[HN Gopher] Valve asked Portal 64 developer to take the project ...
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       Valve asked Portal 64 developer to take the project down
        
       Author : MaximilianEmel
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2024-01-10 21:53 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | pugworthy wrote:
       | The title leaves the end of the sentence off...
       | ...because it depends on Nintento's proprietary libraries.
       | 
       | It turns this from an, "How dare Valve do that!" thing to a,
       | "Well I'm not surprised" thing really fast.
        
         | pipeline_peak wrote:
         | This, you chose to mess with the bull...
        
         | MaximilianEmel wrote:
         | The fact that they also took down Team Fortress: Source 2 at
         | the same time, along with Lambert saying that he will continue
         | to do projects on the Nintendo 64, makes me feel, that while it
         | could be legitimate, may also be just be a stated reason to
         | save face.
        
       | ImAnAmateur wrote:
       | Take the project down... _from Steam._ After the Dolphin Emulator
       | situation this seems like a completely expected result. The HN
       | title should be fixed.
        
         | MaximilianEmel wrote:
         | This has nothing to do with Steam (as far as I know it was
         | never on Steam, nor planned to be). The project's git repo [0]
         | is down, and he implies he will not be working on it anymore.
         | He has also said [1] that he will be taking down the ROM
         | download (patcher) [2] soon, as well.
         | 
         | [0] https://github.com/lambertjamesd/portal64
         | 
         | [1] https://twitter.com/JoeyCheerio/status/1745150271230038228
         | 
         | [2] https://lambertjamesd.github.io/RomPatcher.js/index.html
        
           | danjoredd wrote:
           | I wish there were still a fork of it somewhere. I understand
           | that he wants to honor Valve's request, but it was too cool
           | of a project to just...disappear like that.
        
       | pipeline_peak wrote:
       | > next payment cycle
       | 
       | Correct me if I'm wrong, he was selling a game based off a valve
       | franchise using unlicensed Nintendo libraries?
        
         | daemonologist wrote:
         | Well, the game was available for free, but yes the "payment
         | cycle" is referring to his Patreon which was created in
         | November primarily to finance work on the N64 Portal port.
         | 
         | Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JamesLambert
         | 
         | Former home of source code:
         | https://github.com/lambertjamesd/portal64
        
       | devwastaken wrote:
       | The DMCA's are also for their source game.
       | 
       | It is the long death of what we once knew as valve. In 2010 these
       | kinds of projects would have been supported and motivated by
       | valve devs. It would be sponsored and happily on the steam store
       | even. Theyve allowed so many source game assets to be used in non
       | licensed ways that they have effectively been used as open
       | libraries for game dev. It is the idea behind garrys mod and
       | countless source clones.
       | 
       | Valve has a choice, they don't have to cry copyright
       | infringement. Portal and TF2 are widely profited successfull
       | games. Nobody is stealing profits because they're fundamentally
       | transformative works not designed to compete.
       | 
       | Even in the bad case, the solution is communication, not lawyers.
       | By introducing lawyers into this valve is intentionally
       | escalating the issue. If they actually thought it was worth the
       | DMCA it would be worth a conversation. There are open source N64
       | libraries that replace the very old n64 libs.
       | 
       | Unfortunately this means that valve is no longer a corp headed by
       | game devs. It's corporate exec, HR and lawyer types. Likely due
       | to the fact that Gabe Newell has been largely uninvolved in the
       | last 10 years. They're following the market trend because
       | innovation is hard and requires strong vision and leadership.
        
         | SOLAR_FIELDS wrote:
         | Isn't DotA2, one of their core properties, built on a somewhat
         | generous interpretation of what constitutes fair use?
        
       | ctippett wrote:
       | First I've heard of this project, which is a shame because it
       | sounds(/sounded?) quite cool.
       | 
       | In case anyone else goes looking, I found a mirror that is
       | current as of January 4th, 2024 (commit 61d225e).
       | 
       | https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory...
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-10 23:00 UTC)