1w ago

The emulator that lets you play NES games in 3D has left early access on Steam

www.pcgamer.com

The emulator being 3dSen, direct link to Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1147940/3dSen_PC/

42 comments

How long till Nintendo files.
- I'm not sure they can in this instance. The reason they could sue the Switch emulator team was because they were using a proprietary encryption key.
  I don't think the NES had that, and as long as you own the game, emulation is legal.
  Also, this might be considered transformative use since the devs have to create the 3D profile by hand.
  
  Nintendo was able to sue palworld using a patent that didn't exist before palworlds release. It's not right, but they can do whatever they want regardless of what the law says.
  
  They were able to prevent Dolphin’s release on Steam
  
  as long as you own the game, emulation is legal.
  People say this, but I believe it is mostly technically untrue. It'd be a relatively easy argument to say that a downloaded ROM that isn't exactly the digital copy YOU purchased with a license would be seen as not legal.
  However some people talk about literally ripping the game off the physical device themselves, hence copying their own copy of it. Now you are in grey territory of making copies of copyrighted materials, and in the case of more modern games like the last decade, they almost assuredly have language that specifies you don't actually own the code and all that.
  All I'm saying is be careful and probably refrain from repeating the fallacy that owning a game makes emulation of it legal, because that implies having the ROM is legal and that's doubtful.
- I wonder if Steam would remove it from people's libraries in that instance or just the Storefront
I just gave it a download. Tested Mega Man 2, and now I'm playing Super Mario Bros. It's really fucking cool
how does it work?
- Each game needs to have a custom profile created to render in 3D. From the linked article:
  3dSen is an emulator that lets you play 2D NES games in 3D. Its programmers have to create a custom profile for it to work its magic on each game, which means there are currently 100 supported games, including Contra, Super Mario Bros, Batman, Castlevania, Bubble Bobble, and Gradius.
  And from another article:
  ...with the addition of the 3dSenMaker tool, community members now can handcraft 3D profiles for their favorite games.
It also works with romhacks if the code isn't changed too much. Ducktales 2 co-op works like a charm!
Bought it a few years ago. Super cool, though I probably only messed around with it a couple hours before forgetting about it.
I saw there’s a VR mode and couldn’t throw $15 at this fast enough. This looks phenomenal! So cool.
Thanks for posting this. Had no idea it existed.
You can play Duck Hunt with a VR Zapper. Worth $15 there alone. I'm a simple man.
- Duck Season is pretty fun too FWIW.
Zelda 1 seems an odd omission from the supported games. I wonder if some games are harder to implement than others or something.
- Zelda is there! Remember it’s under “Legend of Zelda.” It looks friggin' rad in VR 3D. I'm definitely playing through this whole game like this.
  The weird one for me is that Super Mario Bros 2 is missing.
  
  I thought I saw in very recent patch notes that there was a community-made version of SM2?
Didn’t know about this. This is amazing.
They want money for an emulator? that’s bold
- Maybe, but it’s not just emulating the rom, I thinks there’s enough value add for their $9 asking price.
  
  $9 on sale, but $15 normally.
  
  Still, being able to argue they're not for profit is what typically has protected emulators from being sued to oblivion (and with Nintendo, even that's risky)...

42 comments