According to reports, the developer of the excellent SNES simulator BSNES Near has taken his own life.

Near (also known as “Byuu” and “Dave”) tweeted over the weekend about the cyber-bullying and harassment he’s been subjected to:

Bullying, ridicule and humiliation have been a part of my life, from my earliest elementary school memories to the present. The damage is so deep that words cannot describe it. All I had to do was suffer from severe depression, and I was still at 4chan.

But the Kiwi Farms forum brought more harassment, which escalated from attacking me for being autistic to attacking my friends and trying to lure them to suicide just to get my reaction. I lost one of my best friends, and I feel responsible for that.

I can’t take it anymore. I’ve tried everything. I’ve taken every drug available. I’ve tried many therapists. But it didn’t help at all. Every night was filled with panic, fear and worry.

I’ve tried every possible way to make changes just to make this stop, but it never stops. Every few months, something new comes along. I can’t take it anymore.

I’ve always tried to be nice to everyone and helpful, and I haven’t done anything wrong except to be a little weird online and maybe a little over-enthusiastic at times. Their terrible claims are completely unfounded. Still, if I have hurt or upset anyone, I am truly sorry.

The Internet is not a game, it’s real life. I am a real person, and the pain of these injuries is real. I’ve spent my whole life on the Internet, and I have no real friends, no other reason for being, just this. And now I have nothing.

It’s too late for me, but I pray that someone will do something about that site. Too many people are suffering, and yet no one seems to care, because on the Internet we are all nobody, and they know it. When good men do nothing, evil triumphs.

Please don’t remember me for that. Please remember what I do — my work and my dedication. Thank you so much for your kindness and support over the years. I’m sorry, but I love you all so much.

Please don’t hate me for it. I know that this will cause some of you pain, please understand that I have suffered more. I’m sure some people will take this as my fault, but it’s not. They didn’t have to. They could have stopped at any time, but they didn’t.

If Joshua Moon had given me a little sympathy, I would have persevered, but he didn’t. I don’t deserve to be treated like this.

Thank you so much for your kind messages. Please take care of yourself. I love you very much. Thank you all for your support over the years. It’s been a pleasure. I’ll miss you all, but at least I can finally rest in peace.

(Note: Joshua Moon is the owner of Kiwi Farms)

Kiwi Farms focuses on bullying individuals online, according to Theorymon, a user of gaming forum Resetera:

Kiwi Farms, formerly known as the CWCKI Forum, is a forum dedicated to cyber-bullying, with a particular bias towards vulnerable groups. For example, Byuu (or Near) was identified as a non-binary gender and was harassed. And that seems to be the main catalyst for this Near situation.

After the apparent suicide statement was posted, several of Near’s Twitter followers tried to get in touch with Near, who lives in Japan, through the U.S. Embassy. Later, a friend of Near’s, speaking on the condition of anonymity through mutual friend, security consultant and hacker Hector “Marcan” Martin, revealed that Near had died and further details of his cyber-bullying. Martin later said he had spoken to “the police department in charge of the investigation,” who confirmed Near’s death on June 27.

People who were moved by Near’s work paid their respects and memories on Twitter:

Developing Super Nintendo game simulators, Near works on retro game saving and emulation

Near has done a lot of outstanding work in the field of reversion game saving and simulation, developing Ares, BSNES and Michigan emulators, localizations of four games such as Bahamut Lagoon and Der Langrisser, and software development such as Aethyst. I saved 1200 Super Nintendo games, circuit boards, etc.

Among them, BSNES is a very smooth lightweight game simulator, also known as the Super Nintendo game simulator. Work on BSNES began in 2004. Early versions ran slowly on top hardware, and later Near de-encapsulated SNES chips to better understand them. BSNES has now become the gold standard for SNES simulators, with 100% compatibility with the entire SNES library. While focusing on developing his own emulator, Near also spent time helping the developers of SNES9X to improve the project.

In addition to the emulators, NEAR is also a major force in the retro game preservation space, even buying the entire SNES/Super Nintendo home console line in North America and Japan to make sure the ROMS are as real as possible. An enthusiastic activist in the Retro gaming community, Near has also been one of the leading voices pointing out that companies like Retro-Bit, Hyperkin, and Cyber Gadget are illegally using non-commercial simulators in commercial products without permission.

In 2018, Near told Eurogamer:

Given that our work is free, we are often unable to challenge licence violations, a fact that I believe violators are well aware of. From personal experience, whenever a person files a complaint, they will face a backlash from a small segment of the public, and there will definitely be fans of these products who belittle you for criticizing the companies or products. Most simulator developers I know prefer to keep a low profile and remain silent when their rights are violated. But Daniel [De Matteis, the software developer and current leader of Retroarch and Libretro] and I were very outspoken, and we were notorious in the community for that. It can be very exhausting at times.

Near also spent many years trying to make a perfectly localized English version of Bahamut Lagoon, a Squaresoft Super Famicom RPG that had never been released outside Japan.

Near previously told Vice about translating the game:

I tried five times, and each time I started over because I knew more and thought I could do better. The reason for releasing the fifth try is that I don’t think there is anything to improve.

In addition, Near translated another Super Famicom game, Der Langrisser, which was not released in the West and is considered by many to be the best translated version.

On his website, Near says he is driven by an “overriding drive for perfection” :

In terms of personality, I’m INTJ-T. I prefer to stay in my own space and usually don’t touch people first. I work alone, but I’m at my best when I have friends nearby to support me. I tend to be overly sensitive and self-critical, and I’m not very good at social graces, but I’m doing my best to meet these challenges. I value honesty more than politeness and reason more than emotion. I have a strong desire to understand everything, an overriding drive to perfection, and this drive tends to drive me to achieve whatever I can.

I find that I am not satisfied unless I am working on a problem that is beyond my competence. I always seek to increase my knowledge and ability. You’ll find that I’m always doing something, because I don’t like free time.

On Near’s Twitter page, we can see that on June 27 he also released a new version of V121 of the Ares simulator, making it open source.

This may be his last contribution.

Reference link:

  • https://www.nintendolife.com/…
  • https://docs.google.com/docum…
  • https://twitter.com/near_kouk…
  • https://near.sh/