A couple of thoughts I've had while reading this thread:
According to the OP in the
original thread, we know that people have donated rare SNES cartridges to him over the years. (In fact, he received media attention when he mailed cartridges in shitty packaging causing USPS to initially lose his box.) We also know he's been accused of "dump hoarding" -- where he posted the hashes of the ROM files but not the ROM files themselves.
What's the most valuable thing he owns? It's not the Japanese apartment. It's not the bank balance. And it certainly isn't a few bottles of HRT and a nylon rope. It's that
cartridge hoard. A cartridge hoard consisting of rare games that people donated to him with the request that they be preserved for posterity. Now, what if he didn't feel like doing that anymore and wanted to sell these cartridges to private collectors? If word got out that he was doing that, then the backlash would be immense. And with a dwindling Patreon he would certainly have a financial incentive to sell. (Interestingly, he never sent his CV to Null when he asked for it -- which would have detailed his work history and give us a good idea of what his net worth truly is.)
However, what if the world thought he was dead and the KF thread was removed? Without the KF thread on search results, the existence of the cartridge hoard is no longer front and center. And with Byuu presumed deceased -- then perhaps no one will think twice once an undumped "Pachinko Fan Shouri Sengen" copy hits the auction sites.
There's two other things concerning his suicide note that I found odd:
1) Why didn't our game preservationist appoint some kind of successor? I'd be more inclined to believe he went through with it if Becky Gerber receives a poorly-wrapped box containing his cartridges -- assuming USPS doesn't lose it of course.
2) Byuu's excuse for not posting the ROM files was that he would be sued or arrested for infringement. It's kind of hard to sue dead people. Why not throw a torrent out as one last thank you to his fans?
The whole thing is very odd. It will be interesting to hear what Byuu has to say when he's ultimately discovered.
www.gamespark.jp
