Igor's Blog

https://screenrant.com/nintendo-switch-game-emulation-preservation/

This has been a terrible year for game preservation, and Nintendo’s latest moves have shut down Ryujinx, the second most advanced Nintendo Switch emulator, which leaves the future of Switch game preservation in jeopardy. Some might frame the legal action against Yuzu and Ryujinx, the two most high-profile Switch emulators, as an effort to curb piracy. This sort of myopic, short-term thinking has plagued the gaming industry. Nintendo has shut down its e-stores for the Wii, the Wii U, and the 3DS. At some point, Nintendo will undoubtedly do the same for Switch and its upcoming Switch 2 successor.

Nintendo has not shown any particular skill at in-house emulation, as the Switch’s N64 emulation was initially terrible. The fidelity of Switch emulation was relatively advanced for a currently active console, thanks to Yuzu and Ryujinx, and the cessation of these projects due to legal pressure from Nintendo makes it less likely there will be successors taking up the mantle any time soon. Nintendo is not going to preserve the entirety of the Switch library and make it perpetually available to the public, as the shutdown of its legacy console e-stores confirms. This is where emulation could help preserve games.

Every time Nintendo wins a lawsuit or pressures an out-of-court settlement in its favor, like Nintendo’s $2 million lawsuit against hackers, it simply reinforces the notion that Nintendo is a draconian legal juggernaut, ready and willing to throw its dollars at getting its way. The legitimacy of their legal arguments is irrelevant, since almost every worldwide legal system favors the party with deeper pockets. Whether a defendant could win is irrelevant – they cannot afford to win. For that reason, both Yuzu and Ryujinx folded, shutting down their operations and deleting the emulators to avoid being steamrolled by Nintendo.

Anyone arguing that Nintendo was in the right in these lawsuits should be reminded that the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con lawsuits ended in Nintendo’s favor. It is a universally known and undeniable fact that Switch Joy-Cons suffer from drift. A legal victory by Nintendo does not change that, it is simply a testament to the efficacy of the company’s legal team. Past lawsuits, like those of Sony against Bleem, show emulation is protected by legal precedent. A hypothetical suit between equally funded parties could have resulted in a similar result for Yuzu or Ryujinx, but realistically, they cannot match Nintendo’s resources.

A Steam Deck trailer removed Switch emulation footage, and the fact that portable form factor computers can emulate the Switch better than the Switch itself runs its own game library is a reason some gaming fans prefer to play via emulation than on the native hardware, even for games they own. Nintendo shutting down the major emulators for Switch is of dubious value, even to the company, as it is hard to correlate piracy with genuine lost revenue. The blow to game preservation is far more tangible. The increasing momentum of Nintendo’s aggressive litigation practice certainly shows no signs of slowing.

Consider Nintendo’s lawsuit against Palworld on patents, not copyrights. Nintendo has patented a massive number of game design elements over the years. Much like the emulation argument, if two equally funded sides were to duke it out in the courts, it is likely that many of Nintendo’s patents could not hold up, as they are intuitive and necessary aspects of modern game design. Few parties are as well funded as Nintendo. Against any smaller company, Nintendo can simply leverage the threat of protracted litigation, and force the smaller company to back down, even if the legal argument ultimately lacks substance.

When Nintendo ordered destruction of ROM files, it was not a victory over piracy, but a blow to preservation, akin to burning books. The industry and its lobbyists consistently focus on lost revenue - even hypothetical, potential lost revenue for games not currently in circulation. There may be a vibrant Switch e-store now, and it might remain so if the Switch’s successor is backward compatible, but in one or two decades, this becomes more uncertain. Emulators take time to develop, particularly as they are usually the passion projects of hobbyists. Few such hobbyists will poke the bear, given Nintendo’s aggressive legal tactics.

Any infringement, big or small, may eventually put a fan game and its developer in the crosshairs of Nintendo’s legal team. A Mario Kart knockoff costume rental service was sued, and numerous nonprofit fan games and tributes, and nonprofit emulation projects, have faced similar pressures. After seeing the hard work done towards the creation of Yuzu and Ryujinx abruptly erased, any other emulation pioneers would likely hesitate to repeat such efforts, knowing they could be the next ones targeted by Nintendo. Had Yuzu and Ryujinx persisted, by the time the Switch e-stores closed there could have been a flawless emulation alternative.

Recently, the Hachette v. Internet Archive lawsuit resolved with another blow to media access and preservation, but when it comes to gaming, Nintendo leads the pack with its inappropriate and overzealous litigation. Academics have struggled to legally access game ROMs for preservation and academic research, as the video game industry’s lobbyists focus on even the remote possibility that legacy games might be repackaged and resold to a new generation. Video game companies seem to have no inherent interest in preserving the legacy of the medium or treating video games as something of lasting artistic value, only in their bottom line.

Note: Yuzu was shut down as part of an out-of-court settlement associated with a lawsuit by Nintendo against its developers. The details of the Ryujinx shutdown are hazier, but Nintendo contacted the developers and reached an agreement for them to cease the project, suggesting the mere threat of legal action was sufficient to persuade the developer to abandon Ryujinx.

For those trained to think like stockholders, concerns over potential lost sales due to piracy could make the downfall of both major Switch emulators seem like a victory of some kind. For real fans of video games, this is clearly a worst-case outcome. If video games truly matter as an art form, if the medium has any lasting value that deserves to be preserved for future generations, fans cannot count on gaming companies to preserve that legacy. Gaming fans can count on Nintendo targeting any successors to Yuzu and Ryujinx, however, ensuring the Nintendo Switch library dies when its e-store closes.

Bringing back the ol' 3Dio for a good ol' fashioned ear exam & outer ear cleaning RP :D so, you've gotten yourself in a very ~sticky~ situation – like losing a fight with a roll of packaging tape. Oddly enough, it's only on your ears. Curious. There are some intense-ish and straight intense parts of this video, those parts have been marked in the timestamps so one can avoid the heavy sounds if they wish!

Introduction ~ 00:00 – 03:05
Inspecting Your Ears ~ 03:05 – 06:08
Pulling Off The Tape (Intense-ish) ~ 06:08 – 14:07
Double Checking Your Ears ~ 14:07 – 15:00
Palpating Your Ears (Intense) ~ 15:00 – 17:01
Assembling Otoscope ~ 17:01 – 17:55
Looking Inside Your Right Ear (Intense-ish) ~ 17:55 – 20:36
Looking Inside Your Left Ear (Intense-ish) ~ 20:36 – 22:30
Getting Ready For Ear Cleaning (Intense-ish) ~ 22:30 – 24:28
Wiping Off Your Left Ear ~ 24:28 – 26:51
Wiping Off Your Right Ear ~ 26:51 – 29:39
Cleaning Your Left Ear w/ Cotton Buds ~ 29:39 – 33:36
Cleaning Your Right Ear w/ Cotton Buds ~ 33:36 – 36:51
Wiping Off Your Left Ear Again (Intense-ish) ~ 36:51 – 37:58
Wiping Off Your Right Ear Again (Intense-ish) ~ 37:58 – 39:09
Swabbing Your Left Ear Dry ~ 39:09 – 40:21
Swabbing Your Right Ear Dry ~ 40:21 – 41:52
Drying Off Your Left Ear (Intense) ~ 41:52 – 43:22
Drying Off Your Right Ear (Intense) ~ 43:22 – 45:45
Double Checking Your Ears (Intense-ish) 45:45 – 46:40
Aftercare (Intense-ish) ~ 46:40 – 47:47
Taking Notes 47:47 – 48:40
Final Bits ~ 48:40 – 50:09

Hope y'all enjoy, have a whale of a day! :)