It looks like the project is really careful not to include copyrighted materials in their distribution.
Comment on The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask just got an unofficial PC port
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Nintendo shutting it down and requiring all copies be destroyed in 3… 2…
henfredemars@infosec.pub 4 months ago
neo@feddit.de 4 months ago
For this to work, you’ll need a North American version of the game. Once you have it, drop it in the main menu and start playing.
Clever. I hope this protects the makers.
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Like the Mario 64 Unity project?
henfredemars@infosec.pub 4 months ago
I did a quick Google search, but I’m not familiar with this project and it’s not obvious to me what this project is.
cyrus@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
They probably mean the Super Mario 64 Decompilation Project.
The goal was to turn the finished ROM back into unable code, that would do 1:1 the same thing. They finished a couple of years back.
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 4 months ago
My mistake, I misremembered. It was in Unreal Engine, and IIRC it was right before they released the shitty 3D All Stars port.
woelkchen@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It looks like the project is really careful not to include copyrighted materials in their distribution.
Source code automatically generated from copyrighted binary code is a derivative of copyrighted code, though. It’s like taking a copyrighted book and running it through Google Translate and then clean up the sentences manually. You could be lucky that a publisher might not care about a translation into Icelandic but if you were to auto-translate a French version of a book into English and try to distribute it in the US, you’d probably get in trouble even if you leave out all graphic artwork.
bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
Yeah, but now I’m undoubtedly thousands of people have it so it’s never going to disappear
Wogi@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I think this is using recomp, anybody with a rom could theoretically do this on their own pc, so there’s morning to destroy. The recomp isn’t specific to Nintendo and isn’t really violating copyright, as far as I understand.
Toes@ani.social 4 months ago
Yeah that’s their intention.
cyrus@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Indeed, these decom projects do not include any of Nintendo’s assets.
The code compiles 1:1 back into a unable ROM but isn’t made just using a source code leak. It is reverse-engineered just like the SM64 decomp
Veraxus@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Projects not containing anything owned by Nintendo has never stopped Nintendo from destroying those projects (and peoples lives) in the past.
cyrus@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Nintendo has not taken action on the massively popular SM64 Decompilation and PC ports (and ironically switch ports) in the past what…3 years?
woelkchen@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Decompilation means it’s still derived from copyrighted source code. It’s not a clean-room implementation where one person analyzes the engine, writes documentation about details of that engine, and a completely different person writes a new engine. It’s not even a grey area. The correct procedure is clear ever since back in the day “IBM compatible” were created.
If it were up to me, copyrights would work like patents: After 25 years they’re void and people would be completely in the clear to decompile, modify, and redistribute old games. Sadly that’s not the reality.