I don't know much about _why but as I read all the stories about his disappearing I can't help but think he had serious problems in his life. To take it personally and go away only because your code is getting old and slow while other learned from it and wrote something better is IMO wrong! You should also learn from libraries and go on write something new and challenge yourself again. Giving up because of a loses match is just not ok.

I also find it pretty odd that no-one seems to know what he is doing now. What about all of his friends? Do they also don't where he is? But I think if someone puts so much energy in hidden himself he shouldn't be found anyway.

"if you program and want any longevity to your work, make a game. all else recycles, but people rewrite architectures to keep games alive."

... or any sufficiently large and financially important enterprise code, really. :-(