Game news “Thank you to those who were not c*ns”: Faced with death threats, he stops the development of his tool
In a few decades, emulation has made a simply incredible leap forward. While computers struggled to display the slightest 3D game (like Super Mario 64 in 3 frames per second), technological progress has allowed the practice to become more democratic and almost everything is almost emulatorable these days. Only, we sometimes tend to forget that this preservation of video games – even if the subject is open to debate – would be nothing without the genius programmers who hide behind these amazing emulators. And sad news has just fallen for the author of a very promising PlayStation 2 emulator…
Enough is enough ! The developer of AetherSX2, a PS2 emulator for Android devices, throws in the towel! Exasperated by the incessant requests from users and the reception of death threats, the latter decided to stop the development of the program. The application will remain available on the Google Play Store, but will no longer be updated. Faced with the growing stupidity of some, he wanted to drop a message that says a lot about what is on his heart:
AetherSX2 was always meant as a fun hobby for me, not a for-profit business. It doesn’t make sense to keep working on a hobby that isn’t fun anymore. Thanks to everyone who wasn’t a jerk last year.
The last statement is crisp and clean. The developer worked on this emulator out of passion, but the growing community of the program caused inconvenience he had not imagined. Apart from the outrageous death threats, the author of AetherSX2 has also suffered identity theft and an astronomical amount of complaints. Human stupidity in all its splendor will therefore have got the better of this very promising emulator. Some will probably never grow, unfortunately.
PS2 games on AetherSX2, but without an update
It’s all the more unfortunate that AetherSX2 was one of the few options to play PS2 games on Android devices. The other alternative is DamonPS2, but this software has been at the heart of a strange affair. According to the creators of the well-known PCXS2, a very famous PS2 emulator, DamonPS2 has re-pumped the (open) source code of their program. Problem, the DamonPS2 application is for profit and is based on a locked source code.
It’s sad, but the world of emulation is still in the midst of an unbearable new story after the suicide of Near, the author of the excellent BSNES (a very high quality SNES emulator), in 2021. Infuriating when you know that it only takes a few individuals to overshadow a community that is passionate and concerned about supporting initiatives.
