Desmume has no side cotributions due to using SVN and Sourceforge.
so what ? it's a silly excuse.
and I'm personally doesn't like Github, imo Bitbucket more handy.
Same with Yabause but now after switching to Git and Github it finally got a new skilled dev who is improving hardware rendering.
Saturn's VDP1/2 hardware rendering ? haha, i.e. adding hacky crap, but wanted badly by emu-kiddies.
best choice for person who looking for cheap popularity.
Also with Saturn there is the lack of documentation and Saturn emulation never really got any open source traction everyone was happy using closed source SSF.
lack of documentation ? really ? how about this ?
http://koti.kapsi.fi/~antime/sega/docs.html
NulllDC has a very bad codebase used googlecode now as Reicast it is using github but code is just as bad as before it's heavily focused on Android and devs don't seem very interested in improving emulation due to performance reasons. Moreover many people were content with simply using closed source but superior Demul instead of contributing to NullDC.
it can upset you, but Demul was almost the same as you say "messy" Dreamcast only emulator.
then there was added Naomi, Atomiswave, Hikaru, etc. to code base which was planned as single-system emulator only.
and it becomes real mess after that
in any way, I think you messing with terms, yours "bad code base" as for me means "not educational-style coded" (i.e. written in such way, so every person even with very small coding experience can understand it.
With Glide Orkin(original dev) didn't use any version control system or a public repository and codebase was a mess. Gonetz too for a long time was working on it on his own in private without public repository and later interest in N64 emulation died out though now on Github N64 emulation is again getting some activity.
wtf "private repository" you are talking about ?
https://code.google.com/p/glidehqplusglitch64/
that is this ???
You definitely should consider making Demul open source. Even now as closed source one man project it's still the best Dreamcast emulator so far. Even though competition isn't very strong it's quite an achievement but by making it open source you give it a chance to reach Dolphin's or even higher level.
Of course opening a source and leaving it at that is not enough to achieve this. It took Dolphin's many years to reach that level and good management while those projects listed by you were mismanaged. To attract new developers you probably would have to do things like progress reports, technical docs about Dreamcast's architecture, emulator infrastucture with hardware tests, public forum and the codebase would have to be readable for outsiders. A lot of work but could be fruitful.
After PCSX2 switched to Github it took like half a year before they started getting new contributors.
1. its funny but all DC emulators I remember is "one person's projects", except chankast
2. as was said - Demul code base is not written in education-style, so for persons without deep DC architecture knowledge and coding experience it will be "completely mess"
3. TBH I not interested in DC emulation at all. but in arcade hardware only
4. as was said - imo GitHub is far from best choice.
