Hoping to make your life's design a bit more dynamic!

I've opened Twitter this morning and I've seen a twit from Near in which he posted a photo of him and a mesaage that sounds like a suicide note... I'm really worried about him right now. I really do hope he's ok but, frankly, I was fearing this kind of outcome from some time ago due to the tone of some of his posts I hoped it was just me who was seeing things too pessimistically on my behalf.

Thank you for notifying us. For the sake of privacy, it’s good you did not recite the note. I thought he had cut loose from Twitter. It would be good if everyone abandoned Twitter. It’s a toxic magnet. Be careful!

https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comm ... ssed_away/

.... I just don't know what to say, so instead of making a fool out of myself, I'd rather not say anything. Hope you're all doing well, friends. Take care.

Can’t complain. Life is good. Anyway, if true, I am much saddened. Byuu wasn’t always “kind” to us, but he made amends. If the report is not true, he has friends here at D-D and is respected. More than that, everyone friendly who visits us is safe here. Always good to hear from you.

That is really sad news. I understand Bongo` got his start working with Byuu/Near. I wish the guy could have found better communities to interact with before things became as bad as they were. As Willdbill said, we had butted heads but I always wished the guy well and all was good between us recently. He had my deepest respect for his talent with old hardware. As does anyone who can tame these old systems. Old hardware is not as easy as some might think. Even guys who are well versed in regular everyday computer programming don't understand how complex they are. You couldn't just know the programming, you had to know the hardware as well. The Atari 2600 for example might have actually been the hardest hardware ever invented to program for. Old does not mean simple. Usually nothing could be further from the truth. And Byuu knew the NES/SNES hardware well. That is neither here nor there. The guy was more than his talent, and even without that talent he will be missed. I've known those that contributed greatly and I've known those that the only contribution was a kind word that have passed. All of whom are missed equally.

RIP Byuu / Near.

While I don't know the individual personally, I've been following his (their?) work on bsnes.
Definitely a giant in this field whose shoulders we are all standing on.

With a fair amount of confidence, I will say that Byuu is/was a man, possibly named Dave. He is/was not a “their” (a plural pronoun indicating two or more people). The best case scenario for this unexpected development in our community is that Byuu has escaped a number of lifelong torments by changing his identity and going deep underground (not in the literal sense). If so, I wish him Godspeed.

On the other hand, if Byuu has truly met his demise, then I am outraged that psychopathic vermin online may have contributed to what became an intolerable fragility. These are the sort of monsters to whom I dedicated a significant portion of my military career attempting to destroy - literally - within the legal boundaries of sanctioned warfare and lawful orders.

My country and the larger world are awash in evil. We all know who the culprits are, but let me issue a warning to all private individuals who consider themselves good people. Do not take the law into your own hands unless threatened directly. If human monsters infesting the net are indeed complicit in Byuu’s possible death, right now, I don’t know of any legal way to mete out justice.

So, before I implore everyone to get back to the fun we share, let me say the first line of defense against evils sweeping the world is to simply not respond to their verbal malfeasance. Starting with one person at a time, (I’ll go first), I hearby cancel the cancel culture and every entity that attempts to destroy our right to engage in the gaming hobby on our own terms.

Sad, sad news...

I wanted to wait to get more information/confirmation before posting anything. I've read that his friend Hector has been in contact with the local police department in Japan, and has confirmed the death.

There is still part of me that wishes this to be a "faked" death. I imagine this all being a plan with his friend so that Byuu/Near/Ares can finally get away from all the personal attacks and doxing. I imagine Byuu leading a more normal, healthier life online and offline as a result. I imagine Byuu maybe returning to romhacking sometime in the distant future, but under another name and with all new (unrelated) projects. There is so much I could imagine... It would be nice if it could all come true, but sadly, I must let go of my daydreams and come back to reality...

Rest, Byuu. You are already missed.

Not my final thoughts on this likely outcome, but…

Dave/Byuu was a highly complex person. I have a brother with spectrum autism. I understand the attributes as well as any layman because I am also his guardian. My mother’s last wishes were that I keep my brother “safe” (alive) and “secure” (enjoy basic human needs and best happiness possible) My family and I have ensured both. Regarding Byuu, I have drawn these possible conclusions:

1. Byuu had no such support system.
2. Byuu possessed a genius mind in his best expertise. (software development)
3. Byuu was NOT mentally ill in the usual sense.
4. Byuu was developmentally disabled in social skills.
5. Over time, medications possibly exacerbated his fragile mental state.
6. At heart, Byuu was a good, gentle person.

I interacted with Byuu three times over about 15 years. One was negative (Lennus-II semantics). One was neutral (Mystic Ark - real hardware), and the final time six months ago was very positive (discussions of SSMS-I/II and Oni-II’s fatal bugs). In light of current community discussions, cryptic statements he made to me in e-mails have taken on possible new interpretations. However, Byuu wasn’t the first highly productive member of our community to say he was retiring, actually retire in some cases, then return at some point.

Concerning our inactive member, Bongo’, Byuu said he taught Bongo’ assembly techniques initially, but the “student” soon surpassed the “teacher” exponentially in critical areas of rom hacking. I have been extremely fortunate to be associated with such amazing talented, dedicated, and hardworking colleagues my whole adult life, both in hobby areas and military and defense intelligence worlds. The two milieus are not that dissimilar, except in the continuum of personality types.

To succeed in my livelihood, I needed to possess the temperament of an alpha male. In protecting my brother and raising my children, I had to force myself to dial down those traits tremendously. People you encounter in life don’t come with instruction manuals, so to get things done most successfully, I discovered that one must build positive relationships and find ways to get on the same page with team members. Timing is everything. Patience is critical.

Byuu could NOT process interactions this way. His genius created dual pathways of amazing achievements and escapism. When I interacted with him infrequently through the years, often in disagreement, I assumed he was a strong, secure person who was pushy about his way of doing certain things to the point of being just another highly opinionated control freak. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Byuu couldn’t help being the way he was. Moreover, he didn’t mean anything by it. It was just Byuu being Byuu, and the community should have let him be.

It was wrong for all off us to ban him, attack him, and put him down. When he argued with people, he meant well. That was just his way. I watched my brother do tasks through the years. In the yard, he used six buckets to separate grass clippings, pine cones, magnolia leaves, dug dandelions, gum balls, and twigs. We used a fire pit to burn yard waste. One day, I grabbed the buckets, dumped the contents of all six in quick succession on the same spot in the fire, and watched my brother all but fall apart emotionally.

Had I known Byuu was not an alpha male and possessed autistic traits that encompass insecurity, panic attacks, insomnia, deep depression, fears of making first or renewed contact, and suicidal tendencies, I would have communicated with him differently when we talked about rectifying assembly bugs in Oni-II. He spoke to me enthusiastically about the future excitement of seeing a high quality English patch for that game, both on his part and also RPG players everywhere.

I realize the most sensitive people who are geniuses are also highly adept at concealing closely held private thoughts, but I was trained to penetrate layers of camouflage and accurately predict the intention of potential adversaries in that ultimate form of international diplomacy called war. On the private side, I was also a central figure once in a successful intervention of an attempted suicide. I understand a little of the pathologies of bipolarity and it’s several manifestations.

Saving a person with the talent of Byuu would have been worth more than 10,000 finished Oni-II English patches. However, if I had been a pest about it after he released Bahamut Lagoon, maybe, just maybe - I keep wondering - this could have distracted him from taking the terrible trail he followed to late June 2021. His words indicated he loved Oni-II, for indeed, he loved all SFC games.

The history of the world may be written in one word: “If”.

Your last post sums up my exact sentiment on this issue perfectly as well, Wildbill. Though I've never spoken to Byuu/Near personally, I was rather harsh with some of my criticism of him in the past here. Like you, I also incorrectly believed that he always had this "macho alpha male" persona about him and everything that he did and said online. I know now how wrong I was and feel deeply ashamed and guilty about it. Had I known that he was struggling with depression and other mental health issues, I would've been a lot less harsh in my judgment of him. In my defense though, I was against the idea of RHDN banning him even though I didn't always agree with a lot of his opinions there in the past. I always felt that it was a bad move on RHDN's part to ban such well known and productive romhackers as Byuu/Near and MrRichard999.

If by some chance he is still alive and well, and decided to ask someone to post this news on Twitter as a way of getting away from everything, I wish him all the best. But if he did in fact meet his end, I would like to offer my condolences to his friends and family. Rest in peace Byuu/Near, you will be fondly remember by all in the romhacking/translation community and deeply missed. I hope that you're in a better place now.