GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin won’t come to Steam after all - It turns out that if you fuck around long enough, you'll find out.

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Plans for a Steam release of the Dolphin emulator, software that lets users play Nintendo GameCube and Wii games on a PC, have been scrapped, its creators say. Developers backed off a plan announced in March to bring Dolphin to Steam after discussions between Nintendo and Valve put the emulator’s creators in an “impossible” situation: getting approval from Nintendo to release their emulator through Steam.


On Thursday, the creators behind the Dolphin Emulator Project confirmed that their software has been effectively blocked by Valve, and that the Steam store listing for Dolphin has been removed. According to a post from the team behind Dolphin, Valve’s legal department reached out to Nintendo of America after the planned Steam release was announced. Nintendo is said to have requested that Valve block the emulator’s Steam release, citing — but not legally invoking — the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Nintendo’s lawyers argued in a letter to Valve that Dolphin operates by incorporating Nintendo’s “proprietary cryptographic keys” by decrypting the ROMs of GameCube and Wii software, thereby violating the DMCA. Nintendo is referring to the Wii Common Key, a decryption key built into Wii hardware that was extracted more than a decade ago by a separate group — known as Team Twiizers — and incorporated into Dolphin’s code.

The team behind Dolphin argued in their blog post about the emulator’s Steam release that “only an incredibly tiny portion of our code is actually related to circumvention,” and that using the Wii Common Key does not apply to GameCube games. That seems to matter little to Nintendo, which generally frowns on third-party emulation of its consoles and games.
“Valve [...] told us that we had to come to an agreement with Nintendo in order to release on Steam,” the Dolphin team wrote. “Considering the strong legal wording at the start of the document and the citation of DMCA law, we took the letter very seriously.”

Dolphin’s creators say they’re abandoning their efforts to release Dolphin on Steam, but that some of the features developed for that version of the emulator will still be released. Dolphin is already available to download via the project’s website, and is compatible with Android, Linux, Mac, and Windows PCs.

“Valve ultimately runs the store and can set any condition they wish for software to appear on it,” the project’s creators said. “But given Nintendo’s long-held stance on emulation, we find Valve’s requirement for us to get approval from Nintendo for a Steam release to be impossible. Unfortunately, that’s that.”

 

[I-chi]

Why the fuck would anyone be retarded enough to install a major emulator on a DRM infested middleman like Steam.

Like nigger, it's Dolphin. Just install it and go. You don't even need to do a quarter of the treasure hunting shit required for PCSX2 or ePSXe like finding your own BIOS or shit.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

the early 80s: http://www.colecovision.dk/atari.htm

There's a lot of differences there, but one main difference is that the Dolphin emulator on Steam won't let you stick real Wii/GCN discs into your computer and rock out.

Connectix Virtual Game Station (the big court case that de facto legalized emulation, not Bleem) was done specifically to buy PlayStation games and play them on your computer and its CD-ROM drive. (Sony sued anyway, and lost).

Nintendo at least has a point that the only way you can make function of Dolphin is to also hunt down and acquire ISOs.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

View attachment 5224187

Funny, but nintendo has been making it clear for 20-30 years now that their policy is on exclusivity. At this point the daft ones are the people who insist MUH NOSTAGLIA will shield them from a policy that has been ironclad for three or so decades, not nintendo.

They did not copy any program code. They distributed the encryption key.
An encryption key is basically just a very large number that is then used in a mathematical algorithm to decrypt data..

Just like using your telephone number to call someone, an encryption key is used to decrypt data.

I'm confused, doesn't someone need to type the emulation code? How does that even work?

 

[Epoch]

Meanwhile this exists:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/954280/3dSen_VR/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1147940/3dSen_PC/

Which not only costs money, but double dips with a more expensive VR version

 

[Cuckoman]

I'm confused, doesn't someone need to type the emulation code? How does that even work?

Lets me try to simplify it.
People get the 'roms' from nintendo, but they are encrypted so they don't work.
In order to get them to work people first need to decrypt them and that is why they need the 'decryption key'. That is all dolphin did, they provided the decryption key, which is basically just a large number.

Lets create an example. Lets assume you have an ATM card and your pin is '1234'.
But you have a bad memory so you can't remember your pin, and you dont want to write "my pin is 1234' on your card because then anyone that gets your card can use it.
So you need to obfuscate/hide/encrypt the pin so no one else can use it.
So, you pick a random number, say '7' and you multiply your pin with '7'
then you write on the card 'my encrypted pin is 8638'. An now only you can deduct what the pin is. Because you know the secret encryption key, the number '7'. So you can just divide 8638 with 7 and you have the pin.
But no one else know that the secret key is '7' so even if they get your card they can not use it.

What dolphin did was basically add to their code "the number is '7', that is the number if you want to decrypt the data'!.
They basically added 'the secret number is '7'' no more no less. Well, the number they added was very large with many many digits but it was still just a number.

Numbers are facts and can not be copyrighted. Just like the phone book can not be copyrighted,
This is more a matter of vaulve just not wanting to host this emualtor on their store than any copyright issues.

 

[Pissmaster]

RetroArch is on steam, but it's a special version you can't download cores with. It's a workaround that lets them keep it on there without it being against the TOS because without the cores it doesn't actually emulate any consoles.

Of course, you could just download the cores elsewhere and drop them into the steam version and it'll load them just fine. But they don't endorse that. Because it would be immoral, you see.

There are cores on there, they're distributed as free DLC and their brochure pages make no mention to what console they actually cover, even if it's obvious. Like this one:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227448/RetroArch__mGBA/

mGBA is a fast, accurate emulator for one of the most popular and well-loved handheld consoles, and it has compatibility with huge library of beloved 8- and 16-bit style games. On top of the commitment to speed and faithful reproduction, mGBA also has a ton of great enhancement features, including support for custom palettes for games that were originally grayscale and displaying borders for games that include them.

This DLC allows mGBA to run through RetroArch, which adds all of its enhancements and features, including real-time rewind, extensive post-processing shaders and low-latency input to provide a modern gaming experience even with classic titles.

Nowhere do they mention the Nintendo® Game Boy™ Advance. That somehow makes everything okay.

There's a lot of differences there, but one main difference is that the Dolphin emulator on Steam won't let you stick real Wii/GCN discs into your computer and rock out.

Connectix Virtual Game Station (the big court case that de facto legalized emulation, not Bleem) was done specifically to buy PlayStation games and play them on your computer and its CD-ROM drive. (Sony sued anyway, and lost).

Nintendo at least has a point that the only way you can make function of Dolphin is to also hunt down and acquire ISOs.

PlayStation CD-ROMs are proper ISO 9660 formatted discs, which is why you can see files when you put them in a computer. Nintendo Optical Discs are Nintendo's own mystery meat format that are basically DVDs and Blu-rays, but don't comply to those standards. You can rip your own Nintendo discs onto a USB drive using a hacked console.

Why the fuck would anyone be retarded enough to install a major emulator on a DRM infested middleman like Steam.

Pretty much just for ease of use on a Steam Deck, and cloud saves.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

People get the 'roms' from nintendo

lol wat

 

[Oilspill Battery]

Lets me try to simplify it.
People get the 'roms' from nintendo, but they are encrypted so they don't work.
In order to get them to work people first need to decrypt them and that is why they need the 'decryption key'. That is all dolphin did, they provided the decryption key, which is basically just a large number.

Lets create an example. Lets assume you have an ATM card and your pin is '1234'.
But you have a bad memory so you can't remember your pin, and you dont want to write "my pin is 1234' on your card because then anyone that gets your card can use it.
So you need to obfuscate/hide/encrypt the pin so no one else can use it.
So, you pick a random number, say '7' and you multiply your pin with '7'
then you write on the card 'my encrypted pin is 8638'. An now only you can deduct what the pin is. Because you know the secret encryption key, the number '7'. So you can just divide 8638 with 7 and you have the pin.
But no one else know that the secret key is '7' so even if they get your card they can not use it.

What dolphin did was basically add to their code "the number is '7', that is the number if you want to decrypt the data'!.
They basically added 'the secret number is '7'' no more no less. Well, the number they added was very large with many many digits but it was still just a number.

Numbers are facts and can not be copyrighted. Just like the phone book can not be copyrighted,
This is more a matter of vaulve just not wanting to host this emualtor on their store than any copyright issues.

Oh, I see, so its like a roundabout way of running an emulator doesn't violate copyright law.

The coding equivallent of "My guns were lost in a boating accident", everyone knows the jig, but legaly they can't do shit about it.

That said I'm still surprised there's no law to cover this, surely nintendo and their enormous legal department can't be stopped by the coding equivallent of "boating accident" no?

Don't you still need to code an emulator that can actually run these things? Isn't that infastructure copyrighed?

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Nintendo are quite insane when it comes to lawyers and copyright. So yeah obviously this wasn't gonna work out.

Also that hacker kid who is in jail apparently has serious mental issues so

 

[Cuckoman]

Powerlevelling like a full Chris-chan autist, but:

@Pissmaster
"PlayStation CD-ROMs are proper ISO 9660 formatted discs,"

No, not really.
PS1 games come in a reasonably unusual format.

Track 1, that is the data track is always written in a very uncommon format that is called : CD-ROM XA MODE 2 FORM-1
All other tracks, afaik, are just normal AUDIO tracks.

There are tools, like 'bchunk' that can read such a file and export a portion of it as a 2048 block-size ISO image, but the disc image itself is far far far from normal or iso9660.

NEVER convert a PS1 disc image into ISO format. ISO format is just the embedded data of track 1. IF you convert a PS1 disc image into ISO format you thereby strip off all the CD-DA audio tracks and your game, like Wipeout, will suck since there will be no background music. :-(

 

[Cuckoman]

@Oilspill Battery

Writing an emulator is perfectly legal. And there is plenty of case-law in the US that establishes this.

What the dolphin guys did was to add the 'number 7' to their emulator so that
IF you tried to run an encrypted and protected rom from Nintendo then
the dolphin emulator already knew that "divide by the number by '7' and the game will run."
They embedded the secret number '7' inside their emulator instead of having the user have to provide "the decryption number is '7'"

It is very doubtful if embedding the number '7' is actually illegal but it does not matter. People that want dolphin on their steam-deck can just sideload it. And the steam folks will not have to deal with noobs tying up their tech support lines asking about why some rom they downloaded from warez-and-viruses-R-us didnt work.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

@Oilspill Battery

Writing an emulator is perfectly legal. And there is plenty of case-law in the US that establishes this.

What the dolphin guys did was to add the 'number 7' to their emulator so that
IF you tried to run an encrypted and protected rom from Nintendo then
the dolphin emulator already knew that "divide by the number by '7' and the game will run."
They embedded the secret number '7' inside their emulator instead of having the user have to provide "the decryption number is '7'"

It is very doubtful if embedding the number '7' is actually illegal but it does not matter. People that want dolphin on their steam-deck can just sideload it. And the steam folks will not have to deal with noobs tying up their tech support lines asking about why some rom they downloaded from warez-and-viruses-R-us didnt work.

Ah, so the 7 is like a way to bypass the DRM on the rom cartridges without actually breaking the law?

 

[Cuckoman]

Ah, so the 7 is like a way to bypass the DRM on the rom cartridges without actually breaking the law?

Yes, kind of.
And other emulators might on first boot ask you "type in the magical number" so you would have to type in'7' yourself, but dolphin already provided the number 7.
This is not really a very legal argument, nor is it something that N can really punish all that much.

As it turns out, it seemed Steam-folks contacted Nintendo and N gave them their stock-response that "we no like emulation" and that was enough for Steamo to kick Dolphin.
It really looks like Steamo didn't want Dolphin on the store in the first place and they took N's milky-toast bog standard response as an excuse to kick Dolphin.
This is really just Steam not wanting dolphin on their store and it is absolutely not about N strongarming them.

There are many reasons for disliking N and their hard line against emulation but this is not it. This is just Steam simply not wanting dolphin on their store for whatever reason.
For all we know, maybe some dolphin dev said "ywnbaw" to someone and thus steam banned them.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

For all we know, maybe some dolphin dev said "ywnbaw" to someone and thus steam banned them.

Somehow I doubt a dolphin dev said ywnbaw.

As it turns out, it seemed Steam-folks contacted Nintendo and N gave them their stock-response that "we no like emulation" and that was enough for Steamo to kick Dolphin.
It really looks like Steamo didn't want Dolphin on the store in the first place and they took N's milky-toast bog standard response as an excuse to kick Dolphin.
This is really just Steam not wanting dolphin on their store and it is absolutely not about N strongarming them.

Wouldn't it make sense as a precaution? Better say no out the gate than having to deal with nintendo getting pissy later and any legal issues that might arise from that.

 

[Dysnomia]

I don't understand the point of putting Dolphin on Steam when you can just download it already. Are there people who can't do anything game related without Steam's handy dandy browser?

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

I don't understand the point of putting Dolphin on Steam when you can just download it already. Are there people who can't do anything game related without Steam's handy dandy browser?

I personally only want Dolphin on Steam out of spite.

 

[Big moth tiddies]

Don't they fucking know emulators are meant to be played on the down low?

Emulation is at it's best when it's obscure, underground, and out of sight where only the intelligent can find it.

Don't you still need to code an emulator that can actually run these things? Isn't that infastructure copyrighed?

Emulation is not illegal. It works in the same way that reverse engineering does which in the game industry has been legally resolved since Sega v Accolade in which Accolade reverse engineered their games to work on the Genesis without going through Sega's bullshit scheme to get "licensed."
As long as Dolphin or any other emulator refrains from using nintendo's code, there's not jack and or shit they can do about it, and all Nintendo can do is send pointless legal threats, and sit and spin.

The Dolphin faggots may well be faggots, but I'll always hate Nintendo more.

If you want to support the vision of Nintendo products then pirate everything, release it in formats even normies can understand and use and do it widely

Actually the correct answer. I used to hand out CD's in high school with every NES and SNES rom I could find with Nesticle and Snes9X to everyone I knew in school. Good times.

 

[HERE YOU GO]

an “impossible” situation: getting approval from Nintendo to release their emulator through Steam

no shit

 

[ZMOT]

There's a lot of differences there, but one main difference is that the Dolphin emulator on Steam won't let you stick real Wii/GCN discs into your computer and rock out.

Connectix Virtual Game Station (the big court case that de facto legalized emulation, not Bleem) was done specifically to buy PlayStation games and play them on your computer and its CD-ROM drive. (Sony sued anyway, and lost).

Nintendo at least has a point that the only way you can make function of Dolphin is to also hunt down and acquire ISOs.

dumping your own (cd)roms is legal, depending on country tho.

lol wat

you can copy the digital version. same as this: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/10143/SEGA_Mega_Drive_and_Genesis_Classics/

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Nesticle

Ah, back when emulation was vulgar and still cool