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Nintendo has reportedly suffered a significant legacy console leak

videogameschronicle.com

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Re: Nintendo has reportedly suffered a significant legacy console leak

#91

Post by JauntTrooper »

DanTheManPR wrote: post #67
izzydata wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Nintendo offered N64 games to be purchased for the Switch people would still pay for them in droves. It's weird that they don't offer so much of their past works in any legitimate capacity.

It's genuinely weird that they still don't have a virtual console for anything other than a select few NES games. We're midway through the Switch's lifecyle already!

It's also weird they haven't monetized phones further either.

I would expect a lot of NES / SNES / Gameboy games would do well on phones.

Super Mario 3 seems like it would do better than Super Mario Run.

Re: Nintendo has reportedly suffered a significant legacy console leak

#92

Post by derefr »

roblabla wrote: post #28

To be clear, this doesn't just contain the source code of the software. It also contains the Verilog for the N64 GPU and other important hardware component, which is hugely important. From what I gather, it also contains full version history from their VCS. While it is very interesting, it's worth noting that anybody hoping to use this for anything "serious" risks getting the Nintendo lawyers on their ass. Emulators…

> it's worth noting that anybody hoping to use this for anything "serious" risks getting the Nintendo lawyers on their ass. Emulators won't touch this, neither will console clones.

How about historians writing about Nintendo's development process by referencing the VCS history? Would they get in trouble?

Re: Nintendo has reportedly suffered a significant legacy console leak

#93

Post by 013a »

jrajav wrote: post #82
GuiA wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very cool story, and makes me want to learn more about Tamiya. But the situation does not seem the same to me. People are - for the most part - able to play the old Nintendo games they want through the virtual console, backwards compatibility, remakes, or NES/SNES mini. Yes, some N64 carts are selling for thousands on eBay - but that’s not preventing kids from playing that game if they want to.

The virtual console is exactly how Nintendo lost faith with loyal consumers who want to stay above board. They sold them on the Wii and many fans bought in - but their purchases were not maintained with their digital account for a Wii U update, instead they had to physically transfer them. So far, just annoyances though. The real problem came when they shipped the Switch with no virtual console at all. It's obviously…

The Switch has a NES/SNES virtual console; its unlimited access to every game available, bundled with the Nintendo Online subscription which costs $3/month or $20/year. There's maybe 30 or so games available for each of the old consoles. They even fake local multiplayer over Nintendo Online, allowing these classic games to be played with friends over the internet.

Gamecube emulation on the Switch may still be a little underpowered, just judging by the performance of the PC emulators (though, Nintendo has all the proprietary technical documentation and domain experts, so maybe not). Really, the N64 is the main console that people have wanted VC for, and have not gotten; an N64 VC would change the landscape for the Switch, that's for sure.

We've gotten some rumors that they're intending to release remakes of SM64, SMS, SMG, and possibly SMG2 as some kind of Mario Anniversary bundle this year. Frankly; while faithful copies of the original games with their original assets would be awesome, and I want that, I kind of want remakes more. I understand Nintendo's position here; the VC clearly did not make a tremendous amount of money. Maybe bundling with Nintendo Online will help fund more consoles and titles, but remakes are definitely easier to market and sell.

Re: Nintendo has reportedly suffered a significant legacy console leak

#94

Post by derefr »

Gorbzel wrote: post #54
cycloptic wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not an excuse. They can start with the parts they do have access to, while the community can work on (legally) getting the other information from the relevant rightsholders at SGI.

Actually, it very much is a valid reason. The hubris of those who believe other people should be forced to release their (not already subject to a copyleft license) work is the very antithesis of FOSS principles.

Not "should be forced to"; rather "the cat is out of the bag, they've already been exposed to all the downside of open-sourcing, so now there's only upside."

Re: Nintendo has reportedly suffered a significant legacy console leak

#95

Post by striking »

ginko wrote: post #83
zelon88 wrote: post #69

I like drawing metaphors from Tamiya. Tamiya is a Japanese scale modelling and remote-controlled vehicle company with a loooong history of making quality products that the industry just eats up. Like Nintendo, Tamiya has always been in the back row when it comes to technological innovation, but lead the pack when it came to functionality, reliability, and quality. Just like Nintendo, there are Tamiya fan clubs where…

One of my dreams was always if Nintendo released "development diary" editions of old titles(in particular Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time) where you'd get to try out a playable showcase of the game's builds at particular states in development from very early initial tests, to Alpha, Beta, various trade conference demos etc. Each with developer commentary, perhaps design sketches, deleted content and maybe maybe al…

You might enjoy the content on https://tcrf.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor and https://www.unseen64.net/, among others.

Re: Nintendo has reportedly suffered a significant legacy console leak

#96

Post by ginko »

BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #90
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #66

Modern Vintage Gamer just released a video [0] discussing this leak in greater detail along with its expected implications. Anyone who's curious can find the download links by backtracking through all the Pokemon Prototype General threads under the Pokemon board on 4chan. One of the leaks that caught my attention was the source for Pokemon Blue, partially because of nostalgia and partially out of curiosity to see wha…

The most shocking part of this story is still that Nintendo keeps all its code in CVS. CVS!!!

For game code written in the mid 90s I'm actually pleasantly surprized. I would have expected just a bunch of copied folders with weekly snapshots.

Re: Nintendo has reportedly suffered a significant legacy console leak

#97

Post by cycloptic »

ballenf wrote: post #77
cycloptic wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago I would have believed this, but current Nintendo consoles include many open source components: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/support/oss/ If this trend continues, it would be prudent of them to find bigger and better ways to contribute back.

I know what you mean and agree that companies using open source should contribute back to it. But I also think that the contribution to society from Nintendo's products should also be valued. Just because we pay for those games, doesn't mean our lives aren't better than they would be if the company didn't exist and we spent the money on something else. They also contribute by increasing the market competition for gam…

Just so you know where I'm coming from, I personally would not pay for those games because they're closed-source, and I would not buy from any of their market competitors either for the same reason. Admittedly I'm not much of a gamer, my idea of a fun weekend is spending it on github. So the innovation doesn't really benefit me.

Re: Nintendo has reportedly suffered a significant legacy console leak

#98

Post by ginko »

striking wrote: post #95
ginko wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my dreams was always if Nintendo released "development diary" editions of old titles(in particular Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time) where you'd get to try out a playable showcase of the game's builds at particular states in development from very early initial tests, to Alpha, Beta, various trade conference demos etc. Each with developer commentary, perhaps design sketches, deleted content and maybe maybe al…

You might enjoy the content on https://tcrf.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor and https://www.unseen64.net/ , among others.

Yeah, I'm aware of these. The point is these sites exist because the interest is there but game developers aren't interested in serving it. That's why people try to find leaked beta copies and even resort to hacking like here.

Re: Nintendo has reportedly suffered a significant legacy console leak

#99

Post by JansjoFromIkea »

zelon88 wrote: post #69

I like drawing metaphors from Tamiya. Tamiya is a Japanese scale modelling and remote-controlled vehicle company with a loooong history of making quality products that the industry just eats up. Like Nintendo, Tamiya has always been in the back row when it comes to technological innovation, but lead the pack when it came to functionality, reliability, and quality. Just like Nintendo, there are Tamiya fan clubs where…

I doubt it, Nintendo had huge success from the NES classic precisely because of their absurdly protective attitudes towards old games. They've managed to retain some level of serious value onto 35 year old games in an industry where many games are being given away for next to nothing within a few years of release.

I think they've pushed the NES stuff about as far as they possibly can and the NES classic was something of a final cash grab from those games, but they can absolutely still bleed some value from SNES onwards.

As far as that Tamiya model is concerned, surely Nintendo are doing about as close to that as they can within their medium with Link's Awakening on Switch? It's close to the exact same game, released at a price comparable to the original release, but with technological updates to make up for where the original would no longer match up?

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