Sorry for not checking this forum often, we are working on our web site where next version of Asphyre will be available. HTML & Web design isn't my strong part, so it takes ages :(
I'll try to clarify some stuff asked here in this thread and elsewhere.
1) Asphyre used GPL license. AFAIK it can be used for commercial software.

2) New asphyre version (which is ready, although I'm still updating software renderer) is fully open-source and will be distributed under MPL license.
3) Latest available build 0103 had some files missing and that was the reason ASCII demo did not compile (it became a mess as we worked for TMDC compo).
4) Hasteroids demo required Bass headers to compile, however some of these did not compile well (required modifications). I wrote comments on this on the top of the main source code.
5) Software mode in latest available Asphyre can be selected easily, if no hardware was present. Even though I tried to separate both parts, new Asphyre will still have similar option.
6) Apparently, there were few hardware-only known issues which in newest Asphyre I try to "fix" by avoiding some of the options.
7) Asphyre will not have full 3D support (for now) nor it will have major changes in its design - finally, it was made for 2D using improved techniques (hardware acceleration, etc).
8) The major breakthrough in new release will be the networking component, which resembles in design my previous TBlackUDP and PowerNet components, but is way improved and completely independent.
9) This new release will be available as soon as our web site is ready (or at least a working portion of it). The reason to this is that I'll have a faster way to update & upload the files and have better control of what's going on with the components.