Game preservationist, rom hacker, emulation author, and lifetime friend of this community has passed away from drug overdose, perpetuated by constant harassment and emotional abuse. Seems Kiwifarms, a troll/doxxing community, played a massive role in the harassment of our departed friend.
https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1409176583433179137 (https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1409176583433179137)
Near's contributions to the scene can't be overstated. Here's a post from the resetera forum (where Near occasionally posted) detailing a few of them.
Quote from: sir_crocodileHopefully he comes back at some point, but he's done more than enough for the cause of emulation - to be honest I can't think of anyone offhand who's done more, not just in his push for emulator accuracy but his preservation efforts as well, and his role in changing the way people think about emulation. I've been following his work for over 15 years, and if this is the end for byuu, it's certainly a well deserved retirement.
For those who don't know who Byuu is, he is a console emulation author best known for BSNES, a SNES emulator. Before he started work on BSNES in 2004, snes emulation was vastly inaccurate. You can look at SNES9X 1.43 or ZSNES 1.40 if you want to see what they were like (assuming they still run). Byuu decided to make an accuracy focused emulator. That itself was very rare back then, as many emu authors concentrated on getting games working, and you ended up with a lot of black boxes, high level code which kind of worked, but the authors didn't know why because they didn't actually know what the original snes was doing to achieve the end result.
Byuu focused on accuracy, and the result at first was a very slow emulator that only those with high end machines could play. Many people who frequented emulator forums back then were used to emulators that would run on toasters, and disdained bsnes and often slung very rude comments Byuu's way. That state of affairs would continue for many years - the emulation scene was a very different place back then (not that he doesn't still get a lot of mud unfairly slung his way).
But Byuu persevered, and had help from some very talented people along the way. He also managed to find someone willing to decap many of the snes chips at a reduced rate (who amusing called himseld "dr decap"), which was a VERY expensive process. It was expensive even with the mates rates, but byuu got the money together (including a lot of his own), got the chips decapped and with that knowledge made bsnes even better.
Today, Bsnes has a compatibility of 100%, with no known bugs over the ENTIRE snes library. For years he has also helped the snes9x devs port improvements back there, which in some ways takes him back full circle to the days he was asking matthew kendora (then snes9x lead developer) questions on the old snes9x boards before he started bsnes.
He has also been a big proponent of preservation, and bought the entire catalogue of the JP and US snes library so he could dump them himself and make sure we had good dumps for every game. Some he'd buy more then once to find revisions of the same game (devs would sometimes reissue a game if there was a particularly nasty bug etc), and work with others to get to dump the EU library.
He's also done various other things, such as cocreate libsnes, which retroarch was based off, and bps, a much safer to use patching standard than ips.
Byuu has also written articles on both emulation accuracy and preservation, and these combined with his own work on both and passionate opinions has helped to move the emulation scene to a point where accuracy and preservation are considered essential.
While it isn't 100% confirmed Near has passed away yet, no one in personal contact with Near knows where they are. There has to be some miracle to have a fortunate conclusion...
Anyway, they have my condolences and my thanks for all the hard work.
Where is this information coming from? If this is for real than that is such a shame. Very sad to see him pass. He's like a local legend around here. I've been following his work for a long time.
I use to have problems with addiction as well so I know what he must have been going through very sad.
Really hope that karma will catch up with all stupid bullies that harassed him. Rest in peace Near, hope you are at peace, wherever you may be.
It angers me that this can happen and theres nothing we can do. RIP, I never met you but I always respected you.
I feel bad for him, he was such a nice guy
Near had so much love for the SNES, game preservation, and emulation. They did so much work for our community, and I'll really miss them.
kiwifarms is a doxxing and harassment platform that shouldn't exist and has driven people to suicide
if you can't recognize this, reevaluate your life
Quote from: Bonesy on June 27, 2021, 05:42:29 PM
kiwifarms is a doxxing and harassment platform that shouldn't exist and has driven people to suicide
Somehow, it's even worse than 4chan. It's not just a few rotten eggs, all of the eggs are rotten there.
Kiwifarms is a straight up dumpster fire and a hive of some of the worst people on the internet. Their idea of "abnormal" is anyone who's a minority.
Quote from: Lusofonia on June 27, 2021, 08:22:02 PM
@Viewer
Even so, I found the audience's reaction to their response quite disproportionate. Not defending KiwiFarms and simply trying to calm down, two mistakes don't make a right, and that doesn't mean we have to keep acting that way. If we continue like this, it could be that the topic quickly breaks out into a flame war. I'm sorry, but I think I got really angry about the loss of an acquaintance, so I started acting aggressively. And not wanting to speak for someone else, but these thoughts probably apply to others, too.
No worries - it's only natural to do that. I just wanted to keep things from devolving into a one-sided ranting session, if possible.
Everyone here who knew Byuu has my sympathies, including Byuu himself - he seemed like a man who was very gifted, but struggled under a weight he shouldn't have had to bear.
I didn't learn about Near or their accomplishments in Emulation and the Bahamut Lagoon translation project until recently, the things Near did for the community were amazing and changed the shape of snes emulation. It's really horrible that he was harassed and abused by online harassment. From what I've heard from people online who know near, he was a kind person. Near deserved much better than that, may he Rest in Peace...
Rest in peace, Byuu. You will be missed.
This is incredibly sad. The work he did on SNES preservation and emulation was groundbreaking for sure. RIP Byuu/Near. You will be missed.
I'm sorry for this community's loss, I barely got to know a little bit of Byuu over the past few years and always found his work to be amazing. I thought it was odd when he took down some of major works (the emulators I believe) that I thought something was off at first.
As for this harassment, there is a way to deal with this. There was a time in GameFAQs where they had almost similar incidents that led the Legal Hammer onto the site, and this was back when CjayC was the Administrator at the time. This forced the closure of a certain message board, and the closure of several accounts involved with the incidents, though whether the accounts in question had legal action onto them that I'm not entirely sure;however it is possible to get the Administrator of Kiwifarms to comply with the same standard that GameFAQs was forced into.
But this was back in the mid-late 2000s when this happened, I'm not sure how much has changed concerning legal internet issues since then.
Kiwi seems like a place that shouldn't be allowed to exist. No one should be willing to host a place who's entire stated purpose is to be malicious assholes.
Bullying is like cancer, you just can't seem to kill it off for good. Having grown up and lived nearly 30 years with an older brother on the Autism spectrum, I have seen first hand all too well the horrors bullying inflicts on people on the spectrum. And how it affects and informs parts of their life literally forever. Enough that it's turned me off from wanting to have kids at all.
The fact that Near was able to make what seemed like remarkable progress at growing as a person and trying to improve themselves continuously. The amount of self introspection was a sight to behold. Thanks to my brother, i've met a lot of people on the spectrum over the years and have made friends with many. This isn't something you see commonly with people on the spectrum.
I knew they had been bullied and harassed several years ago over their behavior and design decisions on Bsnes/Higan/etc. But I don't use twitter regularly(Because it's also a terrible place from all corners. But it wasn't made that way intentionally, unlike Kiwi), so I wasn't aware it had been continuing after they moved to Japan. Here I thought Near was a in a good place, finally following their dreams in the country they adored.
I had only a few brief interactions with near over the years on the old Byuu site forums way back and on reddit here and there. Whenever the was news of something they had done and released was posted on reddit, I always posted words of encouragement and gratitude for the incredible, thankless and selfless work they did.(Like many others)
This has hit me way harder that I would've expected and I can only hope with a slimmer of light that there's a chance they didn't go through with it. It also makes me somewhat angry that Codeine/Guafenissin isn't harder to get a hold of in Japan. In the US this combination is a Class V controlled substance for a reason. Someone let me know otherwise if this combination is in fact restricted in Japan or not.
In the US you rarely ever see doctors prescribe this combo for anything more than a dose as small as possible for just a few days worth of medication. Rarely you will see someone who takes it chronically.
Not that other medication and other substances couldn't have been used or other methods. But still..
RIP Near. I hope others work to preserve your work the way you preserved the SNES for the benefit of everyone for generations to come.
Antidepressants claim another victim. Oh, don't get me wrong; Kiwi Farms lit the fuse. But whatever junk they conned byuu into trying provided more than ample powder, I'm sure.
Quote from: Bonk on June 27, 2021, 10:13:17 PM
It also makes me somewhat angry that Codeine/Guafenissin isn't harder to get a hold of in Japan. In the US this combination is a Class V controlled substance for a reason. Someone let me know otherwise if this combination is in fact restricted in Japan or not.
In the US you rarely ever see doctors prescribe this combo for anything more than a dose as small as possible for just a few days worth of medication. Rarely you will see someone who takes it chronically.
Not that other medication and other substances couldn't have been used or other methods. But still..
RIP Near. I hope others work to preserve your work the way you preserved the SNES for the benefit of everyone for generations to come.
Speaking as someone who has been suicidal for over 15 years, yet still never gone through with it, there's always another method of checking out. If they can manage it in prison, it's certainly manageable as a private citizen.
Will BSNES development continue without him? Or is this the end of the emulator?
Quote from: nanashi89 on June 27, 2021, 10:41:48 PM
Will BSNES development continue without him? Or is this the end of the emulator?
Last I heard, he had at least attempted to make arrangements. I'm unsure just how successful those were (when I looked, a hell of a lot of code was still just him, working like a maniac, with a couple others able to contribute far less, 'cause it's byuu, waddya expect?), but he at least made a good faith effort to do a hand-off.
RIP Near. While emulation on especially the SNES end won't be the same without them, their standards will always survive as a goal for people to achieve, and their work will never fade away.
Quote from: nanashi89 on June 27, 2021, 10:41:48 PM
Will BSNES development continue without him? Or is this the end of the emulator?
The reigns were basically handed down when they changed their name to Near, because the whole thing was about getting away from it in a way. I've been seeing a lot of people asking the same thing, so I guess that info never really got out as much as they hoped. To be honest with you though, I'm not really sure what Bsnes itself needs outside of making sure it works on new OSes whenever they appear. Now Ares, that I'm completely unsure about.
Bsnes-hd and the like are of course still around and going forward. The magic of open source!
Quote from: nanashi89 on June 27, 2021, 10:41:48 PM
Will BSNES development continue without him? Or is this the end of the emulator?
Near made an annoucment a bit back that BSNES is more or less finished. He implemented all that he wanted, and that it's perfect in his eyes. For Bsnes-HD, there were plans to allow hi-res 3D graphics in 3D games like Starfox.
Quote from: Jorpho on June 28, 2021, 08:38:19 AM
Not sure where the "wild goose chase" comes in. If Byuu really just wants to disappear and make a clean break from everything, why not let Byuu do that?
That's my feelings about it too. It would basically be a step up from their (failed) attempt to break after BSNES.
June 28, 2021, 09:36:11 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Hector has spoken to the police in charge of the investigation, and has confirmed the death. For those looking for proof, I think this is all we're going to get as this will never appear in any kind of news in Japan.
https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1409494303244656644
Ah, hell. That's terrible news. Sad to see him go, will always know him for the work he put into BSNES and Higan.
I'm deeply sorry to hear that Byuu has passed away, my thoughts are with his loved ones, his friends and everybody who cared about him.
His stellar work will remain for the community and I will remember him.
Quote from: Jorpho on June 28, 2021, 08:38:19 AM
Seems pretty consistent with what was posted earlier.
Not sure where the "wild goose chase" comes in. If Byuu really just wants to disappear and make a clean break from everything, why not let Byuu do that?
I find it pointless in speculating "What actually happened". If Near faked his death (unlikely, but Japan does have life resetting companies to allow people to disappear and start a new life) or committed suicide, the result is the same. Near won't be contributing to the community and won't be interacting with any of his friends. Near tried quitting and started contributing to the scene under a new handle but he was found out quickly. Needless to say, he's not trying that again.
In any case, Near was trying to communicate for the last decade he's not the same person from 20 years ago and wanted people to leave him and his friends alone. However, the internet wouldn't forget, which leads to what you are reading in this thread.
My most sincere condolences to him.
Requiescat in pace.
June 28, 2021, 12:25:32 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
By the way. What is the Bahamut Lagoon translation he made, the one of the beginning of 2000's?, or the recent one?
byuu made his own translation, I believe released in the last year.
It had originally started among the many "translation wars" of the late '90s (against several other groups, almost all of them quickly fizzled out). Such as there was over other then high-demand translations such as FF3 and all the SNES Dragon Quest games.
The 2002 translation by DeJap/Neill Corlett/Tomato was separate.
My question is why would anyone want to bully byuu anyway? How silly. Also why would he care what random people on the internet think? If he really is gone then I hope he is now at peace with whatever demons he may have been struggling with.
I'd never heard of Kiwi Farms at all until today, and after even a cursory examination of its content, I very much wish I was still in the dark about it. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a more appalling cesspit populated by the scum of the earth. Hopefully whoever is trying to take the site down succeeds.
I didn't know Byuu at all, but I've always admired the skill and dedication it took to make bsnes a reality. What happened to him is horrible and completely undeserved.
Dave-san even helped Stephen Hawking for crying out loud! Tragic is the first word hitting me.
I really hate that this happened. There's little I can say here that makes much of a difference, Except I hope nothing like this happens again. But that's just wishful thinking. :( :(
Peace be with you, Near. I wish you could've stayed.
Well I am shocked by this. byuu's contributions to the emulation community are so much I cannot even recount. A great, great loss.
I mean, most of us had never heard of this KF before, so should they have desired to troll byuu, those who know and collaborate would likely never know. However, tactics by the scum who troll together come in many, many forms, that are usually not openly broadcast on the internet. They harass people online yes, but also privately though electronically by other means.
These groups do tend to harbor intense hatred for those identifying LGBTQ+. Online trolling one's sexual/gender identity seems to be their favorite sport. byuu by own admission had significant psychological struggles, and was autistic. That is like the trifecta to these deviants. What byuu's online participation was totally irrelevant, they made the perfect mark by being an online personality of some type and again, having the traits the trolls wish to harass over.
It's saddening to see that an entire person's suicide has become a topic for people to fight over and even question the validity of. We don't need to know all the details of Near's life and death, that's a very personal matter and I doubt anyone over at Kiwi Farms would be an eligible person to investigate something of this matter. I think it'd be for the best to let Near rest, they shouldn't have to be debated over in death like what we're seeing. It's an example of how terrible online culture can be.
I also had no idea what KiwiFarms was until all of this happened, but like others have said, 5 minutes on the site makes me think that the world would be a better place if it went away. They found out that a person killed themselves because of what they had done, and within seconds jumped to "What a loser. It's a publicity stunt." The road went darker from there, but I did not care to read anymore. If your first inclination, when faced with this situation, is to talk about their right to free speech, check yourself. Rights do not exist without responsibility, and they have thrown every concept of responsibility to the wind. They may legally have that right, but morally, they do not.
The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.
And you have burned so very, very brightly...
Quote from: phonymike on June 29, 2021, 12:49:55 PM
The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.
And you have burned so very, very brightly...
Very good metaphore.
Same happens with blue stars, that they're bigger, brighter, but live less.
If as it seems and has been announced Byuu is dead, it's a pity, and I want to remind and commemorate his contributions to the community while he lived. For example, he was one of the main machine code programmers for the Dragon Quest I & II translation from Japanese to English, made by RPGOne Team, that I have had the honour to translate to Spanish and bugfix, and whose bugfixed edition in English language I've been amused doing these days; something that wouldn't have been possible without his previous job.
So basically, he's the Satoru Iwata of emulation.
He is a big statue among us.
Now, if you all don't mind, I'm going to go play some Bahamut Lagoon on BSNES.
Though I was not especially close to Byuu / Near, especially in these latter years, they were someone I admired greatly. Their prolificness and willingness to dive into myriad projects and feverishly write code until their fingers and eyes probably bled was something to behold. They were intrepid in a way few developers are - fearlessly diving in and creating and recreating software facilities if they were displeased with the status quo thereof. In particular, the SNES romhacking scene would be greatly diminished if they had not created xkas and bsnes, but anyone that has looked at their code can easily see just how much laser-focused, tenacious work and research went into all of their projects. I don't know how they found the time and energy to do it all while also working a normal job.
To those that knew them better, I give my sincere condolences on the loss of a truly irreplaceable friend. They deserve a profound peace.
It gives me shudders to think of just how much knowledge and spirit has been lost, here.
This is a sorry state of affairs. We all need to do better. RIP, Near.
Its devastating knowing byuu isn't with us anymore. byuu touched so many peoples lives around the world.
The hard work and dedication was so inspiring. A special person with a wonderful soul. This is one of the
most heart breaking things to ever happen. You and your hard work will never be forgotten my friend. ~[J]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SiylvmFI_8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SiylvmFI_8)
@Spooniest
"We all need to do better."
Yes, we all do need to do better because if not the most precious things could be gone in a blink of the eye.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsVqO83OYow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsVqO83OYow)
The world lost an absolutely brilliant soul. Taking his own life was bad enough, but it's even worse knowing that he was pushed to that brink by a bunch of people who do that sort of thing knowingly.
I just heard the news, it really sucks that they ended up going out this way, nobody should have to put up with that kind of shit for the sake of doing what they love,it's sad.
I saw the news the morning that it happened. I've been mourning the loss of Near all this week. I didn't know them all that well, but I had spoken with them a couple of times over the years. I had been following their work since the early days of emulation (I'm aging myself, but oh well).
I started playing their Bahamut Lagoon translation on Monday morning and just finished it yesterday. I guess it was my way of coping with their loss. I realized why Near loved this game so much, and their translation definitely shows that love and dedication. It's a beautiful game, and I highly recommend people play through it with Near's translation.
Rest in peace, Near. You will never be forgotten.
For what it's worth, I'll never forget his game folder idea.
Quote from: Pennywise on July 02, 2021, 11:04:57 PM
For what it's worth, I'll never forget his game folder idea.
I do this, with my roms to this day, yeah. RetroArch has a feature where you can store save data in "Content Directory," and so that's what I do.
I heard about this the night it happened, and was just really gutted about it all week. It's been quite a few years since we chatted, but there was a message board we both used to frequent (PocketHeaven maybe?), and I remember Byuu being one of my favorite people there.
Just really sad, and infuriating that nothing can be done to stop this from happening over and over and over...
DDOS attack took down their forum for a couple days, but it's back up as of now.
For the record, it wasn't an overdose that killed him, but I don't want to talk about that.
Quote from: hairy_hen on June 28, 2021, 02:38:12 PMI'm not sure if I've ever seen a more appalling cesspit populated by the scum of the earth.
What! No Star Wars quote??
But yeah, I've been repulsed by KF/EncyclopediaDramatica/4chan/etc. for quite a long time, now.
Quote from: Pennywise on July 02, 2021, 11:04:57 PMFor what it's worth, I'll never forget his game folder idea.
What's that?
Quote from: Asaki on July 08, 2021, 12:03:12 AM
What's that?
It's an emulator config whereby all of the ROM/game specific file(SaveRam, SaveStates, cheats, etc) are stored in the same folder as the ROM itself. This can make file management much easier rather than hunting down all the file from different folders like many emulators have and currently do.
QuoteDDOS attack took down their forum for a couple days, but it's back up as of now
Apparently there was some talk between null and the person doing it, and the whole thing actually wasn't related. Someone just did it for chuckles.
Ah, the internet.
Just a heads up... This is probably the end of the conspiracy for most... (https://news.yahoo.com/respected-developer-died-suicide-experts-165758039.html)
Now, everything that one needs is the legal confirmation from government record, but hey, you got the name, right!?
I don't agree with the KiwiFarms stuff all along, like many people I didn't even know it existed, but since people want to show their worst, have at you.
That is very sad to me. May they rest well.
R.I.P Byuu/Near :'(
Sucks such a big member of the community was driven to suicide, but at least the Kiwi Farms has been kicked off the Internet. I have a copy of the emulator, but didn't realize how difficult it was to reach 100% emulation for every game. RIP
I still miss Near since this day...
Care, Time and Effort went into his work, And he got spat on by KiwiFarm's Trolls...
May these "KiwiFarm Trolls" forever go to the Rubber Padded Cells, where they belong!!!
Long live Near's legacy, Forever the rightful standard of emulation!!!
Quote from: Hamtaro126 on February 19, 2023, 12:34:48 PMI still miss Near since this day...
Care, Time and Effort went into his work, And he got spat on by KiwiFarm's Trolls...
May these "KiwiFarm Trolls" forever go to the Rubber Padded Cells, where they belong!!!
Long live Near's legacy, Forever the rightful standard of emulation!!!
Alot of sad trolls out there who dont appreciate the effort and love that goes into these projects.
Thanks to have created the MSU-1, byuu/near.
RIP :'(
I'm still angry about this.
4chan & Kiwi Farms both need to be burned to the ground.
Quote from: WeebeeGeebee on April 02, 2023, 07:02:00 PMI'm still angry about this.
4chan & Kiwi Farms both need to be burned to the ground.
No one here is going to argue with that. Members from both of those groups as well as others(you know who you are) have sought to do sabotage to RHDN and do harm to anyone who disagrees with them. The drama from a few years back that caused BYUU to leave RHDN was very regrettable.
Quote from: lexluthermiester on April 03, 2023, 01:59:39 AMNo one here is going to argue with that. Members from both of those groups as well as others(you know who you are) have sought to do sabotage to RHDN and do harm to anyone who disagrees with them. The drama from a few years back that caused BYUU to leave RHDN was very regrettable.
A problem that many Internet communities enable, and choose not to address for... reasons? Then we inevitably hear about cyberbullying and people being driven to suicide and self-harm. No one wants to take responsibility for the problem or do anything about it. Some even go out of their way to defend it, telling others to grow a thicker skin, etc. Of course, no one should pay any mind to what complete strangers say or think, but that advice isn't so simple in practice because not everybody is wired the same way.
You sometimes hear about online trolls actually elevating their harassment to IRL stalking and physical attacks. I feel like this could be averted if social media made *some* effort at cracking down on cyberbullies the moment it starts, instead of waiting until they actually go out and start breaking the law and putting people in real, direct danger.