The fact that fans remaster old classics for the PC and make them available to the public with the help of mods is nothing new anymore. However, the original developers and rights holders find this less funny in most cases. After all, it can be Copyright infringement act.
That's how it really happened recently with one extraordinary mod for Mario 64. The 3D platformer grandfather was brought up to scratch by a group of fans for the PC, and in a quality that had never been achieved before.
As was to be expected, Nintendo is currently doing its best to erase all traces of this port.
What makes the mod so special?
Exceptional quality: There have been a few mods and unofficial ports for Mario 64, but most of them weren't very stable or had other serious problems. After all, it is a new version of an almost 25 year old game from a completely different operating system.
Graphic improvements: The mod allows the graphics of the classic to be screwed up to 4K, even if the textures cause a few problems. You don't even need an emulator, the port was just available for download.
Controller support: The modders have also made support for the Xbox controller built in so that you don't have to play the console game with mouse and keyboard.
Since Nintendo is not exactly known for making their brands available for other consoles, many players take matters into their own hands and achieve impressive results, as in the example given. Understandably, Nintendo sees it differently and demands its legitimate rights as the owner of the brand.
Nintendo has already taken action against fan projects in the past, as you can read from the colleagues at GamePro:
more on the subject
Super Mario 64 Online – Nintendo takes action against fan project & has videos blocked
That's what Nintendo says about the PC port
In an official statement, Nintendo says:
"The copyrighted work is Nintendo's Super Mario 64 video game, including audio-visual work, software, and fictional characters that fall under US copyright law. The reported file contains an unauthorized derivative work related to Nintendo's copyrighted work based. "
The publisher has already filed a lawsuit against pageswhere you can download the mod. Gameplay videos on YouTube are also gradually being removed at the urging of the Japanese. Experience has shown that it should be difficult to cover up all traces of the port on the Internet. After all, many players have already downloaded it, certainly saved it somewhere and are certainly also able to spread it further.
Annotation: We strongly recommend that you exercise special caution. The use of emulators is not illegal per se, but is legally in a gray area. Copyrighted games may not be emulated without the consent of the rights holder. Even owners of the original copy can be punished by transferring data to the PC.
But of course, this mod for Mario 64 isn't the only one on the market that tries that Classics from the past shine in a new guise allow. For example, Half Life 2 Remastered recently appeared in the Steam store. Colleague Mathias explains what it's all about.
