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Gamesdale - the Next Gen Emulator Frontend for HTPCs

1K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  stigzler 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi everyone. After building an HTPC for my living room, in my quest to put together the ultimate emulator setup I found all the frontends I tried to be deficient/frustrating in some way. So I put together a plan to build my own:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/triclover/gamesdale-the-next-gen-emulator-frontend

The text below is my pitch; let me know what you think of it. And hey, if you like it, spread the word.

For some time, actually playing emulators on your living room TV as the game developers intended required some sort of compromise: you either cobble together a complex DIY setup that works most of the time, get some all-in-one package that works well but only with the oldest systems, or pay for all your old games all over again to get the butchered re-release on a modern console.

Those days are over, says TriClover. Their new project "Gamesdale" is an emulator frontend promising a professional level of ease-of-use while still letting the user set up the individual emulators -- a necessity given that Gamesdale is targeted at the latest high-end emulators for systems like Wii and PS2, where frequent updates are still a great benefit to playability and compatibility of individual games. Letting you keep control over the emulators is also great for people tweaking their emulated games to look even better than the "hd remasters" of their games -- and still want to be able to show it off to their friends without having to give them a tutorial on how to use the system.

The Kickstarter is also very specific about its intended use on a "Home Theater PC" (HTPC) in the living room, explaining how it can be used entirely with a controller, but having the mouse and keyboard is needed to get into the setup, making it safe to let your little sibling play without the possiblity of them getting into the configuration and changing anything.

Unreal Engine 4 allows Gamesdale to be driven by either simple 2D menus like most frontends, or exist in a full 3D scene with adjustable camera and clips of each game playing on a realistic TV as you scroll through your ROM collection.
 
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#3 ·
Another FUCKING kickstarter.. I'm sorry, I DO believe kickstarters do a lot of good, but shit is getting ridiculous, IMHO. They do kickstarters for anything now. Even gonetz, whose work I highly respect, is WHORING himself out. Yeah, I said it. A kickstarter for FUCKING post-processing. What the hell.

PS: I do have to admit that I am extra pent-up right now, for totally different reasons, but my opinions still stand.
 
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#4 · (Edited)
As someone who has tons of experience with frontends and as someone who even worked in such projects like myself i find it a bit too much to have a goal of 50K for a simple project like that. In the case of Gonetz his goal was a little more realistic at 2K but this Kickstarter is kinda pointless if you ask me.

Not trying to offend the author but i can write something like that quite quick and simply give it away. No Kickstarter is required and if i create a Kickstarter for @ES for example it would be pointless not to mention a goal of 50K.
 
#5 ·
No, just no. You've opened up a nasty can of worms here. If you knew much of the emulation community, you'd know with how much disdain this will be received. Do it for free, for practice, whatever, but there's absolutely no chance you'll find acceptance asking $50,000 for a fucking frontend. To me, this looks like the product of greed, period. A frontend is not a complex, unique, or original project, no matter the scope. There already exist plenty of projects that do what you're trying to, and more... and they're free.

tl;dr - Kindly GTFO with that nonsense, and read up on a little thing called "ethics".
 
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#6 ·
Good luck to you, brother and great to see another Front End being developed. I'm liking the idea of one in UE too - thinking revisiting the 3DArcade frontend is a great idea + UE will open up a world of creative possibilities.

BUT (and as is evident, a big one) I'd drop the kickstarter idea. I think we're moving away from the days of FE's being absolutely free as they are now becoming quite significant pieces of work if they do the full job of integrating all the databases, assets, emulators, control methods, rigs and bells and whistles that are now available to the Emu scene. I happily pay a little for my FE and also assets from EmuMovies. However, this is still essentially a nostalgic hobby for most and still in the ethos/realms of hobbyists helping one another out. Maybe consider a low-priced subscription service or one off payment if people like what you've made. But do keep it low.

Most people contributing to this hobby appear to have dayjobs + code by night because it is their passion and interest and their way of giving something back by creativity. Your $50,000 request (most of that appearing in your pie chart to be 'development' costs - meaning coding?) looks like people would be paying you to sit at home and code. Sure a few of us would like that, but if you're looking for a salary - submit a CV and your employers will give you the deadlines.

In short - great that you're having a go at creating something that could be new and exciting. Just don't suck the soul out of the hobby by pseudo-commercializing it. People will happily throw some beer money your way, but not so sure they're gonna bank roll a year's salary. Good luck, brother. :)
 
#7 ·
BUT (and as is evident, a big one) I'd drop the kickstarter idea. I think we're moving away from the days of FE's being absolutely free as they are now becoming quite significant pieces of work if they do the full job of integrating all the databases, assets, emulators, control methods, rigs and bells and whistles that are now available to the Emu scene. I happily pay a little for my FE and also assets from EmuMovies. However, this is still essentially a nostalgic hobby for most and still in the ethos/realms of hobbyists helping one another out. Maybe consider a low-priced subscription service or one off payment if people like what you've made. But do keep it low.
I think you're totally right and this is what I plan to do now that the initial plan did not work out. It will take a lot longer to get anywhere near that feature set, but I'll make it on my own time, then release both a free version and a full version for maybe $10
The roadmap is subject to change but regardless the project will be done eventually and I think people will enjoy using it
 
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