Once more I dived into the web of Romhacking.net to find interesting Mods for the Super Nintendo / SNES. All kinds of user created mods, bug fixes, additional content, story rewrites, graphics updates and more. Have fun exploring....
I consider them DLCs or updates. :D Some of them change up the original game so much and are developed with groups of people for years, that we can classify them as indie games. They just use tools and the engine of those old games and editors.
Nintendo never said that all emulation is illegal. Nintendo just does not like that their current gen is being emulated and lot of games are easily available on pirate sites for everyone. Otherwise Nintendo would have tried to shutdown emulators for previous systems too. They were especially worried about the Switch 2 being emulated easily with current emulators, as it doesn’t seen too different. I think that’s all to it.
However, there are still a number of ways that emulators can violate the law. For example, the Nintendo Switch has certain “technical restriction measures” that prevent it from playing pirated games. If a Switch emulator seeks to bypass those measures, it opens itself up to legal trouble.
Which law exactly? There are exceptions for making personal backup copies. So its not really court tested law and we don’t know if it violates the law. As the article said, these cases never went to court and we don’t have a decision by law. Nintendo did all of that out of court.
It makes sense from argumentation standpoint, because Nintendo argues that there are protection mechanisms in the Switch that is illegal to ignore, in emulators. I don’t know if this is true and you don’t know either, because this was not tested in court. Nintendo never ever said that ALL emulation is illegal, which i stated in my initial reply. Otherwise Nintendo would go and take down ALL emulators. Not every kind of emulation is the same.
In example the Dolphin emulator ships with keys extracted from the console. Some say its illegal to distribute these keys, others argue keys are not copyrighted and its not illegal to share, but it was never tested in court either. If Nintendo had a case, they would definitely go against that emulator, as the keys are in the source code in the open public. Nintendo never said that Dolphin or Wii and Gamecube emulation is illegal. Or any other prior console and emulator of Nintendo systems. Nintendo console emulators exist in the public since the 90s.
Its much more nuanced than people are making or understanding. And lot of articles, like the one stated before, are plain and simple wrong and cite without context. And people who don’t understand the situation take this and believe it.
But this is still to be discussed, because if the emulator does not circumvent any copy protection and the games are dumped with the protection in place, and the copy protection is reverse engineered, then the games would play with the copy protection decrypting. It does not circumvent the protection, it actively “uses” it. So from that standpoint making backup copies is not illegal in theory. Now would this hold in court? I don’t know. Nintendo does not know either and rather like to take things out of court. Because if Nintendo looses such a case, it would be devastating.
I’m in Germany too and the right to a private copy is exactly what I had in mind too. Not all copy protection measures were accepted for the right to not copy. What I mean is, there was some extremely simple protection mechanisms that were not accepted as a working and effective copy protections, and you were allowed to do a copy; even with the so called copy protection in place. Therefore it effectiveness was kind of important to the discussion too. I guess the Switch has a much more advanced one, so its probably not an exception.
It makes no sense to cite a little part of the US DMCA law if the discussion was based on Japanese laws. If you look at www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201 , its much more complicated than one sentence. As for the DMCA, this is the next paragraph after the cited above one:
I admit not really to understand, as the language is hard to read for me. It would even be hard in my native language. Does the Japanese law have such clauses and exceptions?
The video itself is as you say, surprisingly interesting. But to be honest, I expected that. This channel has often interesting content like this. BTW Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Kirby and game designer of Smash Bros., had posted a video about this system too. Its very interesting watch as well: Family BASIC [Programming & Tech] by Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games
I just stumbled upon a website named Gaming Alexandria. Their main goal is to preserve videogames related stuff like artwork scans, posters, articles, interviews and even game dumps. My main focus is on playable game Roms, specifically on the Type-in Programs from magazines for the Family BASIC.
We have a brand new PlayStation2 core, LRPS2. It’s a heavily modified version of PCSX2 custom made for the Libretro API, and it currently runs on Windows, macOS and Linux....
The first game that comes to mind for me is Civilizations 4. I’ve probably spent hundreds of hours playing but after getting used to 5 and 6 I have a really hard time going back. Going back and forth between 5 and 6 I need to rethink some strategies but with 4 I feel like I need to rethink everything. I don’t know if it’s...
Breath of Fire 2 (SNES): I don’t know how I managed to finish this game. It’s too drawn out, didn’t have an interesting story to follow with meaningless and annoying stuff to do and the random battles was too often.
Killer Instinct (SNES): I played this game seriously, learning the combos and fighting competitive with a friend. But nowadays it just does not feel good to play.
Toshinden (PSX): Similar to Killer Instinct, I played this game seriously with a competitive friend. Playing it today, I just can’t do it.
The compatibility report says it is playable, but has some minor issues: xemu.app/titles/4d53002a/#Midtown-Madness-3 I don’t know how accurate this actually is. To search for other game titles, look here: xemu.app/#compatibility
Realistic does not equal to good looking. In example Zelda Breath of the Wild looks good, but its hardly realistic. And if all games are very realistic, then it gets a little bit boring, as all games start to look the same. The AAA gaming industry is too much focused on lip sync, realistic faces, grass and puddles. I don’t feel like getting lost in a game, but more like watching a movie. It’s so boring to me (I’m looking at you Red Dead Redemption 2).
It’s not just the look of it, but the art and games were designed with the limitations of CRT in mind. Not all games off course. An example is the transparency effect on Genesis / Mega Drive:
There are two variants, one with motion-blur and one without. Besides that, often shaders have additional settings. One can change settings and save it as a new Shader Preset and use that instead. I have described it here: thingsiplay.game.blog/2024/10/19/…/8/#learn-and-e…
I strongly disagree with the premise that there’s a “wrong” way to play retro games.
I understand your sentiment here and you are right too. What I think is, that the wording on this title here is misunderstood. Emulating (old) games without Shaders is not faithful or accurate in the looks. It looks “vastly” different and thus means it looks “wrong”. I interpret the “wrong” in the title as “not faithful”, instead as “bad”, like this: You’re Probably Emulating Retro Games Not Faithful (you need CRT Shaders for the oldschool look)
Wish companies would announce games later in development cycle. Often they announce too early that if it comes out, I’m sick of reading news, or videos shown about it, announced years ago. It feels like an old game at that point and takes any hype away. At least for me.
Tekken 5 still my favorite entry in the series. Sad the older games never got a proper PC release. I played Virtual Fighter 1 and 2 on Saturn and 3tb (on Dreamcast), so cannot speak for any newer entries. At least they do not play fluid like Tekken and do not feel as good to me. Virtua Fighter also was less combo oriented. Again, I don’t know how the current state of newer Virtua Fighter games are, but I’m a little bit skeptical at the moment. Really need to test them. And I would recommend you too, so you have the right expectations.
But from the trailer, it looks much better to me than what I experienced 20 years ago lol.
You can say what you want about the game, but that they make an offline mode for players who purchased it is commendable. At least game is preserved in this way. The only downside is, that nobody is allowed to buy the offline game from that point on. Hopefully they decide against de-listing it on Steam.
Right, but we need clowns. I accept any dumpster fire. :D No seriously, I agree with you. I didn’t pay any attention to how severe the issue was and just made a list from recent known issues I’ve heard.
I bought over a dozen promotional games, with high discounts on several old games, Cities: Skylines-90% for only $2.99; Darkest Dungeon-92% for only $1.99. Also bought a promising HoMM-like new game, Pennon and Battle. https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/56a35b8d-52bd-4c6f-9419-99638bd468d6.jpeg
Currently playing FF7 Remake for the first time, as a huge fan of the original. The other games I purchased is to make the pile of shame bigger and to play when I have some time – I’m not ashamed! For some reason I did not have the original DOOM games on Steam; this was the perfect opportunity.
Happy to see Invidious instead of YouTube as the main link. :-) I also use Invidious, but mostly link YouTube directly still. Will swap it too next time (if I do not forget to). About the game itself, I did not play it so cannot say much.
Edit: Ah, I remember why I put YouTube links as the main source: a) sometimes the Invidious instances goes away, and b) here in the community if someone else posts the exact same link, then it will be listed as crosspost (I think, does it?), so it has its pros and cons.
Hmm that’s also a problem. At least the YouTube link is in the description here. I also always make sure to add a YouTube link, just for “backup” reasons.
But this game is a physical cartridge for an old console. It’s not just patching and rereleasing in digital form. And it will be shipped in a box. So this is not something that can be automated (at least not by everyone, other than Amazon maybe).
No need for sorry and its understandable. Especially if one of your games or products are stolen or used without the license, and therefor want to bring attention to the subject. I can not even imagine how much automation must exist in the web, that’s only job is to steal and “repackage” data just to sell it on another platform. Happens with videos, with blog posts, with photos, … games… and basically anything one can imagine.
Unironically, to me it was besides RetroArch (I know what it is, its not an emulator in itself, I could discuss this all day long) it was actually Yuzu. That’s because I played BotW and TotK this year on Yuzu. Otherwise its RPCS3, Xemu and Cemu off course. I’m surprised he didn’t mention Xemu at all.
As for BigPEmu, its unfortunately proprietary software. So I’m not going to test it, but wonder how it compares to Virtual Jaguar core in RetroArch.
Not if its not absolutely needed to. In example Steam is a pass, or back then when I was using Nvidia cards the proprietary drivers was a must have too. I even have proprietary drivers installed for the gamepad… (and hate myself for it) BigPEmu is “just” another emulator and I can play the Jaguar games on RetroArch already. So yes, I avoid proprietary software by principle, but do make exceptions. I’m not a purist. I’m still curious to how it compares to my current solution.
Would you eat something where you don’t know whats inside? For me its like going into a Restaurant and they promise you it will taste wonderful, without telling you whats inside, only showing how it looks from outside. Would you eat it? That’s kind of what a proprietary emulator is for me. And I don’t have much to choose from, unlike vegetarian food (you can even make your own food out of the parts you buy). Sometimes I straight up have no other choice than use proprietary software (like Steam for Steam games, even the games are proprietary…).
I understand the nature of your comparison. We are making a compromise and accept that we have less to choose from, for our greater good and goal.
Many reasons. There is probably not a straight forward answer if you never tried to answer (its my first time) this question. But I’ll give it a go.
Most importantly and in the long run (and I’m talking about hundreds of years) future generations can study old games, to learn how the past was working. For the short term (I"m speaking about now for next decades) its partly about nostalgia so you can play the games, if companies fail to preserve them. Also preservation allows us to play and see the games in their initial state in example. Game developers also can study old games, which is important to make new ones. Reading books how the golden era was this and that is one thing, then playing those games and seeing how it works is another. Even if its not 100% authentic recreation, its still helps.
Why do you preserve old books, films, music, art? Why do we preserve old technical devices we found, old bones of animals or even humans? Compared to those, its much more complicated to preserve videogames, not only the bits and bytes as they are available, but also to have them playable. Videogames is part of our society and preserving them is preserving part of our humanity.
Read my comment if you like speculation and future prediction.
It’s a bit too early to talk about this. First the Switch 2 will come out, then probably Steam Deck 2, then Xbox Portable and only then Sony is ready to release. At that point its already in the middle of the Switch 2’s life cycle and the market is full of handhelds. If Sony comes up with expensive prices again, it will be a tough sale (in the long run) and it ends up being a similar failure (for units sold) like the Vita.
The Playstation Portal just streams and is already 200 Dollar. It’s basically a tablet with controllers attached to it, but less capable. If Sony goes the route of Apple and markets the Playstation Handheld as a premium device for hardcore fans, then do not expect it being cheaper than 500, around same price as the original PS5. I hope Sony will surprise me.
Microsoft has the Edge here (see what I did?) when it comes to handheld, because they already have a weaker hardware that games on Xbox must be able to run, the Series S. This baseline could be used as a handheld compatibility (at least from performance perspective). Sony on the other hand has a monster console and no weaker version of it. So there is much more and longer to developer. For the coming years, I’m not convinced Sony would be capable of doing that. Also imagine the price it would have.
I don’t think Sony wants a PS4 handheld while Microsoft has the newer generation Series S based handheld. Sony wants to sell new games, not the old one.
Are you really cherry picking some big media outlets like IGN? It was another IGN moment where most peoples opinion did not match what IGN rated. They gave the Steam Deck 7/10…
At launch it was not well received, with many issues, being overpriced and the only compatible earphones being very expensive and not available too. It was an embarrassment through and through at launch across almost all media and users. I’ve read and watched reviews and opinions. You are not being honest here, as some of the biggest issues are fixed just recently and some over the course of 1 year since it launched.
I know of brothers creating Aldi North and Aldi South, at least here in Germany (Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd). I wasn’t aware of the history of Lidl being a direct competitor to Aldi. Just looked up on Wikipedia for quick reference.
There aren’t ripoffs of Breath of the Wild. Maybe Immortals Fenyx Rising is inspired by BotW, but I can hardly call it a ripoff. It’s a unique game that stands on its own. Otherwise there is no increase in Breath of the Wild ripoffs in 2020.
I tested this with a fresh Firefox profile, which is basically like a new installation without any customization. So looks like its not because of my personal customization or addons. Same results. On my old machine I remember using this website and I could navigate through the levels. But that’s 2 years ago or so, don’t remember.
Just had the genius idea to look in the Browser console and this is the message:
14:23:43.794 NotFoundError: No such JSProcessActor ‘BrowserToolboxDevToolsProcess’ 3
SNES Mods and Romhacks Collection 2025 (thingsiplay.game.blog) angielski
Once more I dived into the web of Romhacking.net to find interesting Mods for the Super Nintendo / SNES. All kinds of user created mods, bug fixes, additional content, story rewrites, graphics updates and more. Have fun exploring....
Dad's Coming, 🇧🇷 indie 2d couch co-op action mess simulator (store.steampowered.com) angielski
https://beehaw.org/pictrs/image/efbe0f9f-3a13-4b75-90e9-6faa6e7d636b.webp...
After shutting down several popular emulators, Nintendo admits emulation is legal (www.androidauthority.com)
Games That Don't Push The Limits of the NES (For Interesting Reasons) (youtu.be) angielski
A surprisingly interesting video that taught me some new things about the NES and this era of gaming. Highly recommended!
Nintendo Family BASIC Type-in Programs Collection (homebrew roms for NES) (thingsiplay.game.blog) angielski
I just stumbled upon a website named Gaming Alexandria. Their main goal is to preserve videogames related stuff like artwork scans, posters, articles, interviews and even game dumps. My main focus is on playable game Roms, specifically on the Type-in Programs from magazines for the Family BASIC.
RetroArch 1.20.0 release (www.libretro.com) angielski
Changelog 1.20.0...
LRPS2 – the new PlayStation2 core with a brand new Vulkan LLE renderer – Libretro/RetroArch (January 2025) [blog] (www.libretro.com) angielski
We have a brand new PlayStation2 core, LRPS2. It’s a heavily modified version of PCSX2 custom made for the Libretro API, and it currently runs on Windows, macOS and Linux....
What games are you nostalgic towards but wouldn't go back and play? angielski
The first game that comes to mind for me is Civilizations 4. I’ve probably spent hundreds of hours playing but after getting used to 5 and 6 I have a really hard time going back. Going back and forth between 5 and 6 I need to rethink some strategies but with 4 I feel like I need to rethink everything. I don’t know if it’s...
YSK: There's a site that lists delisted games (delistedgames.com)
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/23573084...
xemu v0.8.0 released (31 Dec 2024) - A Xbox emulator (github.com) angielski
Release: github.com/xemu-project/xemu/releases/tag/v0.8.0...
Video Games Can’t Afford to Look This Good: The gaming industry spent billions pursuing the idea that customers wanted realistic graphics. Did executives misread the market? (www.nytimes.com) angielski
archive.is link...
You're Emulating Retro Games Wrong (you need CRT Shaders) (youtu.be) angielski
A new Virtua Fighter project has been announced (www.youtube.com)
Big news for VF fans. Yes, both of us....
Rocksteady ends Suicide Squad development less than a year after release (www.gamesindustry.biz)
Can’t say I’m shocked. However I can say I’m so disappointed that this is what became of rocksteady
Funko Pop abuses domain name reporting system, takes down itch.io angielski
x.com/itchio/status/1866017758040993829
Water + hot oil
source
The Steam Autumn Sale 🎮 is over, what did everyone get? angielski
I bought over a dozen promotional games, with high discounts on several old games, Cities: Skylines-90% for only $2.99; Darkest Dungeon-92% for only $1.99. Also bought a promising HoMM-like new game, Pennon and Battle. https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/56a35b8d-52bd-4c6f-9419-99638bd468d6.jpeg
S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 shenanigans (invidious.nerdvpn.de)
Youtube link if invidious gives issues.
We have been pirated; we're a real game studio now! · by Safety Stoat Studios (December 04, 2024) (itch.io) angielski
A hilarious blog post of a studio who discovered there games are pirated. They even say...
Modern Vintage Gamer: The BEST Emulators of 2024 (www.youtube.com) angielski
[Game Giveaway] Dark Sector, made by Digital Extremes before Warframe, is free to acquire until the 30th (store.steampowered.com)
Why video game preservation is important? (fedia.io) angielski
^^^^
Sony reportedly prepping PlayStation 5 portable, plans to battle Nintendo's handheld dominance (www.eurogamer.net)
Billionaire Waits Outside Supermarket To Fight Call Of Duty Fan (kotaku.com) angielski
Fallout London is a better game than Fallout 4 angielski
Yes, I said it and mean it....
Why there was a sudden increase in Breath of the Wild ripoffs in the early 2020s? (fedia.io) angielski
It's because BotW was very influential, more than previous Zelda games?
What websites provide video game maps? (fedia.io) angielski
Maps based on the fictional universe of video games, with locations, points of interest, etc.