NESMaker and Free and Open Source & Linux

Will NESMaker ever be open sourced? I think the same DIY community that likes to create NES game carts, is also very interested in the Free and Open Source Software/ Hardware movement. To make money for NESMaker and development, just start a Liberapay or Patreon. Some teams like the Godot Engine team are having great success with it, making thousands of dollars a month. I also think it would boost the image of NESMaker and the team involved as doing for the LOVE of retro game dev.

This serial number business feels so 1990s and hackers will definitely be cracking the software soon if not already.

Also, selling the Kazzo dumper and other similar tools/ devices/ NES cart making supplies could be sold for a profit as well.

Linux support would also make game dev even more accessible because that OS is free for anyone to download and use for any purspose.

Its 2018, power is flowing back to the people and its a beautiful thing. Would the New 8-Bit Heroes come to the recue???

We don't sell the hardware. We just transition the sale to INL.

We've specifically kept the licensing cost extremely low for full commercial use of the code base. If someone doesn't believe that the years of R&D and continued community support is worth half the price of a modern video game, and instead go through the trouble to hack it, they're only doing a disservice to our ability to keep it up and improve it.

As for open source...once someone has it, they have the ASM. That's modifiable on the BIT level, that's about as open source as you can get. The problem with making the tool that interfaces with it open source is just how fragile the relationship between tool and ASM actually is.

TheNew8bitHeroes said:

We don't sell the hardware. We just transition the sale to INL.

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Who is INL? When is the hardware supposed to be released?

TheNew8bitHeroes said:

We've specifically kept the licensing cost extremely low for full commercial use of the code base. If someone doesn't believe that the years of R&D and continued community support is worth half the price of a modern video game, and instead go through the trouble to hack it, they're only doing a disservice to our ability to keep it up and improve it.

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The source code of NESMaker is available? I'm interested in this. Where can I find the details about that?

TheNew8bitHeroes said:

As for open source...once someone has it, they have the ASM. That's modifiable on the BIT level, that's about as open source as you can get. The problem with making the tool that interfaces with it open source is just how fragile the relationship between tool and ASM actually is.

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I'm not sure what you mean here. I think there is value in open source if it can help people learn and contribute to the software.

Thanks for your responses to my questions. I'm sorry if I seem i'll informed about the information regarding NESMaker. I have JUST heard about it last week and jumped in exclusively via this forum. My main interest is being able to run NESMaker on Linux. Is this on the roadmap?

It seems to startup via the Mono Runtime, but I can't activate it on Linux.

davidpgil said:

Who is INL?

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INL stands for InfiniteNesLives, it's a website that sells cartridges and flasher boards and other things.

davidpgil said:

I'm not sure what you mean here. I think there is value in open source if it can help people learn and contribute to the software.

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I think he's referring specifically to the ASM code for the base rom, which is what you use the NESmaker tool to edit. It's like a blank template for an NES rom where the blanks are meant to be filled in by the NESmaker tool.

MistSonata said:

davidpgil said:

Who is INL?

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INL stands for InfiniteNesLives, it's a website that sells cartridges and flasher boards and other things.

davidpgil said:

I'm not sure what you mean here. I think there is value in open source if it can help people learn and contribute to the software.

Click to expand...

I think he's referring specifically to the ASM code for the base rom, which is what you use the NESmaker tool to edit. It's like a blank template for an NES rom where the blanks are meant to be filled in by the NESmaker tool.

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Thanks.

...When I was referring to Open Source, I meant Open Source the NESMaker software. Not the games it makes.

davidpgil said:

...When I was referring to Open Source, I meant Open Source the NESMaker software. Not the games it makes.

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Chances are, the answer to that question is either "no" or "not for the foreseeable future". Joe has said before that the software needs to be monetized in order for him to justify working on it. The team needs to be paid for their work, or else they won't be able to update it. Releasing the tool as open source would undermine that. I understand that people might still donate, but the monetization of software that's open source is largely unproven.

MistSonata said:

davidpgil said:

...When I was referring to Open Source, I meant Open Source the NESMaker software. Not the games it makes.

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Chances are, the answer to that question is either "no" or "not for the foreseeable future". Joe has said before that the software needs to be monetized in order for him to justify working on it. The team needs to be paid for their work, or else they won't be able to update it. Releasing the tool as open source would undermine that. I understand that people might still donate, but the monetization of software that's open source is largely unproven.

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Please see Godot Engine [0]. A Free and Open Source project, making bank from donations.

[0] https://www.patreon.com/godotengine

davidpgil said:

Please see Godot Engine. A Free and Open Source project, making bank from donations.

https://www.patreon.com/godotengine

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When I said it was unproven, I didn't mean that no one has ever made bank from an Open Source project, I'm saying that it hasn't been proven to bring in just as much money as normal monetization. Free open source software can make money, but something like NESmaker is very niche, and I don't blame Joe for wanting to play it safe.

Also, patreons take time to maintain (you have to handle rewards and all that) and I'm sure that would cut into time that could be used to further develop the engine.

MistSonata said:

davidpgil said:

Please see Godot Engine. A Free and Open Source project, making bank from donations.

https://www.patreon.com/godotengine

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When I said it was unproven, I didn't mean that no one has ever made bank from an Open Source project, I'm saying that it hasn't been proven to bring in just as much money as normal monetization. Free open source software can make money, but something like NESmaker is very niche, and I don't blame Joe for wanting to play it safe.

Also, patreons take time to maintain (you have to handle rewards and all that) and I'm sure that would cut into time that could be used to further develop the engine.

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I think all of this is much more flexible than you may imagine... Yet, I don't mean to spark a debate over this. I really just would hate for NESMaker to be another closed ecosystem like so many other game maker tools. We definitely don't need that. Yes people need to make money, but they ALSO need to eat and be joyful -- if you get what I mean.

Thanks for your responses. I will likely check this project again in a year or so and hopefully, at least NESMaker is multiplatform. I think I have made enough noise about this here.