
Show HN: Play multiplayer and singleplayer NES games online - gge
https://nescat.gcubed.co/#
======
knux
Make sure you keep the display pixelated when you scale it for "zoom in".

    
    
      .nes-screen {
        image-rendering: pixelated;     /* webkit */
        image-rendering: optimizespeed; /* firefox */
      }

~~~
gge
Ahhh ok. I'll add this to the next commit.

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JauntTrooper
Why doesn't Nintendo port old NES/SNES/GameBoy games to smartphones and sell
them for $1-$2 each?

They're so much more fun than all these compulsive microtransaction games.

~~~
vlunkr
Cause without buttons they suck :)

~~~
exclusiv
They could design a classic bluetooth controller and sell it for cheap. I'm
using the expensive, but awesome Switch Pro Controller on my Android's SNES
emulator.

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derefr
People have their phones with them in a lot of cases where they just can't or
won't bring any accessories: at a nightclub, in the toilet, etc. If this is
the majority of time when you'd want to kill time on your phone, controller-
requiring games would be pointless for you.

Mind you, if you can _force_ people to bring the accessory wherever they bring
the phone, the calculus shifts. The Switch essentially is a Pro Controller
duct-taped to an Android tablet; and it's a lot easier to convince people to
buy one. :)

~~~
exclusiv
Yeah accessories are a challenge. But your comment made me think - how about a
phone case that doubles as a controller? Kind of like the Surface keyboard as
a phone case or protector with tactile buttons? I found a hard case called
Flitchio but not sure if it made it to market and I don't like the joystick
design [1]. Here's one closer to what I was thinking [2].

[1] [http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/134420-consoles-beware-
flitc...](http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/134420-consoles-beware-flitchio-
android-gaming-controller-case-has-you-in-its-sights-hands-on)

[2] [http://portabletech.co/](http://portabletech.co/)

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samuraijack
People, you need to stop disconnecting the moment you realize you are player 2
in super mario bros 1985!

~~~
chc
Why? Who would want to be a stranger's player 2 in Super Mario Bros.? It's
alternating multiplayer — you may as well just play the game single-player.

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marxdeveloper
Looks fun, too bad everyone quits after I play for 5 seconds as 1st player!
[https://puu.sh/vuGsj/77a05399eb.png](https://puu.sh/vuGsj/77a05399eb.png)

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dmitripopov
Seems like the emulator window does not get cursor keys, cursor down, for
example, selects a ROM.

~~~
throwanem
I had the same problem until I manually focused the emulator window by
clicking it. Fine after that. Firefox 51.0.something x32 on Windows 7.

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softwareman
No sound...but awesome stuff \o/

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gge
Thanks. I've managed to get the sound working somewhat locally. Since this is
based on JSNES
([https://github.com/bfirsh/jsnes/](https://github.com/bfirsh/jsnes/)), I'm
gonna submit a pull request to that repo and push the latest commit to my
repo.

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kreetx
You shouldn't have posted this :)

EDIT: I remember playing a copycat of konami's contra at childhood, and had
wondered what the name of that game was. Now I know the original, thanks!

~~~
baldfat
I would have thought the Nintendo Lawyers would have sent out their Scud
Missile on that server within 5 minutes.

~~~
jimmaswell
I have an idea: make it so that you have to supply your own rom files that the
site will only store locally, and you then can get matched with anyone else
who has roms with the same md5s. No legal problem because nothing copyrighted
will be on the server, and it'll support much more roms than the small
selection supplied.

~~~
Karunamon
Neat idea, but I guarantee they would find a way to shut that down too, even
if it's completely legitimate and completely non-harmful from a copyright
stance.

Nintendo is incredibly hostile to even fair use, let alone something closer to
the line like what you described.

~~~
oculusthrift
yes. Nintendo is even hostile to Youtubers playing their games. Is it possible
to copyright even the hardware somehow? I know that they sued someone who
created an emulator while they were still selling the NES.

~~~
Karunamon
_Is it possible to copyright even the hardware somehow?_

A lay (IANAL, IANYL, TINLA) view of existing US case law would say no.
Nintendo made and then withdrew a suit against the makers of UltraHLE, an
early N64 emulator. Again, withdrawn, so nothing was decided.

More interestingly, Sony tried something similar against Bleem!, a commercial
Playstation emulator, in 1999. Sony lost, but the legal costs drove the
company out of business anyways.

So really, if you want to develop an emulator for modern hardware without
getting lawyerpwned, you have to do something like:

1) Figure out a way to dump the (copyrighted) ROM that makes the various bits
of the system work. The code signing involved makes this process completely
illicit per DMCA, but there's apparently no standing to sue as long as you
aren't distributing the results. (And then there's that fair use exemption for
discussion and education besides)

2) Either clean room reverse engineer it with help, or make the dumping
process easy enough that you can instruct others how to do it. PS2 emulator
devs take the second option - every PS2 emulator requires a copy of the PS2
bios to work.

3) Hardware design isn't copyrightable, so you're fine with reimplementing the
CPU in code.

This means that if you want to make your hardware emulator-proof, it's just
like all DRM. You _are_ doomed to fail, it's just a matter of how long.

~~~
oculusthrift
thanks for the informative post. i've been working on an in-browser NES
emulator myself and planned to have the users use their own local rom instead
of hosting them myself. good to hear that should theoretically be legal

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n-gauge
Hehe... like the way you load all the javascript inside a div before removing
the div - sneaky.

~~~
gge
:)

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sunilkumarc
I had forgotten about Golf. One of my favorites video games! Awesome stuff
this is.

~~~
jwebgordon
Simpler times when you could name a golf video game, "Golf."

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bruceb
RBI baseball two player online would be awesome. (If taking requests)

~~~
jgritty
Came here to say this. Also Tecmo Bowl

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ssharp
There has to be enough nostalgia over Tecmo Super Bowl to warrant such a
thing. People organize tournaments all over the country, a car company based a
commercial on it, and stuff like the NES Classic shows a lot of interest in
throwback gaming.

Whoever owns Tecmo's IP now put out a modern version of it, but it wasn't very
good and was based on the the 16-bit version, not the 8-bit classic.

I'm sure there are issues still using the player's names, but those could be
replaced with something generic, like QB Eagles :)

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DrSayre
Does the Arrow keys not work for anybody else?

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scottmsul
It think the edges might be cutoff by a few pixels.

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1011_1101
Lawsuit incoming?

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Spoom
Typically a cease and desist letter (to both the actual author, the host, and
the registrar) is enough to remove things like this. They will sue (and easily
win) if the C+D is ignored though.

~~~
gge
Yes, a likely scenario if this becomes very popular. Will have to keep in
mind.

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optikals
As a fan of Nes, I thank you.

~~~
gge
Have you been playing since the NES was released or recently? I only started
recently with emulators.

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aplose
Given the list of mirrors, it appears the author knows what they're doing is
illegal.

You don't have to agree with copyright law (and by all means, please try to
change it!), but please don't take other people's work and build products out
of it without their permission.

~~~
Kenji
You're like the angry little kid who runs to the teacher when other kids have
fun doing forbidden but perfectly reasonable things that harm nobody.

~~~
castis
A more apt comparison is the kid that warns the other kids that someone will
be coming by shortly to shut the whole thing down so not everyone gets in
trouble.

While we're here, throwing around some ad hominem trash is a good way to show
everyone else that you're the one who's angry.

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oculusthrift
hosting ROM's like this is extremely illegal with respect to IP

