A cautionary tale...

[+Biff Burgertime]

Synopsis: In this thread I draw parallels to a past situation in which a user conceptualizes a "NES Rom Maker," a tool in which any layman can create his own NES game. He compares it to a painter expressing his game through art while the tool takes care of everything under the hood. Did he get his wish, and if so, did he fulfill his earlier promises? Read on...

 

 

Meet Joe_Cracker. He arrived to the AA forums back in 2009 with some "interesting" ideas.

 

His first thread set the stage:

[Oct 2, 2009] My idea for the perfect NES clone

On 12/23/2009 at 3:52 PM, Joe_Cracker said:

Schematics? Dude, I'm just the idea man, not the designer.

He began asking questions relating to NES clone hardware, seeking to create the "perfect" NoaC (NES-on-a-Chip). At first his goals were unclear as his questions lacked a clear purpose and exposed complete lack of understanding of many things on his part. Joe was immediately challenged on his nonsense by just about everyone, but he seemed almost oblivious to it all. He didn't argue back, he maintained an aura of positivity regardless. The project made sense in his mind, after all.

Eventually it became clear what his endgame was... behold: NES Rom Maker!

 

[April 6, 2010] Wanted: Looking for 8bit sprite artists

Quote

Right now, I am asking people who wish to help a software program come to life that can make new games for the NES just as easy as drawing a picture.

Wouldn't that be something?™

 

[March 15, 2010] A new NES clone to play the PowerPak

On 3/18/2010 at 9:35 AM, Joe_Cracker said:

I have opened my old NES Toaster model to put in a refurbished motherboard but for everyone out there who wants to go this route, your limited to how many original NES that where produced and the number of them that still work.

He seems to think the world is running out of NES consoles, and soon all we'll have are subpar NoaC's.

Throughout the saga thus far, he's somehow got the idea into his head that if he can find a NoaC that'll work with the PowerPak, it'll be the answer to all of his problems. But good news: he found it!

On 3/30/2010 at 5:37 PM, Joe_Cracker said:

I've found the answer, the ultimate NOAC that can play the powerpak. It's a very old NOAC and it was made for the SNES so it could play both NES and Famicom game carts, as well as SNES carts all in one system.

The claim is made here: http://www.tototek.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1903&view=previous&sid=11a57cb3a589f8a8c41bafcd0d33c248

 

The device he is talking about is known as the Super 8: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_8_%28video_game_accessory%29

Now if someone can get their hands on one of these things and reverse-engineer it's NOAC, it could make the best NES/SNES duel console system on the market.

It's none other than the Super8/TriStar, a very much imperfect choice but we'll ignore that for now. If you're not familiar, think of it as a Retron 2: You plug it into your SNES, and it a supplies 2 ports: 1 for NES, 1 for SNES.

 

 

Finally, with all the pieces in place, he creates his final thread explaining his ultimate vision (and exposing how little he understands about what he's proposing).

 

[April 15, 2010] If the Powerpak will work on an NES emulator, it will work on an NOAC clone

It's here in this 15-page thread that he repeats his desire for a simple "NES Rom Maker" program, his "business plan," and many misunderstandings. That thread's a great read on its own (at some point he's made aware of cc65 - a C compiler for 6502-based systems which supports NES - to which Joe dismissed as "junkware," to give one example). But for a more digestible version of Joe's idealistic view of things, his NES Rom Maker website really paints the picture from Joe's point of view. 

 

BUT WAIT!

Joe would eventually get his wish in the form of NESMaker! Unbelievable, how often is a wish granted like that?!

Surely he'd roll up his sleeves and get some games on the market this time. Eh, nope - NESMaker is just too hard. 😕

 

CONCLUSION

It doesn't take long to figure out how who's more interested in brainstorming pie-in-the-sky ideals for the entirety of their lives, and who's more interested in creating. If it's not clear to you, just wait 6-12 months and see how much (if any) progress the person's made. If all they've achieved is a lot of talk, then it's clear the hard work involved in making a competent game (or mere demo) isn't what they're truly interested in. If they were up front and honest about that, I'd have no issues with that - go nuts! But when someone's either incapable (poor ol' Joe) or too arrogant to admit (Kirk) that it's never going to happen, then all they'll manage to do is waste everyone's time in the process.

 

Additional Links:

• [Feb 24, 2009] NES Rom Maker - Joe Cracker speaks part 1 of 2
• [Feb 24, 2009] NES Rom Maker - Joe Cracker speaks part 2 of 2
• [Sep  8, 2018] NES Maker is NOT! easy
• [Sep 28, 2018] NES Maker is STILL NOT easy
• NES Rom Maker website

 

 

Note: I'd like to make a few things clear about Joe:

• Robert C. McGee is an independent filmmaker. "Joe Cracker" is a character he plays.
• Joe's takes his criticisms in stride (to the point of seeming oblivious at times). I've never seen him lash out & attack any of his critics. He's pretty chill.
• The point of this thread was not meant to ridicule Joe, he's cool (if a bit naïve). He's actually completed several zero-budget film projects, and always had a sense of humor.
  • This story was merely a convenient example to show the typical path of these "idea guys." Even in the off-chance when they get everything they asked for (or more), it makes no difference. They'll find a new scapegoat, or duck out entirely.

 

-

 

Unrelated to the above, but relevant to Mr. Cracker.

Years prior, Joe had has 15-minutes of fame thanks to a Legend of Zelda fanfiction movie he wrote. A small group of 3D animators came across this and made it a reality - but in short parody form, with deliberately poor animations & effects.

• [Reddit] Joe_Cracker and the Light of Courage: A naive fanboy's screenplay becomes a classic fan-animation and later part of a campaign for Congress
• [KnowYourMeme] The Legend of Zelda: The Light of Courage
• [Playlist] Legend of Zelda: The Light of Courage (Parts 1-3)
• [YouTube] The Unknown Creature in 4 minutes
  • A fan edit of one of Joe's full-length films, done by none other than SexualBurgerKing- someone highly involved in the parody LoC animations. This video is a favorite of mine as it allows the viewer a look at Joe's filmmaking in a digestible form.
  • I believe Joe & SBK became friends, and to this day when the occasional longform YT video pops up about Joe's movies, he'll show up himself in the comments. Despite the critiques involved, everything winds up being in good fun & ends on a positive note, which is nice to see. If only we got that experience here.

[KulorXL]

Y'know, maybe I'll go make Sega games instead.......

[Wayler]

Interesting synopsis @Biff Burgertime, I have not come across this tale of whimsical befoolery before. I read your post but haven't yet delved deeper. I did look up the first link to his profile though.

 

Now, you say he's a mellow fellow, a cool cucumber, but the profile reads banned. Is there a reason why our jovial chap of intoxicating ideas reached this stage, or will it become apparent as the story progresses? 

[+Biff Burgertime]

59 minutes ago, Wayler said:

Interesting synopsis @Biff Burgertime, I have not come across this tale of whimsical befoolery before. I read your post but haven't yet delved deeper. I did look up the first link to his profile though.

 

Now, you say he's a mellow fellow, a cool cucumber, but the profile reads banned. Is there a reason why our jovial chap of intoxicating ideas reached this stage, or will it become apparent as the story progresses? 

 

That part was never fully explained, and as you'll see I'm not the only one puzzled by it. Here's a link to a post from Al saying that Joe_Cracker was banned, omitting the reason:

 

A string of confusion followed, but the answer never came:

On 6/9/2010 at 5:53 PM, Petruza said:

Was he banned for good? I miss his hilarious posts

On 6/10/2010 at 12:06 PM, ApolloBoy said:

Yes.

On 8/25/2010 at 8:38 AM, S1500 said:

Just why was he banned? He wasn't threatening anyone, etc.

On 8/25/2010 at 8:51 AM, Petruza said:

 

Maybe for something like this:

 

Or maybe an admin considered he was talking nonsense, which is highly probable, although it was a damn funny nonsense.

My only guess is that after 14 pages of that thread, maybe Al decided to put Joe out of his misery. Perhaps users had been reporting his posts as well, calling attention to the situation and making it seem such action would be the greater good. I don't have the answer.

 

However, thank you for bringing this up! It reminded me of a particularly hilarious detail I'd completely forgotten about. Shortly after the ban, Joe released this vlog in which he explained that it was all a ruse! He never was banned, that was just a cover story.

[+Biff Burgertime]

I'd like to take a moment to call attention to the fact that I'm an AtariAge Subscriber (which only cost $30 for an entire year!)

As such, I gain access to a list of perks including:

• Edit window of 30 days versus one hour
• Can remove the "Edited By" Legend

Did I type up this lengthy thread free of typos & formatting errors perfectly on the 1^st try? Or did it require 5, 10, or even 20 edits before ironing out the mistakes? Unlike certain other users who never know when to stop, my posts look flawless every time!

 

Become an AtariAge Subscriber today!

 

(Actually when my 1yr subscription expires, I'll have to look into how this money is used now that Atari owns the forums. But hey, for now the perks are still nice.)

[Tanooki]

Isn't that up there in that image what of them Sega Mastur Stator controllers?  You could do hundreds of colors and multiple backgrounds with that and still have extra buttons left over.

[M-S]

What people like him don't understand is that even if you make an easy tool for a console based on 6502, it's not going to be on the same level as coding a simple PC game.

But why did he get obsessed over something so specific as that? I guess the Powerpak was the only flash cartridge at the time, it doesn't even work on the TinyNES, which uses original chips and was developed by a team of professionals, but they figured it wasn't worth it since the Everdrive was already out and worked on most clones.

[Tanooki]

That kind of makes you wonder how slapdash the powerpak really was, or if the TinyNES has some design issue given the fact it uses the original CPU and PPU as it is if you buy the more expensive choice over the clone parts.

 

 

Oh and back on the topic of 'ease' a friend of mine gifted me NES Maker (a while back just before I started job #2 so the tiredness and time got in the way of any progress sadly.)  It was so I could get back into doing sprite and tile work, and that whole program I can't wrap my head around, but there are a ton of hours of instructional video that probably would help cure that thankfully.  I think it would be pretty neat if I could be shown how to do it as following a video or book isn't always the most helpful for me to pick things up.  But you don't hear me complaining about it or making up fake stuff in photoshop either and that's the difference.  I'll admit I'm over my head with that app as it doesn't make a bit of sense if you just open it up how to even get far enough to just make some sprites and tiles, let alone line up something into what looks like actual useful work to be saved.  So given that, I kind of laugh at kirks desire for some stupid easy tool to slap together SNES dreams in action because even with the so called easy tool -- IT IS NOT.

[CapitanClassic]

19 hours ago, Biff Burgertime said:

Perhaps users had been reporting his posts as well, calling attention to the situation and making it seem such action would be the greater good.

Ideas are basically worthless. It is extremely difficult to release any finished game, as the last 20% encompasses 80% of the work.  

 

Idea guys imagine their game at the finish line, but don’t do any of the work to get it there. So they don’t realize that their amazing game is one of a billion, which cannot make it past the great many filters. (Maybe only 1% of games released are profitable, only 1% of demos get release candidates, only 1% of games go from proof of concept to demo, only 1% go from … )

[+Gemintronic]

I was pretty uneasy seeing him discover the actual NES Maker.  But, I guess the chill part is mostly true.  He complained about I.P. issues outside of NES Maker, expressed frustration with the software then went mostly silent.

[Wayler]

On 10/6/2023 at 8:58 PM, CapitanClassic said:

On 10/6/2023 at 1:04 AM, Biff Burgertime said:

Perhaps users had been reporting his posts as well, calling attention to the situation and making it seem such action would be the greater good.

 

haha, I did not realize someone else had made this exact reference before. Like all of his threads, the same jokes cycle around.