After a rough week, the emulation and homebrew scene continues to suffer major losses. As of today, homebrew developer Steveice10's GitHub repository has been deleted. A known quantity in the 3DS homebrew scene, Steveice10 created important tools for the system such as a modified sysupdater, a port of GBC emulator GameYob to the 3DS, and most importantly, FBI title manager, which allows users to install .CIA format 3DS titles and homebrew.

FBI has not been updated since 2020, and was considered feature-complete, with its source code available and the project archived, but it was suddenly removed from GitHub today, along with all of his other projects. The exact reasoning behind the removal isn't known, though the timing implies it may be related to other events happening in the emulation and homebrew scene recently.

Source

 

[DragonMals]

Even with all of the workarounds people can discover and act, the disheartening feeling of Yuzu and Citra getting canceled, Emulation Station getting pulled from Amazon Store, Drastic from Google Play, and now FBI is just a sad month for homebrew fans.

I don't know if someone in the dolphin discord has ever asked the developers if they're shutting down or not but I hope that dolphin isn't the next emulator that will get taken down.

 

[Guacaholey]

Pussies be folding left and right...

What's next, Dolphin devs going dark?
mGBA? VBA-M? Desmume?

Stop caving to the pressures just because 2 emus got taken down, for fuck's sake...

Especially with CFWs requiring signature patches for FBI to install copyrighted content.

 

[linkinworm]

I feel like Nintendo went after yuzu purely because it's an emulator that is for Nintendo's current system. And that's literally it. Since it can eat into profits of people not buying a switch and the games. Maybe there was a clause for citra to be taken down too if Nintendo is planning on adding 3ds games to the switch 2 maybe for vc

 

[aqua4426]

Steveice10's whole GitHub account was removed, seems like it was done knowingly.
From speculations of other sources, it seems like he did this due to his involvement in helping out with the development of the Citra emulator.
But as the real reason, no one knows yet.

if he was involved in the citra/yuzu space doesn't it mean its unsafe for him to be invlved in nintendo homebrew projects ? hoping am wrong

 

[KeeperCP1]

At least you can still install CIAs through GodMode9. Select a cia and then choose "Install game image"

 

[Dimensional]

Still have the source on another github archive. Universal DB directs to it.

 

[realtimesave]

JelOS for powkiddy and abernic devices also got taken down today. Sucks.

 

[subcon959]

I recall FBI being painfully slow on 3DS. Using a PC app like custom-install directly to SD card was much better.

 

[JakobAir]

Somebody may have posted this already, but I haven't read through the whole thread. I have a severe sinus infection and I barely know who I am at the moment. Anyway, here's the latest FBI.zip uploaded before the GitHub collapsed.

P.S. I hope this NyQuil doesn't make me UA a false positive on the meth portion of the 5 panel at work. I'm leaking neon.

 

[kuro0628neko]

I can't believe I'm saying it, but I think I may be done supporting Nintendo entirely. I will still buy my 3DS physical cartridges because I like to have them, but from this point out I'm plundering the 7 seas

 

[CHLOE_AKABANE]

AGENT

 

[namikaze]

Fuck.... and i just ordered a 3DS yesterday in order to homebrew it.

here's the latest release if you need it

 

[CaliousKai]

Hopefully this didn't attract the FBI.
Still, since it's remained static since 2020, I'm sure there's plenty of people with the latest version who could archive it.

For fuck's sake Nintendo just STOP

Ha already sorted i got the file aswell as the other install files so up yours nintendo! My consolesnu ditch are staying modded so meh

 

[PopcornSweetie]

here's the latest release if you need it

I don't think you are allowed to share it on GBATemp. Mods quote me on this please, i might be wrong, but is posting .cias like this against the rules?

But thanks for the share.

 

[Koldur]

I don't think you are allowed to share it on GBATemp. Mods quote me on this please, i might be wrong, but is posting .cias like this against the rules?

But thanks for the share.

I wouldn't think this one is a problem. The dev of this homebrew CIA stopped, it hasn't been deemed illegal and isn't copywrited.

Sharing a game's CIA is a different story.

 

[PopcornSweetie]

I wouldn't think this one is a problem. The dev of this homebrew CIA stopped, it hasn't been deemed illegal and isn't copywrited.

Sharing a game's CIA is a different story.

Ahh, yes, that makes sense. Speaking off, some homebrew devs also shared .cias here of there programs. It is indeed game .cias that is not allowed here. I wasn't sure because the ToS said .cias but didn't mentioned homebrew .cias.

 

[a_username_that_isnt_cool]

At least it wasn't updated since 2020, so plenty of people have the latest version, myself included.
And we also have that fork SylverReZ linked, so it's not like the source code is gone too.

 

[Halbour]

The Internet: where men are men, women are men, children are men and Nintendo is FBI who is able to remove anything of the Internet.

Listen up this is my signature from now on bro

 

[MaverickZero1987]

You really have no clue how corporate law works... stop it with the vilain fantasy. It's just a corporation actively protecting its assets. If Nintento is so bad, why even bother being interested in their platform and playing their games.

Speaking as someone who is currently playing a hacked Wii U as I am typing this (with games installed via WiiU USB Helper), I agree with you. This whole "NiNtEnDo Is ThE aNtIcHrIsT" attitude/sentiment is quite absurd, if you ask me. Do I think that Nintendo can be too heavy-handed in defending its IPs? Yes. However, if you invested significant time, effort, and money into creating something (with no guarantee that it would succeed), would you want people ripping it off/being able to rip it off willy-nilly? Ultimately, it's not about the money--it's about the principle of the matter, something I believe that the whole "nInTeNdO iS tHe DeViL" crowd either doesn't understand, or refuses to acknowledge.

On another note, those who march under the "muh game preservation" banner fail to realize that we are not entitled to even that. This is ultimately a LUXURY and not a necessity. While I do think it would be highly unfortunate if legitimate efforts at video game preservation become collateral damage due to the supposed "war on emulation", as I previously stated--we are not entitled to that.

Regarding the Yuzu dev team, one of the reasons they got nailed was because they flew too close to the sun: their software literally allowed you to play leaked copies of one of Nintendo's biggest upcoming releases. Also, they had a lot of their stuff locked behind a (Patreon) paywall. If you are trying to make money off something that doesn't belong to you, then you're basically waving a red flag RIGHT IN THE BULL'S FACE.

 

[WolfmanMods]

Nintendo strikes again.