Near (emulator developer)

Near

Born|

David Kirk Ginder

Died| (2021-06-27)June 27, 2021
Cause of death| Suicide
Occupation| Programmer
Years active| 2004–2021
Known for| Video game console emulator development
Notable work| Higan
Website| near.sh (Archived)

David Kirk Ginder(?); better known by his pseudonyms, Byuu and Near; was a programmer and innovator in the hardware emulation field. They pioneered accurate emulation of videogame console hardware, which was generally ignored before his efforts. Near provided the emulation community with a level of sophistication and professionalism with the development of higan and bsnes, the first emulator to reach 100% compatibility with the Super Nintendo library.[1][2][3]

## Biography[edit]

Near started out in the emulation scene as an amateur programmer, creating Japanese game fan translations at 14 years old. A year later he published a library to display variable-length text in SNES romhacks. Soon after he developed a patch assembler called xas, oriented at fan translations.

Development of higan, originally named bsnes, started after Near found bugs during the translation of Super-Famicom game Der Langrisser which only arose when playing on original hardware. With this, Near started his career targeted at precise emulation and his mission of videogame preservation for future generations.

## Bullying[edit]

Near was non-binary and furry. In 2019, Near retired from the emulator community after a series of online attacks that impacted his mental health.

Despite his retirement, in February 2021, Near published a new translation of Bahamut Lagoon, a project he had repeatedly tried to complete since 1998.

## Death[edit]

On June 27, 2021, Near published a suicide note on Twitter, documenting the cyberbullying he had suffered from members of the online forum Kiwi Farms.[4] His death was confirmed to security hacker Héctor Martín Cantero by Japanese police.[5][6] On July 23, 2021, his death was again presumably confirmed in USA Today, thanks to Wayne Beckett, as well as his real name. For some time it was theorized that he was not dead as Department of State statistics on deaths outside the USA were outdated, however it was later re-confirmed through Japan's Foreigner Death statistics.[7]

## References[edit]

1. ^ Staff, Ars (2021-06-28). "How SNES emulators got a few pixels from complete perfection". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2021-06-30.
2. ^ Near, the Programmer Behind the Legendary BSNES Emulator, Has Died - IGN, retrieved 2021-06-30
3. ^ Life, Nintendo (2021-06-28). "Tributes Pour In For Near, The Developer Behind One Of The World's Best SNES Emulators". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2021-06-30.
4. ^ "https://twitter.com/near_koukai/status/1408940057235312640". Twitter (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-06-30. `{{cite web}}`: External link in ``|title=`` (help)
5. ^ "https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1409494303244656644". Twitter (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-06-30. `{{cite web}}`: External link in ``|title=`` (help)
6. ^ "Near/Byuu, conocido desarrollador de la escena de emulación, se suicida a causa de bullying y acoso". Tarreo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-06-30.
7. ^ "Hector Martin (@marcan@treehouse.systems)". Treehouse Mastodon. 2023-05-20. Retrieved 2023-12-23.