Michael Lelli
Staff Software Engineer at SteelSeries
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolMichael Lelli is a Staff Software Engineer in Chicago with 15 years of experience building performance-sensitive systems and cross-platform software, currently leading engineering at SteelSeries. He combines deep low-level expertise—demonstrated by contributions to emulators like Dolphin, PCSX-ReARMed, Parallel-N64 and RetroArch—with front-end and tooling work on projects such as Greasemonkey and DeaDBeeF. His open-source contributions reveal a knack for platform portability (emscripten/WebAssembly) and input/video pipeline fixes that improve real-world user experience across desktop, mobile, and web. Known for pragmatic refactors and test-driven improvements, he also has experience migrating server components and integrating authentication/databases for emulation servers. Trained in computer software engineering at the University of Michigan–Flint, he pairs systems-level curiosity with product-focused delivery.
16 years of coding experience
8 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Computer Science, Computer Software Engineering, Bachelor of Computer Science, Computer Software Engineering at University of Michigan-Flint
Github Skills (59)
wiiu10
javascript10
c-language10
assembly10
sqlite10
python10
browser-extension10
testing10
css10
wii10
cross-platform10
c1110
device-emulation10
c1710
gtk10
Programming languages (16)
Github contributions (5)
libretro/RetroArch
May 2012 - Feb 2021
Cross-platform, sophisticated frontend for the libretro API. Licensed GPLv3.
Role in this project:
Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:590 commits, 21 PRs, 39 pushes in 8 years 10 months
Contributions summary:Michael primarily focused on enhancing the emscripten build target for the RetroArch project. They contributed to improving the video and input drivers for the emscripten platform, updating keyboard and mouse input handling, and integrating gamepad support. Additionally, the user addressed various bugs and made optimizations to improve the overall user experience, including fixing menu navigation and fullscreen issues. These changes demonstrate a deep understanding of web technologies and the project's build infrastructure.
frontendlibretrocretroarch
libretro/parallel-n64
Oct 2013 - Jan 2018
Optimized/rewritten Nintendo 64 emulator made specifically for Libretro. Originally based on Mupen64 Plus.
Role in this project:Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:34 commits, 2 PRs, 1 push in 4 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Michael focused on enhancing the functionality of the CXD4 RSP plugin, a core component of the N64 emulator. Their work included adding and configuring RSP plugins, fixing memory corruption issues within texture loading, and addressing build problems for emscripten. The contributions also involved optimizations of VBO in glide2gl and overall fixes.
libretronintendo
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