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If there's any program you'd like to see the source to, it's NESticle. I get it that we live in an era now where you can't even trust Norton AV with spare cycle

If there's any program you'd like to see the source to, it's NESticle. I get it that we live in an era now where you can't even trust Norton AV with spare cycles, but in it's heyday we're talking about an emulator for running (I don't think it's a stretch to say) mostly pirated binaries. Which also happened to have dripping bloody menus and a severed hand for a cursor. It didn't exactly look harmless! Would have been nice to see under the hood.

bitwize 5y ago
NESticle, as I recall, had plain blue menus (but it did have the severed hand cursor). It was Genecyst that had the bloody menus. Back in the day, we didn't really worry about software like this being malicious just because of the author's gruesome sense of humor. It was all part of the fun. Back in the 90s, people were edgy like that. It's not like today where you're suspected of cryptofascism for not properly reciting the right nostrums. If it were malicious, someone would've found out, word would have spread around the scene, and the author would be branded the worst of lamers. People had reputations to uphold and good will to farm out of the community, even when running quasi-legal programs to play pirated ROMs.
- disillusioned 5y ago
  This reminds me of any time you'd download a serialz pack, complete with the demoscene loadscreen and just wonder to yourself "am I installing a virus right now? but this midi chiptune shit is pretty great!"
- skhr0680 5y ago
  Long live Bloodlust! Time Slaughter was pretty incredible in the mid 90s, I wonder how it holds up
- BoorishBears 5y ago
  > the author would be branded the worst of lamers. People had reputations to uphold and good will to farm out of the community, even when running quasi-legal programs to play pirated ROMs. There's a certain irony in the fact this is exactly how it works today. I guess the difference is back then you were in on "the right nostrums", some people likely weren't and felt just as alienated by that scene as you do by today's...
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  > Back in the day, we didn't really worry about software like this being malicious There was a lot less incentive to be malicious. No crypto-mining on compromised devices, no ransomware, and limited Internet banking
  - jyrkesh 5y ago
    Ehhhh, there was a lot of incentive to botnet vulnerable machines. Source: I made a lot of money between the ages of 12-15 running HijackThis and Spybot Search and Destroy on neighbors' machines. Other source: circumvented my school's firewall with "anonymous proxies" on lists of what, in hindsight, were absolutely compromised machines.
eliasmacpherson 5y ago
A cursor which has been immortalized on lauded Detroit producer Omar-S's 'The Best' album... this has been bugging me for some time - thanks! https://omar-s.bandcamp.com/album/omar-s-the-best https://omar-s.bandcamp.com/album/omar-s-the-best

bitwize 5y ago

NESticle, as I recall, had plain blue menus (but it did have the severed hand cursor). It was Genecyst that had the bloody menus. Back in the day, we didn't really worry about software like this being malicious just because of the author's gruesome sense of humor. It was all part of the fun. Back in the 90s, people were edgy like that. It's not like today where you're suspected of cryptofascism for not properly reciting the right nostrums. If it were malicious, someone would've found out, word would have spread around the scene, and the author would be branded the worst of lamers. People had reputations to uphold and good will to farm out of the community, even when running quasi-legal programs to play pirated ROMs.

disillusioned 5y ago
This reminds me of any time you'd download a serialz pack, complete with the demoscene loadscreen and just wonder to yourself "am I installing a virus right now? but this midi chiptune shit is pretty great!"
skhr0680 5y ago
Long live Bloodlust! Time Slaughter was pretty incredible in the mid 90s, I wonder how it holds up
BoorishBears 5y ago
> the author would be branded the worst of lamers. People had reputations to uphold and good will to farm out of the community, even when running quasi-legal programs to play pirated ROMs. There's a certain irony in the fact this is exactly how it works today. I guess the difference is back then you were in on "the right nostrums", some people likely weren't and felt just as alienated by that scene as you do by today's...
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
> Back in the day, we didn't really worry about software like this being malicious There was a lot less incentive to be malicious. No crypto-mining on compromised devices, no ransomware, and limited Internet banking
- jyrkesh 5y ago
  Ehhhh, there was a lot of incentive to botnet vulnerable machines. Source: I made a lot of money between the ages of 12-15 running HijackThis and Spybot Search and Destroy on neighbors' machines. Other source: circumvented my school's firewall with "anonymous proxies" on lists of what, in hindsight, were absolutely compromised machines.

eliasmacpherson 5y ago

A cursor which has been immortalized on lauded Detroit producer Omar-S's 'The Best' album... this has been bugging me for some time - thanks! https://omar-s.bandcamp.com/album/omar-s-the-best https://omar-s.bandcamp.com/album/omar-s-the-best