Fan-Made Pokémon Prism Game Leaks Online After Nintendo Shutdown Notice

It's super effective!

Unfortunately, it's only version 0.91, not 1.0, so it's missing post game content and other goodies. But the main game is all there. And some would say it may even be better than Sun/Moon, if you don't mind the classic GBC graphics. Hopefully, 1.0 will... Find a way out into the public, somehow... But even short of that, we're looking at an astounding mod here.

And referring to the people who released it as "pirates" is not quite accurate... This was meant to just be a mod applied to a copy of the game. The downloaded contents would not have come with a .GBC file if it had been allowed to release normally. So by siccing Nintendo of Australia on Prism before 1.0 released, Nintendo has inadvertantly facilitated pirating by shutting down the project too early, if at all.

Well, be prepared to get taken down again.

Yeah, it's not the full game.

@Phin68 Pandora's Box has been opened. Even if closed, once the contents have been released, they cannot be put back in.

@Phin68 It's been out in the wild for some time. I've had it for a couple of days. It's way too late for that

pretty obviously released by the dev himself if the leakers are so protective of him.

The game is great, shame it won't get finished but v0.91 is already a near complete package, so I'd say that's a win for the dev and the players in my book.

@PlywoodStick It's not.

This was always going to happen & I'm dissapointed that it eventually did. While I wholeheartedly support fan projects, games like Pokémon Prism does go out of it's way to look like a full Gamefreak release & I understand the project was making more in donations that it needed to be completed. For me Prism is less a fan project & more IP theft.

As a huge long time Pokémon fan, I won't be playing it and certainly won't be giving it any word of mouth. However, other people are free to do as they please.

@amiiboacid Clarification?

@PlywoodStick can I play this on my phone? I don't own a computer.

This actually happened the day after it was C&D'd.

@polivar4 Yes, you can. If you're using Apple, then use Game Play Color. If you're using Android, then use GBCoid. If you're using a Windows Phone, then God help you.

Personally, I wish Nintendo sent him a letter of 'conglaturations' for making a poké game that substitutes water for milk in the recipe. It's nice to have something different, yet similar.

In a way, maybe this shutdown was good; Nintendo gave him tons of publicity and that may lead to others wanting to work with him on future projects....and then legally release those projects.

So why not make a whole new game out of this?

@DanteSolablood When did the dev take donations, I can't find any instance of it

I think the worst part about this is how Nintendo killed the project right before it released rather than right after. I mean, an ideal scenario is the game would just get released and be good and everything would be hunky-dory, but at least with Uranium, Nintendo waited until the day after or something lol.

Gosh...!
That is not a Fan of Pokemon anymore.
That is a Lust, Fanatism, Egoism, Delusional Love about Pokemon.
A True Pokemon Fan WILL NOT treat the games like that. It just so absurd to hack and proud off about illegal Pokemon games. Like you are a Murderer, dressed up like a Clown, come to little kids, stabbing them with knife with merciless. Such a pathetic creation and ideas.
Sorry for my harsh comment, i'm so tired to see Crackers modding innocent games to become disgusting games with profanities and inappropriate contents.

@PlywoodStick Piracy: "the unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work." So while making the mod or releasing the patch they didn't use Pokémon sprites, logos or anything which is trademarked? Piracy applies to anything which is trademarked, not just a completed game or code.

@Rocossa I may be incorrect as this is something I have heard but not verified myself. If I can find a source, I will update my post. I'm not one of those people who claims to be right 100% of the time, even when wrong.

@DanteSolablood iirc pokemon uranium was taking donations so it was probably those guys

@DanteSolablood Mods naturally use the game contents, no way around it. Most mods don't get taken down, though. Just look at all the other Pokémon mods, Super Metroid mods, New Super Mario Bros mods, Fire Emblem mods, etc. This one just flew a little too high on the radar after Twitch and the trailer made it a little too well known. It was Nintendo of Australia that took it down, and I don't know how the laws are there. Probably would have avoided a take down in the USA.

I always have mixed feelings about these things. On one hand, it's neat to see the love and dedication that goes into fan projects like this. Yet on the other hand, Nintendo and other companies are within their full rights to take down anything that uses their copyrighted assets and games in ways that are not permissible or intended.

@Syrek24: Agreed, that's a better way to go about it.

@Rocossa To be fair, Adam was certainly making "some" money through his partnerships with Twitch & the huge viewing figures on his channel. However, while it makes sense he was making good money from Prism, I can quantify or substantiate it covered development costs.

@PlywoodStick It would have been taken down in the USA as well, there is very little legal difference in this area. However, I was only defending the use of the word piracy & not the takedown itself. However, Nintendo was well within their right to take it down... they could take down all the smaller fan games but perhaps in this case they wanted to "take down the big fish & see the smaller fish scatter". It is an ancient concept of common sense after all.

I don't understand why people waste their time and assumed talent on these fangames. Why not just make your own original idea, for once? Why steal assets, and presumably code, to make something far worst than a generic rip-off.
These ideas are so devoid of any originality or creativity, which is hilarious because that's what the same people who love these accuse Game Freak of being devoid of. It's pretty gross that people actually enjoy this stuff.

@Syrek24 are you the lawyer mentioned in the text file?

I hope Nintendo act upon this by taking the creator to court due to disobeying the cease and desist.

It is obvious the creator leaked this himself and wrote that fake txt file to try and pretend he had nothing to do with it.

@DanteSolablood Lol, yeah, that was probably the intention. I don't know if I would call Prism a "big fish," but the takedown has definitely created a chilling effect for RijonAdventures, and there might not be anywhere near as many mods for X&Y or Sun/Moon as past generations. I'm not sure how far out the effect will resonate, but this has definitely taught modders to be more quiet.

@Gorlokk Yeah, Nintendo made a rather poor tactical decision by taking it down before release, rather than after. Not only have they inadvertantly contributed to the spreading of patched Pokémon Crystal .GBC files, they've added another notch onto their Tyrant's Belt.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Would it kill these people to be creative and make their own game instead of stealing from others? Or at least work on games that allow mods.

@PlywoodStick So anyone that defends their IP is a tyrant? To use Pokémon terms... that's a little Black & White isn't it?

I'm not the biggest proponent of the quality of most fan games, but I think some of the above arguments against them are getting a little... hyperbolic (especially the parallel between re-engineering Pokémon Crystal and running around stabbing children in a clown suit).

I think most people are fine with the idea of fans extending their imaginations into existing video game worlds via things like Fakémon etc., and perhaps even with the creation of private projects that heavily borrow from or build on the frameworks of existing IPs. These tend to be small and self-contained.

But despite detractors commonly complaining about fan games being largely crap, the problem actually seems to be when they get 'not-crap' enough to begin competing with the games they're based on. No one would bother complaining if I made a 1x1 RSE hack where all you could do was walk into one of the four walls, after all.

I don't really mind too much either way. It's interesting having a gander at some of the Unreal Engine versions of OoT etc. (which manage to look simutaneously impressive and mysteriously ugly), and the world would be a poorer (if saner) place without Kaizo Mario etc. But I'd generally take a well presented library of legitimate games over a world rife with dodgy clones (Android comes to mind).

I think the majority of mods are minor projects by hobbyists looking for something familiar to use as a basis for their work, and are thus pretty harmless. Which is why I believe an unflinching 'fan projects = bad' mentality is too simplistic, and involves a lot of getting angry over nothing; if some kid messes around with Pokémon Yellow files in their bedroom as their first step into understanding game design, it's not the end of the world, and demanding that they 'make their own game' is about as helpful to their development as demanding a newbie musician 'write their own music' instead of playing anybody else's.

But when the projects swell to the size where they can compete with the games that they're based off... well, then I suppose it's ultimately Nintendo/Game Freak's decision whether they want them to live.

And so far, their stance of the matter doesn't seem overly charitable.

A little late are we?

@Maxz To be fair on Nintendo in this instance, there are a lot of fan games that haven't been targeted. For Prism, my YouTube inbox easily contains twice the number of Pokémon Prism videos to Pokémon Sun/Moon videos. This is nothing to do with the quality of the games, it's just EASIER for people to LP Prism as it's not tied to hardware and has itself had a huge amount of advertising online via Twitch and YouTube.

I don't even watch Pokémon LPs on YouTube... and Prism is all over my inbox.

Gamefreak & Nintendo is like every other company and needs to have show a fair balance between allowing fan content & stopping abuse of their IP. The real problem is that the majority of fans will always defend the fan game developer because they want to play the game. Nintendo literally can not win.

While I don't mind a good fan game now and then (just look at what the Dizzy fandom has been putting out post-Oliver Twins as an example), Pokémon remakes are like categorically garbage, and always make the game worse in both mechanics and "story," so good riddance.

I hope that the leakers go to prison.

Cowards.

Maybe I will give it a shot at some point, maybe I won't. I was interested in trying out Uranium but my stone age laptop couldn't handle it.

@DanteSolablood That's interesting. Most of the news I hear about fan games comes from more mainstream news sites (or realistically, just this site) and that usually comes in the form of "___ is being taken down", so I have a skewed perspective of what proportion of fan games are affected. I simply don't hear about the ones that aren't.

@Anti-Matter Aren't you exaggerating a little bit? Prism isn't even an edgy romhack.

@Maxz That's the point, you don't hear about fan games not being taken down because they're not being taken down. But you'd be surprised how much hypocrisy Nintendo have to put up with... they shouldn't go after the big guys & leave the smaller guys out there & then a few minutes later people are arguing the opposite.

Ah, the Nintendo Life comments section, a cesspool of hatred and cannibalism.

Man the responses on here are terrible and rude. Nintendo made the wrong decision. When Christian Whitehead ported Sonic to mobile, SEGA didn't slap him with a C&D, they offered him a job. I can not understand these people who insist on defending everything Nintendo does.

They also speak of how they got hold of the ROM, saying "Some dev was careless".

I have the feeling its more couldn't care less as long as their ROM Hack was released after 8 years of work. I'm always dubious of these sorts of projects because these projects are always supposed to be out of love and respect for the series yet people don't actually respect it when it actually matters.

Where's the respect is there in responding to the project being cease & desisted this way? Even if people think what Nintendo done was scumbaggy. Downloading the ROMhack in the form of a patched ROM is certainly scummier, in the end it's a petty crime that wouldn't be worth chasing up but it's still a crime.

If the allure of a free Pokemon game is that strong and the negative vibes these sorts of projects brew within the fanbases. Maybe they are right in defending their franchises the way they are, maybe the developers should have asked Nintendo first, got shot down and then spend 8 years making a legal Pokemon clone.

@Rocossa Us lesser Nintendo fans could only WISH to be as hardcore of a Ninty fan as little ol' syrekt here is! What a good boy he is!

@Anti-Matter What is wrong with you..?

Like honestly, I'm starting to think that there is a much bigger reason behind your childish banter on every NL post's comment section =/

@Syrek24 I agree. If the publisher like Bethesda supports modding then to me mod away and make the game better! Beyond Skyrim looks fantastic and a great way to extend my Skyrim experience (5+ years thanks to mods)! However it also requires you to own Skyrim to play those mods and pay Bethesda for their original work to use them.

For companies like Nintendo (and to a lesser extent Sony/Microsoft) they do not support modding of their software on PC (mostly because they do not sell PC versions of their software 99% of the time) and a lot of the time these mods require you to download the ROM to play them (and let's be honest how many people actually dump their purchased games on their PC). So I understand as fans that we want to consume these mods, but Nintendo also does this to protect their IP's and to also get paid for their work and their developers/partners to get paid as well.

@gloom And I hope the leakers go to prism...

@LeRaposa That's on Sega. And they are free to respond how they choose. Just as Nintendo and GF are as well. Just because one developer let it slide, doesn't mean they're all entitled to. And personally, I think anyone who criticises Nintendo and GF for doing what they need to do (and are legally allowed to do) to protect their property just highlights how entitled the gaming community has become.

Tens of people are surprised!

@UmbreonsPapa Nintendo was in the wrong. Their response was pitiful and was insulting to fans. They're not protecting their IP. If they were truly protecting their IP then they would go after all fan hacks and all that garbage on the app store. They only went after Prism because it was popular. It wasn't harming anyone but because it was popular, Nintendo decided that was it.

@LeRaposa That's a nice opinion but the fact is that the people making the project were actually the ones wrong legally. They went after them because the game was about to be distributed.

If you're that concerned about the games not be targeted you're free to report the clones you do find.

@Shugo Do we know for certain they didn't help leak it?
Also, it's a Nintendo news site, old news is still news I guess.

https://www.change.org/p/nintendo-drop-cease-and-desist-order-of-pokemon-prism

It amazes me how many people don't understand why Nintendo has to shut stuff like this down.

@DrRandle I'll try to explain it to you. Some people just want to make something with the game that they love and care. That's it, you don't need another reason. FanGames are just like all the fanfiction, fanart and covers that you see everywhere.

Yes, Axiom verge is a great game that came from the Metroidvania titles... But it is no Metroid and it will never be. Just like all the pokemon clone games, they will never be pokemon. The people that do make fan games just want to play those franchises as the way they were (eg AM2R is way better that other M and FedForce, and the pokemon fan games let you play like a competent human being, not like Sun/Moon, which treat the players like they were arf), not a "tribute" game that lost its spirit on translation.

A note aside, just because you're able to make modifications to something that doesn't mean that you're able to create your own thing. Creating a game from the ground is hard, just like writing a novel, a musical piece and making art. Try doing this by yourself and you'll see what I mean.

@LeRaposa I don't think fans typically act like: "Let us use your IP however we please OR ELSE I'LL SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT YOU ONLINE". Being a fan of something isn't exclusive free access to do whatever you want with it, it's a title that represents that you supporting it and the people who make it.

Nintendo so often mention that their strength is that their games are available exclusive on their platform. I think if anyone even remotely cared about Nintendo they ask permission before doing a fan project on PC, but they don't, because they know it will be rejected but they still do it.

@Dr_Lugae Glad someone understands.

@demonta4 You lost me at change.org.

To be honest, I don't care about fan games. I think their a waste of time when their developer(s) could use that time to make their own game they can profit off of.

They should really pass the IP over cause recent pokemon games have been garbage anyway

"all fan games are inherently bad lulz"
stop this meme

@Clockwerk That's personal opinion, Sun & Moon is my second best generation of Pokémon so far. If you changed your statement to "recent Pokémon games from The Pokémon Company have been garbage" I may agree with you... not sure why Gamefreak trust them with the IP.

Came to say that the game looks better than some maingame official games and then found some extremists, aggressive, hate possesed people...
Yeah, I'll better leave.

@kotag Welcome to internet comment sections.

@DanteSolablood No, anyone who creates a chilling effect by preemptively shutting down projects that are mods (like Prism) and not full games (like AM2R or Chrono Trigger Resurrection), instead of waiting for them to be released and then shutting them down, is displaying tyrannical behavior. Nothing wrong with defending one's own copyrights, but Nintendo has kind of shot themselves in the foot by not waiting until this week to shut down easy Prism downloading.

Every copy of Prism that's being downloaded now contains a patched .GBC of Crystal, which is supposed to be a no-no for modders to supply. I doubt koolboyman brought the leak about, it was likely someone who had access to the Twitch preview of Prism earlier this year. The version that got leaked is the Twitch Plays Pokémon version, 0.91. If Prism 1.0 were allowed to be released normally, it would not have come with a pirated copy of Crystal. The beta version of Prism has been available for years now, so it's well known how it was going to look like and be received as.

@kotag Ironic, isn't it? People who claim to hold the highest morals tend to be the scariest of people who don't necessarily use violence.

@PlywoodStick I think you may be mistaking "tyrannical" with "stupid". I don't agree with you on many points of this discussion.. but I can see where you are coming from and appreciate your point of view.

However, I doubt Gamefreak care too much about the Crystal ROM aspect of this case as you can easily find it & download a copy with a 30 second Google search. I not only did this before replying, I could even play it on an embedded emulator. I feel the modding community may certainly have a rule against supplying the .GBC, but legally that makes very little difference to Gamefreak or Nintendo. You're not crossed some magic line of legality. <-Sorry, that may come across as slightly more antagonistic than I intended. You can't really see my cheeky grin as I typed that.

If I had to guess at Gamefreak's actual intention, it was likely to curb the scale of projects & cool down the hype around Pokémon Prism in the midterm which, at least as far as YouTube goes, was dwarfing Pokémon Sun & Moon (which again, I will state is due to ease of recording LPs from an emulator instead of a 3DS).

This goes back to the basics, fan projects which use a companies IP are in most cases illegal but tolerated due to the free advertising they provide to the source material. Once a fan either starts making money or starts to detract from the companies own work/sales... I don't think it's at all tyrannical for them to prevent it. And again, if they've done themselves additional damage by taking down Prism early, that's stupid. Not tyrannical.

Edit: BTW, if Pokémon Prism is a good as many people claim... maybe they should let The Pokémon Company go and hire this guy instead. He certainly couldn't run the VGCs any worse.

@Wexter Regarding Microsoft and mods, they actually do not care what you do with the assets so long as it isn't sold in anyway (for profit, charity, etc.)

It's what made a lot of those Machina videos of yore possible. Also the number of mods to their other games.

@biscuitsandtea I do remember them being touchy about a few titles so that is why I said to a lesser degree Microsoft and Sony (Sony hits me as the most uptight about modding in general). Microsoft being the looser of the big three.

Granted I may be confusing the scenario with one of their developers/partners

@Wexter I do agree that there may have been a time that Microsoft or a partner did defend their IP, but I can't seem to pinpoint when. Might have been a long time ago.

Either way, regarding the whole situation with modifications and ROM hacks, I say let them exist. Long as they do not make profit off copyrighted assets then there should be no problem.

Regarding the quality of said mods and such, well, that's up for debate.

Some of these comments make the comments section on hardcore piracy sites look intelligent by comparison. You should at least have a general understanding of the technical nature of these mods before commenting. As planned, this mod would have been released as a delta patch, and would not have contained any copyright or trademark violating code. I cant even begin to fathom why some of you Nintendo Warriors are so against this project, there's no feasible way it could have effected sales of any Nintendo products in any way. None.

Also... this is very old news. Why even bother posting this at this point NL? To prove how dumb some of your readers are?

@ClampedDownHard Just to confirm, would the game have included the trademarked pokémon logo, pokéballs, pokémon? These are all trademarked & protected, you seem to be pointing at the trees to hide the wood. Also, as stated previously Pokémon Prism does have a very major presence on social media which is likely the main reason for the takedown. Gamefreak are currently trying to get pokémon players focussed on their game.

@DanteSolablood As planned the patch would not have contained any of those things. Anything contained in the original Crystal ROM would just be redundant if included in the patch. The patch uses the graphics, sounds, animations, etc of the original ROM. I believe technically the only trademark violation in the patch is the custom text which uses trademarked terms, specifically the names of Pokemon, trainers, and the word Pokemon itself. But you could say Bulbapedia, Serebii, and even this site, to a lesser extent, are also in violation.

FWIW I shared this game on social media precisely because it WAS taken down, so... unintended consequences.

Actually, that would be a great new name for Nintendo after the last couple months... "Unintended Consequences Corp, look at all the dumb things we've done so YOU don't have to"

@Phin68 the current hosts wipe their backsides with C&Ds, so that's not likely

@ClampedDownHard Actually this site would not be in violation due to fair use which allows review of trademarked material & this could be extended in many instances to reporting news. As has previously been stated companies will allow use of IP to a certain extent as long as it's not competing or profit making. Bulbapedia & Serebii would fall under this latter case.

I would be interested to see if the finished version didn't use the "pokémon logo" because the one used on this article is definitely in violation of trademark as it's the trademarked Pokémon logo slapped onto a different background (but it may be something NL created, so I won't go into this specific use). Plus recreating something which is trademarked, does not remove the trademark... if I drew a pikachu & sold it as my own I would still be in violation of trademark law (look at Disney who have actively & successfully prosecuted people with Disney character tattoos).

I will say that I am not deliberately being hostile or attacking people defending Pokémon Prism, but it does appear many people don't understand trademark law or tend to have odd "additional rules" that allow their own personal community to breach them. Much like someone was talking about Prism "not being piracy because they didn't release the .GBC"... that might make modders feel better but is completely irrelevant to trademark/copyright law.

@H1B1Esquire many fans working in such mods usually, like 20% of the time, are either praised by the original developers themselves or even righout hired by the company. Nintendo never has done that, even thou they have the most loyal fanbase among the 3 bigs.

Had I've been Nintendo -or the head of Nintendo-, I'd invited them to headquarters and have them work on a "lost" Prism Pokemon GBC game, like other companies have done and release it solely at the eShop, for 10 bucks or so. Boom , there, everyone's happy.

@DanteSolablood I can't argue those points, especially about the custom logo, but since Nintendo has ensured we'll never see the actual release I can claim the final release would have had a non-infringing logo, 100% original graphics, all original Pokeydudes, and no mention of any licensed games, and there's no factual way you can ever argue against that. Nintendo shot themselves in the foot by preventing them from being able to ever claim the moral highground because we'll just never really know for certain.

@PlywoodStick IMO, My old boy is better than GBCoid.
IIRC it supports multiplayer.

@ClampedDownHard Haha, well I would agree to that... but what you're saying is that consistently violating trademark is fine as long as you eventually stop at the time of your choosing after releasing trademark violating beta versions, trademark violating trailers & probably making the odd buck along the way while doing so.

Yup, moral highground is definitely with the dev.

I am still confused at to why all the previous Pokémon games are not on the VC service at this point? Nintendo has ensured that people have to emulate, etc. to enjoy most of their past catalog. Heck with a good Andriod handheld now you don't even need Nintendo. This puts their ability to make money off them very low. I would gladly pay for versions on my 3DS but since it won't happen I am considering an emulator handheld now too.

Goodnight unauthorised reproduction.

@DanteSolablood Woah, I didn't realize that Prism was going to blow up THAT much... And I thank you for your candor. It's clear you have good intent, so no worries about that.

Dear lord, I know I've already commented this but I simply do not understand the people attacking this game and other fan projects. I get defending Nintendo's right to do this, but it's never just that. It's always something like "Nintendo has to protect their IP from filthy thieves like these!" or "Oh my God, can't you stupid devs do ANYTHING original?!"

On their own, comments like these wouldn't be very surprising considering this is NintendoLife, but the worst part is how they seem to reflect the majority opinion with the amount of likes they get. I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks fan games are evil and adamantly defend Nintendo like they're a friend has to be a child or a teen. I can't fathom any adults taking that position, I just can't.

So you can 1. Never write fan fiction 2. Never see fan art 3. Never perform cover songs

"Why steal characters and settings when you can just write your own story?" "Be original, you didn't write those notes!!"

They may be legally allowed to take it down but the comments here are astoundingly obtuse. Fanboy logic at its finest.

Besides, if Pokemon Company really wants to protect their IP, they should take down app store clones, starting with that "Catch Em Monster" app that I keep seeing in YouTube ads. THAT is a complete ripoff — they steal models, music, names, even the word Pokemon is said by a fake Prof. Oak.

But no, let's take down Prism even though it's been in development for years. Oh well, at least it's out there now.

Also well said @Maxz @LeRaposa @Gorlokk

The comment about the serial killer clowns had me rolling

@DanteSolablood I do agree, the dev did profit from Nintendo's trademarks, and that's not right. But at this late in the game, it seems like they're not taking any of the glory away from him, but are taking away a highly-anticipated game from the community.
The C&D gives Koolboyman:
1. The moral high ground, because he never has to release any infringing material
2. An easy excuse for bad or unfinished parts of the game.
3. Tons of free exposure (and hosting)
3. Martyr/Legend status in the community

So why bother with the C&D? Obviously not to deter others from doing the same in the futue :/

@Gridatttack @polivar4 Now that I've done some research, I found that GBCoid works, but it's really old. Like, 2010 old. Retroarch and GBC.emu work better for Android, and mGBA also works well on modded Wii's and 3DS's.

@Gorlokk You'd be surprised. There are several self-righteous types in the area. Some of the people who use words like "evil" and "hate" to describe their feelings on this situation also have a long history of ranting and arguing about things like that.

"why not make a game they can profit off of" Not everyone makes things because they want to profit. SOME PEOPLE like to make what they like. (and in the ROM hacking scene, those who DO make hacks for the profit angle are quickly outcast for obvious reason).

Which part of "people have been making Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, etc. hacks and fangames for nearly 20 years before Nintendo decided they "needed" to threaten what are obviously some of their biggest fans?"
Last I paid attention to the Super Mario World ROM hacking scene it had been going strong for nearly 15 years.
If Nintendo "needed" to sue fans, they'd have been doing it 20 years ago.

Hence why people spent YEARS making fan games WITH POKEMON CHARACTERS because THEY LIKE POKEMON CHARACTERS.
Because they were made DURING YEARS when Nintendo lawyers didn't feel punching their fans in the face was a good idea. Years when they could be reasonable and let the fan works go as long as fans didn't try to sell them and admitted Mario, Pokemon etc. are Nintendo's property.

All this "real fans make their own characters all the time stuff" bugs me. DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND FAN GAMES?
Nintendo makes a lovable character like Yoshi. Fans love Yoshi enough to express it various forms, including fan fiction and yes, fan games. A fan spending 10 years making a Nintendo fan game is a tribute.
They happened because until a few months ago Nintendo knew that fans passionately admiring their work was a positive thing.
I think a few years ago someone even asked them if they knew about ROM hacks/fangames, and I don't remember what they said but I think was something like they don't condone it but they also didn't want to make people hate/fear them by throwing legal threats everywhere (and they hadn't forgotten that people playing and making those are often also fans that buy the official stuff too).

Sorry, long and somewhat angry rant. I tried to keep it down.

When it comes down to it, I just want to play a good game. Nintendo needs to find a better method to handling these fan games than a C&D letter though. That's a ton of man hours put into quality games that are appealing to some audiences more than the latest titles in those respective series (in the cases of AM2R and Project M, specifically). The only thing this is accomplishing is turning hype and eagerness for something into anger and negativity toward Nintendo. I understand that Nintendo has to do this under law, but they still could have let the full version slip out then promptly C&D'ed it. I gave them the benefit of the doubt due to how AM2R went down. I even understand that it's difficult to set a precedent on handling these matters by other means, but that effort to do so could make some great games much more accessible, reward the company, and reward the hard work of these developers. That sounds like a win to me.

I have to take a moment and point out the true irony in this. Most of the people who are suggesting that these developers should just "make it their own thing" would likely be the same people who would condemn the game for being "a blatant clone with no originality" if they actually took their advice. It would be better if he hadn't been taking donations, although I don't know if he was asking/making accommodations to specifically allow for it. I'm glad he just wants to make an enjoyable game for a ton of people. There has to be something more than seeking profit to be working on a game for eight years knowing it'll have to be released for free. I hate that it had to get shut down so close to completion though.

@Syrek24: Funny how some of those developers get started. http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/halloweenhack/halloweenhack.htm

So after reading basically the entire thread I will give my own opinion(which many of you will not care about no that I said ok) this opinion will be non bias but question certain thing said to hopefully have a non harsh opinion on both sides of the quarrel. Legally it is 100 percent Nintendo I said in the right, however the law does not always have to be accepted by everybody and they have the choice of whether to listen or not, however not abiding by the law results in consequences yes. So to all those saying nintendo is right forget fan game she and all this, yes they are good observation lol. However the idea of fan games does not have to bring a cringe to a Nintendo fans senses. Yes, making a game SPECIFICALLY for profit Is wrong, but that doesn't mean the game I say bad. We are gamers first guys. So looking at it from an unbiased GAMER perspective, a game is a game and if it is a good game, nothing is taking that away from it. Legal or not, a fan made game can be good. So everyone is arguing trying to bash on each other like the internet does, but that's just how it is, everyone's has a different opinion. Yes those people getting mad cus Nintendo I said in the right and people shouldn't defend fan made games, you guy said are right regarding Nintendo no it's rights. However, this does not give you the right to infringe on another's persons opinion, whether they like fan made game so or not, that isn't your problem. You arnt Nintendo let them be . And for those fan made game enthusiasts, there is no doubting that's Nintendo is in the right, but hey a good game is a good game and you are all entitled to like anything you want. So in the end anyone mad over this is mad over nothing Andy if either way you all are good then you guys are right, because you are entitled to have your own opinion. (Legal or not, any one CAN do something but there are consequences after) I made an account just to say this for those two people who will read and agree And the many who will find something's I said and try to twist it around. Sorry for the essay but happy new year to you all, I wish all of you the best.

So many typos, I have big hands on a small phone so you can imagine :'D lol

If the post says "I said" and I think sounds out of context it is supposed to be "is" I guess auto correct is on

@biscuitsandtea I'm more if the developer/publisher approves then I see no problem with it. If the developer/publisher does not approve they are in their legal right to take them down.

As I said in my opening post that Skyrim mods have been a huge boon for my time with it. However if the developer or rights holder is not getting paid for their work (no matter how old it may be) that is when I get a bit more unsure about if I approve of it or not.

(Granted translation ROMs I 100% support if you imported the game and dumped the ROM as not everyone is able read Japanese)

@ClampedDownHard I think the problem here is that you're looking at this as someone wanting the game to have the moral high ground & may be accidentally skewing the facts to meet you opinion. We've already addressed many of the points you've raised.

1. What moral high ground? H/she has already released trademark infringing material through every version, beta & trailer using Nintendo/Gamefreak's IP. Again, you can't break the law & say "I eventually plan on NOT breaking he law.. eventually". That certainly doesn't UNDO all the times you DID break the law.

2. Nintendo/Gamefreak doesn't give a poop if it looks like the game is coded well. There are a lot of really well made fake products out there. Doesn't make them right.

3. Tons of free exposure... in the short term. I think what you're missing here is that Pokémon Prism was already SWAMPING social media with LPs, reviews and news on Twitter, Twitch & YouTube. I'm part of the Pokémon community and have been for decades but the last few months I've seen almost nothing but Pokémon Prism everywhere I go... even when trying to avoid it. Prism is a big story now, but in a month? Two months? Without the dev pushing the game out there like crazy they've relegated the games exposure to the short-mid term.

3. Point three again apparently. The dev may get legend/martyr status from some parts of the community, for others he looks like a bit of a tit, especially those that thought they should at least make the bare minimum effort to make his game a smaller target.. like making his logo NOT use a copy-pasted trademarked logo or maybe naming his game Poké Monsters or just one of a dozen of things that they just didn't bother doing

The C&D in the short term may hurt Nintendo's image but in the longer term Prism was high profile enough to hurt long term sales of Sun/Moon which would naturally be tailing off while a full version of Prism would have been hitting a million YouTubers. Not only that. but it DOES send a signal that you should at least make the MINIMUM effort into avoiding IP theft.

Heck, my favourite comic at the moment is Moképon. Moképon... they've swapped two letters around which is silly but STILL a token effort on the creators part. It's also a fantastic web comic ALL pokémon fans should check out.

Why does NintendoLife even talk about these kinds of "games?"
Stop helping these thieves out!
And anyone that supports this crap, you should be banned from this website.

Cat's outta the bag and its a little too late now. Oh well.

@Wexter I agree that they do, indeed, possess the legal right to take it down. It is their assets after all. However, should they?

I've been told that these ROM hacks hurt sales in the long term, but I've never seen any material regarding this statement.

I'd go more in depth but I think this article's thread has more than enough arguments to go around. And just as @ClampedDownHard stated, many mods (gameplay wise/translation) to games I see don't even carry any source of the original they're modifying in the first place. Rather, they are .delta files that are applied by a program to the original ROM (which the user must obtain).

Either way, I think fan creations keep the community active in situations where sequels take ages to arrive (For example, Pokémon X and Y arrived in 2013, Sun and Moon just this year!), or fans taking a different approach to the lore of the series they're accommodating.

As for Bethesda games, mods to their games are a huge selling point. I think they'd rather take that loss on potential profit on mods to sell more copies of their games and expansions. Not to mention without mods their games have game breaking bugs that they'll never look at again.

And I 100% approve of translation mods. I'm too old and fat to learn a new language in a timely manner, and said mods have helped me play games I would have otherwise never gotten ahold of. For the folks wondering whether I pirated said mods, I did not. I purchased the game and ripped it myself. I'd like to support the developers while getting myself a physical copy

@SomeBitTripFan Very good points. With such ironic logic, we would be "hating" things like Undertale too, since it came from someone who got their foot in the door by making a rather edgy and discomforting ROMhack of Earthbound before making a game inspired by it... Which was crowd funded using Kickstarter, no less. (Crowdfunding, and Kickstarter in particular, is much maligned by the same people on NintendoLife.)

@biscuitsandtea I'm not attacking the concept as the way I experienced Mother 3 and Seiken Densetsu 3 were through ROM hacks to translate them. I do however believe that the developer does hold the right to shut them down if they feel it infringes on their copyright and they are not getting paid for their work. (PS I did rip all future Japanese games before I learnt the language. PS Kanji still sucks)

Real shame, but what can you do.

@Wexter Oh I'm sorry if I came off accusatory, I'm just surprised how much vitriol this topic seems to generate. Not good for my heartburn 😂

@biscuitsandtea It's okay! All is good!

@DanteSolablood Not providing a pirated copy of a game with ROMhacks is a cornerstone of how mods and ROMhacks in general are able to skirt under the radar. If they did provide one, it would be a clear violation of U.S. Copyright Law, especially after the results of Galoob vs. Nintendo:

http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/copyright/cases/galoob_vs_nintendo.html

Yep, that's right, cheat codes generated by Game Genies and GameSharks were once held in contention that they violated U.S. Copyright Law; they could be considered ROMhack devices. Nintendo lost that case, and it set a precedent that proclaims any injected code that is not made by a subject product's company, made by an outside individual or group under certain conditions, is in fact not strictly violating U.S. Copyright Law. Not providing a pirated copy of a game with something like a ROMhack is one of those conditions.

Furthermore, as I and others have pointed out, Nintendo did not use common copyright law to bring down Prism. They used the DMCA, which itself is separate. However, the DMCA is currently in the process of being held in contention of being unconstitutional. Which means that if it is ultimately deemed as such, then every line under the DMCA will be rendered null and void according to the highest law of the land, subsequently clearing the names of those taken down under it.

We'll have to see how that process goes in 2017 and 2018. We could see quite the upheaval. Suffice to say, without the DMCA, Nintendo is on shakier ground for siccing a cease and desist on a ROMhack, instead of a full blown separate game like AM2R and Pokémon Uranium, of which Nintendo is fully in the right to take down.

@PlywoodStick You are aware that in the case you just quoted an important & qualifying part of the case was that the Game Genie would not effect sales of the game & was in fact found to be beneficiary to them... which is not the case with Pokémon Prism. Also, just for semantics sake, DMCA is a copyright law & actually adds to common copyright law.

Nintendo could indeed have had to game taken down via the original copyright law but would have been mad to do so & it would have been pointless. While the DMCA my be technically unconstitutional (as is ALL copyright law), the existing laws are wholly unfit for the modern age.

@DanteSolablood Well, apparently Prism is generating more buzz than Sun/Moon on social media platforms, so if it had been allowed to go through, who's to say that interest in the series as a whole (and the Game Boy entries in particular) wouldn't have increased, in a smaller degree to what Pokémon Go did? Any publicity like that is good publicity.

The DMCA was shoehorned in only a scant 17 years ago, and it's contents ensure that it does hold the possibility of being excised for unconstitutionality. By contrast, it's a lot more difficult to prove that all copyright law is unconstitutional, considering the so-called "Copyright Clause" grants such powers in Article I, Section 8:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Clause

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei

I do agree, though, that the realm of Law is badly lagging behind the march of technological progress. I doubt there will be much catching up until newer generations step into the role. But at least the U.S. Constitution is on the side of those suppressed by the DMCA.

@PlywoodStick Actually, pretty much the first thing I found when researching "DMCA is unconstitutional" is a very well written piece from copyright lawyers themselves which discusses the fact copyright law in itself is in conflict with the first amendment & that the real issue with DMCA specifically is having to seek trial FOLLOWING the takedown, not before. In any modern technological society however, issuing a takedown post-launch etc. is not a workable reality as once something is out there, it has a life of it's own.

Using an amendment to argue an amendment.. don't really want to go there.

In regards to the old "free advertising, social media" aspect of this case... I might agree with you if Nintendo didn't have a Pokémon game out right now which was having to compete with Prism's social media presence and that Koolboyman seems to have done very little to distance his product with the official product. Pokémon Go at least makes Nintendo money & doesn't try in any way to compete with the games on Nintendo platform.

Edit: Just to confirm though, Pokémon Prism was in breach of copyright law. If the real issue is that Nintendo shouldn't have used the DMCA, perhaps they'll go after future games MUCH earlier in development instead so they have time to go through to courts?

@DanteSolablood I agree with most of your points, but I can't possibly fathom how Prism could effect sales of SUMO at all.

EDIT: Oh shit this has come down to linking to the DMCA and Constitution. A document written by men who couldn't have possibly understood electronic communication for another 200 years, versus the document written by men who understand it even less. How relevant..

@ClampedDownHard Haha, I agree it has gone too far. I think it's not necessarily a bad thing though, it just shows there are intelligent people in the forum with a difference of opinion.

I'd rather have links & research than insult & flame wars. LD

@DanteSolablood I will contend that the Prism release should have been delayed to give the legit Pokemon games a wider exclusive timeframe around the holidays. Cutting in on SuMo and Go's big holiday time in the spotlight was foolish. But by the time of the C&D, the damage had already been done.

@ClampedDownHard Well I'll lay out my point of view in two pieces.

A) Pokémon Sun/Moon are going after record sales & will need to sell well into the New Year to keep it's momentum, especially with focus moving to the Switch. Nintendo/Gamefreak will still want to protect sales for a while yet.

B) The whole "damage done lolz" is one way to look at it, another way of looking at it is that someone has broken the law, not even followed basic fan-manners (fanners?) & doing nothing would probably allow the situation to become worse in the future. I can imagine a comment section a year from now with you saying "well they didn't go after Prism, so why go after Pokémon Pumpernickel?" Plus if you don't catch a burglar in the act, you don't go "damage done lolz", that's not a real world response.

Suck balls nintendo.

@Mijzelffan @Turniplord "pretty obviously released by the dev himself"

From what evidence do you conclude this? Just because the releaser protects the ID of the developer doesn't mean anything on its own. If fans support the project (which it appears there is a lot of support), they wouldn't want the creator to get busted.

@DanteSolablood On both accounts they comply. Firstly, it could be argue that Pokemon Crystal is not selling a single copy(which can be tracked quite easily), so no harm there; secondly, both parts could argue whether is beneficiary for Nintendo or not for decades. All it takes is 100-200 people coming forward and stating that Pokemon Prism help them discover the Pokemon world and yada yada yada.

@ClampedDownHard It wont. And the developers of Prism could argue that tehy are completely different games, played on different mediums and that SUMO is the biggest selling Pokemon game in 3DS (and DS?) history so they didn't harm any sales whatsoever.

@DanteSolablood I agree that Nintendo should have stop them but, like I commented elsewhere, why don't they bring the game to Nintendo? Or they could have a very amicable chat where Nintendo simply states: "look, you game is very good, but is not up to the standards that we hold so dear, so please, understand, and cease developing of the game. Here, a couple of Pikachu New 3DSXL and a 100 bucks eShop card for each. Bye".

Or they could go this route: "we love your game! It has so many things that we wanted to put on Crystal but didn't have the time or resources to do it. So, work with us, we will release it as a "lost" version of the game (SEGA did it some years ago, to very good sales and critic), we will give you a job and what do you say?".

@maceng I understand where you're coming from but just because Sun/Moon have the highest launch figures does not mean its sales haven't been impacted.

It could very well be the case Sun/Moon simply attracted more new customers than Prism took away. It's possible that the sales of Sun/Moon and the 3DS however could have been even higher had these fangames not offered a free alternative of a similar product on a different platform.

Mainline Pokemon games are a big incentive to even own Nintendo handhelds. Again no matter how much love is put into the fangames their existence undermines the official releases as they only need to convince one person that they don't need to buy a 3DS or Sun/Moon because they can get new Pokemon games for free on their PC. They compete with the official releases.

@PlywoodStick I have Android. How would I search for it or download it. What site would you recommend?

@PlywoodStick Better than Sun and Moon.

@polivar4 Oops, late reply! I would recommend trying to find an .APK file which you can download and install yourself, instead of using an app store, by going to... Well, I can't link the sites here, but just look up "Retroarch GBC". GBC.emu is harder to find, and I can't link that site either, but that one will require more digging.

@PlywoodStick I got lost man but thanks for the info anyways.