Yet another emulator bites the dust, in the aftermath of the Tropic Haze/Yuzu vs. Nintendo case. Pizza Boy, a $5.49 paid app on the Google Play Store, has been taken down and is no longer available for purchase. Developer Davide made an announcement post explaining that he has permanently removed his app from the Play Store, citing the reasoning as, "I have chosen to prioritize my family over the development of my apps." With the implication that he has not been forced to delist his emulator, but has chosen to do so as a precaution after other emulator developers have been affected. Currently, several other paid GBA/GBC emulators are still available on the Play Store, including John GBA, My Boy!, and Nostalgia.GBA.

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[CoolMe]

And the emulator purge saga continues..

 

[lordofcombo]

The comment coward guy is probably a kid in his twenties.pay no attention to him.He obviously don't know his right from his left

 

[Tuhr]

The benefits of home server are outweighing the costs if you can afford one. Host your own online emulators with saved games stored, on any operating system and from any console with browser homebrew.

 

[Kioku]

Alright, I'm fed up with this, those saying developers are weak for pulling out and what not, screw you and the horse you rode in on. As I have said before, not everyone has a money tree in their backyard to fight legal battles, especially the kind that requires good lawyers and such against a company like Nintendo, and again, some people value their lives more than ones and zeroes. You seem to have some fucked up mental issues if you are this selfish over stupid software. Emulators come and go, you act like another one won't be made in the future. I swear this Yuzu situation is bringing the ugliest crap for people out, and quite frankly you need to go back under the rock you came from and just stay there.

I have no idea why people are becoming more cancerous, but this seriously needs to stop. It's just software for crying out loud, it's not that damn important.

It’s not life-changing, sure. Still sucks to lose great software. At the end of the day it’s their choice to pull it for whatever reason, they don’t have to justify it to us. Plus, it’s Android.. Still have Retroarch and other ways.

 

[The Catboy]

I disagree! That means you're exactly the height of Queen Elizabeth, as well as the exact minimum height for a NASA shuttle pilot!

Today is a good day to be smol

 

[AdenTheThird]

It almost seems like an underlying precedent was set with Yuzu, despite no actual judgement or legal precedent. Very interesting.
I won't be eager to call any emulator dev team cowardly for pulling out. However, Yuzu was a very specific case, one Nintendo had their eye on for a long time and was actively losing thousands of dollars from. The odds that they'd go after a rinky-dink GBA emulator on Android are next to none since Yuzu was largely a set of circumstances that most emulators don't even get close to. The devs might not know that, and may just pull their work out of instinctive fear.

TLDR, I don't think there's any reason for other devs to get scared about the Yuzu judgement. However, they still have the right to pull their software if they're concerned, which isn't unreasonable.

 

[MikaDubbz]

How the hell is it unlawful?

What caused Yuzu to be sued wasn't that they charged for it, it was that they detailed how to extract IP protected data under US law, like firmware and keys and that they added detailed support for leaked titles before they came out, which could be argued to promote piracy.

I never said that the reason Yuzu being sued was the same reason why emulators charging for their product are being pulled. They aren't necessarily correlated at all, beyond the fact that the creators are now scared of losing everything.

As to why it's unlawful, they were making money directly off of Nintendo's code (modified of course, but Nintendo's fingerprints are all over the code of any Nintendo emulator). Not sure how you don't get that. Giving it away for free and asking for donations is one thing, and in fact the obvious way to go while avoiding any unnecessary lawsuits, charging for commercial code that you didn't create is completely different.

 

[Xdqwerty]

This is the worst week for emulation

 

[osaka35]

Nintendo's lawyers have zero issue with slapp suits. No matter how legal an emulator may be, they'll outspend you and ruin you through litigation alone. So removing your app to avoid the potential for you life being destroyed? absolutely zero shame. It is the smart move. There's no principled stand awaiting these individual developers, just destruction.

Safest route is to give Nintendo absolutely zero legal footing, but even that isn't completely safe. The best thing to be done is every time Nintendo goes after an emulator, development should be stopped. But for every single emulator that drops, two should take its place. That's the way forward.

 

[Tuhr]

Why doesn't Nintendo make officially licensed emulators to profit from where they would not profit from if it really wanted to stop 'piracy'?

 

[AdenTheThird]

Why doesn't Nintendo make officially licensed emulators to profit from where they would not profit from if it really wanted to stop 'piracy'?

They do. Nintendo Switch Online, sir. Essentially a licensed emulator.
They aren't trying to stop emulation--they just want to be the only people who manage, distribute, and profit from it. And that isn't realistic, so they receive criticism from emulation fans because of it.

 

[Tuhr]

They do. Nintendo Switch Online, sir. Essentially a licensed emulator.
They aren't trying to stop emulation--they just want to be the only people who manage, distribute, and profit from it. And that isn't realistic, so they receive criticism from emulation fans because of it.

Yes, I meant on Steam and Play Store. With official Nintendo code and charging for ROMs as in-app purchases. Closed source, propietary.

Edit/ I know Steam can run emulators, I run DOSbox with front end, MAME and SNES9x as custom added 'games' on it.

 

[AdenTheThird]

Yes, I meant on Steam and Play Store.

Of course not. Since the '80s Nintendo has thrived solely because of their exclusivity. If you want to play Call of Duty you can do so on an Xbox, a PC, or a PlayStation. But if you want to play Zelda or Pokemon, you can only do so officially on Nintendo consoles.
On that note, Nintendo consoles in question are always the weakest of the bunch (with the possible exception of the N64). If you can play Mariokart and Smash Bros. on an Android or a Steam Deck, then what's the point of buying the overpriced and hopelessly outdated Nintendo Switch?
This has been, and likely always will be, the reason why Nintendo holds the grip that they do. They sell the milk, not the cow. To do otherwise would destroy their most lucrative strategy.

 

[Ondrashek06]

No, but do you want to risk being sued, and thus risking your entire livelihood/kid's futures to the whims of a Nintendo lawyer?

That's why you ALWAYS use a LLC to protect you from confiscation of personal assets.

 

[Tuhr]

Of course not. Since the '80s Nintendo has thrived solely because of their exclusivity. If you want to play Call of Duty you can do so on an Xbox, a PC, or a PlayStation. But if you want to play Zelda or Pokemon, you can only do so officially on Nintendo consoles.
On that note, Nintendo consoles in question are always the weakest of the bunch (with the possible exception of the N64). If you can play Mariokart and Smash Bros. on an Android or a Steam Deck, then what's the point of buying the overpriced and hopelessly outdated Nintendo Switch?
This has been, and likely always will be, the reason why Nintendo holds the grip that they do. They sell the milk, not the cow. To do otherwise would destroy their most lucrative strategy.

Exclusive emulators would dominate the market share, each ROM sold seperately establishes Nintendo's ownership, user license and Nintendo's rights to revoke license under terms of use effectively managing its intellectual property for profit where there would otherwise be none and running competitors in emulation out of town. Terms of use, any MD5 checksum not matching the official source of program or official ROM headers is automatically and permanently banned.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Why doesn't Nintendo make officially licensed emulators to profit from where they would not profit from if it really wanted to stop 'piracy'?

because they want to control everything they own and don't like the share

 

[LightBeam]

Nintendo really hit a strike, aimed for the target in the middle but everyone behind fell off

Where they making a bunch of money too ? I feel like some of them are scared for nothing but well, I'm not in their boots, my guess is that if I were making some good money on an emulator maybe I would take my precautions as well

 

[Tuhr]

because they want to control everything they own and don't like the share

They can control everything they own with MD5 checksum of emulator source and by only supporting ROM headers for official ROMs with automatic bans for hacking them under terms of use.

 

[AdenTheThird]

Exclusive emulators would dominate the market share, each ROM sold seperately establishes Nintendo's ownership, user license and Nintendo's rights to revoke license under terms of use effectively managing its intellectual property for profit where there would otherwise be none and running competitors in emulation out of town. Terms of use, any MD5 checksum not matching the official source of program or official ROM headers is automatically and permanently banned.

They already do via Switch Online. Remember that Nintendo relies on having cheap hardware that you need to run their games. That's how they make the most money. If you could download N64 games officially straight to your phone then you don't need the $300 console, saving you a lot of money. The way it is now, the only way to play Super Mario 64 officially is to buy the $300 Nintendo Switch and a $15 per month pass to their emulator services (or however much it is now). That makes a shit ton more money than fronting emulators to other platforms ever could.

 

[Tuhr]

They already do via Switch Online. Remember that Nintendo relies on having cheap hardware that you need to run their games. That's how they make the most money. If you could download N64 games officially straight to your phone then you don't need the $300 console, saving you a lot of money. The way it is now, the only way to play Super Mario 64 officially is to buy the $300 Nintendo Switch and a $15 per month pass to their emulator services (or however much it is now). That makes a shit ton more money than fronting emulators to other platforms ever could.

I am suggesting an additional product which can't be hacked.