Any updates on Lordus' status?

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tomkatt
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Any updates on Lordus' status?

Post by tomkatt » Fri May 12, 2017 9:39 pm

Topic, pretty much. Has Lordus just disappeared from the internet? And what's the future for the emulator's development?

Exophase
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Re: Any updates on Lordus' status?

Post by Exophase » Sun May 14, 2017 3:06 am

I don't know anything new about his status, unfortunately.

I did hear from him in February, after not being around for a few months. It looked like he'd be back on and resuming work on DraStic, or at least taking steps to make it easier for me to make updates to the Android builds. But I haven't heard from him since then. At least this confirmed that nothing really grave had happened to him.

I can attempt again the method I used to get his attention then, but it's pretty intrusive so I'd really like to not do so if at all possible. That and it's harder to justify now; the first time I was legitimately concerned that something awful happened to him, now I'd just like to get some direction on DraStic's development. I'm still hoping he'll eventually return.

The situation right now is that I can't really easily make new builds because one of the Android-specific source files wasn't kept up to date on the repository - Lordus had committed the other files as they developed, this one was just an oversight. It's really my fault, I should have made sure that we maintend more redundancy in building in case something like this happened. I did make sure we could at some point but I hadn't done it for the last few versions that came out.

So to get back to baseline I'd have to reimplement his work, which could involve reverse engineering some of what's in the APK. This involves some Android stuff I'm not really experienced with, and I might not get everything exactly the same. It's feasible but a big effort that I'm not really prepared for; further developing the core is one thing and I can manage doing that (and have some stuff ready for update), and if I could make new builds I could probably implement some fixes and minor changes to the Android side, but redoing big chunks of existing content is another story. I have another full time job and I never really planned to take on this sort of effort for the emulator. It'd be much, much easier if I could actually work with Lordus on this, even if for some reason he lost the originals. So I'm really hoping that happens somehow.

The other thing is that Lordus did testing on all sorts of Android devices he had. I don't currently have access to anything like that, so I'd be worried about developing new compatibility issues.

But I know these excuses aren't really fair to the people who bought the emulator and those who are buying it now. Which is why I may have to stop charging. But even then I can't make changes like removing the licensing or the anti-tamper without redoing Lordus's work, or rolling back some of the Android-side changes from the last few versions. I'd still really strongly prefer to not do this without Lordus's okay, since it'd probably have to be a permanent move.

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huckleberrypie
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Re: Any updates on Lordus' status?

Post by huckleberrypie » Sun May 14, 2017 6:37 am

So the ironic thing is, you're thinking about cracking your own application? Was there any sort of version control or git repository for you to pass changes to one another, or is Lordus doing most if not all of the Android-specific work on your behalf?

Personally I won't mind if you make this freeware or open-source, but as elaborated in earlier threads there definitely are some downsides such as less scrupulous vendors repackaging your code into some white-label adware (not unless you use a strict copyleft licence like MAME once did; in practice this can be hard to enforce on a Wild West-esque ecosystem like Google Play).

Fefo
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Re: Any updates on Lordus' status?

Post by Fefo » Sun May 14, 2017 11:41 am

Does the checks require the app to be bought? Maybe you could make it free on store just to build "awareness", if you care about people using your creation instead of some knock-off, free or not. Even then, does the cracked versions have more reach than the oficial app?

if going open is a choice, I believe that a considerable pool of devs would show up for Android/whatever stuff, assuming that no emulation knowlegde is required.

Can't spite anyone after months of radio silence to your partner, but it's you who have to deal with it. Do what you find the best.
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Exophase
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Re: Any updates on Lordus' status?

Post by Exophase » Sun May 14, 2017 12:26 pm

huckleberrypie wrote:So the ironic thing is, you're thinking about cracking your own application? Was there any sort of version control or git repository for you to pass changes to one another, or is Lordus doing most if not all of the Android-specific work on your behalf?

Personally I won't mind if you make this freeware or open-source, but as elaborated in earlier threads there definitely are some downsides such as less scrupulous vendors repackaging your code into some white-label adware (not unless you use a strict copyleft licence like MAME once did; in practice this can be hard to enforce on a Wild West-esque ecosystem like Google Play).
There is a repository, Lordus just didn't commit changes for one of the files for the last few versions. I think there was some difficulty because he used his own different version control system and had to match between the two. It isn't that he was disregarding it entirely though, he was committing other things even until right before he left.
Fefo wrote:Does the checks require the app to be bought? Maybe you could make it free on store just to build "awareness", if you care about people using your creation instead of some knock-off, free or not. Even then, does the cracked versions have more reach than the oficial app?

if going open is a choice, I believe that a considerable pool of devs would show up for Android/whatever stuff, assuming that no emulation knowlegde is required.

Can't spite anyone after months of radio silence to your partner, but it's you who have to deal with it. Do what you find the best.
Regardless of the license check I can set the price to whatever, including zero.

Vegito72
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Re: Any updates on Lordus' status?

Post by Vegito72 » Sun May 14, 2017 4:09 pm

Exophase wrote:
huckleberrypie wrote:So the ironic thing is, you're thinking about cracking your own application? Was there any sort of version control or git repository for you to pass changes to one another, or is Lordus doing most if not all of the Android-specific work on your behalf?

Personally I won't mind if you make this freeware or open-source, but as elaborated in earlier threads there definitely are some downsides such as less scrupulous vendors repackaging your code into some white-label adware (not unless you use a strict copyleft licence like MAME once did; in practice this can be hard to enforce on a Wild West-esque ecosystem like Google Play).
There is a repository, Lordus just didn't commit changes for one of the files for the last few versions. I think there was some difficulty because he used his own different version control system and had to match between the two. It isn't that he was disregarding it entirely though, he was committing other things even until right before he left.
Fefo wrote:Does the checks require the app to be bought? Maybe you could make it free on store just to build "awareness", if you care about people using your creation instead of some knock-off, free or not. Even then, does the cracked versions have more reach than the oficial app?

if going open is a choice, I believe that a considerable pool of devs would show up for Android/whatever stuff, assuming that no emulation knowlegde is required.

Can't spite anyone after months of radio silence to your partner, but it's you who have to deal with it. Do what you find the best.
Regardless of the license check I can set the price to whatever, including zero.
Would it be possible to do something like ppsspp and have a free version and a paid version if the people want to support the developers? If you made drastic free (even if it was for a short period of time) people that realized it was free might want their money back.

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huckleberrypie
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Re: Any updates on Lordus' status?

Post by huckleberrypie » Sun May 14, 2017 8:02 pm

I agree on the PPSSPP model too. Heck, you could still make it a paid app on Google and offer a free version on F-Droid a la Conversations, assuming you're going open-source.

Fefo
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Re: Any updates on Lordus' status?

Post by Fefo » Sun May 14, 2017 9:42 pm

Paid on store and free on source is a pretty nice combo. Those who care about OSS can grab it, those who want convenience can buy it. Doesn't solve the five billion ad-driven copies that would surge overnight tho, but I don't know if that's possible, let alone worth.
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TkSilver
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Re: Any updates on Lordus' status?

Post by TkSilver » Sun May 14, 2017 10:25 pm

Paid and free in store is also nice especially for people who don't particularly want to have to check the github all the time to see if a new update is out.

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huckleberrypie
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Re: Any updates on Lordus' status?

Post by huckleberrypie » Mon May 15, 2017 3:08 am

Fefo wrote:Paid on store and free on source is a pretty nice combo. Those who care about OSS can grab it, those who want convenience can buy it. Doesn't solve the five billion ad-driven copies that would surge overnight tho, but I don't know if that's possible, let alone worth.
If it's on a custom MAME-style non-commercial licence (and thus not libre like GPL, making adware forks illegal), Exo could theoretically DMCA those unfairly profiting from his work.

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