what's happened to nocash?

W

whocrazy

New member
Hi guys. No$gba is a really cool gba/ds emulator, however it's no longer being updated regularly, I was wondering if anyone knows what's happened to nocash? is he doing ok? is no$gba still under development?
he hasn't responded to any of my emails, and at one stage he kept changing email addresses regularly to try and avoid spam and dumb questions.
Forgive me for saying this, but he seemed like a very bitter and angry person.
 
So... let me get this straight: He kept changing his email address to escape "dumb questions", and yet you kept emailing him, despite the fact that his responses were "bitter and angry"?

Well, I'm just baffled. I mean, what possible reason could he have for disappearing?
 
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No, your assumptions are incorrect.
I didn't find out he was a bitter and angry person through any emails he sent me, It was the tone of his website and the readme file that came with his software which told the story.
He changed his email address because too many people were spamming and asking silly questions like how to play xyz games, or rom begging, that sort of thing. I'm starting to wonder if the whole business just got too much for him, but we won't know for sure, so thats why I came on here and asked.
We used to be really good friends, and at one stage I was helping him to perfect the sound emulation in no$gmb, Gradually however we lost touch. I am rather worried for him actually and I hope he's doing ok.
No I certainly did not bombard his mailbox with dumb emails.
 
In that case I apologize.
Sorry-- it's just that lacking this additional info, the original post made it sound to me like you were one of the "When's the next version coming out?!? When's the next version coming out?!? When's the next version coming out?!?" types, but I stand corrected (and shouldn't have jumped to conclusions in the first place).
 
Martin Korth (the man behind the emulators) is a bit of an ass though. NO$GBA was the perfect example. He told everyone he'd made this excellent, small, fast, accurate emulator... and you can't have it!

He brought out two demo versions. One had sound but no colour, one had colour but no sound, and neither had cartridge emulation, meaning all emulation had to happen in RAM from what would be via link cables in real life. The full version cost an obscene amount of money and was meant only as a development tool.

He declared this to be a form of protection that could not be defeated, which resulted in someone managing to combine the two demos and hack in cartridge emulation. Martin called this a piece of crap, but responded anyway, by taking down all NO$GBA downloads.

This remained the situation for a while, until he finally did what I would've suggested he do in the first place. He released a 'free' version (full emulation, no debugger, with a cheat function), a 'demo debugger' version (restricted emulation, partial debugger, no cheats), with purchase options available at various prices with various functions. This gave the kiddies what they wanted, and meant they wouldn't attempt to hack his demo versions any more.

Frankly, I think this ended up about as good as could be. Martin may have had the right to do what he wanted, but dangling an excellent GBA emulator in front of the community while denying everyone access was a masterclass in how to be an ass. The kiddies burned him for it, and he ended up having to give them what they wanted in order for them to leave his demos alone. We got a great emulator out of it, and he gets to give his clientèle the demos they want without fear of people hacking them.
 
So is development still ongoing or has he shut up shop and moved on? he has a donate via paypal link on his page, but if I click it, it says this user is unable to receive money.
 
Well, I hadn't looked at this for a while, but it seems Martin wasn't making enough from selling the debug version for the emulator to serve as a full-time job (which, it should be noted, I never thought was sustainable in the first place) and started charging $2.50 to download the latest version (while still calling it the 'free' version). He also killed the demo version of the debugger version while still calling it the 'shareware' version.

This all seems fairly academic though, as a quick look at the changelog shows it hasn't been updated in nearly a year now, so it's quite probable he's given up entirely. It's probably fallen for the same reason a lot of paid emulators do, which is the fact that a search for 'NO$GBA' on The Pirate Bay right now gives five different torrents all offering the latest version.

Really, as far as ways of making money go, programming emulators is a bad one.
 
It's probably fallen for the same reason a lot of paid emulators do, which is the fact that a search for 'NO$GBA' on The Pirate Bay right now gives five different torrents all offering the latest version.

Really, as far as ways of making money go, programming emulators is a bad one.
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Er, by this logic wouldn't you also say "as far as ways of making money go, selling software is a bad one"?
Or for that matter anything digital...
 
hcs said:
Er, by this logic wouldn't you also say "as far as ways of making money go, selling software is a bad one"?
Or for that matter anything digital...
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Well I haven't actually paid for any software that wasn't a video game since 2002, so it would hardly be inconsistent for me to imply that.

But there does seem to be a different mentality when it comes to emulators. Most people just don't expect to have to pay money for them, and it is a bit borderline to sell an emulator for a system you have no rights over. There is also the fact that those who actually use emulators tend to be a bit more clued in to the existence of file sharing networks, and have generally decided they're going to play the video games without paying, so why pay for the emulator?

All in all, I think trying to charge for emulators is generally a bad idea. Only a few people have managed to make it work.
 
Lillymon said:
But there does seem to be a different mentality when it comes to emulators. Most people just don't expect to have to pay money for them, and it is a bit borderline to sell an emulator for a system you have no rights over.
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Understood, and I certainly recognize this, it's just that your earlier evidence was just that there was a torrent available for it, while plenty of money is being made selling things that are available free via torrent.
 
hcs said:
Understood, and I certainly recognize this, it's just that your earlier evidence was just that there was a torrent available for it, while plenty of money is being made selling things that are available free via torrent.
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Well it wasn't the full story. The full story includes trying to sell software (the emulator) to people who have already downloaded other software (the games) for free*, and not having an army of well-paid lawyers to put the fear of God into them.

In this case, it's even worse. He was asking $2.50 for the 'free' version, which meant people had been used to getting it for free. Not only that, the 'free' version only existed because his demos had been cracked, meaning he expected a community that had cracked his demos to pay on the basis of nothing more than an honour system. Seems clear to me that he was getting desperate at that point.

*I know not every person who uses an emulator does this, but be realistic, 99.999% do.
 
Lillymon said:
In this case, it's even worse. He was asking $2.50 for the 'free' version, which meant people had been used to getting it for free. Not only that, the 'free' version only existed because his demos had been cracked, meaning he expected a community that had cracked his demos to pay on the basis of nothing more than an honour system. Seems clear to me that he was getting desperate at that point.
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And on top of all that, the expectations created simply by the "no$" name itself couldn't have helped...
 
either way, it's a real shame he's no longer developing no$GBA, it was a really good fast emulator.
yes, I downloaded it through is website and payed $2 through paypal to upgrade to the latest version, I have emailed him but have not got a response, all I wanted to know is was No$gba still under development, and if so, was the GBA emulation still being worked on.
But I guess he's so angry and bitter that he just nukes his inbox without even looking at the messages, or just assumes everyone who emails him is a rom begger, a braindead moron who doesn't know how to use computers, or a troll. You just got that feeling about him just from reading the docs and the way he handled the situation, IE, putting all the dumb emails up on the website for everyone to view.
You develop a negative attitude, and negative things will happen.
 
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