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+--- Thread: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) (/showthread.php?tid=7553)
Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - A Black Falcon - 23rd May 2024
https://rentry.co/mb64-setup-guide
Mario Builder 64 is an incredibly cool romhack project just released a few days ago. It's basically a 3d Mario 64 level creator toolkit, inspired by Mario Maker but 3 and it's an actual Nintendo 64 game that does run on real hardware. I'm sure it's possible to make levels that use too many objects and will crash on real hardware, but the tools themselves and at least many of the levels will work on a real N64, which is important to note since a great many Mario 64 hacks don't.
Unlike Mario Maker, the game doesn't have a built in internet connection of course, but being able to play these fan-created stages by just putting files in a folder on your N64 flashcart SD card, instead of having to create a custom rom patch file for every single hack -- seriously, this is a really tedious and time consuming process -- is pretty fantastic. The level creation tools are as easy to learn as they could be for creating levels in a 3d space, too. It does use every button on the N64 controller so you will need to use the d-pad as well as the analog stick and the C-buttons, but oh well, it works.
Of course, the main problem with a 3d level editor is that 3d is much more complex than 2d. Making a platformer level that is as good, or as challenging, as a 2d level is dramatically more difficult. And given the ... suspect ... quality of so many Mario Maker 1 and 2 levels, and yes I love the game as much because of this as despite it, that 3d levels in a widely available official title like this would be .. . mostly really poor, I am sure. I haven't made a level in this yet, but I sure remember quickly giving up on any attempts at making anything in a 3d level editor, after making a few not very good stages in Warcraft II and Starcraft and such. Mario Builder 64 simplifies things by using a block-based design. There can be only one object per block, so you can't just put an enemy on a sloped ramp, you need to put them on the block above that slope's block. Once you start they will fall onto the slope. The game has over a hundred objects, so there's a lot of variety for creators. The one thing it doesn't have is invisible blocks or the ability to place invisible walls in your stages, I'm sure troll and kaizo creators would like that, but who knows, that could be added at some point. Or not, I don't like invisible blocks at all.
Anyway, this thing is amazing, and the polish level is quite impressive as well. It's as simple to control as a 3d level bulder could be and is built off of the mechanics and gameplay of one of gaming's greatest masterpieces, Mario 64. There is no equivalently easy to use level creation tool hack for other official Mario games -- stuff like Lunar Magic, the SMW editor, is a much more complex thing. There are a decent number of fanmade levels already, too. I'm sure many will be large empty spaces with just scattered stuff in them, but again, that's the problem of creation in 3d --- it's HARD to make something good, way harder than it is in 2d. I sure don't know if I could make a 3d level worth playing. I fully understand why Nintendo hasn't made an official product like this, but it's amazing that it exists now.
RE: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - Dark Jaguar - 24th May 2024
Part of what makes projects like these so possible now is the tool released recently allowing easy reverse engineering of the source code for literally every N64 game at this point.
We'll see some amazing projects like this thanks to that. Here's the most impressive thing I've seen so far.
This is amazing, and the work put into not just making this new game but deeply optimizing the code to get it running at extremely high frame rates and with a lot more going on... it's going to be one of the best new Mario games and it'll be very easy to port it to PC as well.
And that's the worrying thing, that Nintendo is going to shut all this stuff down. Do they have a legal case? Personally I don't think they ever did shutting down these free fan games. The fact that they're free was SUPPOSED to be what protected the creators in the first place! But, it doesn't matter does it? They can keep paying lawyers and stretch out a lawsuit long enough to bankrupt any independent developer they want, and so it'll go with this.
RE: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - A Black Falcon - 3rd June 2024
Yeah, this hack uses the reverse engineered source code to work. Amazing stuff there that they figured it out.
So, Mario Builder 64 is quite amazing, but it has a few issues. Fortunately there is a version 1.1 in development which should fix some of the issues, but some probably don't have a fix.
The biggest issue that is highly likely to be fixed is that currently you can't actually beat levels. Even once you get everything in a level, nothing happens. MB64 does not save level completion information or even tell you that you've finished it. I hope this gets fixed. I think some kind of 'you got everything, do you want to quit' message is likely, but what I want isn't just that but also a marker that the game saves showing if you've finished a level or not. I really hope that happens at some point, it'd give a lot more meaning to playing the levels.
The other big issue is probably impossible to fix: most levels run absolutely terribly on real hardware. This isn't a problem with the core game here, but with the fact that it allows creators to put a lot more stuff in the level than the actual N64 can run at an acceptable framerate. Emulators run N64 games much better than real hardware, and people want to make large levels with lots of stuff in them, so a lot of levels run very badly on the real system. I love that this hack works on the real console, but it's not a very good experience most of the time, not when so many stages run at like half speed...
As for shutting it down, oddly enough as far as I know Nintendo has yet to go after romhacks.
RE: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - Dark Jaguar - 4th June 2024
Nintendo had yet to go after a lot of things, until they started going after them. I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before it happens at the rate things are going. ROM hacks are frankly MORE of a legal target than freshly programmed original code fan games, and I don't see Nintendo ignoring them for long.
RE: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - A Black Falcon - 5th June 2024
More of a legal target? That makes no sense, it's usually all original code...
Nintendo has been putting a lot of effort into fighting Switch emulation, but that affects Nintendo's business today. That's very different from romhacks for old consoles they don't sell anymore.
RE: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - Dark Jaguar - 5th June 2024
Just a reminder that emulators are legal, so long as they aren't using Nintendo's own code. It doesn't matter if it's a console currently being sold at all.
RE: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - A Black Falcon - 8th June 2024
Of course, but weren't the developers of that Switch emulator doing some not-so-legal things like linking Switch game images or something?
RE: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - Weltall - 9th June 2024
Turns out that developing a Switch emulator and using it to spur crowdfunding is definitely going to make Nintendo especially eager to ruin you forever!
RE: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - Dark Jaguar - 9th June 2024
Yeah I've read about this too. They were specifically directly encouraging piracy of Nintendo's games on their discord, making them a very understandable target. But, more generally speaking, being profitable doesn't make emulation illegal in and of itself. Remember Bleem?
Just in case you thought that mods were safe...
https://gbatemp.net/threads/nintendo-takes-down-the-breath-of-the-wild-randomizer-mod-from-gamebanana.656807/
Nintendo is issuing takedown notices for those too. This does NOTHING to hurt Nintendo whatsoever, and is entirely legal, but no one wants to face Nintendo in court and get bankrupted.
RE: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - A Black Falcon - 25th June 2024
So Nintendo's way of going after this romhack is... copyright claiming all of the main creator's Youtube videos about the game? That's so stupidly petty AND isn't going to work, it's clear fair use. Nintendo is right to protect its copyright but definitely has gotten a bit obnoxious about it. Oh, and only the MB64 videos were taken down, not any for the other Mario 64 romhacks he's made.
RE: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - Dark Jaguar - 2nd July 2024
ABF, it doesn't matter if it's legal or not. In the real world, Nintendo is a giant corporation willing to spend as much money as it takes, and these modders are only individuals making a simple living wage. In America, there is no protection clause that states the loser must pay the winner's legal fees, so the poor effectively can only fight in court until they're out of money. That's what Sony did to Bleem back in the day too, if you recall. They simply kept the lawsuit going and appealed and appealed until the smaller Bleem company went bankrupt.
That's what Nintendo has been doing for the past decade. They are suing modders and fan game makers and emulator makers, not for a legal remedy, but make them stop by threat of financial ruin. If you see "settled out of court" in a lot of these cases, that's exactly what was happening. The Switch emulator case is an outlier, where they stopped work on the emulator because they made the rather stupid decision to ALSO directly promote piracy of Switch games and provide links and so on on their chat server.
RE: Mario Builder 64 (a Mario 64 romhack) - Dark Jaguar - 9th August 2024
A "where are they now?" video on various "shut down" projects.