A point the video makes is that derivative works (ROM hacks, translations, etc) are made much more difficult to access as well by Nintendo killing the sites entirely. Those hacks are works in progress with many new hacks released even in the present day.
Super rare games or imports were sometimes hard to find that early in the game. It wasn't even just the age of the internet, but the age of the emu scene too.
Right there with you. Like as soon as I found out about emulators and "warez" I was nabbing all kinds of stuff I read about in Nintendo Power but never saw in a store to even ask my parents to get for me lol
Piracy has only one real solution, a better market. I don't pirate PC games anymore because Steam has done plenty to earn the respect it has acquired. Prices are competitive and in general is a very smooth experience.
The Switch 2 has to be equal or better, in terms of power, to the Steam Deck/Ally. It is a shame that the last Pokemon games are no better than an indie game and the current switch can barely handle the latest Zelda
They've also locked N64 and GBA behind an extra subscription model on the Switch. I've paid a month here and there for online support, I don't want an entire year AND paying double to play one or two retro games.
And the emulators aren't even particularly good compared to what the community has been cooking, especially the new N64 recompiler that runs the games with interpolation at 240Hz 4K HDR graphics with raytracing in proper 16:9. Meanwhile Nintendo didn't even get the fog right on launch.
Just out of curiosity regarding the emulator features, why? The assets for N64 games can't possibly be suitable for that sort of fidelity and I'm sure that all those extra frames are just generated along with the entire ray tracing functionality.
It does away with the emulation entirely, that's the crazy part. It's basically a PC port but most of it is generated. Those features have been injected directly into the game itself. It renders at that resolution, no upscaling. It's still low res textures but the anti aliasing and overall sharpness of it all works out well. The animations are interpolated in-game, no fancy frame predictions or anything.
It would play absolutely fantastic at 720p on the Switch.
I'd be willing to pay that yearly fee for one game, just to have it on there and play when I want. Meanwhile I'll be using my PSP, so good for handheld emulation.
I've always wondered why Nintendo doesn't try to undercut the reproduction and emulation market by coming in and allowing companies to make direct printed reproductions that are official. Imagine if you could just order an actual N64 cartridge from Nintendo for like $15-20.
Heck IDK why Nintendo doesnt sell new FPGA versions of old consoles
