Foreword: For anyone unfamiliar with Fire Storm, owner of the FF6 Hacking website, his forum profile on the website reads as follows:
I’m an ex U.S. Soldier who was stationed in Germany.
Since I don’t drink or party, I filled my time doing things like ROM Hacking.
I first discovered this hobby during a deployment in Iraq, which started with Super Mario World.
I’ve always wanted to edit Final Fantasy VI, and now that I’ve discovered how fun it is, I’ve joined to do it.
I do hope I am welcomed here, and I’ll do whatever I can to the best of my abilities to help someone.
Fire Storm was also known as SatoaScorpion on YouTube and as Fire_Storm_Deluxe on Twitch.
Dawn brings us tragic news in a recent forum post on the website:
Hello, I am new here and simply passing on a message about a friend.
I’m not sure how many people knew Fire Storm on here. I never even played FF6.
But I wanted anyone that did know them to just know that Firestorm did lose their battle with cancer 2 days ago. I am still processing the news as an online friend of 20 years. And I didn’t want people that also knew them to not know.
My discord is deathecho if anyone wants to reach out. Thank you… Sorry if this isn’t appropriate for the forum. I just hope it reaches who it needs to.
Rest easy, Firestorm.
He was only 38 years old (according to his profile) and taken away from us way too soon.
Dawn later elaborates at a separate venue:
I know he was so active in so many things and I just didn’t want anyone left in the dark because the only way I found out was through his Facebook.
He and I met back in a Yahoo chat room. So long ago. And we kept in touch all these years. He even lived with myself, my sister, and my dad for a short time before he joined the military.
Justin had such a dynamic personality and a huge heart. He put it into everything he did with all his passion.
He was an amazing voice actor and a very talented musician. He was also great at telling stories and character creation. I know he had me in tears laughing many times.
I checked in with him often and he never really let on how bad things were getting once the cancer returned. He never expressed fear or anything to me. I’m still processing the news myself because it still seems very surreal.
I’m not used to seeing his username logged off. He was always available for anyone anytime they needed it. I don’t know how much his family is aware of how many friends he had all around the world.
And I almost wonder if there is any way everyone could come together and we could create something to present to them just so they could understand and see. He spent a lot of time on the computer and I’m sure they don’t even have a clue.
But either way, I am grateful for everyone speaking on him. He is absolutely one of my first and longest online friends. And he meant just as much to me as anyone I know in the real world.
Fire Storm, you will be missed. And our community will be honoring your memory in upcoming announcements.
Afterword: Dawn later shared one more memory of Fire Storm:
As most everybody knows, he was really good with voices and singing. And one of his favorite ways to warm up for any of that was to sing the song Make a Man out of You from the movie Mulan.
He sang it so well too. He said all the different notes and tones made it the perfect warm-up song.
For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube or Twitter.
Note: the following reflects the personal opinion of clymax and not any other member of the FFV Central community or the community as a whole.
Excerpt of the self-promo channel of an undisclosed Discord server:
That’s right, we now have a link graveyard of a self-promo channel.
Not only do stream VODs largely get deleted by Twitch in a matter of weeks, but the stream links don’t even link to the VODs in question.
If you’re a creator of high-effort videos like the one in the next picture, would you bother posting in such a channel?
Spend months making and editing your video, and within a matter of hours, your video is lost in a sea of going-live announcements. Yay!
Solutions for Discord Moderators
First, effort videos and stream plugs should never be in the same channel. Give each its own channel.
Second, in the channel for stream plugs, consider doing one of the following:
Only allow YouTube links in going-live announcements. YouTube livestreams double as the link to the eventual VOD. But this won’t work for Twitch-only streamers.
Require Twitch-only streamers to edit their going-live announcement with the Twitch VOD right after their stream ends. New problem: enforcement headache aside, this won’t work when most Twitch VODs expire.
Only let Twitch streamers plug their channel once. Basically, have a “stream channels” Discord channel, not a “streams” Discord channel.
Or, require them to delete all prior going-live plugs before posting a new one.
In addition, consider also limiting each streamer to a single plug per series. So if they are playing a long RPG that takes a hundred streams, they can only plug it once.
Finally, consider using a forum channel instead.
So, what do you think? What’s your Discord gripe? Comment below, or come check us out on Discord – where you won’t find such a link graveyard, of course.
GPU-Enabled Successor by Original Development Team Behind ZSNES
For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube or Twitter.
Announcement trailer courtesy of Zophar:
Says reviewer Modern Vintage Gamer:
The two original developers of ZSNES zsKnight and Demo are back!
Introducing Super ZSNES.
Re-written completely from scratch, this GPU-powered SNES emulator is here to bring you the following: some of what is familiar, some of what’s new, and then some of what goes beyond.
In today’s episode we take a closer look at the inner workings of Super ZSNES, and discuss why I think it is a very exciting breakthrough in 16-bit tile-based emulation.
Unlike its predecessor, this endeavor appears to be a closed-source Unity project.
The emulator is available here. You can support the development effort via Patreon here.
