Didn’t read the article, did Nintendo pay to develop this to be able to preserve the games history and release them for free so they can get some new fans for these retro games and IPs to maybe encourage them to buy some newer released games in the same series?
Maybe it was written that way to make you read faster as you get toward the end to convey a sense of facetiousness because I didn’t need to read the article to know none of that’s true, who knows. I’m probably just spending too much time online lately.
Exactly, with Nintendo’s existing IP and old gamers dying, they need a way to get younger generation exposed to what kids in the 80s and 90s grew up with and make sure that it’s plastered on all the streaming websites to get maximum exposure.
Has nothing to do with their closed eco system. They basically did similar stuff with some of the stuff in the sm3d collection thingy.
Nintendo is a company that only wants make new stuff, innovations.
For example, they ( mostly miyomoto ) has been quoted to not understand that people want another f-zero, as the game’s principals and ideas have been fully flushed out and no new ideas could make it feel like something new.
They also usually dont do remakes/remasters unless its so new/different it can be considered a new game ( see metroid 2 on 3ds ).
If that is a smart business position to have, i will leave for you to decide, but do get your facts a bit straight :)
EDIT: also, nintendo has used open source projects for internal projects before, so idk how “closed ecosystem” is part of their stuff :)
They basically did similar stuff with some of the stuff in the sm3d collection thingy.
They did not.
For Super Mario 64, they emulated it. They increased the resolution the game renders at (trivial with emulation of 3D systems) and they used basic LUA patches in the emulator to override HUD textures with higher resolution ones adjusted for the Switch controller.
They did not add any further enhancements in any way. Compared to even 64 DS, it was extremely sophomoric. Compared to the Super Mario 64 decomp project, and what its native switch port is capable of (more on that later), it’s an incredibly lazy port. They didn’t even fix the slowdown with Bowser’s Sub that is as simple as adjusting a single compiler flag when you build the ROM from the N64 game source code.
For Sunshine, it’s an admittedly impressive solution of mostly emulation with some sections of the game engine ported (I think it’s the audio processing?). Once again, the game is rendered at a higher resolution, but they did not redo ot improve further any textures (besides some of the HUD again), graphical effects, or game content. Wind Waker HD this ain’t.
For Galaxy they cannibalized the existing port of it to Android on the NVidia Shield. The Switch shares most of the important internals with it (CPU, GPU). It’s a combo of emulation with certain key code ported, like Sunshine. Again, besides resolution and HUD, no improvements.
Beyond that, Nintendo has been content to sell straight up emulation through the Virtual Console service since the Wii. They’ve had multiple instances of straight ports over the years, and some of the most popular Switch games are straight ports with DLC bundled in.
There are numerous impressive remakes they have done over the years, but that is absolutely not the norm.
The Super Mario 64 decomp on the Switch supports (not available in Nintendo’s official port in 3D All Stars):
Effectively infinite render distance for objects (coins, enemies, stars, etc)
60 fps (compared to the original/all stars 30fps at best)
True analog camera control using the right stick (All Stars is just the original’s clunky button based control mapped to the stick)
All sorts of QoL options like collecting stars not kicking you out of a level, options for streamlined/faster message boxes
Optional bugfixes
Optional cheats
Variety of HD texture packs to choose from
Variety of higher quality 3D model packs to choose from
Support for an astounding variety of mods. Levels, entire new games, new characters, new movement and control options (Odyssey Mario in 64 with full cappy and enemy capture mechanics anyone?)
Support for many more languages
Nearly all of the above is toggleable mid-game from the pause menu.
I don’t think anyone was expecting something amazing out of 3D All Stars, but they absolutely fucking phoned it in.
Ye, the sm64 was just a jit emulation, you are correct there. Not gonna deny that either. The sms and smg emulations are interesting and impressive though. They basically use a combination of jit compilation and aot compilation to basically take in the rom and adjust code as they go, but its technically running +/- natively, if i read the switchbrew wiki page correctly, thanks to the aot compilation. I find that impressive, from a technical standpoint.
Could they have added more and do more changes? Yes, ofcourse. Im not saying the fan made stuff isnt impressive, it is and i love it!
But for nintendo, who strives to create new experiences and things, not rehashing older stuff, is why they kept it basic. For them adding that stuff doesnt make sense as the game doesnt add new enough experiences. They dont care if a bug is fixed or graphics are improved. Those dont get you new experiences or gameplay mechanics. Thats what nintendo strives for.
Again, if that is a good stance to have as a company i leave up to others to make opinions on, thats not up to me to decide or voice my opinion on ^^
Fyi, since you seem to know what youre talking about, nintendo’s r&d have used open source projects before internally and we assume it is done to look at older games and see how they worked or if they could be used to make projects like sm3d ( without doing what the license doesnt permit )
And, ironically, Odyssey at least re-uses almost all of it from time to time. Sure, the movement is slightly different, but it’s the same game they’ve been making since SM64. The 3D Super Mario games at least are all almost identical, with different worlds and slightly different movement.
Damn you got mob downvoted for explaining exactly how Nintendo thinks. You’re absolutely right. People don’t seem to want to accept that Nintendo operates as an idea toy company. Once they’ve explored a new idea/gimmick they consider it completed and move on.
Haha, i kinda expected it tbh. The internet hates nintendo and doesnt know how they operate internally. Still wanted to make the comment, as it is needed.
Except they don’t? What about Odyssey was new? It’s just a new version of SM64. Sure, it’s got a few different mechanics than SM64, Sunshine, and Galaxy, but those are all the same game at the core, right? This isn’t the only series they do like this.
Barely. Odyssey even specifically references most of the older games to point out how it’s very similar. They all add a small movement mechanic, but other than that jumping has been the same since SM64.
If we say the Mario games are totally different and don’t reuse ideas, no game does. Literally every game changes at least something small. Hell, patches in some games change more than what has changed between those games.
Also, check out this video. It has a lot of side-by-side comparisons of SM64 and Odyssey.
The developers wouldn’t argue it isn’t treading the same ground. In some cases, they literally have you tread the same ground. They send you back to Peach’s castle, just like we’re back in SM64. They know they’re running off of nostalgia.
Every game repeats stuff from older games. The 3D Super Mario games do this more than most. Call of Duty has changed more than these games have.
I can’t think of another series that repeats the same things, tell you explicitly as part of the game that it’s repeating the same things, and then has fans argue it isn’t repeating things again. Of course it is. We all know if is, and that’s part of why it sells. There’s so much nostalgia bait because they know the nostalgia is what sells a lot of their games.
I haven’t owned a Nintendo console since the SNES, but I’ve played a bit of SM64, a good chunk of Sunshine, and most of Odyssey (all when they were new, not since). I can tell how much they all share and I’m not even a fan of the games. An honest fan would agree.
For example, they ( mostly miyomoto ) has been quoted to not understand that people want another f-zero, as the game’s principals and ideas have been fully flushed out and no new ideas could make it feel like something new.
This is also why we’ll never get another Star Fox.
I didn’t realise so many non-Nintendo studios made games for Nintendo. I’m not a console gamer so I wouldn’t know. You should have posted this the first time, but I guess now you understood their point. You’re welcome :)
They also usually dont do remakes/remasters unless its so new/different it can be considered a new game ( see metroid 2 on 3ds ).
Most of the games on that list fit that definition. Stuff like Zero Mission are extremely different from the original games.
Of course then you also have stuff like BDSP so it’s debatable whether they’ve kept up their policies in recent times, but you could definitely see that in the past.
Hell even the list of Wii-U games ported to the Switch is staggering. As an early adopter of the Wii-U, implying Nintendo doesn’t like rehashing old ideas is laughable.
And why shouldn’t they? This is blatant piracy of the source material, not to mention unauthorized usage of their intellectual property per the Digital Melenium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1996 hereby specifying in section 2.1 article C clause 7, quot: “In accordance with the applicable intellectual property laws, the registered holder of digital ownership is hereby prohibited from editing or modifying third-party copies of copyrighted material without the explicit consent or authorization of the copyright holder. Any such unauthorized usage constitutes a violation of the copyright holder’s exclusive rights and may result in legal action under the relevant statutes.”
Sorry to interject but I graduated from law school and blatant disrespect to copyright law like this urks me. I will let it slide and not report this post, but I would recommend at least putting a disclaimer or rewording it to avoid a lawsuit from Nintendo.
It won’t help emulation but on pc/steamdeck you can natively compile it so that there no need for it anymore. Not sure about smartphone but I’m sure that it should be possible!
Yes, that was kind of my point. N64 emulation on handhelds often sucks. So being able to have games recompiled to be better optimized on something like the Miyoo Mini would be great. While it is cool for the PC because it can allow for enhancements much more easily, just getting games up and running at a minimum is not an issue for any PC made in the last decade or two.
Why is n64 emulation so bad in particular? I got my girlfriend one of those handhelds preloaded up with roms and although I haven’t tried any n64 games it seems to run other 3d games from other consoles of that Era fine. Also I remember having an n64 emulator on my modded original xbox that could run games fine, I played through all of mario64 on it during quarantine before I built a new gaming pc. I feel like handhelds should have similar power to an old Xbox by now but maybe not.
unique hardware that doesnt follow the conventions of standard hardware, so you have to write code to get around that fact. Take for example one of the reason why Wii/GC development went fast eas because the PowerPC processor is fairly well documented, similar to the Tegra X1 with the switch. Its always obscure hardware that makes hardware emulation harder (e.g PS3, Sega Saturn)
Well, usually those re-compilers or transpilers just translate the binary to some sort of intermediate language and then any backend should be able to compile it for your target system. So, in theory those handheld could be targeted. Problem with this project is that it’s not just “start transpiler, load rom, click go and your port is ready”. It’s more like "ok, here’s your game logic. Now implement the rest (or use several other projects and duct tape their libraries together to get what you want).
It’s referring to both. The recompiler links to the Zelda project and basically tells you “if you want to haven an example how to.proceed/what to implement yourself after the recompilation finished, you can use the Zelda project as an example”.
The keyboard controls are very janky. You’d have to do custom button mapping with a controller, and there’s no analog input. At least not without some mods that I’m not sure exist.
IIRC, the original cartridge had an extra chip in it that emulation hasn’t been able to use. I’m not sure if any progress has been made on this and a few other games that used these.
I’m pretty sure that has been able to be emulated and run through most emulation software now. These Star Wars games had specific code and drivers that, when I looked up why it wouldn’t emulate years ago, had not been cracked open to get the source code to enable people to program it into emulation software.
Nah it didn’t have an extra chip – but large portions of the game were written in microcode for the N64’s processor specifically. It’s part of what makes it and Rogue Squadron kind of a pain to emulate – along with using their own audio drivers (MoSYS/MusyX that were later used as the basis for the GameCube sound systems).
IIRC there was an official Windows port at some point though. Not sure how well it worked or works on modern systems.
Wait… Y’all are talking about X-Wing: Rogue Squadron and Star Wars Episode 1: Battle for Naboo, right?
I owned those windows ports!
They worked great back in the day - I had such a blast with them that I begged my parents to get me a shitty Logitech joystick! If you want to check them out, it looks like Rogue Squadron is only $10 on Steam; and Battle for Naboo seems to be abandonware, but it seems to be hosted on a lot of “better spread than dead” game sites.
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