The loss of our friend Riff

[Skah T]

Earlier today I received word that Mike Perry, Riff as we know him, died of a cranium aneurism on August 1st. He was 32. His father got in touch with me presumably because I was in Riff's contact list or someone that he had recently emailed.

Riff was the author of the Nuance emulator. I'm sure you all know what a valuable contribution that was to the NUON community. It was our best way of keeping NUON alive once all the N501s break down and end up in the DVD player scrap heap. The emulator made it possible for anyone to play NUON software. I'm sure it was only a matter of time for CPU technology to catch up and allow the emulator to run at full speed.

His father has offered to send me the files related to Nuance. I will pass them along as soon as I receive them. I hope some other enterprising person can take up the reins and continue Mike's astounding work.

I didn't know him that well, yet I'm still deeply affected by his passing. Rest in peace, friend.

 

[viMaster]

Wow, horrible news indeed!

I haven't been into the NUON long enough to really know anyone well enough who has worked on something relating to it, but it's still sad to hear that news.

I hope someone does take the reigns and continues development on Nuance. I have an N501, but yeah, some day it will break down, though I hope I can just get a couple replacement drives for it.

In any case, my condolensces.

 

[T T]

I'm really sorry to hear this - I didn't know Mike personally, but was obviously aware of his work on Nuance.

32 is no age at all; this must have been terrible for those close to him - Scott please pass on our good wishes to his family.

 

[T2KFreeker]

It really is sad to hear these kinds of things. especially at the age of 32. Total bummer man. I hope his family is taken care of. The prayers are coming.

 

[K3V]

I've posted a piece about Riff to NUON-Dome. His passing is a great loss to the NUON community - as I had just posted a few days ago, new releases of Nuance always generated more hits to the site than any other development. Typically the site gets < 100 hits/day and when a new version of Nuance would hit, that would jump to the thousands.

Thanks for everything, Riff. You will be missed.

 

[AndreasB]

Hi all,

I'm deeply touched by this news... Very sad in such young age.
I did'n know Riff personally, but he certainly achieved a lot by writing the emulator almost without any help or documentation!

My condolences to his family and friends

- Andreas

 

[slikely]

Mike will be missed

Mike was a friend of mine when we both lived in the Minneapolis area, up until late October of 2005. With another mutual friend, Andy, from 1999 through 2005 we saw movies, played games and yearly went to the state fair. I visited him in late May of 2006 for a weekend after he moved to Champaign-Urbana, which was great. I regret that we didn't correspond much after that, but I'm glad he was still working on projects that he loved.

 

[WO1VES]

Oh man, that's a shame. I'm sorry to hear about that. Though apparently not very active in the forum, he was a very active contributer to NUON in general. A big loss, and much too young.

My condolences to his family.

 

[Stephen]

Damn! So sad and so young. I just turned 32 2 days ago. Kinda puts things into perspective.

I didn't know Riff personally, but spoke with him many times via e-mail and forum postings. He was very knowledgeable and always willing to help. My condolences to his family

Stephen Anderson

 

[Skah T]

Mike's father sent me the obituary that will run in the Rockford, Illinois newspaper Rockford Register Star & Tribune. He also sent this photo (attached). Mike is on the left and his brother on the right.

Michael James Perry (Riff6809) passed away suddenly on August 1, 2007. He was 32 years old and living in Champaign, Illinois. Surviving is his father James Perry (Hot Springs Village, Arkansas); mother, Virginia Greenstone (Cape Coral, Florida); Sister Lisa Diane Perry Napier (Fresno, California) Brothers David Perry (Tampa, Florida), Darius Perry (Rockford), and Joel Todd Perry (Bishop, California).

Michael graduated from Auburn High School in Rockford Illinois in 1993, and the University of Illinois in Champaign in 1997. He was a talented software engineer with experience at Honeywell and Starkey Labs and personally developed software utilized by game enthusiasts around the world. Michael enjoyed music and played guitar. He was quiet, observant, and loving and will be sorely missed. Michael's greatest asset was his compassion for others.

An announced memorial service will be held in Rockford Illinois at a later date.

Condolences can be sent to;

James Perry

8 Zarina Way

Hot Springs Village, AR. 71909

His dad also passed along the story about how Mike got the name Riff:

His moniker "Riff" actually began one day after one of his classes at the University of Illinois. A professor in jest, slammed some papers on Mike's desk top and said in a loud voice, "what is this riff-raff." Mike at first used the moniker Riffraff but soon truncated the raff and he became Riff and then later Riff6809.

 

[The Helper]

This is quite tragic and I will miss Riff's posts and his presence in this community.

 

[Keita]

I had known Michael since 1994, when the emulation scene was just starting to emerge. He was a classic game enthusiast and initially was an Atari 2600 collector, but he was, first and foremost, a technical wizard who was always more interested in finding out how things were done on the technology side. He was constantly challenging himself with pet projects, with the most recent one being Nuance.

He had been a regular on #rgvc since its inception in 1995 (#rgvc a classic videogame IRC chat channel on EFNET), and was loved by all. He was often the authority in classic game tech (both hardware and software), particularly the Vectrex. He mainly went by the handle "Riff". He had initially been "Riff-Raff", but there was already a person using "riffraff" on #rgvc, hence the nick change. He also used _Riff_, Vectriff and Riff6809 (6809 stood for the Motorola-designed CPU found in the Vectrex.)

During my time at VM Labs, he frequently pinged me for technical details about NUON. Obviously I could not provide him with confidential information, but he was always pushing himself to learn more about NUON - even in moments where others in #rgvc would be chiding him for taking on such a "pointless" (so they thought) project.

He was a prominent member of the classic gaming (and NUON) community, and many people who had the privilege of personally meeting and knowing him found Riff to be a technical genius - but more importantly, an even better person.

Michael will sorely be missed.

- Keita Iida

 

[Arethius]

I did not him at all but i express my sympathies to his familly and friends.

 

[uwer]

This is such a shock. Accepting this is difficult.
In years of lurking in the forum, I have read every single one of Riffs posts.
He had a brilliant, inquiring mind and in spite of all his achievements, managed to stay level-headed.

I have a hard time convincing myself of the idea that he is supposed to be gone and can't help but wonder why it has to be this way. He was one of the good guys, after all. There aren't too many of these around.

Goodbye to someone I never really knew.
Hopefully, the Afterlife comes with a debugger.

uwer

 

[C-Death]

This is such a shock. Accepting this is difficult.
In years of lurking in the forum, I have read every single one of Riffs posts.
He had a brilliant, inquiring mind and in spite of all his achievements, managed to stay level-headed.

I have a hard time convincing myself of the idea that he is supposed to be gone and can't help but wonder why it has to be this way. He was one of the good guys, after all. There aren't too many of these around.

Goodbye to someone I never really knew.
Hopefully, the Afterlife comes with a debugger.

uwer

Ahmen, may god rest his soul.

 

[JustClaws]

Hello,
I have just read this awful news, and although I am not sure that
anybody related to Riff will read this, I'd at least like to record my
sorrow at the news and sympathy for his family and loved ones
at this awful news. His hard work leaves a legacy to be proud of.
Richard / JustClaws.

 

[jimv]

I only knew Riff from the dome but he was a very brillant and nice person. Rest in peace Riff you will be missed.

 

[EugeneE]

I'm sorry to hear that Mike Perry aka Riff died. I didn't know that he did until I saw this info today since I haven't been around the NUON forums for several years.

He made a great contribution to NUON with his Nuance software. Mike Perry, we will all miss you.