A user asked, why I didn't release the SD-8516 as open source. He said philosophically he wouldn't get involved in the project because he was an open source advocate.

I thought about it for a long time and although I am sympathetic to open source in general, I will never release VC-3 or VC-4 as open source, and I feel it is hypocritical and insensitive to make the suggestion.

First, I don't want to be critical of open source, but the fact is not everything needs to be open source. The Super Nintendo is a great example. If someone told you they didn't buy a Super Nintendo because it wasn't open source, this wouldn't make any sense. It's just a completely different category of product. The fact that software is involved means nothing. The Legend of Zelda wasn't an open source game. So why do I have to release my software as open source? I don't understand the notion behind this.

Secondly, there is a very real problem with quality in the open source world. When anyone can fork your project and make changes, your project is no longer special. It is no longer saleable either. And I do not plan to survive on donations and github subscriptions. If you like what I made, you can afford the $1 or $5 or $10 or whatever it is going to be. Let's be realistic. A Commodore 64 could retail for $299, $399, or more, and people would buy it. This is probably going to be $10 on itch.io. If you think I am price gouging or doing some kind of evil corporate stuff, frankly, I don't agree.

Further – I do not need your help to develop this. If someone doesn't want to sign up as a betas tester to get a copy of the source code, because its not open source, that's fine.

For those of the pirate nature among us, I sympathize with you as well. However, this is your chance to prove the old adage that software piracy is justified by high prices. If someone pirates my system or game, instead of spending the $5 or $10 it will cost on itch.io, frankly, they are a hypocrite.

This isn't about money. It's about a vision. A vision of a world, a retro world, where things were different. I have a dream, a goal, a vision. Do you share that vision? I don't mean to be elitist – I am not the best programmer in the world. But this is my dream. I need to steer this ship right. And as Blackbeard the pirate said, “If you want a job done right you have to do it yourself.” Yes, that's what Blackbeard said.

I think Steve Jobs said it best: