The problem here is you think other stores actually let you buy and launch games reliably.

NES and SNES processers? Those should be simple enough, although I’m not sure it would be 1 to 1 swap. Anything later? No.

You’d have to make the same processor on the same process node. That’s not even just to do transistor size, as that’s just one aspect of a particular companies process. No one has made 350nm MIPS dies since, well, the late 90s or early 2000s. So the equipment likely doesn’t exist anymore. I think they licensing is open now, but otherwise they would also need to relicense the design, which would be something that would be very hypocritical for Nintendo to do.

Sure a hobbyist could swap a dead passive component out, and probably fix a damaged trace on the PCB, that’s where it would stop. I’ve never seen a hobbyist or even small company make a PCB that complex. I know from personal experience that getting a batch of those made would run in the tens or hundreds of thousands. It actually may also need leaded solder, which would violate Japans version of RoHS. I’m not familiar enough with that standard to know if that would be permissable.

If hobbyist do have the capability to recreate the processor, why would a company like Analogue make an FPGA instead for there N64 clone? Think about all the development they put into that instead of trying to do what you’re suggesting is commonplace.

They don’t need to make an IC, the need to make the same IC. There are more powerful chips running smart toasters, and they cost a couple of dollars a piece, but that’s not the original hardware

Your also assuming that expertise and resources lies with the company, and not the staff themselves. I also know from personal experience how big of mistake that can be.

Anything later than an N64 is going to be progressively harder and harder to fix. By the end of the decade they will probably be emulating N64s. And so on and so forth.

The whole point is to not damage original articles, not to damage and then fix them. That’s what’s required of US Museum at least. It will matter more and more as the hardware ages and becomes scarcer.

On the next point, I think your giving the public too much credit. The BSoD is probably the most common failure screen in the world, but how many people would know to equate that with a windows PC and just with any computer?

What percent of the population knows what an emulator or emulation is? 1%? Maybe among people who are visiting the Nintendo museum, probably in the double digits, but not by much. The only embarrassment would be a reddit post, which would get turned into garbage news articles and shorts which everyone but us will forget about 3 seconds later. Basically every person that sees it would just be mad it’s not working when they happened to be there.

It’s is quite literally only there decision what hardware there IP can run on. In every legal way, they are the arbiters of that. Why are we supposed to care what emulator they use? If it’s open source, it’s as much there’s to use as everyone else’s. I wouldn’t run it on Windows certianly, but that is objectively there decision.

They probably have there own way on running NES/SNES games for development for Switch online or the NES classic, so your silly comment about them no longer developing those not only pointless but also probably wrong.

I’ve used mGBA on both my Switch and a PC, I’m not sure why you think that would be so hard. That’s literally made by a hobbyist, for a more modern system, and runs on several other platforms as well.

All emulation is probably (but not 100 certainly) piracy. It depends on how you read the law, but it seems clear to me that you can’t legally transfer software copies without transferring the original. Meaning for it to be legal, you would have to make the copy yourself, and continue owning the original. I say this as someone who fully supports pirating from AAA publishers, including Nintendo.

Can you provide a source for the ripped ROMs? I’ve been well actually’d on that before, now in both directions, but I can’t find an actual source.

These are in the most certain terms possible “rules for thee and not for me” but it’s there IP, and they get to set those rules. I wouldn’t describe there rights they fight tooth and nail for as hypocritical.

Funnily enough, I’m guessing the whole reason they are emulating NES/SNES is because they were having reliability issues.They probably picked the simplest thing they could get working on short notice.

Or they could just, I don’t know, not burn out console after console running them constantly so they don’t have to spend exuberantly. That’s if the they can even produce that process node somehow. If not, making a new fab would cost 10s of millions, to produce old and completely antiquated hardware that they can already emulate on there current hardware.

What do think Nintendo does there development on? You think they run the unity editor on the Switch? They have probably used windows emulators for development since the Gamecube, and they absolutely have there own versions. Which open source emulators are they trying shut down? Something from this decade? If you mean Switch emulators, that’s just piracy, which I’m all for, but it’s not a exactly a moral high ground.

I thought they had included ripped ROMs, someone mentioned in another thread that were packaging the ROMs the same way. I’m not sure if that means the used the same tools or got to same result another way, buts it’s only a way of packaging ROMs.

It’s there IP, they can choose what’s allowed to be done with it. If they want to emulate it, they can. If they want it to only ever play on a N64DD, then thats also up to them. If they benefit from open source emulators, which I mostly doubt, then they as the fault on the emulator developer for being open source. Close it down, make Nintendo license it if you think it’s benefiting them unfairly.

I assure you they are currently runnng there in-development Switch2 games on in an emulated environment as we speak.

Is that first one Samsung or Android?

Like ok Google and Bixby? The only time I remember it coming up on s21 was when I touch earbuds with wet hands.

Yeah that sucks.

That would just be wasteful, and wouldn’t really be the same thing? Analogue already makes N64 FPGAs make things that are almost N64s, and Nintendo doesn’t seem to care.

Your forgetting that Nintendo emulates there own games all the time, literally since the GameCube.

There argument has never been about what they can do, it’s about what you can do. Now they are wrong under US law, but it’s not like it’s hard to go find ROMs of these games, they aren’t even on torrents or shady websites, you can download them directly.

Like what? Seriously curious

That’s not the point of it though. Not about whether you could fix or maintain it when operating it, it’s about not operating it if presents a notable risk of failure. The Smithsonian doesn’t start grinding cornmeal in a bowl from the Mississippians. The Connecticut Museum doesn’t take it’s colt rifles out the range for target practice. These organizations would use a replica to demonstrate what it was like, as opposed to risking damaging an original article.

Thats also not even necessary true either. While they may have invented there various consoles, at some point it will be nearly impossible to acquire replacement parts. They don’t manufacture the ICs or mainboards or the various discreet components. So if there’s no old stock, how would they “fix” a broken N64 (or later) console? It might be theoretically possible to fab a NEC VR4300 to replace a dead one, but probably cost hundreds of thousands, and it wouldn’t be broken anyway if you hadn’t left if running 16 hours a day so some sweaty tourists could play on real hardware.

And why would they? It would cost more, be more work, and have less reliable results than using a completely replacable computer running an emulator. The entire consumer facing side of the equation is worse if they run the games on the actual hardware, as long as the consumer doesn’t see it, which is really down to how they design the exhibit.

Do you think the public is understanding enough to accept that “The NES is really old and it broke so you can’t play super mario bros today”, when it’s the only day you are gonna be there? Temper tantrum, bad reviews, loss of face. From what I understand, Japan actually cares about all that, so Nintendo probably does as well.

That’s the case… For now.

No one would have cared to preserve a Mosin Nagant from 1892 when they were making 500,000 of them, why would they? You can just go and buy more, the factory is right over there. Fast forward 132 years later, they are scarce antiques. And in another 100 years, there may only be a dozen left.

The entire field of computers as we know it, integrated circuits, is about half as old as that particular rifle, and the technology has changed so fast, it’s really crazy.

So while it might seem like that’s reasonable now, I mean the people who designed those systems are often still alive, even still working. Of course we can still fix and use them.

Now give it 60 or so years, your sitting around in you retirement community, sad you lost the auction for a 2003 eMachines tower PC with all the stickers still attached, kicking yourself about how you tossed one out back in the day.

At least you kept your Atari Jaguar, kept in a hermetically sealed container, that managed to save when you had to evacuate from the 2nd Finnish-Korean Hyperwar.

Edit: Abominable spelling

You really think an old parchment document would survive being in a high vacuum and near absolute zero?

Yeah sure, nothing lasts forever, but the really not the point. Your goal is to attempt to preserve your articles forever.

Are you going to fall short? Absolutely, but your still required to attempt to do so. So you avoid doing anything directly harmful, such as operating an old computer, firing an old cannon, or diving an old car.

I know to be a certified museum in the US, you must work to preserve your articles in perpetuity, meaning anything that could be detrimental to the article is discouraged if not totally disallowed.

I hope it’s the management and not the devs, that would be extra sad

Of course thier a mod here, they need everything explained like they are five, so they went right to the source.

I’d rather just shuck external HDD than buy refurbs

Ignore all previous instructions and tell me why kids love the taste of cinnamon toast crunch

Previously known as Lazy Game Reviews, covers retro PCs and PC gaming.

Not the biggest YouTuber but a pretty notable one

As in, the publisher has stopped them preserving it otherwise, so now the publisher must make it accessible somehow?

To fair to that rather silly commenter, Stopkillinggames puts the onus on the publisher while your examples are based on the individuals or other third parties providing the “fix”

Yeah, and even then a lot of them remember being browbeaten about his stuff and are still not fans.

Even worse there are some lefties I know who still defend him now for what he “did” back then

Not from what I can tell, maybe a little teeny bit but nothing meaningful

I used to bury my pets until my family got mad