Dolphin and Nintendo

[ExtremeDude2]

(05-08-2013, 10:41 AM)noah Wrote: Hopefully the people who fell for Dolphin Pro read that ^^

But they made it so why can't they charge for it? You can charge people for thing you based off open source as long as you have permission.

[Xalphenos]

Permission didn't stop Datel from adding UMCDR support to their Action Replay Max Evo for PS2.

[NaturalViolence]

noah Wrote:They could actually do something like that with all of their systems. Since the Wii U is so expensive to make, they could turn it into a PC program and have you buy the games from a steam-like store. The store would have Wii U section and a section for every system, so it would be a universal emulator for every system.

In addition to what MaJoR said being true I would like to add that:
1. Good emulators cost millions or tens of millions of dollars to make and require beastly PCs. It would be highly unlikely that nintendo would make enough revenue from this new platform to support the development of the emulator.
2. Emulating the Wii U accurately at fullspeed is likely impossible with modern hardware no matter what nintendo does.

If you're instead saying that they begin releasing PC games with their own controller and digital distribution platform then that would cause them to basically forfeit the console market which generates far more revenue.

Both ideas are not good from a business standpoint.

[Starscream]

Imagine the Zelda or Mario game they could create for the PC, the possibilities would be limitless. It will happen one day, don't rain on my parade.

[lamedude]

N has been spreading this FUD since day one and now that N uses emulators they should STFU.

[Shonumi]

@ED2 - Actually, you can sell any program you made with code from or licensed under the GPL. The only requirement is that you make the source code available with a license that grants the same freedoms (a lot of other FOSS licenses are compatible with the GPL). Nintendo could up an take Dolphin's code, throw a bunch of money and devs (not too much though, the Dolphin team has already done a great job ) and sell it outright to the public, as long as they published or made available at request the source code.

@noah - Legally in the US, from what I understand (the court cases mentioned by MaJoR), emulators themselves as programs are 100% legal to use. There's a strong legal precedent for that. Nintendo would rather you be ignorant and willing to do as they say. Hey, they are a company motivated by profits. Both dumping games and emulation itself are covered under Fair Use. Canadians have long had the right to do format transfers as well. I was going to do a write-up for my blog about this, picking apart Nintendo's arguments one-by-one. Maybe I'll do that some time soon.

The only real concern applies to the ill-conceived DMCA, specifically the part about digital "locks" and circumvention, sometimes refered to as DRM. This is what stops software like libdvdcss (for decryting DVDs) and the act of unlocking your cellphone illegal. Essentially, given the broad language unfortunately used in the DMCA, if you have to decrypt your game , then you're probably running afoul of the law. AFAIK, this isn't an issue with Wii or GC games (WADs maybe?). I believe DS games can be encrypted, and a number of PSX games with anti-piracy technology were released as well, although they would have had to be published before October 28, 1998 for the DMCA's DRM section to apply. The PSP is the only other system I can think of that you can emulate whose encrypted games would fall under the DMCA. Nevertheless, no one gives a flying f***, neither the companies making the games (they don't sue), nor everyday gamers (they don't get sued). The DRM section of the DMCA is widely ignored (know someone who unlocked a phone?) and out of touch with our modern society. There's talk of reviewing it; there's hope for a modicum of sanity at least.

So in conclusion, the legal logic behind that page you linked to is laughably inaccurate. I love Nintendo and the games they make, but I know FUD when I see it. The end of the matter is that you shouldn't worry. Time will vindicate the emulation scene anyway :p

@SS - I would imagine that Nintendo will have to detach themselves from their own hardware in order for them to make software on other platforms. One could argue that other companies do it just fine. Look at Capcom; they've published numerous games on consoles and PCs (Mega Man, Resident Evil, Street Fighter too iirc). But it probably has to do a lot with Nintendo's brand and identity in their own hardware. Sony doesn't just make Playstations; they're known for other things (electronics). Microsoft doesn't just make Xboxes; they're known for other things as well (some obscure OS, various software). Nintendo just makes consoles, handhelds, and games (they don't make hanafuna cards like they used to ). They're probably not willing, as a company, to dilute that bit of their identity.

Not just yet anyway Times change; we all know that. Super Smash Bros. online play would be wicked if you could host your own servers and games, rather than Nintendo's own proprietary network. The online life of games would be extended well in decades for some of the most popular games. There are still people willing to play Melee and Double Dash via Dolphin's netplay.

[RDilus]

funny that nintendo says basicly everytime, we don't want emulators because we lose money on it.
but some users don't have the consoles or have it but just want to play in HD and they own the game.

---

btw love this line

How Come Nintendo Does Not Take Steps Towards Legitimizing Nintendo Emulators?
Emulators developed to play illegally copied Nintendo software promote piracy. <<<<<<<<<

promote piracy ?
REALLY NINTENDO XD, just no!

[neobrain]

(05-08-2013, 10:15 AM)ExtremeDude2 Wrote:

(05-08-2013, 09:19 AM)AnyOldName3 Wrote: If I was nintendo, I'd release my own version of Dolphin (probably based on Dolphin, as it's open source, so I could use it for free), and then charge people to use it,

That contradicts itself as you can't charge people to use anything based off dolphin because of its license

The GPL doesn't prevent you from selling software. In fact, you can take any GPL software out there and sell it. The GPL explicitly states that this is possible. I'm not sure if it's possible to sell a piece of software without giving any sort of support, though.

Quote: 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

(05-08-2013, 12:46 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote: 2. Emulating the Wii U accurately at fullspeed is likely impossible with modern hardware no matter what nintendo does.

I imagine the WiiU to be a really good target for HLE'ing most of the non-CPU related pieces of hardware. The CPU emulation would be a problem, though, indeed.

[ExtremeDude2]

(05-08-2013, 03:15 PM)Shonumi Wrote: @ED2 - Actually, you can sell any program you made with code from or licensed under the GPL. The only requirement is that you make the source code available with a license that grants the same freedoms (a lot of other FOSS licenses are compatible with the GPL). Nintendo could up an take Dolphin's code, throw a bunch of money and devs (not too much though, the Dolphin team

I knew that if someone asked you have to give the source, but I didn't know the other part :p