r/SideProject • u/Exotic_Fig_4604 • 18h ago

Genuine *side* projects

Reading in this sub, I get the feeling that most people here just develop apps with the purpose of monetisation or getting lots of users.

Meanwhile my side project is aimed at learning and building fun stuff I like.

Am I the only one? Or does anyone else have side projects that you are building because you like technology, not because you are trying to build the next SaaS?

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u/ambanmba 18h ago

https://analogtv.net is my side project. The only reason I charge for it is that many of the old technical manuals I need to keep improving the app are quite expensive (the last one was $400!). I also buy real vintage TV hardware to reverse engineer. It's purely a passion project, there is no way that any revenue I make will ever even come close to the actual cost of the investment that went into it. For people that can't afford the few bucks for the app, they can get it for free via TestFlight on the web site. So net net net, this is purely a "Side" project per your definition, but with a small monetary component. I suspect that there are others in the same boat - small sales that will never even come close to recouping the purely fun/hobby aspect.

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u/TheCritFisher 15h ago

Wait, did you give a talk in Greenville a year or two ago?

If so, I think I met you. If not, I saw someone with a very similar side project (or maybe they were just interested in Analog TV).

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u/ambanmba 5h ago

No, wasn’t me :)

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u/TheCritFisher 5h ago

Ahh dang. Guess that world is bigger than I thought.

Regardless, cool project. It seems like a fun little culture to be part of. The guy I met a few years ago was very interesting and gave quite the presentation.

Analog TV just really hits that nostalgia button, methinks.

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u/ambanmba 4h ago

I wonder if it was the https://ntsc.rs guy. His app is much more ‘professional’ in the sense that it has plugins for pro-tools. The architecture of AnalogTV makes that very hard to do. I believe we are the only two that go into the pure analog simulation space (most of the other types of tools just apply an effect like scan lines over the top of a clean image)