Ryujinx emulator taken down after devs reach agreement with Nintendo

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In what could possibly be the worst way to start October for emulation enthusiasts, as of just a few minutes ago the Ryujinx repository appears to be down, with the usual "404" message being given when trying to enter any of their related GitHub pages. Not even the main Ryujinx developer account seems to be active.

Currently there hasn't been any official reports as to why this occurred. None of the official social media accounts for the emulator have given any response, nor has any of the developers talked about why the repository is down, but we'll be sure to keep you updated whenever any new developments towards this situation are known.

UPDATE #1: Given the nature of the page being down with a 404 message, it's possible that this could be related to the removal of the Ryujinx account, and not a DMCA. If the repository suffered from a DMCA claim, then the DMCA notice would appear when entering the repository. However, that is not the case, and the DMCA listings from GitHub doesn't have any recent entries for Ryujinx.

UPDATE #2: The Ryujinx Discord server has paused invites for the moment, and additionally, one of the Discord mods posted the following message:
"To clarify, it's not a DMCA, it's not an issue with GitHub. Please wait for further information and refrain from spreading misinfo thanks."

UPDATE #3: According to an official statement on Ryujinx's Discord server, developer gdkchan was contacted by Nintendo and they were offered an agreement to stop working on the emulator project, and while the agreement wasn't confirmed yet, the organization has been entirely removed.

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UPDATE #4: According to other devs, the developer was not only contacted, but actually tracked down by Nintendo to his location, and pressured to developer to cease and abandon development altogether for the emulator.

This marks now the 2nd and only main remaining Switch emulator that Nintendo has taken down as of today, and without any proper and clear protection when it comes to emulation and preservation down the road, it's likely that Nintendo will continue on its efforts to bring down emulation as a whole.

:arrow: Ryujinx GitHub Repository
 

spinal_cord

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Personally, I would like a world in which I could buy an image file of a game to be played on any emulator on any system; for example, a pack of SNES games that I could play on a Switch or PC, without having to break protections myself or commit copyright offences by finding the dumps on a website.

I don't disagree that the attitude Nintendo has towards developers of emulators causes a lot of dislike. But the law backs up Nintendo, not the emulator devs. If Sega, Atari, or whoever did the same thing and demanded specific developers to stop enabling piracy, they would also have the higher ground legally.

In the USA, the DMCA does not allow circumventing copy protections even when you do it to create your own personal backups. Making your own backups is just as illegal as downloading them.

Software emulation of real hardware for the purposes of playing the software dumps of physical games is almost certainly illegal, simply because you cannot legally dump your own games, nor can you legally download them. So using an emulator, even if you dumped your own game, constitutes copyright infringement. The existence of the emulator itself encourages this infringement because it is the only way to use the emulator.

Disagreeing with a fact does not prevent it from being a fact.
 

Mr_Marr

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its monopoly essentially
This is why you may aswell just get a pc and a switch
Why is everyone so invested in the idea that he was paid off? The absolute most logical thing to have happened was Nintendo just plain stated "stop working on this hobby of yours or we will file a legal case, you can not afford to fight it, we have the most expensive lawyers in the world".

If I was working on some software that was encouraging people to break the law (yes ALL emulators encourage piracy, thats how they work) and the owner of the copyrights threatened me with legal action, I sure as hell would stop. So would every single one of you.

I guess people were just hopeful. Emulators give freedom so people can play a game they own however they want.
 
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ScaryHobbit

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Personally, I would like a world in which I could buy an image file of a game to be played on any emulator on any system; for example, a pack of SNES games that I could play on a Switch or PC, without having to break protections myself or commit copyright offences by finding the dumps on a website.

I don't disagree that the attitude Nintendo has towards developers of emulators causes a lot of dislike. But the law backs up Nintendo, not the emulator devs. If Sega, Atari, or whoever did the same thing and demanded specific developers to stop enabling piracy, they would also have the higher ground legally.

In the USA, the DMCA does not allow circumventing copy protections even when you do it to create your own personal backups. Making your own backups is just as illegal as downloading them.

Software emulation of real hardware for the purposes of playing the software dumps of physical games is almost certainly illegal, simply because you cannot legally dump your own games, nor can you legally download them. So using an emulator, even if you dumped your own game, constitutes copyright infringement. The existence of the emulator itself encourages this infringement because it is the only way to use the emulator.

Disagreeing with a fact does not prevent it from being a fact.

Yes and no...

Yes in the sense that it is Nintendo's right to aggressively go after emulators and pirated roms, but more importantly the Switch is still Nintendo's main supported console. They are still making and releasing 1st party games for Switch, and the eShop on Switch is still being actively supported and expanded. This is not the same as Wii U, 3DS, and Xbox 360 shutting down long after the studios have all moved on to newer tech. (And no, Citra doesn't count - That one was collateral damage from Yuzu's idiocy.)
With the rumors that Nintendo's next-gen system will have enhanced backwards compatibility, there's a good chance that the original Switch will remain under active support for the foreseeable future, giving Nintendo the legal justification to shut down Switch emulation for another decade at minimum.

However, while pirated roms are obviously illegal, your argument about about ripping your own purchased games being illegal as well is a No. This is reinforced by the current legal precedent established by Sony Computer Entertainment America v. Bleem, in which Bleem! used the actual PlayStation game disks to function on Dreamcast, and as long as you aren't distributing the roms there's not much a games studio can do to you.
At most, I would say it is unsettled law - something where the US Congress has not created suitable laws to govern this kind of circumstance, thus leaving to the whims of random judges.

A smart and well-pocketed lawyer could possibly make the case that shutting down online storefronts and/or delisting games & not allowing older titles to be sold ever again abuses copyright law, or even violates the Constitution. And one could even question how such actions could adversely affect 3rd parties and make the offending company liable for damage to them,
but the chances of such a case ever going to court are slim for both sides. The most likely outcome is the current status quo: Nintendo will continue taking down Switch emulation, while the rest of the emulation scene continues as normal.

yes ALL emulators encourage piracy, thats how they work
And this is just blatantly wrong.
So Nintendo is pirating themselves with NSO and Virtual Console? Because that's what you are implying.
 
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spinal_cord

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Yes and no...

However, while pirated roms are obviously illegal, your argument about about ripping your own purchased games being illegal as well is a No. This is reinforced by the current legal precedent established by Sony Computer Entertainment America v. Bleem, in which Bleem! used the actual PlayStation game disks to function on Dreamcast, and as long as you aren't distributing the roms there's not much a games studio can do to you.

As you said, Bleem! used original discs to emulate the playstation, I will conceed there was one. However I stand my case that any emulator that allows the use of dumped games, encourages piracy simply because thats the easiest and most common way to get games onto an emulator.

At most, I would say it is unsettled law - something where the US Congress has not created suitable laws to govern this kind of circumstance, thus leaving to the whims of random judges.

Section 103 (17 U.S.C Sec. 1201(a)(1)) of the DMCA states: No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

Technically, if a game uses any copy protection, it is against DMCA to circumvent that protection in order to make the backup.

And this is just blatantly wrong.
So Nintendo is pirating themselves with NSO and Virtual Console? Because that's what you are implying.

The first batch of NES VC games had iNES headers in them, there would have been no need to have this information in that exact format on the game file itself as each VC title was only a single game bundled in the emulator, also no reason for the information to be the exact iNES format. It was speculated that these initial NES roms were infact downloaded from piracy websites. These headers were later changed to a different format that held the exact same information, suggesting that even if Nintendo hadn't downloaded those roms, the evidence suggested that they did. Concluding: Nintendo probably did pirate themselves in the beginning.
 

EnigmaExodus

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Yes in the sense that it is Nintendo's right to aggressively go after emulators and pirated roms, but more importantly the Switch is still Nintendo's main supported console
Not like Dolphin did not support GameCube and Wii games well when both consoles were commercially viable or anything.. Using similar arguments I am almost certain Nintendo could have caused them enough problems.

Technically, if a game uses any copy protection, it is against DMCA to circumvent that protection in order to make the backup.
Not all countries handle the absolute prohibition on backups of licensed content with DRM the same way either. But escaping USA influence in other ways is more difficult.
 
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Personally, I would like a world in which I could buy an image file of a game to be played on any emulator on any system; for example, a pack of SNES games that I could play on a Switch or PC, without having to break protections myself or commit copyright offences by finding the dumps on a website.

I don't disagree that the attitude Nintendo has towards developers of emulators causes a lot of dislike. But the law backs up Nintendo, not the emulator devs. If Sega, Atari, or whoever did the same thing and demanded specific developers to stop enabling piracy, they would also have the higher ground legally.

In the USA, the DMCA does not allow circumventing copy protections even when you do it to create your own personal backups. Making your own backups is just as illegal as downloading them.

Software emulation of real hardware for the purposes of playing the software dumps of physical games is almost certainly illegal, simply because you cannot legally dump your own games, nor can you legally download them. So using an emulator, even if you dumped your own game, constitutes copyright infringement. The existence of the emulator itself encourages this infringement because it is the only way to use the emulator.

Disagreeing with a fact does not prevent it from being a fact.
(f)Reverse Engineering.—
(1)
Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a)(1)(A), a person who has lawfully obtained the right to use a copy of a computer program may circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a particular portion of that program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing those elements of the program that are necessary to achieve interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and that have not previously been readily available to the person engaging in the circumvention, to the extent any such acts of identification and analysis do not constitute infringement under this title.
(2)
Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a)(2) and (b), a person may develop and employ technological means to circumvent a technological measure, or to circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure, in order to enable the identification and analysis under paragraph (1), or for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, if such means are necessary to achieve such interoperability, to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title.
(3)
The information acquired through the acts permitted under paragraph (1), and the means permitted under paragraph (2), may be made available to others if the person referred to in paragraph (1) or (2), as the case may be, provides such information or means solely for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title or violate applicable law other than this section.
(4)
For purposes of this subsection, the term “interoperability” means the ability of computer programs to exchange information, and of such programs mutually to use the information which has been exchanged.
 

Rya687

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The first batch of NES VC games had iNES headers in them, there would have been no need to have this information in that exact format on the game file itself as each VC title was only a single game bundled in the emulator, also no reason for the information to be the exact iNES format. It was speculated that these initial NES roms were infact downloaded from piracy websites. These headers were later changed to a different format that held the exact same information, suggesting that even if Nintendo hadn't downloaded those roms, the evidence suggested that they did. Concluding: Nintendo probably did pirate themselves in the beginning.
To my knowledge, that's been debunked long ago but people keep bringing it back up. From what I understand, Nintendo recruited a Japanese guy from the early Famicom/NES emulation scene to work on their own emulation of the console. That's how the iNES standard got introduced to Nintendo.
 

BlusterBong

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However, while pirated roms are obviously illegal, your argument about about ripping your own purchased games being illegal as well is a No. This is reinforced by the current legal precedent established by Sony Computer Entertainment America v. Bleem, in which Bleem! used the actual PlayStation game disks to function on Dreamcast, and as long as you aren't distributing the roms there's not much a games studio can do to you.
At most, I would say it is unsettled law - something where the US Congress has not created suitable laws to govern this kind of circumstance, thus leaving to the whims of random judges.
Contrary to popular belief, Bleem did not do anything for or against Emulation in Sony's lawsuit against them, nor was it because of emulation. It was because of Sony suing over the screenshots Bleem used in thier marketing and to an extent, having a wider market than the target of the actual lawsuit that established the current case of emulation, Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. v. Connectix Corp., which was made because of Connectix's Virtual Game Station doing really well while being sold for money and being viewed by Sony as competition, though Sony lost in court by the ruling that emulation development isn't inherently illegal, which in turn prompted Sony to buy out VGS from Connectix.


The difference as to why Bleem sank while Connectix stayed for a few years longer was simply that Connectix had cash reserves to work with thier other product Virtual PC doing well and bringing money in alongside a deal involving a webcam line with Logitech in addition to the money they would have gotten from Sony buying up VGS, while Bleem had no such luxurary and died once thier lawsuit was over, even if Sony also lost to them.
 

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Offtopic to topic Echoes audio rift sound has been fixed in Sudachi by borrowing Ryujinx's code Jarrod he credited them... Very respectful... But man if Jarrod can do that then Princess Peach should be able to be fixed also along with many others that work in Ryujinx and not Sudachi/Yuzu??? Imagine Yuzu or Sudachi with Ryujinx's way of loading running games/fixes that would provide Performance and Superior Compatibility!!!

He musta had the logs open on both emu's then studied Ryujinx's difference output in the log and added it to his fork loader code on that particular title??? Idk im not a dev but this musta been possible all along??? It's like Yuzu is Vegeta fast not efficient and Ryujinx is GOKU accurate slow to interpret anything thrown at him and come out on top correctly!!! Now it's time to fuse them FUSION HA !!! But what would we call it Ryudachi??? Just throwing this out there for anyone who knows how to add said code for problematic games....
 

ShadowOne333

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Offtopic to topic Echoes audio rift sound has been fixed in Sudachi by borrowing Ryujinx's code Jarrod he credited them... Very respectful... But man if Jarrod can do that then Princess Peach should be able to be fixed also along with many others that work in Ryujinx and not Sudachi/Yuzu??? Imagine Yuzu or Sudachi with Ryujinx's way of loading running games/fixes that would provide Performance and Superior Compatibility!!!

He musta had the logs open on both emu's then studied Ryujinx's difference output in the log and added it to his fork loader code on that particular title??? Idk im not a dev but this musta been possible all along??? It's like Yuzu is Vegeta fast not efficient and Ryujinx is GOKU accurate slow to interpret anything thrown at him and come out on top correctly!!! Now it's time to fuse them FUSION HA !!! But what would we call it Ryudachi??? Just throwing this out there for anyone who knows how to add said code for problematic games....

I think the only big issue at the moment with Echoes is that there's graphical bugs for the rifts on all versions of all emus.
All the Yuzu forks have graphical bugs with them and Ryujinx has a few as well, but outside of those the game seems to be fine.
 
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gisel213

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I was referring to the crackling audio issue that was on all the forks and yuzu... I saw the update on Mr Sujano's Video today

This is the changelog for sudachi v 1.0.1.1

Windows​

  • Added beginnings of Echoes of Wisdom audio fix
    Code is a reimplementation of Ryujinx's audio changes
  • Added the ability to install games to the NAND
    Remove games from any added directories to stop duplicates
  • Added partial support for the MyPage (Profile) applet
  • Added partial support for the Data Management settings
    App sizing is not 1:1 yet and only works with games installed to the NAND, deletion works but requires a restart
  • Fixes an issue where some games won't boot from QLaunch
  • Removed links to malicious domain
  • Removed telemetry
 

White_Raven_X

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Nintendo can keep trying to "shutdown" or "buy out" whoever they want, when ever they want but at the end of the day projects like ryujinx, yuzu, suyu, eggs, ziunix, etc.. will always exist. People have always enjoyed the challenge of jailbreaking consoles.

Shut one down and two more reappear.
 
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calagan

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Sudachi is just another Yuzu clone, like Suyu. It works well, but it's unlikely to evolve any further.
AFAIK, ryujinx has no clone yet.
 
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legoinventeor

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I'm sure there's going to be another super similar emulator soon enough just using the source code of ryujinx just like SuYu and the others
You cut one head off, two will grow back in its place.
 

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I'm sure there's going to be another super similar emulator soon enough just using the source code of ryujinx just like SuYu and the others
You cut one head off, two will grow back in its place.
Especially when the Switch 2 will get released. It's just bound to happen. Obviously Nintendo will DMCA those as hard as possible, but there will be ways that's for sure.
 
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Rya687

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Especially when the Switch 2 will get released. It's just bound to happen. Obviously Nintendo will DMCA those as hard as possible, but there will be ways that's for sure.
Nintendo might not be able to do the same thing to Ryujinx forks that they're doing to Yuzu ones. Ryujinx's developers were never sued for infringing upon their copyright and made to sign a settlement in which they admitted their guilt. If Nintendo wants to prove that Ryujinx is illegal, they'd need to do more than threaten its lead developer into disbanding the organization. And Ryujinx didn't take nearly as many legal risks as Yuzu did.
 
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stanleyopar2000

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Nintendo might not be able to do the same thing to Ryujinx forks that they're doing to Yuzu ones. Ryujinx's developers were never sued for infringing upon their copyright and made to sign a settlement in which they admitted their guilt. If Nintendo wants to prove that Ryujinx is illegal, they'd need to do more than threaten its lead developer into disbanding the organization. And Ryujinx didn't take nearly as many legal risks as Yuzu did.
That's why they went for a bribe because they knew they couldn't actually shut it down forcefully
 

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