Homebrew CaVE Database Manager - A SNES, NES, N64, Genesis Switch Online modding App

[AlanLC]

Thank you! That means a lot. You are the first person to basically speak up to purely show appreciation. Bug reports are good and all, I don't want to encourage people to not make those. But I've been finding this experience EXTREMELY demotivating. I spent a LOT of time on some of the features in this update. Keep in mind, I have ZERO personal interest in developing/maintaining CaVE or the Full Unlock, nor do I personally own a Switch. There is NOTHING it it for me. There's no reason for me to continue working on them other then for the people who appreciate that sacrifice and effort. So when there are next to zero who do?

I'd rather not have to abandon projects I have started and put this much time into already. So if people actually want me to continue, there are ways to motivate me to keep doing so. The absolute bare minimum? Respond to such updates that contain the features you asked for! Or respond because new features you didn't know you wanted were added. Beyond that bare minimum? There are other ways to show appreciation too. Ways that are in your best interest by helping get me personally invested in the Switch and maintaining my projects. I wont directly ask for such things due to the nature of this stuff, but I can simply say that "I provide a link inside of CaVE and on my website". From there, you can figure out how to help get me personally interested and invested in this.

EDIT:

Regretfully, its actually come to this. Effective immediately, CaVE and the Full Unlock have been discontinued. All links to them have been purged from my site, and I absolutely do not condone their distribution elsewhere still.

My hope was that, making one last ditch effort by expressing my disappointment along with the reasons and mild expectations I had, would coax a response out of people to truly know what damage they are doing. This too utterly failed, and further proved what kind of people comprise this community. Pirates, through and through. Only concerned with what I can give to them, and not 1 iota of what simple basic thing they can give back to me to continue my work.

No, I will not open source my work or provide help for anyone to continue it. I gave FAR more than enough, and I'm not giving any more.

I'm truly not sure this can be reversed. Simply because, I don't believe the community is capable of actually expressing genuine appreciation at this point. At least not on a level required for the scales to tip back.

Some of you may me upset and blame me. I'll repeat again. I made these projects PURELY FOR YOU. I got NOTHING out of them myself. I don't own a Switch, so these existing does not benefit me in any way. The only thing I wanted out of my effort was simple... appreciation. There's a couple examples above of that that you can see, and for those that did show that appreciation, thank you! But for everyone else? Silence. Showing such simple appreciation was to much effort for them. SOOOO much more work than what I put in, am I right? lol. But seriously, who's to blame in this?

Honestly, I cant even believe I'm having to cancel projects for something like this. It never even occurred to me that there could be so little appreciation for my work that this would even become a consideration. Thats why it blindsided me so hard when I released the update, containing features you specifically asked for, as well as cool new ones that you didn't, and almost no one cared.

So here we are... The End.

I understand you, I was interested in reporting more but after the last update I was unable to open SNES / NES online in SXOS 3.1 and FW 11.0, so I couldn't test your last job, but still good luck and good work with future projects. Thank you so much for good Work!!

 

[DarkAkuma]

I understand you, I was interested in reporting more but after the last update I was unable to open SNES / NES online in SXOS 3.1 and FW 11.0, so I couldn't test your last job, but still good luck and good work with future projects. Thank you so much for good Work!!

When I read that, all I can think is that it didn't prevent you from responding with something like "I cant install the latest app update or test the full unlock patch. My Switch is f#%ked right now. But that CaVE update sounds awesome! <insert feature/fix here> is something I've been wanting! Thanks!".

I don't only specifically require test results, as much as I do want them. Simply responding and not letting me feel like "no one appreciates the effort put into these" is fairly helpful too. I may have been disappointed that I couldn't get confirmations on how well things worked right away (though, if the unlock works for Me and RadFcFist... I'm pretty sure it will work for others. Its CavE thats more important to test when its updated like this.), but that could be understood.

Sorry to call you out. I tried not to respond, but it was hard to leave this hanging as it highlights my exact issue with all this.

 

[AlanLC]

Man, I understand your frustration, but the reason I could not have responded to what you expected was not due to the lack of appreciation of your work or because I do not care, sorry if I could not help as I would like, I am not apologizing thinking for inserting myself I have also been through something similar to what is going on but not with video games, it was frequent on the Mac forum and helped, answered doubts but I gave up on my parents' forums because here they only want to ask for help but nobody wants to help. Good Luck and may your efforts be better recognized.

—————————————————————
Frustrating to lack of recognition in English forums? It’s just that you haven’t seen what it’s like in Brazil, here people seem to think that we’re obliged to work for free, an example is the comments on Google, Apple, Nintendo ... just a price complaint

Note: I am not fluent in English, what I read is Google's translation.

 

[Electronic_345]

My Nintendo Switch sometimes frezees and i get this error when I tried play other game of the library.
"the software was closed because an error occurred"

Please Help!

 

[agarnele]

My Problem is the App will closed and a checkup deleted the SD Folder....

Must the Cheats be on or should be ips Patch be solved

 

[The_Chaotician]

Thank you! That means a lot. You are the first person to basically speak up to purely show appreciation. Bug reports are good and all, I don't want to encourage people to not make those. But I've been finding this experience EXTREMELY demotivating. I spent a LOT of time on some of the features in this update. Keep in mind, I have ZERO personal interest in developing/maintaining CaVE or the Full Unlock, nor do I personally own a Switch. There is NOTHING it it for me. There's no reason for me to continue working on them other then for the people who appreciate that sacrifice and effort. So when there are next to zero who do?

I'd rather not have to abandon projects I have started and put this much time into already. So if people actually want me to continue, there are ways to motivate me to keep doing so. The absolute bare minimum? Respond to such updates that contain the features you asked for! Or respond because new features you didn't know you wanted were added. Beyond that bare minimum? There are other ways to show appreciation too. Ways that are in your best interest by helping get me personally invested in the Switch and maintaining my projects. I wont directly ask for such things due to the nature of this stuff, but I can simply say that "I provide a link inside of CaVE and on my website". From there, you can figure out how to help get me personally interested and invested in this.

EDIT:

Regretfully, its actually come to this. Effective immediately, CaVE and the Full Unlock have been discontinued. All links to them have been purged from my site, and I absolutely do not condone their distribution elsewhere still.

My hope was that, making one last ditch effort by expressing my disappointment along with the reasons and mild expectations I had, would coax a response out of people to truly know what damage they are doing. This too utterly failed, and further proved what kind of people comprise this community. Pirates, through and through. Only concerned with what I can give to them, and not 1 iota of what simple basic thing they can give back to me to continue my work.

No, I will not open source my work or provide help for anyone to continue it. I gave FAR more than enough, and I'm not giving any more.

I'm truly not sure this can be reversed. Simply because, I don't believe the community is capable of actually expressing genuine appreciation at this point. At least not on a level required for the scales to tip back.

Some of you may me upset and blame me. I'll repeat again. I made these projects PURELY FOR YOU. I got NOTHING out of them myself. I don't own a Switch, so these existing does not benefit me in any way. The only thing I wanted out of my effort was simple... appreciation. There's a couple examples above of that that you can see, and for those that did show that appreciation, thank you! But for everyone else? Silence. Showing such simple appreciation was to much effort for them. SOOOO much more work than what I put in, am I right? lol. But seriously, who's to blame in this?

Honestly, I cant even believe I'm having to cancel projects for something like this. It never even occurred to me that there could be so little appreciation for my work that this would even become a consideration. Thats why it blindsided me so hard when I released the update, containing features you specifically asked for, as well as cool new ones that you didn't, and almost no one cared.

So here we are... The End.

Sorry to hear this. Big fan of your work. Take care in whatever you decide to do next. Cheers!

 

[agarnele]

the progamm can be downloaded - itzs a great work

 

[Goma143]

Someone wants to share a download link for the latest version of the app? Please i need it

 

[DarkAkuma]

Please don't. These projects were canceled and purged for a reason. Asking for such a thing so blatantly despite my wishes only further proves why I had to cancel these projects.

 

[Goma143]

Please don't. These projects were canceled and purged for a reason. Asking for such a thing so blatantly despite my wishes only further proves why I had to cancel these projects.

Why? You said that if someone wants to share you wont blame it, i mean i get it what you really feel, i do things and most people dont appreciate it but i dont care and ill do from the deepest of my heart and i fell fine, but if you do things and wait for the approval of the people well you are wrong, this is the real life do what you want and no regret it, i dont want to be rude but i understand you, i hope you do the same (sorry if my english is shitty)

 

[DarkAkuma]

Why? You said that if someone wants to share you wont blame it

I absolutely did not say that. I said that I intend for this to be canceled, that I removed the files, and will not open source my work. Here's a specific quote from me from my cancellation announcement here.

and I absolutely do not condone their distribution elsewhere still.

...

i mean i get it what you really feel, i do things and most people dont appreciate it but i dont care and ill do from the deepest of my heart and i fell fine, but if you do things and wait for the approval of the people well you are wrong, this is the real life do what you want and no regret it, i dont want to be rude but i understand you, i hope you do the same (sorry if my english is shitty)

As stated, the only reason I had to work on these projects was simple "appreciation". I have ZERO reason to work on them otherwise as they are an investment of time. If im going to work on something just to do it and not care who uses or appreciates it, I have other things I could spend my time on. Doing such work purely for yourself, because you enjoy it and not caring what others think about it is certainly valid and healthy. I do such projects too. This simply was not one. I did it for others, and only wanted simple basic appreciation for that. I didn't get that and instead felt I was catering to entitled pirates in the end. I never wanted that, thus I do not want to support and provide for such people any more.

 

[Goma143]

I absolutely did not say that. I said that I intend for this to be canceled, that I removed the files, and will not open source my work. Here's a specific quote from me from my cancellation announcement here.
Sorry i didnt read that line, but for what purpose you make this app if is not for piracy? Piracy is everywhere and the ungrateful people is everywhere too, you learn that the hard way, if you want some bucks for the link ill pay you im serious
Dont get me wrong



...



As stated, the only reason I had to work on these projects was simple "appreciation". I have ZERO reason to work on them otherwise as they are an investment of time. If im going to work on something just to do it and not care who uses or appreciates it, I have other things I could spend my time on. Doing such work purely for yourself, because you enjoy it and not caring what others think about it is certainly valid and healthy. I do such projects too. This simply was not one. I did it for others, and only wanted simple basic appreciation for that. I didn't get that and instead felt I was catering to entitled pirates in the end. I never wanted that, thus I do not want to support and provide for such people any more.

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

Sorry i didnt read that line, but for what purpose you make this app if is not for piracy? Piracy is everywhere and the ungrateful people is everywhere too, you learn that the hard way, if you want some bucks for the link ill pay you im serious
Dont get me wrong (sorry for double post im new in this forum)

 

[DarkAkuma]

Sorry i didnt read that line, but for what purpose you make this app if is not for piracy? Piracy is everywhere and the ungrateful people is everywhere too, you learn that the hard way, if you want some bucks for the link ill pay you im serious
Dont get me wrong (sorry for double post im new in this forum)

I suppose its a debate as old as the internet. But some see a difference. There's clearly people who are only concerned about "i want it now and for free!" and the people who happily provide for them. While others are simply interested in things like preservation, understanding, community, etc.

For me as a developer, I enjoy the pursuit of the latter and focus on those who i try to cater to simply being people who want to backup their physical copies and have access to those games in the ever evolving modern age. I enjoy hearing from people that are excited to be able to play the games that they are nostalgic about again, thanks to my work, and take pride in knowing i did my best to make it as quality of an experience as i can to do so.

On the opposite side of the spectrum are the people who want everything now, for free and no effort on their part, simply because they can do so and feel entitled to it. Like those garbage "mega packs". 99% of those games, those people never owned, let alone will ever play.

I will not take "money for links". I don't sell this work. All I wanted from it was appreciation. I'd accept donations simply as a form of that appreciation, not in any way as payment. I'm sorry. If you truly want this so bad, you can try getting a hold of me in the Discord (linked in the OP) and we can chat further. But for now, I've requested this thread be locked.

 

[Vergeeley]

Ok. So I can understand not releasing the source code of the project. Don't wanna let someone just take your code and use it.
But deleting links and prohibiting further distributon? Didn't you say you're one of those people who are

simply interested in things like preservation, understanding, community, etc.

?
Not gonna blame you but this reminds me of our beloved company who loves abusing DMCA.

felt I was catering to entitled pirates in the end.

Imagine if Libretro team erased everything related to emulation just because some people download ROMs.
Also, I guess the appreciation from this topic alone (Which is by the way full of either asking for "tech support" or pure appreciation) just wasn't enough. Can't blame you, though. Sometimes even I can give up if there are some people who don't seem to care.
Still, just because you're doing it for free, doesn't mean that no one can say "hey, you're wrong".

 

[DarkAkuma]

Spoiler: Original comment

That's some poor arguments there. A companies lawyers overly trying to justify their continued paycheck with frivolous DMCAs that hurt channels and creators that are simply trying to survive while also giving them free promotion. That is not a good comparison to a hobby fan developer who has no power but to simply "ask", because he selflessly spent a lot of time on projects he had no personal interest in, only release them to silence because he didn't realize until now that he was catering to entitled pirates.

I don't know much nor care much about libretro, but that too sounds like a bad attempt at a comparison. I imagine the people working on those did it for the same reason I work on other projects. Because their own personal interest. They also do so for open source projects which are by their nature, pure community driven in development. My canceled projects were not any of that. I had no personal interest, simply creating them for others. And I am the sole developer and, did not make the decision to submitted to a open community project. Devs are free to have their own stances on enabling piracy. Ive seen many over the years. There's nothing wrong with that. Whatever they need to do to survive and enjoy!

There were people who showed appreciation over the life of the projects, and there are a few people left. And I genuinely appreciate that. But thats too few. It was never my intent to selflessly give to a majority of entitled pirates. As with anything emulation, you know there are some. But I was blind to realize the ratio was this bad until now.

Now can we please get this locked already! I submitted the request a while ago! I just want this ended so I can move on already...

EDIT (10/05/21):

Going to just leave this here instead of creating a new post...

Thanks to several kind, considerate and even generous people over on the discord, I kept CaVE on life support this past year for them alone. Now, thanks to the some of their generosity... I'm a man of my word. I have an invested interest in maintaining the project now! So CaVE and the Full Unlock are back, and available on my website again.

This is in time for me to also declare that yes, I do intend to add support for N64 and Genesis Online. I have even already laid the groundwork for them in the application.

I cant promise that I will be able to create an unlock hack for either of them, if such a hack is needed. Just that I intend to try. In v2.4 of SNES Online the code was changed to not need as much of the hack anymore, so it could be an indication that those wont need it too...

Anyway, I had this thread opened again simply because the project is no longer dead, and it should remain updated as needed. But there will be some changes.

This will no longer be the home for discussion of the project. If you have questions or issues, use my website or the discord. I will now be making the project for at least myself, and thus not require any feedback or "appreciation"... but its still very welcome and encouraged. Just do it over there.

This thread ended off poorly, so lets just move on, ignore it and hype up about N64/Genesis!

 

[marcioap1]

But I was blind to realize the ratio was this bad until now.

I don't know if it's really like that. Whoever wants all pirated games will download everything ready from the internet and not spend time making a selection of the best games and configuring the cover art and the description of games and things like that.

I have access to my favorite Super Nintendo games on WiiU and SNES Classic but I think SNES Online app is the best way to enjoy them. The SNES Online program interface is the best I've ever seen on an emulator, the image quality is also the best (maybe because it is outputting in 1080p?) and the Switch Pro Controller is a marvel.

With regard to donations, it is often not possible for people in other countries to contribute in dollars, as PayPal is limited to one country. For example, in the past it was possible to buy on Xbox Live from other regions using PayPal, but not anymore.

Anyway, in the end it is a pity that the development of this wonderful tool has stopped. I was hopeful for a customizable Nintendo 64 online in the future.

I thank you for the excellent work done on SNES Full Unlock and CaVE Database Manager and I wish you good luck in your future projects.

 

[tatundria]

Button layouts for Move, Details and Start are not showing on Snes Online after adding roms with Cave Manager. Any fix for this?

 

[DarkAkuma]

Button layouts for Move, Details and Start are not showing on Snes Online after adding roms with Cave Manager. Any fix for this?

I answered this in discord, but ill post this here for others.

If you notice that images and text arent displaying in NES/SNES Online since v5.0.0.0/v2.0.0.0, here's a simple fix until the next update.

Open the "strings.lng" that CaVE outputs, press Ctrl+H and replace all "type": "variable" with "type": "TEXT_PART_TYPE_VARIABLE", and all "type": "text" with "type": "TEXT_PART_TYPE_TEXT".

This has been fixed for the next version. The issue is that it was simply too hard to manually track and detect all changes with each version, and my code used to generate my database wasent good enough. I re-wrote that code, and now all additions, removeable and simple changes are all detected and logged.

EDIT:

And here's another manual temporary fix for an issue where the games from v2.4/5.4, and only those, wont boot.

Open the lclassics.titlesdb file that CaVE outputs, press Ctrl+H and replace all instances of "armet_version":null with "armet_version":"off".

Sorry. Both these issues slipped through due to changes on nintendos end, and went uncaught simply because there were too few to notice and report the issues until now. Id simply post an update, but ive worked on the code to much since, and have gotten lazy with my version control.

They are fixed in the upcoming version of CaVE though.

EDIT2:

The release date has been announced (Oct 25th). And with it, the continued insistence on the terrible, overwhelmingly panned price.

I'll just post this here as a reminder. I DO plan to support N64 Online/SEGA Genesis Online in CaVE Database Manager. I think thats a given to work.

But if the new apps will require a unlock patch, and be easily hackable enough for me to do so... is another story. All I can say is, I plan to look into it and try.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Is there a place where I can get functional links of xtx.z art for SNES? I confess that the artwork part is really a pia and all links in this thread with converted files are dead...

 

[DarkAkuma]

Is there a place where I can get functional links of xtx.z art for SNES? I confess that the artwork part is really a pia and all links in this thread with converted files are dead...

You dont need it to be in xtx.z format anymore. Normal image formats are converted automatically by CaVE. So either way, adding images would take the same effort.