Valve asked Portal 64 developer to take the project down

Per the Portal 64 creator in the comments of their Patreon, the library in question was libultra,[1] which is owned and was distributed exclusively by Nintendo but has been extensively pirated.<p>There are open source alternatives, including libdragon[2] and libn64[3]. Not sure how feasible replacing libultra with either of those would be considering the scale of the project.<p>1: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;n64brew.dev&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Libultra" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;n64brew.dev&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Libultra</a><p>2: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;libdragon.dev&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;libdragon.dev&#x2F;</a>, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;DragonMinded&#x2F;libdragon">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;DragonMinded&#x2F;libdragon</a><p>3: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mikeryan&#x2F;n64dev&#x2F;">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mikeryan&#x2F;n64dev&#x2F;</a>

Team Fortress 2: Source 2 is down as well.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;discord.com&#x2F;channels&#x2F;902532397877297242&#x2F;902540593606045727&#x2F;1194702073317556416" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;discord.com&#x2F;channels&#x2F;902532397877297242&#x2F;902540593606...</a><p>To my knowledge, this is the first time Valve has done anything like this. They are legendary for letting gan projects go wild.<p>I have a personal fear that this will be an extremely sad page in Valve&#x27;s history if this is truly indicative of the future they are headed towards, unless there is some bizzare legal IP requirement involved (and yes, I know about the protection tangles required to maintain copyright!)

Given its growing profile, it seems like Valve had two options: either &quot;legitimize&quot; the project by giving them a license, like they did with Black Mesa, or take it down.<p>I guess that the first option was cut off by the use of the proprietary Nintendo code.

First I&#x27;ve heard of this project, which is a shame because it sounds(&#x2F;sounded?) quite cool.<p>In case anyone else goes looking, I found a mirror that is current as of January 4th, 2024 (commit 61d225e).<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.softwareheritage.org&#x2F;browse&#x2F;origin&#x2F;directory&#x2F;?origin_url=https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;lambertjamesd&#x2F;portal64" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.softwareheritage.org&#x2F;browse&#x2F;origin&#x2F;directory...</a>

Take the project down... <i>from Steam.</i> After the Dolphin Emulator situation this seems like a completely expected result. The HN title should be fixed.

The title leaves the end of the sentence off...<p><pre><code> ...because it depends on Nintento&#x27;s proprietary libraries. </code></pre> It turns this from an, &quot;How dare Valve do that!&quot; thing to a, &quot;Well I&#x27;m not surprised&quot; thing really fast.

The DMCA&#x27;s are also for their source game.<p>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.<p>Valve has a choice, they don&#x27;t have to cry copyright infringement. Portal and TF2 are widely profited successfull games. Nobody is stealing profits because they&#x27;re fundamentally transformative works not designed to compete.<p>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.<p>Unfortunately this means that valve is no longer a corp headed by game devs. It&#x27;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&#x27;re following the market trend because innovation is hard and requires strong vision and leadership.

Uh-oh. Will Portal for Apple II be next?<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.deater.net&#x2F;weave&#x2F;vmwprod&#x2F;portal&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.deater.net&#x2F;weave&#x2F;vmwprod&#x2F;portal&#x2F;</a>

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nitter.net&#x2F;SteamDB&#x2F;status&#x2F;1745190618781962662" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nitter.net&#x2F;SteamDB&#x2F;status&#x2F;1745190618781962662</a>

My pettheory is that some open source projects just reveal, &quot;in company incompetence&quot; and thus are eliminated as a sort of perceived external competition for internal promotion points. It&#x27;s free work adding to a decaying IPs value.

Can somebody that knows how please send me an actual physical N64 cartridge (my PO Box is in this user profile) that I can simply plug in to my OEM N64 Console and play Portal64.<p>I will send you a check if you wish to include an invoice — either before or with the cartridge&#x27;s shipping. It will clear. Name your price. Or swap for Mario Kart and Donkey Kong. I will even pay for the steam sourcecode license (to avoid ©) — I do not use email and don&#x27;t have gaming computers, and honestly don&#x27;t wish to sign up for anything... I just want a cartridge that swaps in and out, as desired.

&gt; next payment cycle<p>Correct me if I’m wrong, he was selling a game based off a valve franchise using unlicensed Nintendo libraries?