Nintendo going back for Round 2

Nintendo is taking further legal action against Switch ROM-selling website RomUniverse, with whom the publisher previously filed suit in 2019, in?? the case that saw the site's owner ordered to pay Nintendo $2.1 million in damages.

As reported by Pocket Gamer, Nintendo has filed a new request for a permanent injunction, after RomUniverse owner Matthew Storman allegedly missed their first monthly payment of $50. Nintendo sees Storman's failure to meet the payment as a sign of the defendant's disregard for the court's orders. Furtherm??ore, Nintendo believes that Storman intends to relaunch RomUniverse, and is thus seeking a permanent injunction against the site and its owner.

"This failure to make even the modest $50/month payment, an amount that he proposed and agreed to, demonstrates that Nintendo has no adequate remedy at law for Defendant's past or future infringement and underscores the need for a permanent injunction," reads Nintendo's new filing, also noting "[The] Defendant's threat to con??tinue to operate RomUniverse to distribute videogame ROMs, using the same website ??he used for the past several years to mass-infringe Nintendo's copyright and trademark rights, necessitates the entry of an injunction."

Back in May, presiding Judge Marshall ordered the closure of ??RomUniverse, ordering Storman pay?? Nintendo trademark damages of $400,000 USD, as well as $35,000 for each Nintendo product listed on the website, for a total of $2.1 million.

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PSX walk with me

For fans of obscure PlayStation games and the TV series Twin Peaks, the 1998 PlayStation adventure Mizzurna Falls has been a bit of a white whale. Several trans??lation efforts have been released over the years, but a new patch doesn't just translate it—it also fits the game ??back onto a disc.

An update on the ROMhacking site details the history of the translation, including the most notable effort involving translator Resident Evie and PlayStation hacker Gemini. While the project did eventually manage to fully translate the game's script, it fizzled out because of one problem: it ??was too large to fit onto a PlayStation disc.

A new effort from two other developers, nikita600 and Cirosan, uses Evie's script as a base to create a working translation patch. Nikita created a new compression algorithm to fit more text on the disc than was previously possible, and Cirosan—with Evie's blessing—did a fundamental rewrite and edit of Evie's script that was able to fit. So, after months of work on this specific patch and even longer overall, Mizzurna Falls can now be patched to run on a PlayStation disc.

Mizzurna Falls, if you're unfamiliar, is an adventure game from Clock Tower developer Human Entertainment that follows high-school student Matthew Williams' search for his missing friend in the fictional town of Mizzurna Falls. It was notable not just for the Twin Peaks influence worn on its shoulder, but for its real-time NPC schedule and? open-world gameplay that was fairly ambitious for the time.

It's easy to respect the dedication that went into making this 1998 cult classic playable on a PlayStation in English; it's a very specific niche, but in terms of preservation, it can hopefully let one of the earlier precursors to games like Deadly Premonition live on a little longer.

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Mario isn't free

Nintendo has recently filed lawsuits against two popular ROM websites. LoveRETRO and LoveROMs are under legal pressure to remove all Nintendo titles from its serve??rs and pay statutory damages of around $150,000 per Nintendo title along with $2,000,000 for each trademark infringement. LoveROMs has already removed all Nintendo titles from its servers, but LoveRETRO has shut down for the forseeable future.

The reason for targeting these two sites is stated in the suit that Nintendo filed. It reads, ??"The LoveROMs website alone receives 17 million visitors each month. Such visitors are drawn to the website by the widespread availability of free, unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s video games and other highly valuable intellectual property. The resulting popularity of Defendants’ LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites has allowed Defendants to reap substantial ill-gotten gains, including through donations and the sale of advertising on the LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites."

In Nintendo's longstanding battle against ROMs and emulators, the company has issued lawsuits to many websites and creators for infringing on copyrights and for the illegal distribution of protected properties. You don't mess with the Big N and emulation of its titles, not even when they sell you an illegal ROM of Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo files lawsuit against emulator sites [PC Gamer]

Ninten??do of America V Jacob Mathias and Mathias D??esigns [TorrentFreak]

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Hackers do what Nintenwon't

The Virtual Console on the Wii and Wii U has been pretty crappy. While there are definitely a bunch of classic titles available, Nintendo's treatment of the service comes off as an afterthought. Th??is is a company with one of the richest back catalogues of games available, yet it only ever manages to release one or two games per mont?h. That is just plain lazy, no matter how you slice it.

What may make the service seem even lazier is some evidence that Nintendo possibly sold us a ROM of the original Super Mario Bros. on the Wii. If one does some digging through the actual data files of the Virtual Console's port of the perennial classic, you'll find a line o??f code that is only present in dumped ROM files online. As a matter of fact, this extra line of code matches some of the ROMs one can find from various sites.

Eurogamer has a nice write-up that details more of the actual process used to determine if we've all been duped. We're more than likely never going to get a ??definitive answer from Nintendo, but all of this evidenc??e is pointing to the big N being a bit more sleazy than we all realized.

Did Nintendo dow??nload a Mario ROM and sell it back ?to us? [Eurogamer]

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NESBox One!

Over the weekend, we reported on the emulator NESBox being allowed permission for release on the Xbox One. Microsoft eventually denied the application, citing that it did not go through the ID@Xbox program.?? The developer of the program wasn't taking no for an answer. In a recent twe?et, it looks like a backdoor was found for allowing NESBox on Xbox One.

In addition to being able to run on a variety of devices now, this HTML5 port of NESBox also has OneDrive support. One??Drive is a service Microsoft offers that allows files to be shared between computers (and the Xbox One) via a cloud drive. This is what allows the emulator to run different games without needing to be booted through a USB drive.

I'm not sure there is anything Microsoft can d??o about this. Technically nothing is running natively from the Xbox One, so there aren't many laws be?ing broken. I'm sure Nintendo could get on shutting down the website, but who knows if it is even worth the trouble.

This is truly neat to see. I suppose even the Wii U could run this emulator, meaning the Virtual Console might be in trouble (despite never releasing any damn games). We'll just need to wait and see wha??t happens next.

NESBox developer creates HTML5 workaround for XB1 [NeoGAF]

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Waluigi should star in every game

Thanks to a ROM hack by Russmarrs2, Waluigi is playable in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,?? just as we always wanted. Our collective hopes, dreams, and prayers? have been answered.

In the wrong hands, such an endeavor could have fallen flat, but there's something about seeing Waluigi in place of Link that has me grinning and, at times, even laughing. If you don't want to go through the trouble of setting this up, the video gets the point across well. I ??want more.

[Via NeoGAF]

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When you hear the phrase "ROM hack," two thoughts may flitter across your mind. One, somebody took an old game from a legacy console and slightly altered the color palette or sprites to make it look like, for instance, all the boxers in Punch-Out!! are bare-ass. Or two, the level layouts have been altered to the point that no mere mortal could hope beat the g??ame and keep their sanity in check. The former is the kind?? of stuff hacking newbies pull to get a few shock laughs, while the latter results in a project that is more frustrating than entertaining.

While the majority of hacks aren't worth your time, there are a few gems that rival what major developers could have conceived. Further still, there are hacks so elaborate that it's nearly impossible to recognize the source game at the heart of it all. PureSabe's Rockman 4 Minus Infinity is one such hack, being less of a remix of Mega Man 4 and more of a total evolution of the Mega Man formula.

I first saw clips of MI late last year, and though my interest was piqued, I couldn't find much else. Last week, The Mega Man Network discovered that the hack, which had been in development for at least three to four years, was finished. Technically, it's on version 0.01, but aside from some potential tweaks down the line, it's in a fully playable state. But before you make your decisions on whether to check this out, please watch a these gameplay videos. Believe me, you're body is soooooo not ready!

These are but the first eight levels. I really don't want to spoil the Cossack and Wily fortresses for you, where the dial goes beyond 10, beyond 11, beyond the limits of logic and reason. We're talking Gurren Lagaan levels of lunacy, my friends.

Sure, the game follows the same plot as Mega Man 4, and sure, you fight the same Robot Masters, but that's where the similarities end. Beneath the surface, so much code has been rewritten, so much extra content has been packed in, that if you were to try to run this on actual NES hardware, you'd probably blow up your house and disrupt the power grid in your neighborhood. All the bosses have wild new attack patterns, enemies from other Mega Man games have been incorporated, and levels are larger and have multiple paths. Hell, there is a miniboss in Ring Man's level that is essentially Lololo and Lalala from Kirby's Dream Land!

Instead of sticking to straight running, gunning, and jumping, MI is always mixing up the game style. You could be hopping on a pogo stick through some mine tunnels, dealing with constantly changing status ailments, or even commandeering enemy craft. One of my favorite parts (minor spoilers) o?ccurs late in the game when you have to fight a series of Robot Master hybrids, fusions of old foes like Quick Man and W??ood Man with abilities cribbed from both. Very cool!

When people lament how stale the Mega Man series has gotten, it's not the fault of the property itself but of the minds behind the property who insist on treading the same familiar territory and not truly exploring the possibilities. Rockman 4 Minus Infinity demonstrates what can be done when someone who truly cares is behind the wheel. I urge you all to download the MI patch as well as a Japanese Rockman 4 ROM (track that one down on your own), t??hen get to playing this remarkable achievement right away.

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This is a run-through of a demo for Super Bat Puncher, an entirely new homebrew game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. A platform game, you have to free the nature spirits guarding a dangerous planet and punch a lot of bats. As y?ou obtain new abilities for yourself and the novelty boxing glove you wield, some very cool gameplay opens up as you'll see in the video.

Super Bat Puncher has been in development for the last year and still has a ways to go. Its developer Morphcat plans to take a break from the project but hopefully he won't sit on his duff for too long. This looks like too much fun to fall by the wayside. You can download the demo and play it with a?? NES emulator right now from the game's development blog.

Super Bat Puncher [Morphcat.de via GoNintendo]

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Earlier in the month, ROM Hacker Xvirus demonstrated the potential for a fan translation patch for the sequel to Retro Game Challenge, long ago doomed never to escape Japan. While the patch was technically possible ??with Xvirus' skills, he lacked a translator (a common issue ?currently plaguing two other in-progress patches from the hacker). 

I'm happy to report that some plucky folks have answered the call to help Xvirus push this project along. The project now boasts a team of four translators, an editor and a graphic designer. They have set up a website where folks will be able to follow the project as it progresses, promising regular blog upda??tes and visual media.

As I said before, I would love for this to happen and it's wonderful to see a group of people rally behin?d this cause. Not to be the rain on the parade or anything but I'm not exactly celebrating yet either. There's a long way to go and I've seen too many efforts of its kind fall apart to get my hopes up this early. I wish the team the best of luck.

Game Center CX 2 translation project page [Tiny Cartridge | Thanks, John!]

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I adored Retro Game Challenge, the localization of Game Center CX for the Nintendo DS. Sadly, not enough people were willing to take a risk on such a quirky title and odds for its sequel to see release in Western markets were squashed to nil long ago.

There may yet be hope for fans like myself who would love to experience a new round of retro-inspired games. Tiny Cartridge received curious videos over the last few days featuring footage from Game Center CX 2 which contained English text. While so??me hoped that this might be a sign of a publisher picking up the game, sadly, that is not the case.

In actuality, the videos are the work of Xvirus, who has also worked on translation patches for Shiren the Wanderer DS 2 and Torneko no Daibouken Advance. But neither of those patches are actually finished, as Xvirus cannot seem to keep a translator around long enough to get the job done. That's often how these things wind up working out and I can't say I am any more optimistic about the success of this venture as any other of its type. Which is to? say, not at all.

Prove me wrong, internet! Make this happen!

Retro Game Challenge romhack ruse revealed [Tiny Cartridge]

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I wrote this post up as fast as I could. In fact, I haven't even had the chance to try these games out yet. That's because by the time you read this, they may be gone. Square-Enix is notoriously ruthless about taking down fan games, so get on this while you still can.

There are two games in question here, the previously squashed Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes and the newer, weirder Chrono Trigger: Flames of Eternity. After a few minutes of research, I'm getting that Flames of Eternity is based off of Crimson Echoes, and that the writing in both games can be a bit... off putting. Talking Chrono is particularly annoying to some fans, but hey, this semi-new, 100% free Chrono Trigger we're talking abo??ut! Only the mos?t depressing amongst us will complain about that.

Fan-made Chrono Trigger sequel gets released [GoNintendo]

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This just goes to show you how out of touch I am with Sonic the Hedgehog fans. I had no idea there was a contingent of people out there ??who seem to despise the way Dimps has been treating the speed freak. I suppose it was to be expected but I would think that they would at least be happy that they're getting games which aren't developed by Sonic Team.

Apparently not. The above video is a trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Dimps Edition", a ROM hack of the aforementioned game which adds features of the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in an effort to point out how awful they are. Watch as Sonic runs through one speed launcher after another, flies into foes with his homing attack and neglects his responsibilities as a paternal fig??ure for young Miles Prower.

If you want to try the hack out for yourself, its creator has made it available for download. I'm not going to try it myself, as I'm already awful at Sonic 2 ?without having to deal with what appears to mostly be extra detritus on the road but you're certainly welcome ??to try. Anybody grabbing it? Any impressions?

Sonic 2 Dimps Edition [Sonic Retro via Extra Guy]

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Fan translations are nothing new.? Usually, its the result of Japanese games not getting released in English despite fan demand. Which of course begs the question -- who the Hell is demanding their games in Latin!?

Whether people want it or not, one is coming. One plucky fan is working on creating a Latin version of Final Fantasy. The game has been ported by Square Enix countless time??s, so one more version shouldn't hurt. Of course, not being an official translation, you'll need to run it as a ROM, but it's still kind of cool to know it exists. Absolutely useless, but cool nonetheless. 

Now can I get a copy of Alundra in Esperanto?

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Here's something you don't see every day. An emulat??or for the Sega Genesis is on its way to the iPhone App Store and, get this, it probably won't be taken down within 24 hours. Sega is getting set to release their own official emulator for everybody's favorite little handheld.

I wouldn't get too excited, though. It's less an emulator than a content portal. You'll be able to buy a number of classic Genesis games through the app, including Ecco the Dolphin, Shining Force, Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe. And, for buying the emulator itself, you'll get to enjoy Space Harrier II, the app's pack-in title.

A couple of the games announced have already been released to the App Store as independent games, which is less exciting. But with how cluttered things have become in there, having a way to deliver games to the people who want them more efficient?ly sounds like a very good idea. The emulator should appear in the App Store next month.

Ultimate? Genesis: Sega's Official Console Emulator for iPhone [Gizmodo]

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Two years ago, for the 2007 I Am 8-bit gallery, artist David Galloway (re)created Capcom's original Mega Man on the Atari 2600. If I were picky, I would insist that Galloway's de-make be played on an Atari 8-bit Family machine to fully do justice to ?the g?allery's name, but that seems like splitting pixels.

Fastfoward to last Sunday, when Galloway released a playable ROM demo on the Atari Age forums. The game consists of four vertical screens and one very tough Elecman. Since the Atari only had one button, which is used to make the Blue Bomber jump, shooting was mapped to down on the joystick. 

To get a taste for just how hard the game is, hit the jump for a gameplay video. According to Offworld's Brandon Boyer, the player in the video is Eric Caoli of Tiny Cartridge and GameSetWatch fame. If Mega Man 260?0 sounds like your cup of tea, don't hold your breath -- there were never any plans to re/de-make the entire original game. 

[via Joystiq]

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A few weeks ago, a member of the ROMhacking community named Ryusui created an English translation for Capcom's classic Breath of Fire II. Nuka Cola -- a jbsgame.community member and one of Ryusui's beta testers -- wrote about the patch with considerable enthusiasm, so I?? decided to give it a whirl. At the time, it seemed like a go??od way to kill a few hours while I procrastinated during finals. 

I didn't realize, however, that Ryusui's fan translation would consume the next couple weeks of my life. It's remarkably well done, and the game itself is a solid, albeit dated, 16-bit RPG. If you missed Breath of Fire II the first time around, you might as well ?experience it with a nuanced and contemporary translation in hand.

I've always been interested in fan projects--translations, remakes, walkthroughs, wikis, and the like--because I think that devoted, inspired people are intrinsically fascinating. Take Ryusui for example: he spent three years working on this translation just, y'know, because. To know a game backwards and forwards lik??e that is really cool, but it's not a luxury most of us really have.

But I had some questions for Ryusui. Most importantly, why the hell would you spend three years translating a game that already had perfectly playable English versions on the Super Nintendo, Gameboy Advance, and the Wii Virtual Console?

And that is precisely the first question of my interview with Ryusui, which can be found ??after the jump.

 

Famously so. My first experience with Breath of Fire II was the GBA version, which uses the SNES version's translation verbatim. ??I lost interest sometime after SimaFort (Fort Nageur in the new? translation); my opinion was "I could write a better translation than this".

The old translation is a stilted, mechanical mess. It's not as bad as Zero Wing - at the very least, it tries to abide by the conventions of English grammar - but imagine running an entire script through Babelfish, if Babelfish could be trusted not to completely mangle every single sentence put through it. That's BoFII's translation in a nutshell: a slavish, artificial-sounding, word-for-word conversion from the Japanese scr??ipt to English. Contrary to rumor, there are no vast swaths of script missing from the English version--just a few minor things that didn't get past Nintendo's censors--but there's no regard for aesthetics, either.

It wasn't until late 2008 that I actually got around to playing the game through from beginning to end (I had playtested it before, but only up to defeating Argus; the work wasn't finished enough for a full playthrough). Now, I had my fun writing the script, but I think it was during the cutscene where Highland Castle collapses that the game itself decisively won me over: it was no longer just a project I had to see through, it was a game I had only managed to make more epic than before.

The only real "design choice" I made was to Westernize the more blatantly Japanese bits (it is a quasi-European fantasy setting, after all). In the original translation, there are a lot of distinctly Japanese-looking names directly romanized from the original script: in some cases, these are a no-brainer as the ending cast list gives some idea as to what they were meant to be, but in others, I had to use a bit more imagination. The headmaster at the magi?c school, for example, is "Yoji" in the original translation, "Youdi" in the ending cast list and "Jordi" in my version; all three are pronounced identically in Japanese, but the last one has more of a European look to it. (There's still "Miso Stew" in the game, though, and a few tenant names like Daiye and Yozo were left as they were.)

As for how I wrote the dialogue, I just wrote what seemed natural for each character given the situation, using the original script as an outline. There are some places where I fudged the script a bit so that certain character reactions would seem more natural, though, like the scene where Nero admits his questionable eating habits and Bosch?? demands to see the pig's collar (it seemed odd to me that Bosch wouldn't catch the significance of the collar the first time it came up).

Just about the first thing I asked d4s was if we could have variable-width fonts in? the menus and on the battle screen (other than the enemy names, that is). Not enough VRAM, as it turned out.

 

Officially

, my next project is Death Note: The Kira Game for Nintendo DS, but I've been looking into other projects as well. I have a few on the back burner that I've been itching to get back to: King of Bandit Jing, Bistro Recipe (the game that inspired "Fighting Foodons", believe it or not), and of course there's the rest of the Sylvanian Families series...but there is one big-name project I'm looking into. I w??on't name it yet - not until I've gotten some work done ?- but I think you won't be disappointed.

Second question: Super Metroid, Persona 4 and the Ace Attorney series. (Ask me later and I might pick something different. It's just so hard to choose.)

I'd like to thank Ryusui for his hard work and his willingness to answer my questions. Go here to download his translation patch.

You'll need an emulator and a ROM for Breath of Fire II which, I must remind you, is illegal to have unless you actually own the game. If you download the patch (and you should! It's really good!) make sure to check out the "Readme" text file -- it'll walk you through everything you need to know.

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In the not-too-distant future, a boy ... no, a man ... NO, a ROBOT must face evils the likes of can be seen only in the worst movies of all time. Not every hacked ROM can be a work of art like Cory Arcangel's Clouds, but make no mistake, I totally want to get my manos on a working cartridge copy of this hacked Mega Man 3 ROM for my personal collection.

I give you Tom Servo, as reviewed by Dr. Boogie over at I-Mockery. It's a clever endeavor that falls short of "amazing" by a longshot, but the sheer dork-factor of trying to remake Mega Man 3 in their image makes up for a lot. I loved MST3K growing up, and now I get to play it, Capcom-style!

Leaving a lot to be desired, at least the designer chose to give Joel, and not Mike, a prominent storyline role, which you?? c??an read about in the review.

What you can also find on I-Mockery are other hacked ROM reviews with varying degrees of disturbing concepts, executions, and rape...lots of rape. If you really want, you can check out such titles as Evil Dead, Baby Dodge Ball, Nude Punch-Out, Dick Dug, and the one that wins the door prize for "Game with the Most F***ed-up Creator Who Has Too Much Free Time," Little Remo: The Child Abuser. Most, if not all, ROMs have d??ownload links at ??the bottom of the reviews.

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