Nicolas Warren, aka Heliophobe, the author of SMEG, the fantastic SEGA Master System & Game Gear emulator for Dreamcast, is dead.
http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10896
Bock wrote:
We regret to inform you, that Nick Warren, aka Heliophobe, long time member and supporter of our community, passed away on thursday, january 29 at the age of 29.
Despite being active here, Nick was sick since a few months, and went to the hospital in january. You’ll probably remember him for the quality, intelligence and sense of humor in his contributions. Additionnally, it isn’t a well known fact but Nick generously handled hosting fees of the site for many years, which permitted our community to stay alive all this time.
More important parts of Nick’s life are unknown to us, and I’m certain that his friends and family have more and better reasons to miss him. Our sincere thoughts goes to them.
His close friend Genevieve has setup a simple remembrance page here.
Shall I add some of the things that he created:
Nine Pixels (2006),
SMS Power 7 (2004),
Copyright Violation (2002),
SMEG (SMS Emulator for Dreamcast) (2001) + Interview,
Damiana (missing file) (Y2Kode 2001 competition),
Tetracycline (2000),
Good Advice (2000).RIP.
I have had quite a few conversations with Nicolas via email and PM and he was a very, a very very nice guy. I really enjoyed talking with him. He knew a lot about the SMS and the Dreamcast and helped improving Pascal’s SMSplusDC by adding previously missing features and improving the overall compatibility of this emulator.
When I first came in touch with the Dreamcast scene, I was most impressed by SMEG. It wasn’t Segagen or NesterDC both of which I tried first – it was Heliophobe’s SMEG that was exactly like I imagined what a good emulator should be like. The games I played as a kid looked and sounded better than ever. The GUI looked very professional and was extremely easy to use. I was VERY impressed.
I just can’t remember if I ever told him that.
There were many things I wanted to do for him to say thanks and I didn’t forget but just never finished what I started…
– We’ll be playing some Power Strike in heaven, Nicolas.