Android’s Most Popular Game Emulators Pulled from Market

[RockdaMan]

If you've got any of the popular "oid" game emulators, like Nesoid, Snesoid, N64oid, or Gensoid, then you may want to make backups of them now and take care not to delete them. Google's removed them all from the Market, as well as revoked all developer rights from their creator, Yong Zhang.

Yong's now listed his entire *oid line of emulator apps, completely free, at SlideME for a two-week-period to allow current users who've already purchased them to get a copy before it's too late.

http://lifehacker.com/5806889/androi...ed-from-market

Edit: Poor guy.

We got in touch with yongzh (or Yong Zhang, as he's known in real life) to discuss the matter, and he confirms that his developer account has been removed and his apps pulled without warning -- cutting off his primary source of income...

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/29/a...ithout-a-trac/

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Engadget

He's not too optimistic about his prospects at SlideME, though.

It sounds to me that what he needs to be optimistic about is not having Sega or other game manufacturers sueing him into oblivion.

[volwrath]

Actually he stole code from the free snes95 port I heard and thats the real reason he got the boot. Its all free on slideme market right now

[GreenMonkey]

People violating the GPL and squeezing profit from someone else's work (SNES9x here) earn no sympathy with me.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

People violating the GPL and squeezing profit from someone else's work earn no sympathy with me.

Some people would say that you just defined Android...

[anamardoll]

I have these emulators and I love them. All this noise about "oh, be glad Sony isn't suing" is so much nonsense in my book. I would HAPPILY pay money for a "legit" emulator that let me buy classic games for $3 a pop or whatever.

If Sony or Nintendo or whoever really cared about making money, they'd hire this guy, buy up his source code, and make an Android "steam"-style market that let people buy Lufia 2, Landstalker, Shining Force, Pokemon Yellow, and so forth in a legal manner. I own ALL those games for my classic platforms, but I can't take my SNES out and about on the go with me, now can I??? They'd make barrels of money.

The fact that they DON'T do this tells me that either:

1. They're stupid.
2. They think they're too big to fail and they don't need money from classic games.
3. They can't re-license the classic games for use on Android for X legal reasons.
4. They don't want classic games competing for their current hand-held market.
5. They don't understand classic gamers.

These are not mutually exclusive options, obviously.

[anamardoll]

I'm also, for the record, very annoyed that Google is playing the censor with their market.

I'm throwing that out there as proof that I don't just get upset when Apple does it.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

1. They're stupid.
2. They think they're too big to fail and they don't need money from classic games.
3. They can't re-license the classic games for use on Android for X legal reasons.
4. They don't want classic games competing for their current hand-held market.
5. They don't understand classic gamers.

1. Probably this.
2. Sony has/had a decent amount of PlayStation classics on their PSN store, XBox Live Arcade has had several classic titles for sale and raked in some good money. Nintendo has their Virtual Console which sells games from Commodore 64 to the Nintendo 64. So, the "big three" are pulling some money from their old games. Plus, there's been a couple of Capcom and Sega "compilation" games on newer systems that have bunches of their old games.
3. Maybe. I don't know. Not sure that the "big three" want to fart with the mobile (cell phone, not handheld gaming devices like DS and PSP) market at all.
4. More in-line with #3, methinks. Nintendo does plan to bring a Virtual Console like service to the 3DS eventually, though. I imagine Sony may do the same kind of thing with their NGP.
5. I think that Nintendo does, to an extent. But, I think that in general, classic gamers are overlooked. And it's sad.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

1. Probably this.
2. Sony has/had a decent amount of PlayStation classics on their PSN store, XBox Live Arcade has had several classic titles for sale and raked in some good money. Nintendo has their Virtual Console which sells games from Commodore 64 to the Nintendo 64. So, the "big three" are pulling some money from their old games. Plus, there's been a couple of Capcom and Sega "compilation" games on newer systems that have bunches of their old games.
3. Maybe. I don't know. Not sure that the "big three" want to fart with the mobile (cell phone, not handheld gaming devices like DS and PSP) market at all.
4. More in-line with #3, methinks. Nintendo does plan to bring a Virtual Console like service to the 3DS eventually, though. I imagine Sony may do the same kind of thing with their NGP.
5. I think that Nintendo does, to an extent. But, I think that in general, classic gamers are overlooked. And it's sad.

2. Yes, but those "classic" games barely represent their actual library. Most of the things I play are RPG games - of which very few have been re-released. Steam has Landstalker and Shining Force, I think - that's it. Also, none of these are portable systems.

3. Hmm. Guess they don't like the color of my money, then, because I haven't given Nintendo money for YEARS. But I would if they entered the Android market. Sucks to be them, but not to be me.

4. This lines up with #5, though: not understanding classic gamers. I don't want a 3DS at any price - I think they're stupid, and I want them to get off my lawn. I'm an old fart who just wants to play my Lufia 2 and Chrono Trigger UNTOUCHED THANK YOU VERY MUCH. When they released Chrono Trigger for DS, they mucked with Frog's translation. (Most) Classic gamers don't want stuff to be fixed - they're there for the nostalgia hit. And they want their stuff in portable form that works for an adult market.

5. Nintendo can't stop slapping pretty plastic all over their stuff and "fixing" re-ports and fiddling with them. That's not understanding the classic market - that's being aware of it but completely failing to "get" the nostalgia mentality. I think their re-releases are less "let's give the classic gamers what they want" and more "we've got Chrono Trigger lying around here, let's repack it for kids"!

Another issue with not understanding classic gamers: emulators provide save states. Most portables do not. I am an adult, dammit, let me save and quit when I need to, not when I get to the next priest in town. What difference does it make if I use it to save scum from time to time???

[RainingLemur]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with you at all. Just pointing out that there's SOME effort towards putting classics out, half-assed as it may be. I definitely agree that the companies (Nintendo especially) needs to quit with the "fixing" of things. Half the fun of some of the old games is the quirks, Engrish, and some bugs. Just port the ROM/ISO, make it available for download for *insert system/market* and call it a day. It will make some people happy and bring in a pretty penny.

Save states are a tricky subject, from what I've experienced. Some people are like you (and in some games, me) and we want to be able to just say "I'm done for the day!", hit F7, and kill it for the time being. Others raise a stink about how it takes away from "Nintendo hard." God, I couldn't imagine trying to get through the first speed-bike segment from Battletoads without introducing a few chairs to the windows. That's why I like having the emulators on my PSP. Able to play on a portable AND I get save-states for games that have no save function.

[anamardoll]

Heh. I feel the same way about people complaining about the "temptation" of save states and cheat codes as I do about people complaining about the "temptation" of gaming apps on their tablet reader -- if you have to FORCE yourself not to have fun, you're doing it wrong. Play/Read what makes you happy, not what you think makes you a "better" person.

But I do see your point. Even the *oid emulators have a "don't allow cheats, no really" option that people can check if they must.

[GreenMonkey]

Yeah. Nintendo wants to sell through their virtual console service on the Wii / upcoming on 3DS.

I stopped buying VC games because the DRM is ridiculous - they are locked to a console and getting them re-enabled on a replacement console requires basically begging Nintendo CS and hoping they are nice to you.

[madsquabbles]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'm also, for the record, very annoyed that Google is playing the censor with their market.

I'm throwing that out there as proof that I don't just get upset when Apple does it.

i'm upset that google isn't doing enough to censor the store. a console rom downloader is a top app (nintendo roms are illegal to download in most cases as they still do support some classic games on the virtual console), some book apps direct you to copyrighted materials, some apps have trademarked names, apps that have malware included...

a little quality control would be nice.

[anamardoll]

Well, it's nice that everyone has opinions about how Apple and Google should manage their store.

I would prefer to see Google stop playing store nanny and get on with adding value to their own products, but that's just my two cents.