Honestly, a bit surprised by this. It wasn’t even on Steam. Hopefully switching to an open source SDK will get this back up.

  • Mango@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    How do grown ass adults look at this and think anything other than “damn, that’s pretty cool!”? Literally nobody and no company has any conceivable money to lose over this and couldn’t convince me otherwise. Law should have nothing to do with all this pussyfooting about legality.

    • torvusbogpod@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Valve removed it because it used official N64 APIs that Nintendo holds as classified information. I think if it had totally been bottom-up crafted from scratch, it would have survived. But Valve does NOT wanna deal with a Nintendo lawyer.

      • Mango@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Right, but what the heck is up with Nintendo clinging into ancient obsolete stuff? They’re not stupid right?

        • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          Yes, Nintendo is stupid. They see capitalism as a zero-sum game, and so any time someone has or keeps their own money, that’s the same as Nintendo losing that money, so they do whatever they’re legally able to do to ruin people financially, going as far as taking 30% of your income for the rest of your life if you do wrong by them.

        • ShustOne@lemmy.one
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          6 months ago

          No but Nintendo is fiercely protective of all of its IP. We know there’s not really harm being done here but it is within their rights to block this and that is the road they always choose.

      • hikaru755@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Wait but why is Valve involved at all, then? Not like it’s their fault that some people they have nothing to do with are building a game based on those APIs, so shouldn’t Nintendo approach the developers of the port directly instead?

        • viking@infosec.pub
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          6 months ago

          Valve holds the copyright to Portal, so Nintendo probably just “encouraged” them to pull some strings.

        • mint_tamas@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Nintendo sues everyone they encounter in the faintest context of their IP with the power of a thousand suns. See also, the failed launch if Dolphin on Steam. Valve is justifiably cautious here.

      • Demdaru@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I may be overinterpreting this but it almooost seems, if you stretch it a bit, as if valve saved poor guys. Valve said stop, Nintendo’d say pay up.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Why do grown adults keep using IP copyrighted by big companies? Unofficial ports, unofficial remakes, unofficial sequels, etc. get taken down all the time and yet constantly the creators think “no, my project is special. It’ll be spared that fate” and almost every time they’re wrong.

      A Portal-like game without using Portal assets and Valve had no leg to stand on…

      • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        A Portal-like game without using Portal assets and Valve had no leg to stand on…

        This wasn’t taken down because it was based on Portal. It has nothing to do with Portal or Valve, really. It was taken down becuase it uses the official N64 SDK, which is still for some reason considered “confidential.” Valve said to take it down either under duress from Nintendo, or because Valve expected to be under duress from Nintendo and didn’t want to be. If it had used the libdragon API library instead of Nintendo’s official one, then this wouldn’t have happened and Nintendo would have been told to bite rocks.

        • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          You have no clue. It was Valve who issued the DMCA takedown. Yes, based on the wrong argument that APIs are copyrighted by Nintendo but Valve cannot take down random software. They are only involved because it uses Portal assets.

          • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            I think you need to read the comment you replied to again.

            Here’s the bullet points:

            Valve doesn’t want Nintendo getting involved

            Valve think Nintendo will get involved because the project is using confidential Nintendo code

            Valve think Nintendo may litigate (or are already) against them because Portal is Valve’s IP

            Valve want it down so Nintendo can’t mistake it to be Valve’s responsibility and so Valve don’t get the blame

            • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Valve is only involved because the game uses Valve’s assets. It’s not so hard to understand. Nintendo didn’t even issue the takedown. Valve did.

              • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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                6 months ago

                Neither I or the person you replied to have said Nintendo have issued this takedown. That is not what we said

                  • verysoft@kbin.social
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                    6 months ago

                    You are both correct, Valve don’t want to deal with Nintendo. Nintendo wouldnt like this project because it uses their proprietary SDK. Portal is Valve’s IP, so it would be Valve getting the call from Nintendo (or they already did), so Valve had to request a takedown.

          • LinyosT@sopuli.xyz
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            6 months ago

            It wasn’t a DMCA. They advised the dude to take it down due to Nintendo bring Nintendo.

            This information is really easy to look up.

            • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              It wasn’t a DMCA. They advised the dude to take it down due to Nintendo bring Nintendo.

              This information is really easy to look up.

              People here are constantly claiming that Nintendo demanded from Valve to take action in order to not get sued. I suggest you complain to the paid authors of PC Gamer because they are the ones writing about Valve lawyers: “there’s at least a possibility Valve could end up sucked into a dispute over it. Even if it’s only tangential involvement, Valve’s lawyers may have just decided that it’s not worth the headache.”

      • nbafantest@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        It started out as a fun project by just a normal guy.

        It is literally not possible to make a game like this any other way.

        I would bet the concept goes underground and continues tho.

        • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          He uses Valve IP, therefore Valve was even the position to make any demands in the first place.

          Valve cannot just go through the homebrew community and demand takedowns of random games. They could in this case solely because they own the assets. How is this so hard to understand that I have to repeat myself over and over again?

    • dezmd@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Why would a grown ass adult put so much effort into an unlicensed dupilcation of copyrighted IP (Valve) and build it on top of a system from a company known for ridiculous enofrcement of IP that had a walled garden of access to their game system IP that is protected by the copyright cabal supported DMCA?

      There’s more sides and nuance to all of this.

      He could’ve made Portal in the style of a 90s console instead of directly declaring it N64 and only had to tend with permission for it as a mod from Valve’s sometimes permissive pov without crazy assed 'Tendo being involved.

      • Mango@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Because that’s cool as fuck.

        If he did it your way, that defeats the purpose of the constraints in the exercise.

        • dezmd@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          It’s ‘cool as fuck’ right up until he gets personally sued out of existence by Nintendos balls crazy legal team.

          The excercise maybe made sense 10 years ago, before we all became were aware of just how uninterested Nintendo gets over cool shit that used any of their licensed technology.