Mountain_Man

Wait, they're still selling these things even after the whole enterprise was definitively exposed as a scam?

Can You Really "Make Your Own Switch Pro" With This $100 Dongle?

Short answer: "Of course you can't. Don't be an idiot and waste your money on this piece of junk."

I can never be upset when a brutally difficult game is made a little easier/more enjoyable.

@stuntz0rZ "i think everyone knows to update their joy con after each update. lol why keep posting this reminder?"

I actually appreciate the reminder, because not every firmware update includes a Joy Con update. What baffles me is why the Joy Con firmware isn't updated automatically.

@Zach777 "What do these controller updates actually do?"

I was wondering the same thing. It's not like they're adding new features and functionality.

Classic games are available. You just have to know where to look (wink wink, nudge nudge).

@Ventilator I've played all the Arkham games on PC at 1080p, and they were all bright and clear. I don't know what makes you think that resolution affects luminance.

@Ventilator "1080p were never a good resolution for Arkham because it's so dark."

That makes no sense. What makes you think resolution has any impact on luminance?

Personally, I always hated these games because they completely removed any ability to improvise and play creatively. On the flip side, I think the best thing they did is make it possible to remove specific instruments from popular songs so that aspiring musicians can jam along with them using their own instruments. I have several dozen drumless tracks stored in my Roland TD-17 electronic drum module that I love playing with.

@the_beaver "I forgot about this game. Glad to see the visuals and performance have improved a lot."

Improved, yes. "Improved a lot" is probably an overstatement. Even with the post release patches, The Outer Worlds is still undeniably ugly on the Switch. And I say that as someone who otherwise really enjoys the game.

@impurekind Still going on about game mechanics when that was never a point of contention. Hoo boy...

@impurekind "...you couldn't be any more wrong..."

If I'm wrong, then legal precedent is wrong. ¯\__(ツ)__/¯

@impurekind "No, you don't get it."

You can keep telling yourself that if you wish, but we both know it's not true.

And I have no idea why you keep going on about gameplay mechanics since I never mentioned it. The sticking point here is the strikingly similar art styles such that a reasonable person could easily mistake one game for the other. I honestly don't know how much simpler I can make this for you.

@impurekind "I honestly cannot fathom how you still don't get it..."

I obviously get it, and I have explained things as clearly as I can. The question is why you still don't get it. I know you think you're an expert just because you had a dissimilar case decided in your favor, but the situations are not parallel, so your personal experience is irrelevant here.

As for your insistence that the two games are not strikingly similar, I'm sorry, but that's not open for debate. In fact, they are strikingly similar as the following screenshots demonstrate:

https://i2.wp.com/www.arcadeattack.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/levelcomparison.jpg
https://fictionalcrossover.fandom.com/wiki/Giana_Sisters_X_Mario?file=Giana-Mario.png
https://forallnerds.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/The-Great-Giana-Sisters-and-Super-mario-bros-comparison.jpg

Put those screenshots in front of any reasonable person, and they could easily think it's the same game. It's that potential for confusion that gave Nintendo legal leverage, and the publisher knew it. This is the same reason you can't, for instance, copy a competitor's packaging and marketing style to sell your own products. There was a case some time ago where a private flashlight manufacture sold his products in packaging that was almost identical to that used by Maglite for their own flashlights. Maglite sued claiming that, despite minor differences, the striking similarity could cause confusion, and they easily won the case, just as Nintendo would have easily won if the publisher of The Great Giana Sisters had imprudently taken the matter to court. Heck, Nintendo's case could have been won with a single question put to the developer: "Did you knowingly design The Great Giana Sisters to appear strikingly similar to Super Mario Bros.?" Come on, it's not like they could have denied it!

@impurekind Again, the fact that The Great Giana Sisters uses original artwork is irrelevant when that artwork is a virtual carbon copy of Super Mario Bros. to the point that the two games can easily be mistaken for each other (for that matter, some of the levels in The Great Giana Sisters are exact duplicates of Super Mario Bros. levels). ​The key phrase here is "strikingly similar", as in it can't be dismissed as a mere coincidence. This is not a trivial point. The publisher knew it, and they knew they didn't have a leg to stand on if it went to court, so they did the smart thing and conceded the debate before things got ugly.

With regards to your case, again, you had legal precedent on your side in that a blanket copyright can not be granted for a common English word or phrase. Warner Bros. couldn't legally stop you from using the word "Inceptional " any more than Apple Records could stop a computer company from naming itself Apple Computer because the similar names are unlikely to cause confusion — nobody would mistake a computer company for a music label, just as nobody would mistake a video game company for a popular movie.

Now suppose a new software company came around and decided to call itself "Inceptional Games". You could (and should) sue them for ripping off your company name, and you would easily win.

But here's the kicker: that cover is iconic. It might be iconic for all the wrong reasons, but it's still iconic. A more traditional cover wouldn't have been nearly as memorable.

A slick interface is nice if you spend a lot of time looking at it, but I only ever look at the home screen for the few seconds it takes me to start a new game, and for that purpose, the current Switch interface is perfect.

Faulty consoles could be repaired... but I guess nobody would buy a Game Boy for $200.

@impurekind You're right that Nintendo's artwork wasn't directly stolen, but the art style and level design are so strikingly similar that at a glance, the two games are almost indistinguishable. This was not a coincidence. You accuse the publisher of being "too ignorant and chicken" to fight it, but, no, they knew exactly what they did, they knew they could not credibly deny ripping off Nintendo's design, and they knew Nintendo was going to crush them in court for blatantly copying their work. Pulling their game from distribution was the smart thing to do in this case.

Now the reason you won your case despite your company having a strikingly similar name to a popular movie is because nobody is going to mistake a video game company for a movie. There's actually precedent here. A blanket trademark can not be given to a common word or phrase. It's why Apple Records was not able to stop Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs from naming their computer company Apple. If, on the other hand, you made your own movie, or even a television show, and called it "Inceptional", then Warner Bros. would win the case easily because a good argument could be made that consumers would find the similar names confusing.

@impurekind Yeah, they "chickened out" because they couldn't deny that their game was a blatant ripoff of Super Mario Bros.! It wasn't just game mechanics but the level design and artwork that at a glance could be easily mistaken for Nintendo's own game.

@impurekind The Great Giana Sisters for the Commodore 64 is a good case study here. It was essentially a clone of Super Mario Bros. using original artwork and was pulled from the market by the publisher after Nintendo "suggested" that it could lead to legal action due to obvious copyright infringement. Apparently the publisher agreed.

I predict we'll get Metroid Prime Trilogy HD for the Switch around the same time we get the Switch Pro.

@impurekind "...it could even make it look and play and sound almost identical, within reason..."

It's the "within reason" caveat that'll get ya. Fair use laws do allow people to use copyrighted work "within reason", and Nintendo obviously does not feel that these books whose sole purpose is to capitalize on Nintendo's intellectual property fall within the exceptions allowed for by fair use.

@BreathingMiit "Maybe if the rules weren't so ***** stupid then people would have more respect for them."

Without those stupid ***** rules, there would be nothing to stop Nintendo from stealing the work of others to use in their own products. Imagine a Stardew Valley remake but set in the Super Mario universe. Or a note-for-note remake of Ben Prunty's Into the Breech soundtrack in the next Starfox. I'm sure in those scenarios you would love the law to step in and help the little guy, wouldn't you? Well, those same laws also protect the big guys.

Maybe one of these days, people will finally realize that you can't profit off of some else's intellectual property without the right holder's permission.

@liveswired Um... I'm not into the "depopulation" conspiracy theories. I just know that the vaccines are not nearly as safe and effective as we are being told.

@Chamver People seem to be going for this whole "retro" thing right now for whatever reason, so if there's a market for it, I really can't fault someone for exploiting it.

@OnlyItsMeReid "The flu vaccine doesn't stop the flu either"

Exactly, because the flu virus, like the Chinese coronavirus, mutates far too quickly for vaccines to be an effective way to combat it. And this is leaving aside just how risky the Chinese coronavirus vaccines are in and of themselves, being based on experimental technology that has never before been used on humans and for which we do not fully understand all the short-term and long-term negative side-effects. Not to mention the fact that the vaccines appear to quickly burn themselves out and require another dose every six-months or so or risk leaving the test subject even more vulnerable to the Chinese coronavirus than they were before. Look at what is happening in Israel if you doubt me.

@Clarice "They should force all employees to take the vaccine and fire those who refuse. For sure it's the only way out of this crisis."

The vaccines have already failed for several reasons: 1) There's the massive human rights implication that arise from effectively forcing people to take medications that are experimental and unproven and for which there has been a disproportionately high rate of negative outcomes; 2) We already know that the vaccines have limited effectiveness at best. Not only do they not actually stop someone from contracting and spreading the virus, but they are only good for about six-months, at which point they leave a gaping hole in your immune system that has to be plugged with repeated booster shots; 3) Even in ideal circumstances, it is impossible to get the vaccine out fast enough to stop a virus before it can mutate and render the vaccine worthless.

The case study here is Israel which has one of the highest rates of vaccine compliance in the world but is still seeing some of the highest rates of infections and hospitalizations from the Chinese cornavirus.

I'm not sure why there is even a chip shortage in the first place. Is it China ramping down production to create an artificial shortage in order to economically strangle the rest of the rest the world?

Doesn't look much different than other cases that sell for a fraction of the price.

I don't understand why these people don't use their talents to make something original instead of wasting their time on a project that will certainly get shut down.

Looks like it could be easily broken off leaving a part of it inside the headphone jack where it may not be easy to remove.

Oh for crying out loud, are people still going on about the non-existent "Switch Pro"?

@Flashlink99 It's not memory, it's the number of polygons that need to be pushed at any one time, and in terms of environment complexity, Dying Light is, in general, magnitudes greater than The Witcher 3 which is mostly wide open spaces dotted with small, simple villages.

Basically, look at how The Witcher 3 runs in the game's largest city where it struggles to get above 20FPS on the Switch. That's essentially how I expect the entirety of Dying Light to run.

@Flashlink99 The Witcher 3 is a lot less demanding than Dying Light, featuring lots of wide open spaces covered with relatively easy to render grass and trees. Dying Light, on the other hand, is set in a dense, highly detailed urban environment with a lot more geometry for the engine to handle. I'm expecting Dying Light on the Switch to look less like The Witcher 3 and more like The Outer Worlds.

@WhiteTrashGuy "If DOOM and DOOM ETERNAL can run, then DYING LIGHT can. "

Completely different kinds of games. Doom/Doom Eternal are corridor shooters which are relatively easy to optimize. Dying Light, on the other hand, is a huge open world game set in a dense, highly detailed urban environment with a day/night cycle where the player is free to move about as he wishes with few restrictions, including seamless transitions from interiors to exteriors. I'm morbidly curious to see just how much the developers were forced to compromise to get it running on the Switch.

If what they're claiming is true, that the video contains numerous falsehoods, then they have an excellent libel case on their hands.

The question is, is what they're claiming really true?

Hmmm... very skeptical about this one. It will take a lot of wizardry to get this looking and running well on the Switch. I suspect it's going to suffer from frame rate issues and aggressive use of dynamic resolution.

Spelunky is one of those games where you find yourself laughing at some of the absurd ways you can manage to fail.

I don't know about listening to it for 10-hours straight, but I've always really liked "Baba Yetu", the opening theme from Civilization IV. It's probably the only game where I listened to the whole theme song every time I started it up.

Being a Wario game, I'm surprised the demo doesn't have a price tag.

@Razputinman "If only Nintendo preserved their games better..."

I find it ironic that while pirates are justifiably vilified, they are the only reason so many things have been preserved in the electronic age. For example, the only reason the vast majority of the Commodore 64 library of software still exists today is because it was preserved by "warez" groups. Many original album mixes that were ruined years after release through remasters and remixes can only be found today by delving into music sharing groups. Movies like Disney's forever banned The Song of the South and the classic television mini-series Game, Set, and Match starring Ian Holm, and which the author of the books the series is based on has never given his consent to release, are unavailable except through "unofficial" channels.

Sounds like the judge doesn't entirely understand the technology in play here.

I guess this is good information for people who don't know how to do something as simple as not save their credit card information after making an online purchase.

Depends on the price and whether or not it's full games on the cartridge.

I'd rather they make a sequel to Chinatown Wars!

First Nintendo game I ever played had to have been Donkey Kong in the arcade. First Nintendo console I played was the NES at a friend's house. First Nintendo console I owned was a Game Boy Advance.

@Arkay "As someone that played New Leaf a ton... I don't understand why people complain so much about this game....then again this is the same toxic community that sees red whenever someone plays the game in a way that they want."

I honestly don't get it either. I sometimes get the feeling that some of the more "toxic" fans here would have been thrilled if instead of New Horizons, we got a straight port of New Leaf. And snide remarks like asking, "Where's the patch to add all of New Leaf's features to New Horizons?" is as silly as asking, "Where's the patch to add all of New Horizons' features to New Leaf?"

They say, "But New Horizons is all about decorating your island!" An overly simplified description, but, sure, let's go with it. In the same vein, New Leaf was all about monotonously grinding for bells in order to unlock gated content. I really don't get why the latter is considered so vastly superior to the former. But, again, these are overly simplified descriptions that don't prove a damn thing.

The fact is, New Leaf and New Horizons have significantly more similarities than differences, yet the "toxic" crowd is choosing to focus on the differences to the exclusion of all else and declaring, "It's different; therefore, it sucks!"

An Amiga Mini? I find that rather extraordinary. I can remember when the Amiga was the most advanced PC on the market. It was even used for early CGI effects in Hollywood productions like Robocop and Babylon 5.