The official Nintendo Museum appears to be emulating SNES games on a Windows PC, which is slightly embarrassing

Well yeah, as the owners they have the exclusive right to determine what's okay. They're just following the rules as they've been laid out by centuries of corporate lobbying for more exploitable copyright laws. Those are what we need to focus on if we want more fair use of intellectual property that the rights holder has already sufficiently profited from - the thing that such protections were initially meant to ensure to a much more reasonable extent.
- You had me in the first half ngl (more like first sentence but close enough)
- They aren't the owners of most of the games though, did they ask, in writing, all of the rightsholders for the games they made?
  Did they ask the artists if it was ok to re-use their work in a 'new title'? (according to Nintendo, emulation is transformative)
Well, you know, the games are theirs to begin with.
I see what you mean, and you are correct, but I think it's more about the games that are being emulated than emulation in itself right?
- It would be, if they didn't target the emulators and only targeted the roms/game data.
- I don't disagree they are their games, but is it their emulator, or did they just download one of the many online? Really doesn't matter, just love to see companies bitch about something, then turn around and do it themselves.
- What about the fan games that were made of pure passion for the IP that they've taken down?
  To name a few:
  Pokemon Uranium
  Pokemon Prism
  Mario Maker 64
  Another Metroid 2 Remake
  Zelda Maker
  Ocarina of Time 2D
  Zelda 30
  There are countless others I'm sure.
  FUCK Nintendo.
Wait are we arguing that the owner of something isn't entitled more than someone who stole it?
- Wait are we arguing that the owner of something isn't entitled more than someone who bought it?
  FTFY. The problem is not with Nintendo being against emulators because of piracy, they're against emulators even if you own the game and the hardware but want to preserve the hardware (just like they do in the museum).
  And if the counter-argument is that you don't own the game when you buy it, then by that same logic you don't steal it when you pirate it.
- If Nintendo were only showcasing games developed AND published by Nintendo, that might be the argument.
  They're not though, some of the games they're showing they didn't develop or publish.
  Nintendo says emulation is transformative, that due to the recompiler, it's a new work. Do they have permission from all the rightsholders for third party games to make a transformative work?
  Do they even have the permissions from artists who might have licensed their work to Nintendo for X game, but not for the newly emulated 'Y'
Nintendo has never been against emulation. They've only been against people playing without paying.
- Just curious - what size rock do you live under? Is it room sized or as large as a house? How do you decorate? Is it climate controlled?

I mean...

All of those mini consoles (NES mini, SNES mini) are already SOCs with an emulator.

Corps are shameless. No amount of hypocrisy is enough to make them reconsider their evil.
- Yeah, that shallow appreciation is why you can't truly understand them, it's like calling a shark evil when it eats a baby seal.
  They are, but you need to understand the system so you can know how they get where they get, and how to counter them.
  Don't just be an angry mother seal.
The Switch has a SNES emulator as well
- The 3ds was a full on emulation machine. Heck it started with the Wii!
Nintendo had uses emulators for a long time. This really isn't anything news worthy.

Just for the record, this is exactly what any museum would do, because they're not going to actually run anything on the original hardware. Those systems are part of the collection, and it behooves a museum to not put any wear on them.

Also because emulators can be managed remotely.

Any other museum wouldn't be a hypocrite for doing so.
In other words, emulators are crucial for game preservation? This shows that Nintendo knows that, and when they say it's not the case, they're not simply wrong, they're lying.
- Have they said that's not the case?
This is a "Museum" run by Nintendo in Japan. Meaning they could have used or even created more original hardware to run the titles, but instead cut costs by using the same Emulators that they're hoping to take down.
- Them being the original creator of the products doesn't necessarily imply that they still have running production processes for every product that they ever made.
That is highly depending on the type of Museum. Many Videogame and Computer Museums (at least in Germany) are showing the real Hardware running, some are even allowing the visitors to use and play at the old machines. And yes, they are often very used to repairing the hardware too.
I would expect from Nintendo that they would show and use real hardware in their museum, and not some emulators. Because I can see the games on an emulator at home (for example using my Switch Online or my SNES Classic), I don't need a museum for that experience.
- I know to be a certified museum in the US, you must work to preserve your articles in perpetuity, meaning anything that could be detrimental to the article is discouraged if not totally disallowed.
Even if they don't use the real old hardware then at least they could have created something that is closer to the original hardware, for example a SNES/NES/N64 console based on FPGA in a recreated original shell. Anything but a stupid emulator running on a Windows PC.
- An FPGA seems like a lot of effort, but an SNES emulator running on a Raspberry Pi seems like it may have been a better option IMO.
Plus you can do stuff like reset the emulator to a certain state pretty easily. Without having to reboot the hardware or anything. So you could do an exhibit on level 7 and have the game queued up to the level the exhibit is about.

Eww extremely embarrassing that they used Windows.

please get a personality
- Getting a personality by dressing their PC exactly the same as anyone else? Sounds right!
- REAL
not alot of people know linux come on
Edit: I forgot linux is commonly used in servers 🤦‍♂️ but not rlly much in the home side
- everyone I know has heard of it, I've told em' about it.
- The Switch runs a custom version of Android, so they technically know at least one form of Linux

I would not be at all surprised if the Switch NES and SNES emulators are running an open source emulator that they've tried to shut down.

Throwback to the NES Classic ROM having a ripper/uploader’s signature in the game code. Because Nintendo didn’t ever bother archiving their own games, and just downloaded ROMs from the same sites they were trying to shut down.
I would. They would have been found out already if it were the case, and they already proved they can develop their own emulators.
- They've been caught using ROMs downloaded from some ROMs download website, so it wouldn't be that surprising.
- Moreover, they're going to want an emulator that can be managed alongside the rest of the museum software.

I believe they do have their own emulator. It logically would be what powers the Nintendo arcade

Nintendo: Emulation is illegal, criminal, and you should never ever do it. If you do, we will sue your ass, send the Pinks, and then shit fury on you!!!

Also Nintendo:

Needless to say, I will not be buying an alarm clock today.

That's not at all Nintendo's philosophy.
They literally included emulation starting with the wii
So it is more of a rules for thee but not for me situation. Not you should never ever do it but you should only do it on our hardware with our emulators
- I mean, their position is that they as the rights holders can republish how they please, but that buying a cartridge does not give you license to play on other devices. You can disagree with them on legal or philosophical grounds but their position isn't really inconsistent.
- It's tough if not impossible to find now, so I don't blame anyone for not knowing or believing this to be the case whole google results are dominated by more recent events involving more recent emulation cases. But they have literally in the past made the false claim that emulation itself was an illegal practice. Then later they pretend they never said that and most people never see it. I've seen emails from the big N's legal team making the claim, but it was over 20 years ago. I just have a long memory...

I was joking when in a previous post about the museum I said it better not run on any emulators..

So.. Why aren't they selling said emulators and roms? I ain't gonna travel half the world to play one in an overpriced museum.

Um... they are, and have been for almost 20 years, since the Wii. Or the N64 depending on how you look at it.
What did you think Virtual Console was? How about the NES and SNES mini? What about the "Nintendo Game Pass" or whatever they're calling it?
Animal Crossing's original Japan release had NES games in it, and so did the GC rerelease/psuedosequel we got internationally too.
Even better: During the Wii era, the Wiis at the Nintendo Store in New York City ran official Nintendo made software to load games off a connected hard drive, so you could play multiple of their new releases without workers having to switch discs.
It has always been about attempts to prevent piracy and keep control over how people access their games for Nintendo, and they are roughly 10 years behind the curve on modern tech trends.
Either stop supporting them or get used to it.
- The problem is that they had stuff like Virtual Console and then decide to pull the plug. Then rebrand as some other feature in an online service, which is yet another service that's gonna be a wait and see on whether or when they'll pull the plug again. Forcing people to pay for old stuff over and over again.
  They should sell this kind off stuff independently from their consoles/handhelds, preferably something that runs on a PC or any platform.
  The NES and SNES mini were great examples of how it could be done, except there too they decided to only make a limited amount, essentially the same as pulling the plug.
  Nintendo's truly an awful company. It's baffling how often they get praised for their stuff, they only dangle some 15+ year old reskinned game and people forget all about it.
- There is no way to legally buy their ROMs anymore. You can only rent them in perpetuity. When they did sell them, they didn't forward port your purchases to their next device, which is hilariously stupid, and you know they'd take you to court for dumping those same ROMs to your PC to organize, customize, and play the way you like them. If they just sold these things DRM-free on a web site for me to put in Emulation Station, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
I'd bet the emulators in use are actually publicly available ones. Not anything Nintendo made. Adding to the hypocrisy.
- I hate to defend Nintendo, but they used their own Emulators in the NES and SNES Mini (Kachikachi and Canoe respectively). I would be surprised if they just yoinked one from the internet here.

I can see Nintendo shutting down his own museum for piratery.

His?
- John Nintendo, founder and CEO?
- I think they dropped a T

if its under GPL couldn't they be forced to disclose the source code?

Only if they made modifications
- What, where do you get that? Any publicly conveyed copies of gpl-licensed software must make their source code available, and be published under the same license. This is true regardless of modifications.

So you admit that emulation is the best way to preserve old forms of interactive media?

Maybe the emulator maker should sue

Maybe they wrote their own emulator

But they own it. I thought even I could download a ROM if I have the actual game no?

No, at least in the US, you can only back up your own ROM if you own the game, not download someone else's backup. The real problem here is that Nintendo's (idiotic) stance is ALL emulation/backups are piracy and here they are being hypocrites about it.

ITT: people think emulators are only the ones you can download

In this comment: Someone who is not familiar with the history of Nintendo selling pirated versions of their own games and ripping off pirate emulators then passing them as their own.
- or the history of nintendo falsely claiming that emulation itself was an illegal practice when trying to bully and scare people into submission...
- Did the terms of the emulators they ripped off allow them to? Not saying it's morally okay.

Anyway, what's the point of a museum of a console maker without showing original hardware?

That's like saying what's the point of the air and space museum if they're not actually flying the planes.
They're not going to use the original hardware and put wear on them. That's a standard part of archiving.
- No it is more like saying "What is the point of going to an museum of art when all the paintings and statues are only photocopies and 3D printed replicas"
They have original hardware on display.

It would be pretty cool if they were using Higan.

The emulator they use for N64 on the Switch is also just one of the many options that com up when you Google "We can't be arsed reviewing our own assembler"

I won't be buying a Switch 2 and if I can't pirate Nintendos games I won't play them. I refuse to reward them for their bad behavior. Like a little child who throws tantrums they belong in the time out area.

I really love those doofy detachable Joycons. However I have instead gone with the Steam Deck as it is open to the point of allowing custom OS and they advertise capability for DIY repairs.
- Yeah I have a Legion Go.
- Reward bad behavior. Go ahead. Lol.