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Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

npr.org

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Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#101

Post by boomboomsubban »

jonny_eh wrote: post #66
boomboomsubban wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Meanwhile, people have been distributing roms for 25 years Almost exclusively illegally, hence the "fraught with legal issues." Downloading a ROM for a game you own on a cartridge violates US law. You need to create your own copy, where you very likely will face the issues they raise. Or you technically violate the law, which NPR likely doesn't want to condone for a puff piece.

> puff piece How was this article a puff piece? It's highlighting a large and growing issue around preserving our culture, often overlooked by the mainstream.

"Puff piece" may not be the best term, but I'd bet this story was reporting on a YouTube video someone at NPR watched. A somewhat low stakes story that didn't want to dive into legal minutia.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#102

Post by widowlark »

mrguyorama wrote: post #90
jamesgeck0 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a reference for this?

https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/... They say that video games should not be covered under the exemption for backup copies and that they are not "software only".

That is an aggressively hostile interpretation of fair use on their part. For shame.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#103

Post by jwitthuhn »

jonny_eh wrote: post #68
ticviking wrote: post #12

My question in the face of these kinds of actions is what can a non-technical person do in the face of having access to their “purchases” taken away? My younger brother deals with autism and is worried that he won’t be able to play his games anymore if something happens. What’s the first place to go to to actually own what you bought on these platforms?

Your purchases are not being taken away. This shutdown only affects future purchases. https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/...

The ability to re-download purchases is being taken away and Nintendo doesn't provide a way to back them up.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#104

Post by OatmealDome »

ginko wrote: post #94
asdff wrote: post #5

What a shame the article spreads some fud about roms and diminishes the community, making it seem like a futile individual effort: "In order to play a game on an emulator, you need a copy of the original title, commonly saved as a ROM (or read-only memory) file. Depending on how the title is copied, what the condition of the cartridge or game disc is in, or the geographic region the game is locked to, you can find yo…

>Meanwhile, people have been distributing roms for 25 years, and the strength of the community ensures you don't get burned. Not just that, Nintendo got caught distributing community ROMs in their own virtual console.

I assume you mean Nintendo using the iNES file format to distribute NES ROM files?

All evidence currently points to them simply using the format (possibly because they hired an iNES developer way back in the day), not them selling you pirated ROMs.

For one, none of Nintendo's ROM files match any pre-existing ROM files you can find on the internet. [1]

During the gigaleak (an event where Nintendo's internal network was breached and many files were stolen), it was found that Nintendo has a vast archive of master ROMs that they pull from whenever they need to re-release a classic game. While they may use community-dumped ROMs for internal testing, they are highly insistent that they ship their own original copies in retail products. In fact, it was even found that they had a tool to convert from their internal format for storing NES ROMs (CHR and PRG ROM data stored in separate files) to the iNES format. [2]

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/uaszvp/no_ninten...

[2] https://luigiblood.tumblr.com/post/682410911082921985/no-nin...

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#105

Post by [deleted] »

jonny_eh wrote: post #68
ticviking wrote: post #12

My question in the face of these kinds of actions is what can a non-technical person do in the face of having access to their “purchases” taken away? My younger brother deals with autism and is worried that he won’t be able to play his games anymore if something happens. What’s the first place to go to to actually own what you bought on these platforms?

Your purchases are not being taken away. This shutdown only affects future purchases. https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/...

[deleted]

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#106

Post by coldacid »

cjsawyer wrote: post #85
billjings wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For organizations like the Video Game History Foundation ( https://gamehistory.org/ ) that are trying to preserve video games in an above board way, things really are as dire as this article describes. For VGHF to fulfill its mission, it's just not enough that this work is done. "Nobody is prosecuting us" isn't a firm enough foundation for an above board, charity funded organization that makes this work legal and acc…

This is something society needs to deal with. If not for groups like them eventually the media will be lost. IMO there should be a rule that if something isn’t for sale by the rights holder for X years it becomes legal to distribute copies freely.

Agreed, but that still wouldn't help with games that have primarily online experiences, because things like server programs and content management systems also need to be archived for those -- and these (almost) never reach the hands of the people.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#107

Post by Sakos »

giobox wrote: post #30
bentley wrote: post #24

It doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve been buying games on Steam for 15 years. Even my earliest purchases are still downloadable and playable, and have been on every PC I’ve owned, including most recently the Steam Deck. The same is true for my GOG library. Even more so, since I can (and do) save the DRM‐free installers of the games I buy. Don’t reward hostile media platforms with your money or your attention!

Steam has benefited from a long period of good quality stable leadership, but as Gabe gets older I get more and more concerned for Steam. I love the service, I've used it since launch alongside Half-Life 2 etc on PC, but I am extremely worried how it looks 15 years after Gabe Newell dies or sells. I would not be shocked to see Microsoft buy them in the end. There's no public plans for what Valve looks like in the pos…

Isn't Gabe one of the rich guys investing in life extension? If we're lucky, they figure it out before he dies and he can become Steam's eternal steward. Otherwise I absolutely see the platform going to shit once he's gone.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#108

Post by Sakos »

giobox wrote: post #35
la_oveja wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve is full of good people, like minded with Gabes ideas. I dont fear for Valve.

This simply won't matter if Gabe sells company to the "wrong" person/entity, which is a risk today.

This makes me curious about its ownership structure and what would happen if he died tomorrow.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#109

Post by AussieWog93 »

asdff wrote: post #5

What a shame the article spreads some fud about roms and diminishes the community, making it seem like a futile individual effort: "In order to play a game on an emulator, you need a copy of the original title, commonly saved as a ROM (or read-only memory) file. Depending on how the title is copied, what the condition of the cartridge or game disc is in, or the geographic region the game is locked to, you can find yo…

>Every game for every region has a rom already, for each game a few roms of "analytical grade" at this point, and its not hard to be pointed in the right direction these days.

It goes deeper than that. I run an online retro games business, and occasionally get extremely specific requests from the preservationists, like particular AU-exclusive serial numbers that still haven't been dumped.

The .iso for the PAL demo version of Sega Soccer 97 was from a disc in our possession too, although due to not realising what we had we let it go for $10...

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#110

Post by mid-kid »

asdff wrote: post #5

What a shame the article spreads some fud about roms and diminishes the community, making it seem like a futile individual effort: "In order to play a game on an emulator, you need a copy of the original title, commonly saved as a ROM (or read-only memory) file. Depending on how the title is copied, what the condition of the cartridge or game disc is in, or the geographic region the game is locked to, you can find yo…

Since the 3ds/wiiu, games are signed, and these signatures are difficult if not impossible to forge. This makes it really easy to verify whether a dump is correct, at least for the encrypted portions of a cartridge.
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