Jools Wills
Software Developer Sysadmin at Oxford Inspire
Greater Oxford Area United Kingdom
Summary
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RockstarJools Wills is a seasoned software developer and sysadmin with 18 years’ experience building and maintaining Linux-based projects and communities from the server level up. As lead developer of RetroPie and core maintainer of XBMC4Xbox, he combines system-level scripting, kernel customization, and front-end tweaks to deliver polished retro gaming and media experiences on constrained hardware. He founded and continues to run ExoticA, a 25+-year retro computing archive of 9,000+ pages, demonstrating long-term commitment to digital preservation and community curation. His contributions span shell scripting, full-stack C++/UI work on EmulationStation, and a Debian-packaged Perl MediaWiki API module used for automation across distributions. Based in the Greater Oxford area, he freelances while serving as Software Developer/Sysadmin at Oxford Inspire, balancing hands-on engineering with open-source stewardship. An often-overlooked strength is his ability to keep legacy and niche hardware relevant through pragmatic packaging, kernel patches, and active user support.
17 years of coding experience
Github Skills (20)
c-language10
package-management10
scripting10
configuration-management10
user-interface10
emulator-programming10
script10
sh10
shell10
cprogramming-language10
system-configuration9
develop9
operating-system8
system-integration8
sys8
Programming languages (15)
Github contributions (5)
RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup
Jul 2014 - Jan 2023
Shell script to set up a Raspberry Pi/Odroid/PC with RetroArch emulator and various cores
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:31 releases, 220 reviews, 5122 commits in 8 years 7 months
Contributions summary:Jools primarily focused on enhancing the RetroPie-Setup project, demonstrating expertise in shell scripting and system-level configurations. Their contributions involved modifying and extending shell scripts to manage, update, and configure emulators and dependencies. The user's work was instrumental in integrating new emulators and adjusting to the evolving landscape of RetroPie's package management, including adapting to changes in external libraries and system dependencies.
raspberry-piemulatorodroidretroarchsd-card
RetroPie/EmulationStation
Mar 2016 - Sep 2022
A Fork of Emulation Station for RetroPie. Emulation Station is a flexible emulator front-end supporting keyboardless navigation and custom system themes.
Role in this project:Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:21 releases, 4 reviews, 348 commits in 6 years 6 months
Contributions summary:Jools primarily contributed to the EmulationStation front-end. They added features to the configuration menu, including options to save metadata on exit and parse gamelists only. They also made adjustments to the button mapping and UI to enhance user experience, such as renaming buttons for clarity and making changes related to carousel configuration and scrolling speed. Additionally, the user was involved in code cleanup and refactoring, such as converting files to LF format.
flexibleemulatorstationemulationthemes
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