(repost from Patreon)
To recap on the project's history, Caps0ff entered the scene some years after the incumbent arcade decapper was no longer available. We were able to triage the chip stash with fresh eyes and get things moving again.
Unfortunately, as is likely evident, this project has been on hold for quite a while, both in terms of pausing pledges as well as work put into it. However normally during the holidays I'm at least able to catch up a bit and put some time into making at least some progress. However, as my life has evolved the holidays were instead spent on catching up on normal life.
Additionally, while there was always one primary contributor, the team includes a number of critical support roles (PCB design, ROM decoding, etc). While some of these team members are still available, it creates additional friction to coordinate restarting the pipeline.
With all of this in mind I don't see a regular cadence resuming in the near future. While the project will continue ad-hoc as possible I don't believe its in anyone's best interest to maintain this Patreon. Namely it is unnecessary distraction / pressure for me to keep remembering to pause it and, if forgotten, its not appropriate to charge people for work not done. This can cause both sides to get frustrated.
So what do I see as the next steps? First, the chips will remain here until either I can put more work into it or find a new champion. Unfortunately the previous attempt to farm out some chips did not work out, so this will require some thought how to do this appropriately. That aside, there are now many more "chip decappers" out there when this project started. So I'm optimistic that someone will be interested and qualified to pick up the torch. And I'm happy to work with them to pass off general knowledge and pedigree on the chips. In lieu of directing funds my way, please join their Patreons and help them on their journey. I will leave this notice up for a bit and then formally shut down this account.
I sincerely thank you all for supporting this project. Its quite expensive to run and Patreon really helped to keep things moving. Stealing a quote from a friend: "May all your die shots be clean, your laser hits on-target, and your glitches fast enough in 2024!"
