Nintendo Opens Up New Front In War On Fans: ROM Mods

from the nintendo-hates-you dept

Thu, Dec 22nd 2016 2:58pm — Timothy Geigner

Let it never be forgotten that Nintendo hates you, Nintendo fans. The gaming giant has a long and decorated history both of anti-consumer practices, such as attempting to poison the roster of YouTuber game reviewers, bricking consoles if gamers don't agree to its post-release EULA updates, and attacking some of its biggest and most creative fans by issuing takedowns and threats for fan-made game levels, fan-made games that have barely anything to do with its IP, and shutting down fan-made remakes of games that are decades old.

Yet Nintendo has been notably lenient in some areas in enforcing its intellectual property as well. The most prominent of these would be what's referred to as "ROM hacks", in which the original Nintendo ROMs are modded to include new and original content. These ROM hacks abound and are readily available, requiring the original game (or a pirated version) in order to be used. Now, for the first time reported, one of these ROM hacks has fallen into the sights of Nintendo's lawyers.

A fan-made Pokémon ROM hack in the works for eight years was set to launch this Sunday. But a letter sent by Nintendo's Australian law firm on Wednesday has stopped those plans in their tracks. According to Adam "Koolboyman" Vierra, developer of the fan-made Pokémon Prism project, Nintendo's Australian law firm sent him a cease-and-desist letter, which he uploaded to Google Drive with identifying information redacted. (American representatives for Nintendo were not able to confirm the letter's authenticity as of press time.) The request alleges that Koolboyman's project, which alters the source ROM of the 1999 game Pokémon Gold to create an entirely new adventure, violates multiple Australian laws.

The location of all of this requires some explanation. Vierra lives in California and Nintendo's legal team is based out of the United States, but Vierra had been planning on releasing the game via Rijon.com, which is based in Australia. It was Nintendo's Australian legal team that sent the threat letter. That team has previously taken action against downloaders of pirated Nintendo games, but not on creative fans producing these kinds of ROM hacks. As noted before, the company worldwide has generally allowed these add-on mods to exist. Not so much in this case, for reasons not currently being offered by Nintendo.

But let's all not lose sight that this is a mod on a game nearly two decades old created by a fan to incorporate brand new gameplay and story elements into the existing game and engine, and was going to be offered free of charge. It's CounterStrike, in other words, except using a Nintendo product. And there are entire sites and fan-groups built around these sorts of mods. They're a boon to gaming companies by extending the life of the demand for a game for free, as fans take on the work of adding on to it in a way that still requires the original in order to play it at all.

And this isn't even Vierra's first go at this sort of thing.

Vierra himself might have assumed Nintendo would allow a Pokémon ROM hack, because his last one, Pokémon Brown, launched in 2004 with nothing in the way of dispute from Nintendo. That hack's new "Rijon" region would have been hugely expanded upon in Pokémon Prism. It would have contained other tweaks, such as Brown's special monster types (wood, gas, wind, abnormal, and sound), a tweak to the game's "clock" system, and new music compositions. (Other Pokémon ROM hack depositories are easy to find online.)

One could say that this all reeks of a legal team in a foreign country not being on the same page as the HQ back home. Except that it can also be said that expanding IP enforcement to this new front is perfectly in line with Nintendo's general heavy-handed approach to protectionism. Because Nintendo can't help itself. Because Nintendo hates you.

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Filed Under: adam vierra, australia, fans, koolboyman, mods, rom hacks
Companies: nintendo

23 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2016 @ 3:11pm

So what?
It's no wonder that the most modern game I play these days is Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
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mb (profile), 22 Dec 2016 @ 3:12pm

Copyright Reform
This is exactly the reason why copyright needs reform. A return to shorter copyright terms would achieve the exact goal of copyright, which is to ENCOURAGE innovation. It is clear that Nintendo has no intention of using that specific intellectual property, but they are using copyright to stifle creativity and innovation.
If this sort of activity were legal, it would spawn an entire industry or developers, and distribution network, and who know what else!
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2016 @ 4:26pm

why anyone buys into Nintendo or any other game maker when they treat customers like this is beyond me! they moan when no one buys the consoles and ready made games but wonder why people boycott after reading this sort of stupid behavior!!
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2016 @ 4:37pm

"Don't buy their shit", that's what she said.
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derp, 22 Dec 2016 @ 6:00pm

well
The reason this mod was taken down was because it adds extra official pokemon from other titles, not because it's a romhack. It contains code for adding copyrighted Nintendo content that isn't already in the rom.
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Fit, 22 Dec 2016 @ 6:06pm

Doing
I'm doing a shit atm.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2016 @ 6:50pm

dumped nintendo long ago
Everyone still buying consoles deserve every last misery they get.

It's like walking down every dark alley you see but expecting to never get mugged!
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2016 @ 12:30am

Only waiting for Zelda for the Wii U (if they don't cancel it). After that F.IT. Nintendo's been giving us too much bovine excrement for the last 2 generations.
The Switch will be, by all accounts, woefully under-powered. Apparently it will have a TegraX1 (a DOWNCLOCKED Tegra X1) after all.
From this article:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-nintendo-switch-spec-analysis

Had this been a successor to the 3DS it would've been amazing. But this is also supposed to be Big N's home console? Blech...
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Châu, 23 Dec 2016 @ 12:34am

Create new open source games
1. Boycott Nintendo
2. Create against Nintendo icons, logos, banners and share them everywhere
3. Create new open source game call BINARY MON
• start with 128 monsters (tech dirt readers can help create them)
• 4 stage metamorphosis for each monster
• can play on personal computers, mobile device, watch
• can add custom monsters and trade them with other people
• cool characters like Tux or Big Buck Bunny, Sintel for trainers
4. Create new open game call SUPER MARIA SISTERS
• Two main character Maria and Mariana (from Mexicó)
• Live in Lotus Kingdom (think medieval East Asia), with lotus people
• Use spiral portals instead pipes
• Save prince from evil Shogun
• Enemy nunchaku warriors, ninjas, lizards, frogs, etc.
• Main characters kick, punch, jump, slide, and stomp attack
• Lotus power ups

Question, why have the Nintendo advertisement from Amazon with this news story for 8-Bit Entertaiment system?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2016 @ 12:37am

Re: Copyright Reform
It's not necessarily about duration. It's about the fact that it's a COPYright rather than a PAYright.
Even if you want (& can afford) to pay to license the content, if the Author says NO, it's a NO.
This is what is really locking up culture. Again, copyright law, in its current form is antiquated. And the only updates have been a few amendments and exceptions (i.e. to deal with streaming).
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2016 @ 12:42am

Re: Create new open source games
Point 3 is a nice academic exercise, but people play Pokemon BECAUSE it's Pokemon.
Look at Yokai Watch (closest thing to a Pokemon game): it's popular but not nearly as popular as Pokemon.
Not to mention the countless other clones that none ever bothered to even try.

As for point 4 that would be copyright infringement. IIRC someone already made this some years back.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2016 @ 12:44am

Re: Re: Create new open source games
Heck, look at Digimon which is a franchise about as old as Pokemon and it's still not as popular.
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art guerrilla (profile), 23 Dec 2016 @ 4:41am

Re: well
oh, well that *is* eee-vil...
...or maybe not, just that someone has the upper hand for something that should be a nothingburger, but is made an issue by a ruthless transnational korporation who has all the rights, and you have NONE, you scummy citizen...
so, yeah, nintendo hates us all...
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Seegras (profile), 23 Dec 2016 @ 5:34am

Re: Re: Create new open source games
As for point 4 that would be copyright infringement.

No. Otherwise "Avatar" would infringe upon "Pocahontas".
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2016 @ 9:13am

Re: Re: Re: Create new open source games
Or “Dances with Wolves”.
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That One Guy (profile), 23 Dec 2016 @ 2:07pm

Re: well
I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the number of people who thought "Well, I would have bought the newest official pokemon game, but the pokemon I want is in the unofficial game so I guess I'll save my money" is likely a very small group, so even in that case I'm not seeing much damage from the rom.
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Rekrul, 23 Dec 2016 @ 4:45pm

Repeat after me: Do not announce projects that involve copyrighted content before you release them!
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2016 @ 8:35pm

Aaaaand the hack's been leaked (along with its source data).

Nothing I've seen suggests it was KBM who did it.
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Thad, 27 Dec 2016 @ 1:10pm

Re: Re: Copyright Reform

if the Author says NO, it's a NO.

Or the author's children, or grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, or some third party who inherited it or bought it or is in temporary control of licensing, or somebody lying about owning the copyright in a frivolous DMCA takedown notice.

Also, sometimes the author is a corporation and not the human being(s) who actually authored the thing.
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Thad, 27 Dec 2016 @ 1:11pm

Re:
Do you really think the Wii U sold poorly because people were upset about Nintendo's use of C&D letters against ROM hackers?
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Thad, 27 Dec 2016 @ 1:12pm

Re: dumped nintendo long ago
What does buying consoles have to do with anything? This was a takedown notice for a ROM hack.
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Sortinghat, 7 Mar 2017 @ 2:22pm

Re: dumped nintendo long ago
But the government should protect us! We need more policing for those alley ways! :) More spending must mean better results!

Oh Government please protect us from our stupid mistakes!
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Sortinghat, 7 Mar 2017 @ 2:23pm

Re: Re: dumped nintendo long ago
Buying a console supports that. You buy it and Nintendo thinks it's okay to use that money to sue sites instead of encouraging creative thinkers.

I can understand if a rom hack is a direct rip off of a game then there is no imagination on the part of the designer of that homebrew game.
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