8 ms·
Speculating here but it feels like part of Nintendo's beef is the popularity of PC form factors that look like a Nintendo Switch. Most notably the Steam Deck bu
by Lammy 3y ago
Speculating here but it feels like part of Nintendo's beef is the popularity of PC form factors that look like a Nintendo Switch. Most notably the Steam Deck but there are loads of them.
In 2022 Nintendo starting taking down Youtube videos showing Steam Decks running Switch games: https://www.resetera.com/threads/nintendo-started-blocking-videos-that-show-emulation-of-switch-on-steam-deck.558229/ https://www.resetera.com/threads/nintendo-started-blocking-v...
And last year went after Dolphin (GCN/Wii emulator) as soon as they announced plans to be listed on Steam: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36090755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36090755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36100732 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36100732
- jsheard 3y agoAmusingly Valve themselves released an official trailer for the Steam Deck which showed Yuzu installed on the homescreen. It was quickly taken down and re-posted without any references to Yuzu, probably after a panicked email from legal. https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-edits-steam-deck-trailer-to-remove-nintendo-switch-emulator-icon/ https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-edits-steam-deck-trailer-to-re...
- andy_ppp 3y agoI can play Switch games on Steam Deck!?
- WithinReason 3y agoYes, better than on the Switch. (now I'm awaiting legal action from Nintendo)
- progbits 3y agoBetter how? The detachable joycon with accelerometer control are a mechanic in some games (eg. Zelda crossbow aim). I would imagine this would be worse experience on steam deck.
- just2043 3y agoSteamdeck also has a gyro for this kind of mechanic.
- darkteflon 3y agoBy the by, I recently switched to using a Dualsense as my SD external controller and found that the gyro controls make for an excellent desktop and M+K game controller. Surprised I didn’t think to check earlier.
- c-hendricks 3y agoFYI this has been possible since the DS4.
- mplewis 3y agoYou can play them at a higher resolution and frame rate than Switch supports. Steam Deck supports accelerometer control as well.
- progbits 3y agoHuh, TIL. Thanks!
- faaarmer 3y agoIn some cases. In other cases they run worse on Steam Deck, notably Tears of the Kingdom.
- al_borland 3y agoThat's a pretty big asterisk. BotW and TotK account for about 90% of my Switch game time.
- prophesi 3y agoAt this point, there's a TotK optimizer you can find that even has a preset specifically for the Steam Deck.
- darkteflon 3y agoAfaik you need to own a modded Switch to get the necessary keys, though. That’s a big outlay, if you can even find one - they’re rare as hens teeth. Edit: Awesome - great to know!
- xyzzy_plugh 3y agoYou do not need a Switch at all, unless you're trying to somehow skirt the legality issues.
- sudosysgen 3y agoYou can find the keys online.
- nicolas_17 3y agoAnd that is the illegal part, rather than the development of the emulator...
- tonmoy 3y agoClearly not according to Nintendo
- johnnyanmac 3y agoThe moment they find a BIOS source they'll be taken out too. But the internet is a game of cat and mouse.
- Natsu 3y agoSo it's like the 09F9 1102 thing all over again? I think I still have most of the key memorized from back then.
- WithinReason 3y agoYes, if you want to do it legally.
- bassiek 3y agoBoss music start playing
- _cenw 3y agoI found it funny that Linus of LMG endorsed this setup not because it is better, but because Yuzu doesn't hold your savegames hostage. If you don't know: you can't backup saves, they get written to NAND, not the SD card. you can however buy cloud backup, but only for games that don't opt out. Truly a problem of Nintendo's own petty making if even switch owners with a legitimate copy prefer to not run on their hardware.
- extraduder_ire 3y agoIf you have a hacked console (paperclip with a 1st year console, modchip with later ones), you can back up your saves using a homebrew app (checkpoint) if you remember to do it regularly. You can also copy the saves off the console (or the emulated NAND you're supposed to create when hacking it) by running a different app (TegraExplorer) right from the bootloader. I had to do this when I messed up an update and my system wouldn't boot, but I hadn't backed up my saves in months. I do wonder if anyone's attempted to get nintendo to respond to a subject access request in the EU to get their saves from their cloud service.
- j5155 3y ago…and if you have a hacked console, you can easily and legally(!) just dump your ROMs and emulate as well.
- Cu3PO42 3y agoI didn't want to run CFW, so I have actually written a tool to back up and decrypt all saves in a single click given any vulnerable Switch in RCM Mode. It's been really quite useful.
- StimDeck 3y agoAnd you’re planning to create a GitHub gist later to share it right?
- johnkizer 3y agoThe savegame situation was part of what made me less interested in my Switch over time - I just didn't want to invest much time in any long-term games where I couldn't actually back up the savegames in any direct way. Now it gets pulled out every now and then when the kids want to play Club House Games or Mario Party.
- dclowd9901 3y agoGet out of here. Seriously? I’ve been playing older system games pretty well on it but switch felt like it would be too much a load.
- ThatMedicIsASpy 3y agoEmu Deck is the quickest way to set up emulation. The rest requires google. Not all games are stable/playable/without glitches. Mario Galaxy Wii + HD texture packs look like its from 2025 compared to the re-release on the Switch.
- dclowd9901 3y agoGot this set up and I have to say I am really stunned by how good it emulates switch.
- myko 3y agoNot really better than the Switch generally, but it's pretty cool
- ShamelessC 3y ago> better than on the Switch That simply isn’t true. Downvotes don't make the statement magically more true.
- spoiler 3y agoI played BotW on my friend's Switch, and loved it, but didn't really wanna buy another console. So I went through the tribulations of setting it up on the Deck (pro tip: use EmuDeck, I didn't know about it back then). I don't know about better, but for me it felt the same as the Switch! The only slight confusion thing was button labeling, but it's quick to get used to. I'd also say the slightly bigger screen is nicer.
- ShamelessC 3y agoI'm not saying it's not possible. I'm saying it isn't universally better on every game the Switch can play. In fact, many games simply won't run. But yes, you can (and should!) run the popular titles such as Mario Odyssey and BotW/TotK.
- nox101 3y agoAre 100% of features supported? Tilt sensor? Amiibo support? 2-8 controllers with motion camera, tilt sensor, internal speaker, and vibration?
- ranguna 3y agoI'm not 100% sure tilt is supported out of the box, and amibo for sure is not unless you have a dongle or something. But I'm not sure why this is so surprising, the steam deck is a Linux PC.
- WithinReason 3y agoAmiibos are supported (virtually), not sure about the rest
- jetbooster 3y agoI can confirm a PS4 controller tilt sensor works with yuzu, so fundamentally it's possible, not sure a plugin for parsing the steamdeck tilt sensor exists though
- sergiotapia 3y agoYes, and it runs really well and is very easy to launch and play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW4y8juFkOI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW4y8juFkOI Of course not as easy as just buying the game outright and putting in the cartridge.
- Sabinus 3y agoDownloading a file and putting in on a Steam Deck seems easier than working for ~3 hours then purchasing a Nintendo game.
- vlz 3y agoYeah, why pay for something, if you can also simply download/steal it? Something which took a lot of work to make? Reading comments like this I can almost understand Nintendos stance on emulation. Suing the emulator team is certainly not the right thing to do, but come on. At least pay for the game if you are not paying for the console.
- emeril 3y agogotta love the streisand effect!
- johnnyanmac 3y agoI don't think Nintendo cares about bringing short term awareness. They want to choke out the emulator team and more or less freeze development.
- andy_ppp 3y agoIf the emulator is open source how will it be possible a load of forks won’t be created!?
- theshrike79 3y agoYep and you can back up your saves, something you can't do on the Switch without a Nintendo subscription.
- dev1ycan 3y agoI mean Valve literally had a trailer with a nintendo emulator as an app installed... Valve doesn't need to do RND for its games because they can just use whatever is on steam that is playable on the deck plus a ton of games from nintendo consoles via emulators as a selling point.
- freedomben 3y agoNintendo could do the exact same thing if they made their platforms open like Steam does. That the switch is limited to only Switch games is entirely a choice they made because their whole existence they've been all about proprietary and locked down.
- freejazz 3y agoThat doesn't legally entitle others to copy Nintendo's systems or code...
- lobsterthief 3y agoI mean, to be fair, the NES lockout chip is what salvaged the video game industry after hoards of shitty games caused it to collapse. Obviously a lot has changed since then. Now they do it to protect their own IP and investments.
- jonwest 3y agoAs an aside to this, are there any documentaries or clips or things to read about "retro" console piracy that necessitated something like the lockout chip? I mean at this point I know about flashcarts but I dont know a thing about back when the NES wouldve been new-ish, let alone before then.
- anikom15 3y agoThe lockout chip wasn’t about piracy. It was about controlling licensing and trademark usage with 3rd party developers.
- 3y ago
- viraptor 3y agoIt would be amazing if Valve stepped up with legal funds/protection there. They do get money from people buying SteamDecks for emulation and well... free publicity if they take on Nintendo.
- jonny_eh 3y agoThat flies in the face of what Valve did TO Dolphin. It was Valve that proactively reached out to Nintendo before putting Dolphin in Steam. Of course Nintendo responded "please don't", so Dolphin got blocked.
- foobarchu 3y agoVery important (imo) nitpick, Valve didn't block Dolphin, they took it off their store. Blocked sounds like they made it so to dang run it, but you can install whatever you want on a steam deck and valve isn't going to stop you.
- everdrive 3y agoThis case isn't just about emulation; the Dolphin devs hard-coded the firmware into the emulator, which is why Nintendo had any standing. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5bfpS-WYUA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5bfpS-WYUA
- jonny_eh 3y agoNot the firmware, but the decryption key. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36091273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36091273
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hx8 3y agoI don't think this is likely. There is a convincible future where Nintendo publishes more and more games outside of their hardware platforms, so Valve needs to keep good business relations with Nintendo.
- pipeline_peak 3y agoIf that’s true, I wonder if the Switch successor will be a lot similar.
- carlosrg 3y ago>In 2022 Nintendo starting taking down Youtube videos showing Steam Decks running Switch games: https://www.resetera.com/threads/nintendo-started-blocking-v https://www.resetera.com/threads/nintendo-started-blocking-v... What are they supposed to do? Leave videos about piracy of their own IP untouched? It baffles me how people believe they have a fundamental right to pirate Nintendo software without consequences.
- widowlark 3y agoI play my switch games on my PC completely legally. All the games I play are owned by me, and all of them were backed up using my own switch and my own prod.keys. Is that piracy?
- skotobaza 3y agoYou can legally dump your cart and use it anywhere.
- troupo 3y agoEmulation isn't piracy. It can be used for piracy, but emulation itself isn't.
- pmx 3y agoYou can just as easily run pirated games on real hardware as you can a steamdeck, and vice-versa. You're conflating emulation and piracy. Emulation does not mean piracy as it is perfectly legal (and moral) to dump a game that you own so that you can play it on your preferred hardware.
- Wowfunhappy 3y agoRunning pirated games on real hardware requires tracking down a hackable Switch, which is not completely simple. I've seen torrents floating which contain Switch games alongside pre-setup emulators so you can just download and go.
- gremlinunderway 3y agoWon't someone please think of Nintendo? Poor, poor Nintendo?!