# ASSEMbler Games forum about to close



## MockyLock (May 31, 2019)

Well, it seems that this time, it'll really happen.
This museum of videogame technical knowledge is about to close in 30 days. Such a loss.
Hoping someone will find a solution to let all its content available for history.


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## DinohScene (May 31, 2019)

RIP ASSEMblergames, Obscure gamers is trying to preserve the site as far as I could see quickly.


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## Alexander1970 (May 31, 2019)

> Current account status -$2880 ($120 x 24 months)
> 
> It cannot continue at such a loss.
> 
> ...



...and again all because of the money.......
Hopefully they have maybe options of preserving their considerable amount of "knowledge" for the future....
I hope so.....

Thank you for all of their contributions.


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## tech3475 (May 31, 2019)

alexander1970 said:


> ...and again all because of the money.......
> Hopefully they have maybe options of preserving their considerable amount of "knowledge" for the future....
> I hope so.....
> 
> Thank you for all of their contributions.



Hopefully it's at least on the waybackmachine.


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## Superbronx (May 31, 2019)

tech3475 said:


> Hopefully it's at least on the waybackmachine.


I hope the wayback machine gets it all. I've noticed on other old sites contained in the wayback machine, it will have the home page but if you click to open another page from the homepage it gives an error.


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## Foxi4 (Jun 1, 2019)

It hasn't closed down *yet*, I normally advise caution and observing the situation from a safe distance before panicking. The site has been successfully dumped, the entire forum (as of December 2018) is downloadable, so damage is minimal if it does go down eventually. There are some alternative sites popping up already, so the users will likely migrate. It's sad to see such an iconic website in trouble, but I hear that the writing was on the wall for quite some time now.


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## WiiHomebrew+Snes (Jun 1, 2019)

I wonder why this fell but places like GC-forever are still around. Kinda like how kmart is closed but there's still that one little food truck by the Walmart I've never seen anyone go to.


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## TheMCNerd2017 (Jun 1, 2019)

Wow, had no idea they were shutting down like that, and I visited it like two days ago! I Hope that all of the info there is backed up and publicly archived, as there is a lot of things on there that don't seem to be available on other sites currently.

Would be even better if the owner were to sell the site to someone capable of hosting it.


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## Sheimi (Jun 1, 2019)

What a shame, he should make someone else take control of the site. I don't want to see it go.


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## Dontuuch17 (Jun 1, 2019)

I've visited this site for a couple nuggets of info on the DC scene in the past. It seemed like a solid place for knowledgeable people.

I understand the writing was on the wall, but that's still gotta be the most prompt and to the point forum closure message  I've seen.


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## Kwyjor (Jun 1, 2019)

Well, the news post seems dire enough.  Makes me think of the last days of Home of the Underdogs, when the site administrator was long gone, the only people left were just trying to keep the lights on, and the forums started getting weird.

There's a whole lot of important history there – but I can't say I've visited recently, and apparently everything is being preserved, so, sic transit gloria.

I didn't even realize the original owner had stepped down.  It's understandable, but doesn't he have an enormous quantity of prototype hardware and software that hasn't even been publicly cataloged?  Is it just going to get tossed in a landfill if he unexpectedly dies?


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## Deleted User (Jun 1, 2019)

How come I never knew about this place? It's exactly what I was looking for when I joined GBAtemp.


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## Silent_Gunner (Jun 1, 2019)

Kwyjor said:


> Well, the news post seems dire enough.  Makes me think of the last days of Home of the Underdogs, when the site administrator was long gone, the only people left were just trying to keep the lights on, and the forums started getting weird.
> 
> There's a whole lot of important history there – but I can't say I've visited recently, and apparently everything is being preserved, so, sic transit gloria.
> 
> I didn't even realize the original owner had stepped down.  It's understandable, but doesn't he have an enormous quantity of prototype hardware and software that hasn't even been publicly cataloged?  Is it just going to get tossed in a landfill if he unexpectedly dies?



IKR? This is like the 80% build situation of Resident Evil 1.5: it'd be nice if the Internet got its hands on the treasure, but because of the actions of a certain traitor on Team IGAS, it scared away the sources of information that they were in contact with, and in the end, after a lot of drama on The Horror is Alive (and some other Resident Evil forums as well, but it did include AssemblerGames if I remember right), it became a case of This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things not unlike the situation with Reicast, the author/main contributor and another person working on the standalone emulator/RA build of the emulator, RetroArch, and the aarch64 build right now that makes lakka and Ubuntu the only sure way to play those games on a Switch now. (yes, a lot of those games got ported to other consoles, but everything didn't come to GC (not that the Switch can even run everything GC)), I would be pleasantly surprised if PCSX2 somehow made it onto the Switch, and I have no idea how demanding hardware-wise Xbox emulation is gonna look like when it's where PCSX2/Dolphin's (preferably Dolphin, but PCSX2 is at least functional even if it tends to stumble all over itself with certain games and how easy it is to get everything to look right and run at full speed) at, so projecting what emulation of that system would look like isn't practical yet especially when there's two different emulation solutions atm that have produced anything resembling normal use.

Still, sidetracking aside, it's a sad day when the original contributers to discoveries of old, unused, and "laying-in-the-closet-collecting-dust" hardware/software ends up going unarchived for those who are curious and for which I can't imagine anyone at these companies honestly caring about unless if their name is Nintendo and _maybe_ Capcom in the case of RE0 for N64.


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## Ericthegreat (Jun 1, 2019)

$120 a month, how many monthly users did they have, seems like they could've got that down to probably $20 or so >.>; (unless they were a major site I just never heard of)


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## xxNathanxx (Jun 1, 2019)

For fuck's sake, now I'll never be able to ask that one guy on the entire internet who was in the same situation as me for more info on how he solved his problem.


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## Deleted User (Jun 1, 2019)

Now this are bad news indeed! I love that site.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Jun 1, 2019)

Ericthegreat said:


> $120 a month, how many monthly users did they have, seems like they could've got that down to probably $20 or so >.>; (unless they were a major site I just never heard of)


AssemblerGames is olllllld, like used to be just a BBS in the 90s old. It used to be quite popular, one of the best sites to go to for info on beta games and such. 

But based on what I've seen and heard around AssemblerGames, the site is only dying because the admin is being a jackass. He's been offered plenty of ways to keep the site going, from donations to buyouts from dedicated users, but just refuses because he has an inflated ego. Pretty much everyone on the site hates him these days. It's a shame he's being an ass about it.


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## Ryccardo (Jun 1, 2019)

Kwyjor said:


> doesn't [random person] have an enormous quantity of prototype hardware and software that hasn't even been publicly cataloged? Is it just going to get tossed in a landfill if he unexpectedly dies?


That's one possible option... as are the new owner enjoying them themselves, or selling out (in good faith or as a scalper)


Kwyjor said:


> I didn't even realize the original owner had stepped down.


He indeed nominally did, after mentioning in a different post (I wasn't able to find in the ~2 hours I took to write the article) that his psychological condition made him unable to continue participating - but more than one person called bluff, with the new and not-better-identified admin also "not doing anything for most of the year then doing unpopular things for the week he's there", posting in a very dry tone, and ignoring even constructive criticism...

I actually tried to register 3-4 months ago, because a large load of current PS2 developments (Popstarter, FMCB/wLaunchELF, HDLGameInstaller, the DVD Player hacks, very comprehensive discussions on HDDOSD/PSBBN/the hard drive format itself) is there!



Kwyjor said:


> Makes me think of the last days of Home of the Underdogs, when the site administrator was long gone, the only people left were just trying to keep the lights on, and the forums started getting weird.


I guess it mirrors what happened to animalcrossingitalia.com (at the time one of the 2 leading Italian forums for the series) - founded by the rather active Luca Poni (bastard666 with some punctuation I don't remember), in 2013 or so he just disappeared and didn't reply to site-related questions on social networks, the (phpbb 2) forums started breaking down and becoming unusable (at least we still had some moderators, I guess) and the domain was about to expire, so I started a replacement forum on free hosting (mainly used as a stopgap hosting for guides and other original content, which were mostly manually transferred by other volunteers - right between the imageshack and photobucket apocalypses, just to add _entertainment value_), most of the activity stayed on the existing and separately-staffed Fecesbook group, and we got a Telegram group too;

of course we're nowhere as big as the old website was in its heyday*, though we probably are bigger than its last months/years when it had flagrant issues even more evident than Assembler's lack of staff and new accounts 

* and we'll never know how much of that is due to rampant attempted centralization of the internet into commercial social networks, how much due to people moving to competing websites because their former favorite became broken, how many simply got bored with the series (especially with New Leaf having very unstable online multiplayer), ...

---



Ericthegreat said:


> $120 a month, how many monthly users did they have, seems like they could've got that down to probably $20 or so >.>; (unless they were a major site I just never heard of)


As recently as 2012, Amazon's hosting wasn't cheap (https://blog.codinghorror.com/building-servers-for-fun-and-prof-ok-maybe-just-for-fun/) - granted, that's not exactly a bottom barrel and/or no name solution (and it's certainly not the one involved in this case), but it wouldn't surprise me too much if it was simply a very old plan designed around very old costs, still ongoing...

...and/or as someone pocketing the money (there's no evidence reasonably supporting this idea, but let's say administration, calls for donations included, haven't exactly been transparent for a long time)


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## Dominator211 (Jun 1, 2019)

Damn 23 years that was long before i was around


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## sj33 (Jun 1, 2019)

Ericthegreat said:


> $120 a month, how many monthly users did they have, seems like they could've got that down to probably $20 or so >.>; (unless they were a major site I just never heard of)


Loads of the unreleased games which eventually appeared on the internet are only there thanks to ASSEMbler Games. This is a big loss.


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## Hanafuda (Jun 1, 2019)

WiiHomebrew+Snes said:


> I wonder why this fell but places like GC-forever are still around.



Cuz it's GC-_forever_. For-fucking-ever.


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## DayVeeBoi (Jun 1, 2019)

Ryccardo said:


> it wouldn't surprise me too much if it was simply a very old plan designed around very old costs, still ongoing...


This was my immediate thought as well when I saw those figures. I really doubt Assembler has that amount of traffic these days. 
I imagine the motivation to migrate the server to a lower cost solution isn't there, and sometimes the service providers don't want to make it easy or possible to move to a lower tier as part of their business model (1Fichier-style).



sj33 said:


> Loads of the unreleased games which eventually appeared on the internet are only there thanks to ASSEMbler Games. This is a big loss.


I agree. This is unfortunate result of the sites collapse. There was a lot of trading and relationships that were built there to facilitate the kind of trust required to do some of those kind of clandestine transactions for both hardware and software, considering peoples reputations and careers are sometimes on the line.

Several times I have heard of someone come up with something unusual/sensitive over the years and the obvious place to send them was to Assembler. The one positive in this situation is that gaming history and preservation is becoming more of a mainstream idea so the options for this have expanded a bit.


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## coffinbirth (Jun 1, 2019)

Sad news, such an institution for gaming. Here's to hoping someone picks up the mantle and at the very least, hosts the unreleased games.


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## FAST6191 (Jun 1, 2019)

Never did much with anyone from there (or at least knowingly -- if someone from here had an account there then so be it), and despite doing all that I do never really even landed there in a search which might have been part of the problem. With that said I will certainly recognise their contributions to things over the years. I will also join the others in pondering what goes here with the costs -- if it is that old did the domain get tied to a nasty hosting plan or something?


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## Chary (Jun 1, 2019)

They had some cool stuff I’d post as news from time to time. If anyone remembers the prototype Vita or Wii console posts, those were sourced to that site iirc. I can’t say I’ll miss it terribly, but it is a shame to see it go.


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## Captain_N (Jun 1, 2019)

Id have to say that that site should be easy to run from a home web server. no need to pay a web service. it cant be using much bandwidth....  its not like the site is super busy.


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## Ericthegreat (Jun 2, 2019)

Ryccardo said:


> That's one possible option... as are the new owner enjoying them themselves, or selling out (in good faith or as a scalper)
> 
> He indeed nominally did, after mentioning in a different post (I wasn't able to find in the ~2 hours I took to write the article) that his psychological condition made him unable to continue participating - but more than one person called bluff, with the new and not-better-identified admin also "not doing anything for most of the year then doing unpopular things for the week he's there", posting in a very dry tone, and ignoring even constructive criticism...
> 
> ...


I'd say they just simply never changed their hosting plan in years.


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## The Real Jdbye (Jun 2, 2019)

They can take a few easy steps to fix this.
1. Start taking donations to cover the cost. Patreon would be good.
2. Get a cheaper server ($60 a month gets you a pretty powerful server and I can't imagine the needs of the site are that great with only 26k something members, it's just a forum after all, so something even cheaper might be enough)

The site is well loved by the community and I don't think they would have much trouble getting enough donations to cover the cost if it means the site stays up. I get it if they don't like asking people for money but I'm sure there are some that would be more than happy to help the site stay alive. And they could give donators incentives so that they're not just taking their money and giving nothing in return, which makes it fair in my book. And it's a much better option than the alternative of the site being shut down.

Well, let's hope it doesn't end up with a fractured community when inevitably 3 different clones of the site show up using the dumped data. And let's hope the new owner(s) do a good job at running the clone site(s). And if they also run into money problems, let's hope they're smart enough to take donations and don't let the new site die.


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## umbreon112 (Jun 6, 2019)

Wow, this is really unfortunate news. I had gotten into Dreamcast romhacking a few months back, and many of the posts on that site have been a huge help, so it'll be sad to see it all vanish.

I signed up at the time to ask some questions (was working on Asuka Kenzan) but was never allowed to post. Now it looks like I won't have the chance to contact some of the people writing tools and such.


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## Bigkahuna28 (Jun 8, 2019)

I’ll host the website

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Have a realy good server


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## YOUCANTSTOPME (Jun 8, 2019)

It's not closing solely due to lack of funds.  The tl;dr version is the owner has been having personal issues (and probably money issues too) and is unwilling to sell the site or let anyone else run it.  There are many threads on the matter.

I'll certainly miss it, but the last year or so it's been pretty quiet around there.


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## Bigkahuna28 (Jun 8, 2019)

Looking to put my good server to use


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