Eurogamer - Did Nintendo Download a Mario ROM and sell it back to us? - General

[video=youtube;zR1uEwjx7VI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR1uEwjx7VI[/video] for those curious about emulation like this, there was a GDC talk that goes way more indepth: [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLWY7fCXUwE[/url]

This has actually been known since the Wii days. SNES Virtual Console games also have pirate headers. It's clear that Nintendo themselves never preserved their own old software, and if it wasn't for software pirates then we probably wouldn't have these games today outside of their original cartridges. Really sad when you think about it, but I guess back then they just didn't have the foresight to back up and archive their code. There's also evidence that they jacked code from PocketNES to make those GBA NES Classics. So not only does Nintendo rely on "pirates" to preserve their own games, but they've also relied on pirates to make the games work, too. I personally think it's extremely hypocritical of them to demonize the emulation scene when they themselves benefit from it.

it's a double edged sword for nintendo. on one hand, emulations absolutely done wonders for introducing intelligent kids to older classics, and keeps the spirit of video games alive and well in this age, and in this case it's obvious it's helped nintendo too. on the other hand, NES and SNES piracy was/is so prevalent that when nintendo tried to introduce it's product into new markets after being successful in japan, europe, and america, markets like [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendy_(console)"]russia and china[/URL] had basically run their country into the ground with bootlegs so much that people assumed the bootlegs were the real deal and that nintendo was ripping off these other games. now, in the case of the dendy, nintendo eventually signed a deal with them after the fall of the USSR, but that meant tons of profits were not only lost by nintendo, but were also lost from the developers other than nintendo who had their games bootlegged. that i think is the big problem for nintendo. it's not so much a piracy thing where they lose money, though that's obviously another problem for them. it's more that nintendo has no control over those markets that the emulation is introduced in. in that regard, nintendo's products can be used outside of their comfort zone, and i understand completely why nintendo would be scared of that. especially if you look at cifaldi's video, you can see that the early nes emulation days with the '[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NESticle"]nesticle[/URL]' were pushing this very edgy and unfiltered behaviour that doesn't match at all what nintendo wanted to push. nintendo doesn't want their games or hardware to be recognized in some foreign country by a balls joke and a literal shit lord as the mascot. their biggest problem is their products and brands get misrepresented to the major consumer, the one that doesn't understand video games, which is still plentiful today. so i completely understand where nintendo comes from on that front. and in the regards of them stealing the roms, there's nothing the original owners can really do. now, in the modern age, most of this stuff isn't a worry, but if nintendo even begins to accept the emulation scene in any way (without immediately absorbing them and their projects into the company in a way similar to sonic mania or what have you,) not only do their power over their IP and software begin to wain, but they risk losing an ill-informed market. I think the best thing is to just let both communities stay in their territories and to not go toe to toe with each other. Nintendo shouldn't interfere but should still lambast the community, just so they still have the power to do what they want to do if someone misuses their software/hardware; and the emulation community should continue to archive that software/hardware in the crazy way that they do.

if it werent for emulation i wouldnt have played many of my favourite games as a kid. games like earthbound and the old fire emblem games weren't released in australia. finding them online with my friend and playing through them was a huge part of my childhood and its all thanks to emulation. not such a strong case for it these days since most games are released world wide however there are still many classics that were only released in some parts of the world.

Watching that GDC talk now, it's really great.

Nintendo are so stuck in the past. It's more nuanced than just "emulators are illegal", take places like Europe for example where getting hold of a functioning set of these consoles is hard/impossible/extremely pricey. They've done little to nothing to solve this and sometimes accessing these games via emulators is the only viable option. If I were in charge of what was going on there, and I was in their position of having a very difficult time making virtual console games work I'd have just used this guy's files and gave him royalty. Makes sense right? Nintendo make the money from their work, whilst not shafting the guy that actually make their work... work.

They also appeared to of done the same for the European version of the game. [t]https://i.imgur.com/eFriq5h.png[/t] Edit: [QUOTE=Rossy167;51698218]Nintendo are so stuck in the past. It's more nuanced than just "emulators are illegal", take places like Europe for example where getting hold of a functioning set of these consoles is hard/impossible/extremely pricey. They've done little to nothing to solve this and sometimes accessing these games via emulators is the only viable option. If I were in charge of what was going on there, and I was in their position of having a very difficult time making virtual console games work I'd have just used this guy's files and gave him royalty. Makes sense right? Nintendo make the money from their work, whilst not shafting the guy that actually make their work... work.[/QUOTE] Nintendo need to accept that their business model in its current state maybe fundamentally broken, nobody wants to buy an extremely short supply new machine to play a few 30 year old classics. They are only losing money from emulation because they won't supply the market with easy to get legitimate content. Its like music companies continuing to supply CDs only when everyone just wants downloads or Streaming options, of course its going to get the living shit pirated out of it.