this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024

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The official Nintendo Museum appears to be emulating SNES games on a Windows PC, which is slightly embarrassing (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Maybe the emulator maker should sue

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[–] [email protected] 263 points 7 months ago (7 children)

You see...

It's okay when THEY do it.

It's not okay when YOU do it.

That's how they function.

[–] [email protected] 118 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Well yeah, as the owners they have the exclusive right to determine what's okay. They're just following the rules as they've been laid out by centuries of corporate lobbying for more exploitable copyright laws. Those are what we need to focus on if we want more fair use of intellectual property that the rights holder has already sufficiently profited from - the thing that such protections were initially meant to ensure to a much more reasonable extent.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

You had me in the first half ngl (more like first sentence but close enough)

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (11 children)

Well, you know, the games are theirs to begin with.

I see what you mean, and you are correct, but I think it's more about the games that are being emulated than emulation in itself right?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

I don't disagree they are their games, but is it their emulator, or did they just download one of the many online? Really doesn't matter, just love to see companies bitch about something, then turn around and do it themselves.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It would be, if they didn't target the emulators and only targeted the roms/game data.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (3 children)

The only time the emulators are targeted is when the creators try to profit off them, or am I mistaken?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

That, and when Nintendo's code is used in some way to develop the project. Japan has very strict laws on reverse engineering any software, which Nintendo is always set to capitalize on.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That's definitely not the case for Switch emulators.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Yuzu was charging for early access to their emulator, which is what prompted Nintendo action.

Ryujinx doesn't seem like any legal action was taken, sounds like the creator was given a chunk of cash by Nintendo to take it down.

I hate Nintendo, but you gotta keep the facts straight

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

I don't think they paid him off, I think it was more along the lines of "We won't do anything to you if you stop now"

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[+] [email protected] -62 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Nintendo has never been against emulation. They've only been against people playing without paying.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Just curious - what size rock do you live under? Is it room sized or as large as a house? How do you decorate? Is it climate controlled?

[–] [email protected] 52 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Yes they have. They've just recently nuked on the Switch emulator.

And you can bet that if they could, Nintendo would go out of their way to sue any other emulator developer that emulates their games. The only things saving some of those emulators is technicalities like open-source.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

I kinda get that they'll do whatever than can to shut down an emulator for a console still selling and available on the shelves though. Not that there aren't legitimate cases for it (homebrew software and games), but that's not what Nintendo is concerned about.

But screw that for legacy consoles, game preservation is important too.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm not going to check the whole archive, but going back to at least 2005, Nintendo was asking users to ...

report ROM sites, emulators, Game Copiers, Counterfeit manufacturing, or other illegal activities

https://web.archive.org/web/20051124194318/http://www.nintendo.com/corp/faqs/legal.html

Here's some more quotes from the same page where Nintendo is viciously anti-emulation:

The introduction of video game emulators represents the greatest threat to date to the intellectual property rights of video game developers. As is the case with any business or industry, when its products become available for free, the revenue stream supporting that industry is threatened. Such emulators have the potential to significantly damage a worldwide entertainment software industry which generates over $15 billion annually, and tens of thousands of jobs.

Distribution of a Nintendo emulator trades off of Nintendo's goodwill and the millions of dollars invested in research & development and marketing by Nintendo and its licensees. Substantial damages are caused to Nintendo and its licensees. It is irrelevant whether or not someone profits from the distribution of an emulator. The emulator promotes the play of illegal ROMs , NOT authentic games. Thus, not only does it not lead to more sales, it has the opposite effect and purpose.

Personal Websites and/or Internet Content Providers sites That link to Nintendo ROMs, Nintendo emulators and/or illegal copying devices can be held liable for copyright and trademark violations, regardless of whether the illegal software and/or devices are on their site or whether they are linking to the sites where the illegal items are found.

[+] [email protected] -29 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Nintendo's been openly emulating their own games since about that time. IIRC, the SNES Virtual Console on the Wii had code from SNES9X in it.

The distinction (which seems nobody cares about) is that Nintendo's going after copyright infringers. If your emulator doesn't use any of Nintendo's code, they ain't doing shit about it; they're just gonna steal it, if anything.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Somebody has fed you or you have invented bad information. Neither Yuzu nor Ryujinx, the two Switch emulators which recently ceased development due to intervention from Nintendo, included Nintendo's code. The Yuzu settlement required those developers to acknowledge that

because our projects can circumvent Nintendo’s technological protection measures and allow users to play games outside of authorized hardware, they have led to extensive piracy.

There was never any mention of them stealing Nintendo code.

Ryujinx, we know even less about, because the agreement went down privately, but there's literally zero indication of any stolen code. We know that Nintendo contacted the developer proposing that they cease offering Ryujinx and they did.

Obviously, Nintendo was bothered in both of these cases because the emulators do facilitate piracy, but that's not the same as them having infringed on Nintendo's copyright by using their code which you are claiming. Both of these emulators were developed open-source; if they were built using stolen Nintendo code there would be receipts all over the place. That was never the problem.

[+] [email protected] -27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yuzu supported unreleased games. To do that required using Nintendo's code, and getting that code through unauthorized channels. Nintendo's code may not have been distributed through Yuzu, but it was used in a way that was not permitted in order to engineer a way to circumvent the copy protection of those games. That was how Nintendo was able to go after them.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Dude why are you digging this hole even deeper. They are going after emulators. That's a proven fact. You can try to handwave it however you wish, but that won't change reality. Nintendo goes after emulators, after modders, after content creators playing those mods. An emulator can play games, that's what it's there for. I don't see how an emulator would work otherwise.

[+] [email protected] -18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Because the distinction is important. Why do you think Yuzu was shut down but PJ64 still exists?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Because Yuzu emulated the Switch, while PJ64 emulates a long gone platform they don't care about anymore. They'll release a sloppy emulated game on switch for games from that era and call it a day, and get barely any sales. For switch they think that removing an emulator cuts their sale numbers in half which is insane. Nintendo hates community projects in all aspects. They don't want emulators. They don't want mods. They want people to buy their console, go to their store, buy a game from them and end it there. Buying a game from the store and playing on PC is unacceptable for them.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 7 months ago (3 children)

PJ64 emulates a long gone platform they don't care about anymore.

No. PJ64 was around when Nintendo was still actively making money on N64 titles.

PJ64 never got shut down because they made sure to always keep their project legal. Nintendo could never do shit to them, and it's been over 20 years now.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

I was joking when in a previous post about the museum I said it better not run on any emulators..

So.. Why aren't they selling said emulators and roms? I ain't gonna travel half the world to play one in an overpriced museum.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'd bet the emulators in use are actually publicly available ones. Not anything Nintendo made. Adding to the hypocrisy.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I hate to defend Nintendo, but they used their own Emulators in the NES and SNES Mini (Kachikachi and Canoe respectively). I would be surprised if they just yoinked one from the internet here.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Um... they are, and have been for almost 20 years, since the Wii. Or the N64 depending on how you look at it.

What did you think Virtual Console was? How about the NES and SNES mini? What about the "Nintendo Game Pass" or whatever they're calling it?

Animal Crossing's original Japan release had NES games in it, and so did the GC rerelease/psuedosequel we got internationally too.

Even better: During the Wii era, the Wiis at the Nintendo Store in New York City ran official Nintendo made software to load games off a connected hard drive, so you could play multiple of their new releases without workers having to switch discs.

It has always been about attempts to prevent piracy and keep control over how people access their games for Nintendo, and they are roughly 10 years behind the curve on modern tech trends.

Either stop supporting them or get used to it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The problem is that they had stuff like Virtual Console and then decide to pull the plug. Then rebrand as some other feature in an online service, which is yet another service that's gonna be a wait and see on whether or when they'll pull the plug again. Forcing people to pay for old stuff over and over again.

They should sell this kind off stuff independently from their consoles/handhelds, preferably something that runs on a PC or any platform.

The NES and SNES mini were great examples of how it could be done, except there too they decided to only make a limited amount, essentially the same as pulling the plug.

Nintendo's truly an awful company. It's baffling how often they get praised for their stuff, they only dangle some 15+ year old reskinned game and people forget all about it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

This is an excellent article that covers how and why the VC died.

People say they want it back, but most titles never sold all that well back then.

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[–] [email protected] 85 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I mean...

All of those mini consoles (NES mini, SNES mini) are already SOCs with an emulator.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Nintendo had uses emulators for a long time. This really isn't anything news worthy.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The Switch has a SNES emulator as well

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The 3ds was a full on emulation machine. Heck it started with the Wii!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

I'd say it started on at least Nintendo 64. The original Japan-only Animal Crossing game for N64 had playable, emulated Famicom (NES) games. Nintendo even ran a special offer to get an N64 Controller Pak with Ice Climber pre-loaded which you could plug into your controller like a game cartridge and play inside Animal Crossing.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Corps are shameless. No amount of hypocrisy is enough to make them reconsider their evil.

[+] [email protected] -22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, that shallow appreciation is why you can't truly understand them, it's like calling a shark evil when it eats a baby seal.

They are, but you need to understand the system so you can know how they get where they get, and how to counter them.

Don't just be an angry mother seal.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Why are you here? You're more cringe than Nintendo right now. There's absolutely no reason to insult that guy.

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