincidence, not an intended insult. Take into consideration his stand on similar issues in the past, the odds of it being intentional are tiny.
Especially considering that comics don’t just instantly happen.
yeah I still dont know what the feck they’re on about
BSNES is an emulator for SNES games. The developer was reported as having committed suicide about… *googles* … sixteen hours prior to me posting this.
Especially since this comic was made and scheduled probably days ago.
I’ve been dicking around with Emulators for more than a decade and BSNES wasn’t even one of the ones I’d ever run into, so I think it can be safely said that this is in-community knowledge or who is whom and what they’re being mourned for now. SNESX and ZSNES mostly But this “Hur, shows what YOU know outrage addicted (lib), GO BACK TO TWITTER YOU SNOWFLAKE TURD” stuff is equally…telling. Tone down that hero worship/parasocial relationship fantasy boys, Tim is a fully capable and operating human being able to respond and stand up for himself, he doesn’t need you,… Read more »
Yeah seriously. This isn’t something to be mad about in either direction, it’s a sad coincidence which had the silver lining of informing me about the BSNES dev’s tragedy.
True.
But it’s big enough news that plenty of people have noticed and it’s an unfortunate coincidence.
When something like this happens I still think it looks bad to leave the comic up, you know? Releasing a comic denigrating emulators the same day a famous emulator author (famous in the scene) committed suicide just seems in poor taste.
Sometimes bad things happen and those things create new temporary contexts. Being stubborn about it is in even poorer taste.
Everybody is so sensitive about everything these days. Any person dies and you make a crack about how buying bottled water is ridiculous and everyone jumps on you with “Hey, PEOPLE drink bottled water and one of them just DIED!” Seriously, c’mon. Talking about a type of technology on the day when someone in the field dies is the same as talking about it on any other day except without all the whinging. Leave Tim alone and put on your big boy pants.
I wanted to give you an upvote because I totally agree, but then thought better of it as there might be a chance that a person who gave an upvote to a completely unrelated post may have stepped on a LEGO today and thus upvoting you might maybe possibly be considered insensitive by the butt-hurt masses of the intarwebz…
Ah fukkit, have an upvote anyway!
Dammit, I just stepped on a LEGO. Now you gotta take it back.
I can’t. It’s on the internet now so it’s forever…so so sorry!
Ok, that I laughed at. I mean, I love the Console War series, but that was just great.
I heard of bootleggers trying to sell pirated games to used game stores like this.
No, no. The bootleggers didn’t try to scam the store with fakes. The bootleggers told the store owner they ripped the games using a CD burner, and they couldn’t understand why the store owner wouldn’t want to buy them.
Welp. I guess CAD 2.0 had to jump the shark at some point. RIP Near. Hope other comic strip authors have the common decency not to take a massive dump all over your pioneering life’s work shortly after your suicide.
Are you daft? I only happen to know about the dude from a random ass thread on a random ass board on a random ass gaming forum. This is not big news. This is not something to take into consideration anywhere on the internet except emulator forums and people who knew him.
You know these steps here are drawn and scheduled several days before going live? This is just a coincidence, I highly doubt Tim even know who this guy was or that he died. I and several other commenters didn’t.
You did not even read any other comments before posting this, did you? But if you did, then that makes this comment even worse. Nevertheless, you’re a cunt. With a capital C. You rant about being disrespectful, well how about you take a look in the mirror? What have YOU ever done? If you think there are other authors with comics that don’t get your panties in twist then by all means, fuck off. I for one won’t miss you. Instead, I’ll be enjoying the many more comics that Tim will hopefully make. What is even fucking worse is that… Read more »
Dude, this comic was planned and written weeks ago. Near, may he rest in peace, died LAST NIGHT.
How the holy hells was Tim supposed to know about this? Capture a Psychic Pokemon and have it use its Future Sight to warn him “Hey, this comic you got planned for next week? DON’T DO IT!”
To those people making odd connections, how tf does this comment have to do with that suicide? Literally just the fact they reference emulators? Does that mean I can’t take the piss out of something like PCSX2 or something for several weeks because its also an emulator?
This is a joke about emulators and how they fit in this narrative Tim has made, that’s it.
I think its more that the story started to penetrate the gamer news cycles late last night, with the expectation that Tim saw the article (lets not expect he watches the news late at night, and can actually sleep). If the comic was released on wends I can fully understand the hate. I agree however this was not malicious, just a poor taste comic (an archeologist/restorer would have been more appropriate), with a 2nd person selling copies of the wares. I don’t like emulators being equated to knock offs. But that’s artist interpretation. I imagine these are stages for deployment… Read more »
The problem is unless you actively are part of the emulator community there is no way you would know about this. Today was literally the first time I had even heard of BSNES and I’ve been a gamer for close to 25 years now. Why? Because I don’t play emulators, at all, so I know nothing about them or anything connected to them.
I can understand that, and that’s why I am saying I don’t expect Tim saw it. But also the emulator scene is in mourning as he was EXTREMELY prominent. Don’t understand the back and forth attacks this morning.
The problem is the people who are hypocrites about sensitivity. Shaming the author of this comic for being insensitive and assuming that it was done out of spite and/or as a public trolling is not only more insensitive, but also a total dick move. The more appropriate response is to assume the community hasn’t heard about it and make them/us aware in a proper way. To top it off, this isn’t even in poor taste. Nothing has happened to the emulator character. The guards didn’t buy from him and told him to get lost, but it’s not like they shot… Read more »
He was extremely prominent within the emulator community, which is a very small segment of the gamer community, which is a very small portion of the human population. Just as an example, like I said I had never heard of this person, and I had never heard of BSNES before this morning because I know nothing of emulators. However, when Tom Clancy passed away some years ago literally *everyone* knew about it because the man had so much influence on modern fiction and gaming. That’s not to say any loss of life isn’t tragic, it’s just that people who are… Read more »
Tim writes and schedule the comics many days before they are aired. So he did this one BEFORE the event even happened, even on wends any hate would be undeserved. And the choice of the pirated arcticles vendor is perfect since console emulators ARE considered piracy in most places,
TBH, I don’t feel like the depiction is poor taste. ‘Archaeologist’ would make sense if this was cartridges or something; not current titles. There’s a difference between unearthing a Civil War-era rifle from a field where there was once a battle, and unearthing a modern weapon from the back of an army truck. Aside from the ‘selling’ bit, I feel like this guy is a fair representation of how current-gen emulators are used today. Yes, there’s the smaller groups – the speedrunners, the data-miners, the YouTubers and the like… and then there’s the 99% of everyone else who essentially want… Read more »
Maybe more like a coin collector or antique collector? Not really an archaeologist since he depicted the NES era as the Colonial Era, but more like someone who’s just a big history buff who collects older memorabilia from a somewhat recent part of history.
But yeah, this isn’t in poor taste. It doesn’t even mention Emulator creators. Hell, Near made an SNES emulator but that guy was a Switch emulator. The only thing they even had in common is that both were Nintendo.
This is just a really whacked out co-incidence of timing, nothing more.
This is the first and only mention I have seen of this, though I only follow a very small number of gaming news outlets and none of them have said a peep.
I think a big part of it is that Near was, reportedly, being harassed for a while by the Kiwi Farms troll group. When a bunch of bullies manage to publicly drive somebody to suicide, people are going to be a little extra “on guard” for signs of bullying in its aftermath. Fair? No. An understandable human behavior? Yes.
The people who are the angriest are likely to be the people feeling that story the hardest. Try to respond with equanimity.
Thanks for adding this bit of context. This sort of paranoia is the goal and unavoidable result of the terror Kiwi Farms delights in spreading. This is why they harass and abuse people. It’s disgusting, cowardly, and sometimes the targets of it are going to be a little paranoid.
Naaaaah. If they can’t begin with equanimity, they deserve none in kind. There’s a reason every last one of them has been downvoted to hell, and it’s because they were all a-holes about it. They only deserve to be shown the door.
By your own logic you don’t deserve any sympathy, and yet you have it from me. We don’t have to start perfect and stay that way to be worthy of empathy.
Wot’re ya buyin?
Wow. People need to slow down a bit and think. I’ve no idea about what BsNes is and who made it. It’s horrible that they commited suicide, but to assume everyone knows what’s going on is a big leap.
For people wondering what all the fuss is about: 1) https://gamerant.com/snes-emulator-near-byuu-online-harassment/ Around the time this comic was published (although well AFTER it was written, drawn and scheduled) a story broke about developer who went by the handle “Near” committing suicide. 2) Based on the timeline of events, there is virtually *no way in hell* that Tim could have been aware of these events while putting out the comic. However, there IS a reason some people seem particularly eager to get up in arms about it, see below. 3) Near was targeted by an online hate group known as Kiwi Farms.… Read more »
You shouldn’t have to scroll this far for a comment that shows a little empathy for a grieving community.
Dude, you insulted the comic creator when it was clear that he didn’t make this in response and probably didn’t even know to begin with, CONTINUED to insult him passive-aggressively when he responded to you clearly laying out the facts, and are now playing the victim card while insulting everyone else here. People didn’t start responding harshly to you until you didn’t back off.
In fact Guiliano DID reply to you with empathy, and you pretty much ignored him.
If you’re grieving, go grieve. But grief doesn’t excuse being a dick.
Let’s be reasonable. Grieving excuses some dickishness. It’s an emotional time for people close to the deceased, and bereavement has many effects.
I don’t think Cragfast, specifically, can make claim to these excuses, though.
Look, not to be the alpha dick here, but some dude unrelated to my interests died, aaand probably just then another one did. … and another one. it happens quite frequently. just because you can make a tangential connection as to why I MIGHT know about them doesn’t even mean I need to care, for me to actually care about all of the deaths and suicides <unless I’m only supposed to care about pseudo celebs?> in the world would literally take all day, every day, forever. – likewise with going onto the comments on an unrelated comic and going on… Read more »
You, sir, are most definately an asshole. You are merely a sane person, which is are these days.
Yes. A grieving NICHE community. NOBODY out of this niche even knows who this Near was or that he died, so it was 99% chance Tim never heard of him nor noticed his demise. As 99% of the world that is not on the “emulator scene”. In fact, I’ll bet 99% of the emulator users don’t even know the poor guy existed. Is it a tragedy? Sure it is. Was it whidespread information out of highly especialized media so everybody would absolutely sure know of this? HELL NO. YOU are in the wrong here. Accept and be silent, every comment… Read more »
Go after Kiwi Farm, instead of Tim.
Totally incorrect. It’s not explainable or understandable for people to be acting like the people at Kiwi Farms who drove Near to suicide. It’s disgusting that you keep defending these toxic hateful harassers with “somebody died so it’s okay to be a terrible human being!”
RIP Near.
I think a better asessment of emulators should be some museum guide of sorts that revords the history of various consoles histories
For the older ones yeah, that guy was current gen. He’s a Switch emulator (“Swotch.”) But yeah, I could see Tim doing a follow up where an on-base museum is run by an NES emulator (maybe one of those living museum things? Re-enactment types?)
Emulators are threated as piracy by the industry (do I agree with this? IRRELEVANT, it’s still a fact they threat as this regardless of my opinion). Therefore a pirate product seller is perfect depiction in the Console Wars context.
What is wrong with some of you? Bad things happen, people die… often. Even if Tim did know, which he didn’t, like… so what? It’s sucks he killed himself, but unless you were related to the guy you should probably get over it. You guys sound like you need a bit more world exposure to gain some perspective on these types of tragic events.
You are definately not wrong.
The moment Nintendo makes their virtual console accessible to PC users is the moment I stop using emulators. Until then shiver me timbers.
Really? So, if they throw them up for standard Wii-era VC prices – $5 per NES, $8 per SNES, $10 per N64, $20 per GCN – you’ll suddenly go and delete every ROM and emulator you own and buy it all legitimately?
Or, is this like, “The moment Nintendo doesn’t require me to buy their hardware, and I can buy it for peanuts on a Steam sale, why, THEN I’ll maybe consider buying something from them.”?
No I would absolutely delete the roms/emulator and pay for the games legitimately especially since I’m only interested in SNES games. I feel 8$ is a fair price for SNES games.
Well, cool. TBH, I’d pay far more than that to get a legitimate way to play Super Mario RPG again.
I too would absolutely consider $8 for a SNES game a bargain! Faceball!! Anyone remember that one? I know it was pretty crappy (even for the time) from a technical standpoint, but I just have a sentimental attachment to it.
This little community has gotten quite toxic
This little WORLD has gotten quite toxic.
There, fixed it for you.
your back button going to the previous comic is good but you should also have one to move to the previous days comic not just the previous one in the storyline that is posted that day
From the front page, technically the top buttons navigate between all series. The side buttons go into the archive for individual series.
Um, for me, the top buttons and side buttons both only go back to the previous page of whatever series the current comic is from. I have to go to the archive and manually select what page I want to see. It’s not that big of a deal since it only takes a minute or so, but since it’s always been like that I thought it was on purpose.
Yeah, both sets just go to console wars for me too. Not a huge deal, really, but mildly inconvenient if you miss a day.
It should not, if you are on the front page, the base cad-comic.com URL.
If you are already inside of a series archive, both buttons function the same, moving you back and forth within the archive.
But if you stay on the front page, the top buttons move through all the comics, while never leaving the front page (ie, never going into a specific archive).
Yeah, I like the mechanics but sometimes you forget or do not realize you’re not on the base URL and you’re surprised by these interactions.
It’s not the first time I see someone asking about this, it might be useful to put a little…I don’t know, something small but visual to distinguish between the two.
Okay so I did a little testing and found something interesting. Both sets of back and forward only go back and forward for whatever the current page is, even the front page, but *only* when I am at work. If I use the back and forward on the front page when at *home* it works like it is supposed to, which makes me think this is some kind of bug or problem with my company firewall. The reason I thought it was just normal is due to the fact I always read your webcomic while on break, at work, I’ve… Read more »
Ohhhhh. Same browser etc at work, only difference being a Firewall?
I’m… honestly surprised it wasn’t some other console in disguise trying to spy on the Nintendos
This is a weirdly authentic interpretation of life immediately outside the wire at most foreign military bases (that is to say, a country’s base that exists on foreign soil). Weird, overly-enthusiastic dudes coming around hocking weird, knock-off stuff to soldiers are a staple of a base’s economy.
Wow. Those guards are so emulist.
It’s 2021 man. Xboxs are trying to be PC, and Nintendos out there trying to “fight” PC content. The worlds a crazy place.
If Tim has written emulation. Will we soon see the abomination that Origin produced? The Xbox Playstation Hybrid console?
Please tell me this is a joke… I’ll have to google that thing now 😀
https://www.originpc.com/landing/2019/big-o/
Its only ps4 and xbox one though
Thanks for the comic. I could definitely see emulators being brought up again whenever a remake is released, and it turns out the original was better. I could even see PC arms brokers moving old ordinance to poorer nations, because good code isn’t biodegradable (paraphrasing Jackal from Far Cry 2) As for the tragic coincidence, don’t let it get to you. If jokes stopped being funny because someone tangentially connected died, nothing would be allowed to be funny ever. For those who assumed the worst, I must direct you to Hanlon’s Razor; Never attribute to Malice that which can be… Read more »
So spot on, from a gaming and military perspective. There is this amazing ability for the various hawkers of doodads, bootleg DVDs, and all the various ephemera to magically appear near military personnel to sell them crap. I remember it well.
My boss recounts having the crap scared out of him by a skinny ten year old kid (wearing nothing but a pair of blue shorts) that popped up with a bucket of ice and Coca-Colas in the middle of the jungle while doing training in Panama.
Wow uh, guess I’m late to the party.
I’m not going to get into….THAT, but I will say that the characterization of mister emulator doesn’t seem accurate. They’d be more like the dirty junk shop dude who’s been “disposing” of obsolete equipment and selling refurbished gear that runs better than the original ever did and sometimes even competes with modern weaponry.
Gave him Clinger’s voice from MASH.