Nintendo Crack Down on Legal Homebrew

[wraggster]

PeterM a respected coder in the PSP scene has today posted news on our Wii-News (http://wii-news.dcemu.co.uk/the-latest-wii-system-update-breaks-sd-media-launcher-70527.html) site that the latest system update for the Nintendo Wii has stopped the SD Media Launcher from working.

A sad moment when legal homebrew is attacked.

DIGG THIS NEWS (http://digg.com/nintendo_wii/Wii_System_Update_Breaks_SD_Media_Launcher)

http://digg.com/nintendo_wii/Wii_System_Update_Breaks_SD_Media_Launcher

[Pilot_51]

If illegal copies of anything could be used with that, I can't blame them. Otherwise, if it only ran homebrew and they stopped it from working on purpose, then I guess I can blame them.

[Xiofire]

Im gonna guess that NES/SNES/Megadrive could be run through this SD Media Loader? Posed a treat to Virtual Console Sales perhaps? Only real reason i can see Nintendo taking such action. Money.
-Xiofire

[PeterM]

I could be on for a triple whammy of news posts tonight if Wraggy twigs that there's an open beta of Quake for the GameCube available for download now...
http://code.google.com/p/quake-gamecube/

:o

[atani]

Yes, this device did have the potential to take revenue away from Nintendo for the Virtual Console titles. Unfortunately this also prevents people like myself from testing/releasing anything for the Wii/GC without purchasing a dev kit from them. With their current restrictions on who they will sell a kit to it makes it very hard to obtain. I can qualify for all but one of their restrictions, the problem for me is that I work out of a home office. They specifically state that a home office is against their rules. That said, I could easily rent space for a non-home office from my father-in-law but it would be less secure than my home office.

Maybe in some time I will end up with a dev kit, until then I will keep working on the PC and then tinker with the NDS/DC for my games.

Mike

[waco13]

Any way to rent the non-home space long enough to qualify then drop it later once you get what you want? Or rent the space and work from home anyway? Not sure how it works, I don't think they would use spy tactics to make sure you comply 24/7.

[mcdougall57]

i just dont think theyre too happy with the snes, nes and megadrive being emulated coz they want you to buy their games from the virtual console

[PeterM]

I'd have been more inclined to buy VC games if they actually worked on my TV set.

[atani]

Any way to rent the non-home space long enough to qualify then drop it later once you get what you want? Or rent the space and work from home anyway? Not sure how it works, I don't think they would use spy tactics to make sure you comply 24/7.

I could probably get the space for free if I ask about it. The bigger problem is that they do actively check on their licensed developers to some extent.

At this point though, I will keep with what is going now and if they do release their rumored "homebrew" channel then I will certainly participate in that.

Mike

[DimensionT]

i just dont think theyre too happy with the snes, nes and megadrive being emulated coz they want you to buy their games from the virtual console

Yep, they want us to pay for games that we already own... Just so we can play them on a new system.

Same with the PSP playing PS1 games.

[werpu]

I'd have been more inclined to buy VC games if they actually worked on my TV set.

Yes this is a huge problem, the funny thing is, the emulators if started in the sd media launcher basically render the games fine due to upscaling, the original vc games however just cause broken screens on many modern tv sets.

[gu3]

im ok i have a wii which isnt gunna be getting updated.....

[werpu]

Im gonna guess that NES/SNES/Megadrive could be run through this SD Media Loader? Posed a treat to Virtual Console Sales perhaps? Only real reason i can see Nintendo taking such action. Money.
-Xiofire

Yes, I assume the VC is the reason, but the main problem is, the emulators on the GC are very good, the emulator on the VC is rather shoddy.

Nintendo basically emulates the core engine and does not even do upscaling which causes a lot of problems.

The normal emulators, do upscaling, they allow save anywhere via mem dump etc...
(Some of them even already have a rewind.)
So if you are unable to beat them on technical merits, shut them out :-(

I stopped buying from the VC once I ran into scaling issues caused by snes and nes games, and braking the sd loader wont bring me back. Or to sum it up, no working game, no sell period!

[DKing]

Not to mention that VC titles go for at least twice as much as they really should.

[Gnimm]

This is one of the reasons I don't have my Wii connected to WiiConnect24. I'm going to be pissed if Super Mario Galaxy or some other game I want comes packed with the update though.

[ish420ism]

Sounds like the homebrew emus run better than the official vc emu. are there any improvements to the firmware other than homebrew stopage??

[Gunnex]

This is stupid.
My action replay is no longer working and I was about to order an SD adapter for SDload.

[VampDude]

im ok i have a wii which isnt gunna be getting updated.....

Are you not going to use it then? Nintendo enforce updates, the last time there was an update I was unable to purchase from the Wii Shop until I updated and when I updated I could finally buy my Virtual Console titles.

[JKKDARK]

wow I can't believe, this is the end of Wii homebrew

[Joe88]

This is stupid.
My action replay is no longer working and I was about to order an SD adapter for SDload.

my old one for gamecube still works

though it very odd
to make it work on the Wii
you must insert the disk in the top
what I mean is , the wii is standing vertical
do not insert the disk from the bottom or middle
do it from the very top and it works

also the memory card says its corrupted when trying to load a game save, just pull out the card and reinsert it

it works fine

[zeromission80]

They still work from disc, just use the emu's from a dvd like i've always done.... much less hastle if you ask me:thumbup: of course this means modding your drive :D

[geise69]

Well...it looks like Wii homebrew is going the way of the PS2. You'll have to mod your system in order to run any homebrew. Kind of a shame. As for the games costing too much, I do agree somewhat. The N64 games are overpriced, so are most of the NES and Genesis games. However the TG-16 games and SNES games are very reasonable. Hmm...6 bucks for Airzonk on VC or 28-60 bucks on ebay? The same goes for snes games. 8 bucks really isn't to bad. I still have a regular tv so the games look great for me. I think the snes emulator on the VC is quite good, especially from the sound standpoint. SNES9X never had that great of a sound core. BSNES and SNESGT are the only snes emu's that are spot on for sound. Anyways this really does suck because I haven't messed with the SD Loader yet but have really wanted too. I still haven't updated my Wii yet and I might not since I haven't bought a VC game in a few months.

[chrisr321]

dammit
all this just had 2 happen at the same time the competition wuz goin on

[the_eternal_dark]

Yep, they want us to pay for games that we already own... Just so we can play them on a new system.

Same with the PSP playing PS1 games.

I'm totally sure you "own" the originals of the games you downloaded.....

People, you have some loose and weak excuses for downloading roms.

There is no way for Nintendo to actively check to see if you do really own those games or "own" them. Nintendo, Sega, Sony, etc don't have records of those old game sales to each individual. Plus, those games on the vc are really dirt cheap. I'd say leave emulation to hardware that doesn't already play the games natively. I do think that it would be called piracy to play those "backups" of the games that are available on the vc via an exploit, would you not agree?

My excuse? I am for the free exchange of "any" software available. My collection of roms I "own" grows daily.

I'm willing to bet that the emus for vc do get fixed in the near future, but only if everyone that has problems with them actually complains about them, not looking for another alternative to run them. And the price is probably to offset the costs of running the servers to host the games/apps for sale/download on the wii shop.

Funny eh? I love nintendo and emulation. I'm giving everyone a hard time, but just for the fun of it. Enjoy your stuff, you've paid for at one time, or even stuff you haven't bought. Its all good and inevitable.

[DimensionT]

80% of the stuff on the VC I do actually own... And still own. Why would I want to buy them again? Sure I'd be able to play them all with one little box, but then again I could just hook up my old systems and play them like that (though it would take up space I don't have). That's where homebrew emulators come in.

The only roms for games I "own" that I have, are games like Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean for the SNES. Trust me, if I could find them for under 150 bucks I would buy them in a heart beat. They'd make awesome additions to my collection.

[cal360]

Why is it rthat we have something that works it's blocked? Just so they can get more money from people who already own the games?

[the_eternal_dark]

80% of the stuff on the VC I do actually own... And still own. Why would I want to buy them again? Sure I'd be able to play them all with one little box, but then again I could just hook up my old systems and play them like that (though it would take up space I don't have). That's where homebrew emulators come in.

The only roms for games I "own" that I have, are games like Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean for the SNES. Trust me, if I could find them for under 150 bucks I would buy them in a heart beat. They'd make awesome additions to my collection.

From a business point of view (say you were Nintendo for a minute), how could you/would you believe that someone says that they actually own a game that was once released 5, 10, 20 years ago? Would you have your customers mail in their original copies of the games to have them redone to be played on a new system, which would take more time and money than needed? Or would you offer said customer a way to play the old games on the new console, for a nominal fee? From a business standpoint, it would be better to just charge for the service to emulate those games. From the customer's standpoint, why not give them an adapter to play the old games (though it would take up a lot of room).

If you already have the games and the original systems to run them, why not just use those? or emulate them on PC? The GC controller sucks for emulation (unless you bought the Hori snes style pad, which rocks). Or go out and mod a gamecube since they are dirt cheap.

Seriously though, $10 for a game is dirt cheap. Skip eating at those fast food restaurants for a week and you could afford the games via the vc.


Why is it rthat we have something that works it's blocked? Just so they can get more money from people who already own the games?

It's kinda like the reason why Microsoft doesn't like Linux. Because it's free and takes away business/market share (though realistically not a whole lot).


Seriously, the next person who bitches about pricing or that they already "own" the games needs to get slapped. This just circulates back to the discussion of modchips; its not that people really do want to run homebrew, its that most people play homebrew AND pirated goods. In the case of the SD Loader method, running "backed up" games you "own" that are also provided by nintendo for sale would technically be piracy in some countries. Check Nintendo's legal info site: http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp. Be sure to read the section on Roms, Modchips, etc. "Backups" are considered illegal because of the circumvention of the copy protection in any medium to copy the original data.

I own a number of "backed up" os's, but what gives me the right to complain about the manufacturer/developer that my backup won't work like the original or that certain things need to be checked before running updates or any proprietary software. Would I have any right? Hell no. It's a COPY. It's all legal issues, play fair or not at all (or find a better way to do so).

Anyone care to drop or close this discussion yet?