Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. Except that it can also be said that expanding IP enforcement to this new front is perfectly in line with Nintendo's general heavy-handed approach to protectionism. One could say that this all reeks of a legal team in a foreign country not being on the same page as the HQ back home. (Other Pokémon ROM hack depositories are easy to find online.) It would have contained other tweaks, such as Brown's special monster types (wood, gas, wind, abnormal, and sound), a tweak to the game's "clock" system, and new music compositions.
That hack's new "Rijon" region would have been hugely expanded upon in Pokémon Prism. Vierra himself might have assumed Nintendo would allow a Pokémon ROM hack, because his last one, Pokémon Brown, launched in 2004 with nothing in the way of dispute from Nintendo.
They're a boon to gaming companies by extending the life of the demand for a game for free, as fans take on the work of adding on to it in a way that still requires the original in order to play it at all.Īnd this isn't even Vierra's first go at this sort of thing. And there are entire sites and fan-groups built around these sorts of mods. It's CounterStrike, in other words, except using a Nintendo product.
#Fan made pokemon roms mod#
Not so much in this case, for reasons not currently being offered by Nintendo.īut let's all not lose sight that this is a mod on a game nearly two decades old created by a fan to incorporate brand new gameplay and story elements into the existing game and engine, and was going to be offered free of charge.
#Fan made pokemon roms mods#
As noted before, the company worldwide has generally allowed these add-on mods to exist. That team has previously taken action against downloaders of pirated Nintendo games, but not on creative fans producing these kinds of ROM hacks. It was Nintendo's Australian legal team that sent the threat letter. Vierra lives in California and Nintendo's legal team is based out of the United States, but Vierra had been planning on releasing the game via, which is based in Australia. The location of all of this requires some explanation. (American representatives for Nintendo were not able to confirm the letter's authenticity as of press time.) The request alleges that Koolboyman's project, which alters the source ROM of the 1999 game Pokémon Gold to create an entirely new adventure, violates multiple Australian laws. According to Adam "Koolboyman" Vierra, developer of the fan-made Pokémon Prism project, Nintendo's Australian law firm sent him a cease-and-desist letter, which he uploaded to Google Drive with identifying information redacted. But a letter sent by Nintendo's Australian law firm on Wednesday has stopped those plans in their tracks. Now, for the first time reported, one of these ROM hacks has fallen into the sights of Nintendo's lawyers.Ī fan-made Pokémon ROM hack in the works for eight years was set to launch this Sunday. These ROM hacks abound and are readily available, requiring the original game (or a pirated version) in order to be used. The most prominent of these would be what's referred to as "ROM hacks", in which the original Nintendo ROMs are modded to include new and original content. Yet Nintendo has been notably lenient in some areas in enforcing its intellectual property as well. The gaming giant has a long and decorated history both of anti-consumer practices, such as attempting to poison the roster of YouTuber game reviewers, bricking consoles if gamers don't agree to its post-release EULA updates, and attacking some of its biggest and most creative fans by issuing takedowns and threats for fan-made game levels, fan-made games that have barely anything to do with its IP, and shutting down fan-made remakes of games that are decades old.
Let it never be forgotten that Nintendo hates you, Nintendo fans.
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