A couple of months ago we told you that Dolphin Emulator, an emulator for Nintendo ROMs, announced its arrival on Steam . Unlike RetroArch, which has been present in the Valve store for many years and which manages the emulation of each system through DLCs (free, yes), Dolphin specializes exclusively in two big N consoles, GameCube and Wii. , models that treasure among their catalog of games some of the company’s greatest successes.
Obviously, and as in the case of RetroArch, it should be remembered that Dolphin Emulator does not offer access to the ROMs , that is, to the dumps of the games of both consoles, they only offer a platform that allows their use, Therefore, the way to obtain it remains in the user’s hands, either by adjusting to the law (that is, if he has a purchased copy of the game) or if, on the contrary, despite not having the original, he decides to download a ROM from the Internet or obtain it by any other means.
It is also important to remember that Dolphin Emulator is a completely free and open source application (published on GitHub) that, in addition to offering game emulation, provides substantial improvements to the experience, such as offering high-definition video (1080p), compatibility with all pc drivers, turbo speed, network multiplayer and much more. Thus, it is capable of improving the gaming experience compared to what both consoles provide.
It seems, however, that the Japanese technology company has not been amused that Valve opened the door to this emulator and, as we can read in its blog , Nintendo has sent a claim to Valve that has forced the expulsion of Dolphin Emulator from Steam . As we can read in said publication, the claim was sent directly to Valve, instead of those responsible for the emulator, and the store’s decision has been to indefinitely postpone its publication. They are not going to sit idly by, yes, « We are currently investigating our options and will have a more detailed answer in the near future. »
No one will be surprised if Nintendo acts out of proportion again . Intellectual property is clearly one of your most valuable assets, and it is entirely understandable that you want to protect it. However, their war in this regard should take place in the field of ROMs distributed over the Internet, not against emulators, since legal frameworks and jurisprudence in this regard only reaffirm the complete legality of this type of software.
Nintendo identifies an emulator with illegally obtaining ROMs, and one would have to be very cynical to deny that this use occurs regularly. However, attacking the emulator for the illegitimate use of the ROMs is like attacking web browsers for malicious use by certain users of them . An emulator like Dolphin Emulator, just like a web browser and practically any other type of application, device and service, can be used for legitimate or illegitimate purposes and ways, but if they are legal applications, devices and services, and in this case emulators are, it shouldn’t be feasible to chase them.