Nintendo Switch, the only console today making games which are games

[Nelka]

I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night

 

[911 Jumper]

 

[911 Jumper]

Game Boy Emulator Developer Permanently Removes App From Google Play Store

Following the news about Yuzu's takedown earlier this week, there's now another Nintendo-related emulator story making headlines.

As reported by The Verge, Pizza Emulators - known for work on Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance emulators on Android - has decided to permanently remove its apps from Google's Play Store. The developer Davide Berra wants to put family first.

Here's the full statement:

"Dear Friends and supporters, after seven incredible years of development and adventures with my apps, I have made the difficult decision to remove them permanently from the Play Store. My family comes first, and for this reason, I have chosen to prioritise my family over the development of my apps. I want to thank each and every one of you for your incredible support over the years. Your words of encouragement, feedback, and constant support have been a source of inspiration for me and my work. Thank you again for everything. You have been fantastic. With gratitude, Davide."

While there's no reference to Nintendo's recent lawsuit against the creators of the Switch emulator Yuzu, this removal has taken place in the same week. Nintendo currently offers a selection of Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance titles on its Switch Online subscription service.

As for Yuzu, the creators have now been ordered to pay Nintendo $2.4 million in damages and shut down the emulator.

Source: Nintendo Life

 

[Cohesion]

They got away easy. Could have been magnitudes of times worse.

Where the fuck did they get $2.4 mln ?

 

[Sunri]

Switch to this everything works anyway

 

[mediocrepoet]

They got away easy. Could have been magnitudes of times worse.

Where the fuck did they get $2.4 mln ?

They don't necessarily have $2.4M, but if they did, it would be through Patreon. This is just what would've been decided based on whatever damages Big-N decided to agree to settle the case for.

Since they did agree to it, I have to assume they were able to scrape it together from everything they've sold or took donations for, possibly also personal property. Fear of taking it in the ass for the rest of your life financially can be a hell of a motivator to figure out what you can actually come up with.

 

[Abu Antar]

They got away easy. Could have been magnitudes of times worse.

Where the fuck did they get $2.4 mln ?

I read that they were getting around $30k/month on Patreon.

 

[El Pollo Diablo]

They got away easy. Could have been magnitudes of times worse.

Where the fuck did they get $2.4 mln ?

They didn't. AFAIK Nintendo went after their LLC, the 'LL' standing for Limited Liability, aka not being personally liable. The number is arbitrary, Nintendo will get whatever there is in the company accounts, after which the company will close.

 

[911 Jumper]

 

[Azdul]

From what I understand about the case, it seems like the Yuzu team were the wrong group to fight Nintendo on this because they were sharing ROMs among maintainers in their Discord (for testing) but someone's gonna have to. Sharing ROMs amongst each other is a fatal error no matter how legitimate the purpose is. Anyone bright enough to develop an emulator is able to source their own ROMs.

The DMCA provision that prevents users from breaking encryption effectively kills emulation anyways. Every modern-ish console requires bios files and keys acquired through hacked hardware so it's time to go scorched earth and get this all out in the open.

If 'breaking encryption' was enough - you wouldn't be able to watch your DVDs using open source software.

They were offering fixes for unreleased games (Tears of the Kingdom) - exclusive to Patreon members. It's hard to argue legitimate use when there was no legal way to obtain the game at the time.

 

[911 Jumper]

Box art for Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has been revealed


New screenshots at the link
Nintendo Reveals Box Art And New Screens For Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door On Switch

 

[Tehdagah]

 

[911 Jumper]

Ars Tech interview with Suyu emulator dev contributor
Here’s how the makers of the “Suyu” Switch emulator plan to avoid getting sued

 

[911 Jumper]

Fake Micro SD Cards Exist, and They're Dangerous

 

[ferratilis]

Do people really pay 60 bucks for such a heavily downgraded port, and enjoy it? I've heard praise for these "impossible" ports like Witcher 3, Crysis etc. but they just look like the worst possible version to play.

 

[911 Jumper]

Yuzu Nintendo Switch Emulator Lives On With The Nuzu, Suyu Projects

The development of the Yuzu was permanently halted, but the popular Nintendo Switch emulator will continue to live on thanks to multiple projects that were recently launched.

The Nuzu and the aptly-named Suyu projects are both open-source works based on the latest version of Yuzu, they do not support piracy in any capacity and are currently looking for developers, so they currently do not offer anything past what the popular emulator they are based on does. Still, this shows how the emulation community is unwilling to back down.

RELATED STORY Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Optimizer 2.0 Mod Brings The Smoothest DFPS To Date, Proper Up To 8K Resolution Scaling and More
As mentioned above, the development of the Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator was discontinued yesterday, as developer Tropic Haze settled the lawsuit with Nintendo, agreeing to pay the Japanese company $2.4 million in damages. You can find an excerpt of the message shared by the development team below.

Yuzu and its team have always been against piracy. We started the projects in good faith, out of passion for Nintendo and its consoles and games, and were not intending to cause harm. But we see now 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. In particular, we have been deeply disappointed when users have used our software to leak game content prior to its release and ruin the experience for legitimate purchasers and fans.9056

Source: WCCF Tech

 

[Tehdagah]

 

[Cheesedragon117]

As a Peach main in Melee I can't wait to try this.

I have a strange premonition it might be shit though. After the reviews came in for ToTK, I feel like 'Tendo will never again put any more thought or effort into their first-party games than is profitable. Which is a shame, because their first-party titles used to be the reason you bought the console.

 

[karoliner]

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/emulation-central-recommendations-in-1st-post.86871/page-182

Nintendo takes Sigpatch-updater down, submits additional DMCA takedown requests for other Switch tools​

by wololo · March 18, 2024

Torrentfreak report that Nintendo’s lawyers are hard at work again, having send a bunch of DMCA takedown notices to github in the past few days. Sigpatch-updater seems to be in their crosshairs right now, but it’s not the only tool they are targeting.

What is Sigpatch-updater for Nintendo Switch​

Sigpatches are a series of patches loaded on a hacked Nintendo Switch, typically on Atmosphère, in order to run pirated games. Piracy is not supported on Atmosphère, so this can be seen as a very unofficial add-on to the custom firmware, absolutely not supported in any way by the creators of the CFW.

These need to be updated every time there is a new Atmosphère and/or firmware release.

Tools such as Sigpatch-updater allow end users to automate the process.

This isn’t the first time that iTotalJustice, the creator of Sigpatch-updater, has been the target of a DMCA by Nintendo. Their lawyer are actually specifically referring to past DMCA takedowns in their DMCA notice:

With the iTotalJustice repository reported in this current notice, iTotalJustice is attempting to evade Nintendo’s enforcement efforts by providing SigPatches via a link to a third-party website ([private]), rather than including SigPatches in the repository itself. The link is accompanied by the statement “The patches are downloaded from a new host. Huge thanks to them!” Several of the forks reported in this notice link also link to the third-party website [private] to provide SigPatches. Linking to circumvention software is considered “trafficking” in violation of the DMCA where, as here, the party responsible for the link (a) knows that the offending material is on the linked site, (b) knows that the linked material is circumvention technology, and (c) maintains the link for the purpose of disseminating that technology.

The DMCA actually seems to recycle most of the content of their 2022 notice.
The takedown does not only include iTotalJustice’s repository, but two dozens of forked repositories and associated tools.

Other tools being targeted by Nintendo DMCA takedown​

In another DMCA, Nintendo are requesting a takedown of tools such as Lockpick_RCM, kexplez-nx, or Incgonito_RCM. These tools all allow to retrieve decryption keys from your own Nintendo Switch, and can be used (among other things) to defeat some of the device’s encryption. Arguably, these tools can be legal to use even in the context of DMCA and depending on your use case, but that doesn’t prevent Nintendo from trying. They had already tried to take Lockpick_RCM down about a year ago.

This second takedown notice is much less “all encompassing” than the Sigpatch-updater one, targeting only 3 repositories, with many forks still available.

It remains possible to download most of these tools on unofficial sites (such as this one) but DMCA requests like this of course making it more difficult for pirates to get access to some content they can trust.

It is certainly interesting to see Nintendo doubling down on their legal attacks to get rid of Switch decryption tools, shortly after they defeated the Yuzu emulator and had their creator agree to pay $2.4 million. Maybe they’re hoping the chill effect will prevent clones of these tools from resurfacing immediately.
Nintendo’s notices are available here and here

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Sigpatch-updater seems to be in their crosshairs right now, but it’s not the only tool they are targeting.

This is what makes me think that the rumored Switch 2 is more of an iterative thing as opposed to evolutionary. It seems to me that Nintendo is intent on sitting back and doing as little as possible in terms of their hardware which is a 180 degree difference from the Iwata era. Yes, you can point out that the Wii-U flopped, but it was a big step forward in terms of evolutionary gameplay as opposed to the Switch, which let's face it, is an underclocked Shield tablet with an XBox controller slapped on it. The only thing keeping it from being widely emulated on everything are those software keys in both the Switch firmware and the games themselves, which has apparently been broken wide open. Sure, they have your product key tied to your online account, but their internal online feature which you have to pay to use is absolute crap so a lot of games with multiplayer just do their own thing anyway. There's no reason why Switch Online is as shit as it is given the sales of the Switch, but because Nintendo never bothered to address it, it makes it much easier for people to play those games on emulators with little fear of a ban.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the "Switch 2" was delayed until next year and at the same time, Nintendo went after Yuzu and the homebrew developers.

Where the fuck did they get $2.4 mln ?

I have a feeling Nintendo pulled a fast one on this agreement. People mistakenly call it a "settlement", but it's not even that since it was done completely outside the court system. The Citra Team were developing both Citra Nightly and Yuzu right up until that agreement dropped a few Mondays ago. There were even new builds of both dropped over the weekend. I have a feeling that Nintendo snagged several of those dudes up and issued the agreement statement to scare off others. They know the ins and outs of Nintendo's last two consoles, probably better than the Nintendo people that developed those systems.

I was checking out the 3DS virtual console stuff a week ago, and noticed something peculiar. I noticed that every single SNES title available for the 3DS was "New 3DS Only". Keep in mind that the NintendoDS can emulate most SNES games with things like SNEmulDS. And the NDS doesn't have near the processing power of the 3DS(ARM9) or New 3DS(ARM11). It would seem to me that Nintendo's ability to make emulators isn't nearly as efficient as people in the homebrew/emulator community. If they want to toss NDS/3DS games on to the Switch 2's Switch Online, the Citra Team already has those skills.

 

[911 Jumper]

Reminder: Online play for Wii U and 3DS will shut down on Monday

Nintendo will be shutting down online play for 3DS and Wii U early next week.

As previously reported, the company plans to close the services on April 8 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET (April 9 at 12am BST).

Nintendo already closed the eShops for both systems back in March 2023, but players have been able to continue using online services in-game, such as online multiplayer and rankings.

Once this ends next week, however, games will only be playable offline. This will particularly impact games with a heavy emphasis on online play, such as the original Splatoon on Wii U.

Players will still be able to play games offline once online services end, according to Nintendo. It has also that Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter will retain online functionality (presumably since they’re still used by players and use online connectivity as their central mechanic).

Nintendo has also stressed that this only relates to in-game online functionality, meaning it will still be possible to download update data and redownload purchased software and DLC from the 3DS and Wii U eShops “for the foreseeable future”.

Source: VGC

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Reminder: Online play for Wii U and 3DS will shut down on Monday

Yeah, Nintendo sucks. But if you're still playing on your 3DS and Wii-U, and you've gone the CFW route, there's this:

https://pretendo.network/

It works pretty well. It takes no time to set it up, either. About five minutes of work and I was getting my ass beat by people from all over the globe in Mario Kart 7.

If you haven't jailbroken your 3DS yet, don't be a pussy. Don't follow videos on YouTube, most of them are out of date and are great ways of bricking your systems. Here's the guide for it that is always up to date:

https://3ds.hacks.guide/

And for the Wii-U:

https://wiiu.hacks.guide/

And here's most of the published homebrew for all those consoles:

https://www.gamebrew.org/

 

[Jaedar]

It seems to me that Nintendo is intent on sitting back and doing as little as possible in terms of their hardware which is a 180 degree difference from the Iwata era. Yes, you can point out that the Wii-U flopped, but it was a big step forward in terms of evolutionary gameplay as opposed to the Switch, which let's face it, is an underclocked Shield tablet with an XBox controller slapped on it.

And yet, it is clearly different from current ps/xbox variants, and likely different from their next gens as well. The only competition they have for that space is the steam deck, and steam deck has probably sold less than 1% as many units. If they have something that works and stands unchallenged, there is no need to revolutionize.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

And yet, it is clearly different from current ps/xbox variants, and likely different from their next gens as well. The only competition they have for that space is the steam deck, and steam deck has probably sold less than 1% as many units. If they have something that works and stands unchallenged, there is no need to revolutionize.

I think what you're missing is that sitting back and coasting only works for so long. Look at the N64 and GameCube. Neither really offered anything up other than Nintendo games and a cheaper price point. Both hooked up to a TV just like their competition and both had similar control schemes to their competition. The Wii was basically a GameCube with those WiiMote controllers, and those sales exploded. Why? It offered something that nothing else on the market could do. The Wii sold 101 million units, the GameCube sold 22 million units.

The other thing you're missing is that the Switch has sold 139 million units, which is nice, but it's completely ignoring the fact that from the SNES on, Nintendo also had handhelds at the same time. At the time the Wii was selling 101 million units, the Nintendo DS also sold 154 million units. The Wii-U was horribly marketed, and only sold 14 million, and the 3DS which people were slow to adopt sold 76 million units. Most people assumed the Wii-U was an add on for the Wii, and were sticker shocked by it. I also don't think most people realize that a good chunk of their favorite Nintendo Switch games were ported from the Wii-U. The GameCube only sold 22 million units, but that GameBoy Advance sold 82 million units. During the Wii/DS era, you're talking about Nintendo selling 255 million consoles because they had both a hand held and a home console during that time, whereas the Switch has sold just over half that amount even with the lower priced Switch lite.

 

[Jaedar]

The other thing you're missing is that the Switch has sold 139 million units, which is nice, but it's completely ignoring the fact that from the SNES on, Nintendo also had handhelds at the same time.

This is a very good point.