Happy holidays and new year!

Greetings to all the members and lurkers out there! ASSEMbler reporting...

Here we are, ending another year. In fact, this is year ELEVEN in our current format.
Time flies!

Firstly, I'd like to thank all of you who donated to the site this year. We were fortunate to
run a surplus every time we needed funds, and the overwhelming response is incredible.
Without your support we cannot survive, so thank you. Some members have even
sponsored entire months on their own, the generosity and intensity of their involvement
and support of our community is greatly respected. They are our benefactors, and have
been given titles as such.

I'd also like to thank the moderators for their help and time. Without them
we would have spam and worse. The complete absence of boner pill spam is thanks to them
and our vicious anti-spam program. Thanks to the moderators, some of whom have been around
as long as the site.

So, what about next year and the future?

As time has gone by, we have seen a big change in consoles. Consoles are now more and more
like appliances with little to no modding possible, apart from painting your system. I feel we need
to change focus somehow to avoid becoming tied to hardware that is over 20 years old.

So I am looking to the future, and thinking the focus should expand a bit, challenge ourselves a bit.
I am still not sure what we will do, perhaps we might officially produce some hardware or accessories.
The current state of 3D printing is that you can make amazing things of various textures and
transparent materials.

Therefore, I think a new direction should be 3D printables. We can lead the way with models for entire
printable cases, controller parts and more. Another direction is the complete redesign of older systems,
taking the core chips off a board and using them on a new one. One populated with high quality audio,
video, and custom exterior. The ambition is high, but the quality of the community is also very high.

Highlights of the year:

I'd like to single out the amazing PS2 and Saturn work this year. The innovation brought freedom to
both consoles, including the poor forgotten Saturn.

Remembering those who have gone:

We lost some giants this year, and it makes our mission of preserving game knowledge that more
urgent as many of the programmers of the 1970-1980's leave us. We also lost some community
members, and our thought go to their families.

Your challenge for 2015:

I challenge you to reach down deep and do something creative this coming year, to do something
beyond your ability so you push your boundaries. Here at ASSEMblergames, I too will try to do the same.

Regards and happy times,

ASSEMbler