Nukey Shay (Kurt Howe) has died. :(

[Albert]

It's with great sadness that I report long-time AtariAge user Nukey Shay (Kurt Howe) has seemingly passed away.  This was brought to my attention yesterday by Ballblaɀer, who did a little digging after someone else noticed Nukey hadn't visited or posted in some time.  While we don't have definitive proof that the Kurt Howe who was killed is Nukey Shay, the preponderance of evidence is very significant.

 

On February 5th, 2020, Kurt Dwayne Howe was tragically hit and killed while crossing the street in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  His last login on the forum was February 8th, but his last post was January 30th.  We're guessing someone was looking through Kurt's computer after he passed, probably checking out some of the last sites he visited.  Nukey's recent posts were coming in from Minneapolis, and he posted back in 2003 that his middle name was Dwane.  Here's his obituary in the Star News, a local newspaper.  His age at the time was 54, which matches the birthdate he had in his AtariAge profile.  He would have been 55 in March of 2020. 

 

Nukey joined AtariAge in 2001 (the year AtariAge came into existence), and he was responsible for creating a great wealth of interesting Atari 2600 hacks.  He also helped many others with their own creations on the 2600, and he had over 20,000 posts on AtariAge over the course of 20 years.  He was even awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in March of last year for his work involving 2600 hacks by Scott Dayton, admin of the Atari 2600 Homebrew Games Facebook group. 

 

Our hobby will be poorer with his absence. 

 

 ..Al

[CPUWIZ]

Kurt will be missed by many, including me. How long has it been, 2 decades?

R.I.P. Brother

Way too early, too much negative energy floating around everywhere. Crawling back into my office now.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Totally sad news.  

 

RIP Kurt

[Shawn]

Tragic loss. The world needs more people like Kurt around, not less. RIP.

[tschak909]

oh no. 

 

[+save2600]

How tragic! Very sad to hear this news, which is already over a year and a half old. ugh   R.I.P. Nukey, and thank you for all the great hacks and everything you've contributed over years.  

[+x=usr(1536)]

Deeply unfortunate news, and my sympathies go out to his friends and family.  His passing is a loss to us all.

[Big Player]

Very sad. 

 

His hacks were amazing, not only the ones he made but also where he helped out others to make their hacks better.

[SoundGammon]

Nukey was always up for the challenge when you asked for a hack. He did Backgammon to Nackgammon for me. I just wanted a hack where the computer moved his pieces faster. I also liked how he always explained the hacks he did and how he was always there to help others doing hacks. To me, his masterpiece will be RIVER RAID III. He did amazing things with that game!

[+cvga]

24 minutes ago, Albert said:

 

Nukey's recent posts were coming in from Minneapolis, and he posted back in 2003 that his middle name was Dwane. 

 

 

Actually his very last sentence in that post is "Howe Dewey, Kurt". There's no doubt that it's him

 

How sad. He's been around as long as I can remember and has always been a great guy.

[Tempest]

First Curt and now Nukey.    Things won't be the same without him.

[+batari]

Oh wow. Nukey was a legend. May Sheik Yerbouti rest in peace.

[alex_79]

I'm very saddened to hear this.

 

RIP Nukey.

[+davidcalgary29]

I'm so sorry that we couldn't have set up a tribute at the time. Shocking news.

[TrekMD]

That is very sad and unfortunate news.  My condolences go to his family.  RIP Kurt.

[+Philsan]

What a tragedy!

 

Everyone knew him on AtariAge.

 

Rest in peace Kurt.

[+davidcalgary29]

28 minutes ago, Tempest said:

First Curt and now Nukey.    Things won't be the same without him.

And Drac is Back. I still think about him when posting in the 7800 and 8-bit forums...

[jwelsh]

Sad news Indeed. Discovered and learned alot through his posts and comments here. Rest easy. 

[R.Cade]

That is terrible. You have to ask, why he stepped out into the street against the light at 3AM? I guess there is no more detail or more to know...

 

 

[+Karl G]

That's awful news. I was hoping he was just taking a break from the forums. I'll definitely miss having him here.

[Big Player]

Here are links to two of his Pac-Man hacks. Both of the latest ROM's are in the first post.

 

Hack of Ebivision's unreleased Pac-Man game:

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/55226-hackem-hangly-man-combined

 

Hack of Atari's Pac-Man:

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/54937-8k-atari-pac-man

[+nanochess]

This is so sad. Nukey Shay posted so many helpful things about programming the Atari 2600, I learned so much from his posts.

 

A great loss. Rest in peace.

 

[+DrVenkman]

I was not any kind of real programmer and lack the coding experience appreciate the nuances of his work, but I recognize the great contributions he made to the homebrew world and the AtariAge community as a whole. His untimely passing is a tragedy. My condolences to his friends and family. 

[HSW3ET]

My earliest AtariAge memory is Nukey Shay's avatar image and his willingness to help people with their projects. No doubt it's a great loss to the community you've created here and that reverberates out of the AtariAge forum. Very sad. Rest in peace, good soul.

[+Karl G]

18 hours ago, Big Player said:

Here are links to two of his Pac-Man hacks. Both of the latest ROM's are in the first post.

 

Hack of Ebivision's unreleased Pac-Man game:

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/55226-hackem-hangly-man-combined

 

Hack of Atari's Pac-Man:

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/54937-8k-atari-pac-man

My favorite "hack" of his (more like a near-complete rewrite) is "Another Adventure" - a 16K enhanced version of Adventure.

 

(ROM Download Link)

 

Edited to add that this was actually @keithbk's game, but apparently based on Nukey's hacked Adventure sources, and with his advice/assistance.