Abstract:
Recently, the ecosystem in the field of game decompilation has been completely overturned. With the help of AI, players can roughly complete the coding, easily disassemble the binary files of the game and convert them into C++ code, and port the console-exclusive games to Windows and Linux platforms. Recently, such ported masterpieces have emerged one after another. "Super Mario Galaxy" and "Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days" all have PC ports made by fans. Technology has developed to this day, and old games such as "Need for Speed: Underground 2" and "Halo: Combat Evolved" can even be run directly in web browsers.
Of course, most such porting projects distribute unauthorized copies of games, which itself violates copyright law. If players are required to bring their own game ROM, it would still fall into a legal gray area, but most porting projects do not have this premise.
Developers have obviously noticed this phenomenon. Nintendo, which is known for its tough rights protection, has taken the fastest action. It recently launched a new round of DMCA complaints and removed four large-scale fan transplant projects from the shelves.
Nintendo’s legal capabilities are well-known in the industry. Although its lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developer of "Eidolon Parlu", is not progressing smoothly, it has rarely failed in cracking down on hackers, ROM uploaders and related resource sites, and this time is no exception.
It has been reported that four large recompile/decompile projects have been removed from the code repository, apparently as a result of pressure from Nintendo. The projects that were removed from the shelves are: "Project Tandem" corresponding to "Mario Kart: Double Impact", "Power Moon" corresponding to "Super Mario Odyssey", MTF recompilation project corresponding to "Mario Tennis Mania", and "Sky Recompilation" corresponding to "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD".
It is not difficult to speculate that Nintendo’s legal team issued a legal warning to the project uploader. The producer of "Power Moon" posted on Reddit to explain that the project has been removed from the shelves, adding: "I can't say more about the specific process, but in short I don't plan to appeal and fight."
But the core dilemma facing Nintendo is that once these ported resources are released online, they will spread rapidly. It's like the Hydra effect: cut off one head and two will immediately grow, and that's exactly what's happening now.
Just a few hours after "Power Moon" was taken off the shelves, another user uploaded a new, optimized version, claiming to have added "major improvements." This has evolved into an endless game of cat and mouse - Nintendo is cracking down on it and taking it off the shelves, but new versions keep popping up, and control will only become more and more difficult.
Thanks to Claude’s generation capabilities, there will be more and more shoddy game ports, which means the workload of Nintendo’s legal team will increase significantly. But Nintendo has clearly taken action and is going straight from the source. We reported yesterday that Claude has refused to respond to prompts containing Pokémon-related content. As early as the version update at the end of October, the difficulty of using AI to generate game transplant content has increased significantly.
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