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SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

byuu.org

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Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#81

Post by mwfunk »

mjolk wrote: post #67
scott_karana wrote: post #48

> I've already maxed out my 401K loans on the Japanese game set, and it will probably be 2-3 years before I finish dumping and scanning all of those games to sell them for money. I always feel a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read things like this. Is any labour of love worth your potential future? As much as I admire his dedication, it's not a choice I'd make... :( Maybe it's just because I'm a bit…

> Is any labour of love worth your potential future? Kind of a funny question on a site for people doing startups.

A startup isn't a labor of love; if it was, it'd be a hobby, not a startup.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#82

Post by tiglionabbit »

I love the Super Nintendo. So it's good to see someone is aiming to preserve it perfectly. I thought existing ROM dumps were good enough, but seeing as he already has this "icarus" program to read them, there's something more he needs for perfection?

Since he's handling the cartridges personally, it's a bit of a shame he has to give them all back. Wouldn't it be kinda neat to make an uber-cartridge that contains all chip configurations from every Super Nintendo cartridge in existence, so it could play any game on the hardware that game expects?

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#83

Post by LeifCarrotson »

mjolk wrote: post #67
scott_karana wrote: post #48

> I've already maxed out my 401K loans on the Japanese game set, and it will probably be 2-3 years before I finish dumping and scanning all of those games to sell them for money. I always feel a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read things like this. Is any labour of love worth your potential future? As much as I admire his dedication, it's not a choice I'd make... :( Maybe it's just because I'm a bit…

> Is any labour of love worth your potential future? Kind of a funny question on a site for people doing startups.

No, it's not.

Most startups fail. Most people need retirement savings. That seems a poor investment.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#84

Post by byuu »

scott_karana wrote: post #48

> I've already maxed out my 401K loans on the Japanese game set, and it will probably be 2-3 years before I finish dumping and scanning all of those games to sell them for money. I always feel a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read things like this. Is any labour of love worth your potential future? As much as I admire his dedication, it's not a choice I'd make... :( Maybe it's just because I'm a bit…

I'm only 33, and the 401K loan automatically takes money out of each paycheck until it's repaid. I believe it was a 72 month loan? Might've been shorter. So, pretty sure it won't be a problem before I retire.

Of course, if an exigent circumstance comes up, and I can prove it (medical emergency, bankruptcy), it's possible to borrow the other half of the 401K. But if I'm short on the mortgage, it's not going to help me, so it was still somewhat irresponsible of me.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#85

Post by mjolk »

mwfunk wrote: post #81
mjolk wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is any labour of love worth your potential future? Kind of a funny question on a site for people doing startups.

A startup isn't a labor of love; if it was, it'd be a hobby, not a startup.

If your startup isn't a labor of love or you're not driven by a strong dislike of an alternative career path, then almost every startup would die the second the founder(s) do the math of income opportunity cost of trying vs stable employment.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#86

Post by mjolk »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #83
mjolk wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is any labour of love worth your potential future? Kind of a funny question on a site for people doing startups.

No, it's not. Most startups fail. Most people need retirement savings. That seems a poor investment.

Traditional full time employment is a much safer bet for savings.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#87

Post by rtkwe »

teslabox wrote: post #77
ssully wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in this exact scenario right now. The last entry on my tracking was my package arriving at my USPS facility 14 days ago and nothing has happened since. I just don't understand how something like this happens.

I had a package 'fall off the truck' a few scans after it entered the USPS system. A month later it scanned at a Chicago sorting center, and was delivered a few days later. Another recent package was said to have been delivered, but wasn't actually in my mailbox until the following day. Maybe my neighbor redelivered it for me.

For the longest time our local carriers would deliver to 2330 Someplace Street instead of our address at 2030 Someplace Street. Luckily the neighbor was honest though it was really hard when they delivered my 55lb office chair in a box too big to fit in my car, but that was FedEx of all people.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#88

Post by Klinky »

scott_karana wrote: post #48

> I've already maxed out my 401K loans on the Japanese game set, and it will probably be 2-3 years before I finish dumping and scanning all of those games to sell them for money. I always feel a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read things like this. Is any labour of love worth your potential future? As much as I admire his dedication, it's not a choice I'd make... :( Maybe it's just because I'm a bit…

This is byuu doing it, the creator of the most accurate SNES emulator ever. Given that context, it makes complete sense.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#89

Post by hysan »

abandonliberty wrote: post #18
eco wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was hoping USPS had improved. Something similar happened to me but with no resolution. About 12 years ago I returned a phone I bought on eBay that arrived non-functioning. The tracking page just stopped updating after it reached the destination post office. I went to the post office I sent it from asking for help. They told me I had to go to the post office for my return address. I thought it was odd but I did that…

USPS is quite remarkable given their costs. Based on the volume of mail handled there are many horror stories, but their actual error rates are very good. It does sound like you're in a particularly bad location. If you want better you'll have to pay more. Shipping within the US is awesome. Living in any other country is very enlightening. https://about.usps.com/what-we-are-doing/service-performance...

> Living in any other country is very enlightening.

I lived in Japan for several years and found the postal service there to be fantastic compared to what I experienced with USPS. Perhaps if I lived in yet another country this would be different?

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#90

Post by mkarr »

byuu wrote: post #31
userbinator wrote: post #14

Why didn't you send the dumping hardware to the PAL donor? This makes me think of another idea to avoid shipping the cartridges themselves around: an interface that allows eventually accessing them over TCP/IP. It could be exposed as a block device or a custom protocol, it doesn't matter as long as you can essentially send an address and get some bytes back, allowing to read the entire address space.

A lot of the pain comes from cleaning every single cartridge. Many old games look like this: http://i.imgur.com/sdRqyl.jpg And you need them to look like this: http://i.imgur.com/GbxMxl.jpg That takes about a half hour's work. Then you get to open the cart and clean the contacts, another five minutes. Then once it's connected to an SNES and powered on, you have to wait 5-10 minutes to dump it, and then move on to the…

Have you ever written up or documented the technical aspects of your whole process to scan one of the cartridges you receive? That would be something that I would find interesting to read.
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