If you liked playing Super Mario Bros. 35, the unique multiplayer battle royale Mario game that Nintendo released last year on the Switch to celebrate 35 years since the original NES version of Super Mario Bros, then it’s likely that you have been disappointed since April. The gaming giant ended support and removed the game’s servers once their 35 year celebrations were over, leaving the game’s players hanging. Happily there’s a solution, because [Kinnay] has presented a reverse-engineered Nintendo game server replacement along with a game patch, that should keep gamers in multi-Mario fun forever.
While it’s a boon for fans of this particular game, the real value here is in introducing us to the reverse engineering work on those Nintendo servers. We learn about their various foibles over several generations of console, and perhaps most importantly we learn something of their inner workings.
Usually when a game server is turned off it’s because the platform it supports is so ancient as to have hardly any users. This time-limited game on an up-to-date platform is unusual then, but since it was made available to subscribers to Nintendo’s online service for free it’s less of a surprise. Certainly not in the same class as the loss of servers for an entire platform.
Thanks [Digiaap] for the tip.
Header image: Elvis untot, CC BY-SA 4.0.
I’d play em a lot while it’s up, Nintendo’s lawyers are probably foaming at their mouth over another “illegal” stuff behind Nintendo’s back.
The link is for the source code and package to run your own sever, seems like a whack-a-mole situation for Nintendo.
Yep, once the full stuff has been released, it’s harder to complete stop illegal server or file sharing than trying to catch greased pig. Best Nintendo can do is go after the first guy
It’s not illegal if it was truly reverse engineered. Should that be the case then there isn’t a damn thing Nintendo can do about it.
Tell that to bnetd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bnetd, pretty sure the blizzard vs bnetd set some bad legal precedent for this case.
“along with a game patch”. i think that’s the Achilles’ heel here… im pretty sure the Switch TOS prohibits you from tweaking their software.
switch ToS does prohibit tweaking or even copying their software and reverse engineering is a form of copying
ToS don’t overrule laws and Reverse engineering is not copying. Also I really see a lack of the hackers mindset here.
It is a runtime IPS patch that overlays on runtime, not a prepatched code.bin
I thought reverse engineering ( especially in this case since it is still an active IP) was illegal, as that means you pretty much broke into their product to look at code that is supposed to be private.
even though it’s 2024.. No it’s legal to reverse engineer something as long as you don’t use anything related to it’s development. So if someone makes a widget and you buy it then go sit in a lab with 10 people and you figure out how it works, create your own widget that is functionally identical but doesn’t contain anything from the real widget etc then it’s legal. Although I’m not sure if I’m explaining it right while trying to limit the post size so..
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean-room_design
Indeed, cease and desist incoming in 3,2,1….
People seem to think Nintendo will do as they always do and take this down.. BUT they probably can’t. They could take them to court sure, but if they genuinely reverse engineered the game and server system then it’s completely legal.
So if Nintendo did take them to court then Nintendo would not only lose but also be open to counter suit. At the very least Nintendo would have to pay all court costs. Of course it wouldn’t go that way and a counter suit would be filed. They could sue for lost wages, potential lost wages, pain and suffer (mental), damage’s to reputation and plenty more that any half decent lawyer could come up with.
Nintendo would be wise to leave this one alone AND put Mario 35 back online.
You seem to misunderstand Nintendo’s tactics. There are several cases of fair use where they will sue anyway. The purpose is intimidation and/or causing monetary trouble for the other party. This tactic almost always works and is highly effective despite being entirely unethical.
They could win the suit if the person running the server doesn’t at least change a few cosmetics, because then they are hosting an illegal game ( stolen code ( technically) and more importantly stolen assets). I am sure there is more that they could be gotten for, but nothing is coming to mind.
Assets are more important than code?
What cosmetics would one change on a backend server?
People reverse engineered World of Warcraft and made private servers. Still got sued by Blizzard. Unofficial server for Mario game will rile Nintendo and the server will be shut down unless the person happens to be in a country that has very poor relation with USA and Japan.
Cool
How can they release a game (that, I presume, people paid real actual money for) and then get away with shutting down the servers a year after, without a class action?
because it’s Nintendo, a company with more Political Clout than some major nations
Nintendo doesn’t have any political clout, they don’t do anything political at all, they stay out of political stuff
Not really, do you even know how they influenced Japanese Law regarding cheating or how they dealt with the Yakuza?
Because there were no transactions in Super Mario Bros. 35. The game was completely free as long as you had a Nintendo Switch Online membership. The membership is a seperate transaction for a service, so even if someone bought the service just for smb35 there would be no legal standing for a lawsuit against the big N for taking it down.
Ah okay, so nobody actually bought the game, I guess it’s fair enough then, that they do what they please.
Nintendo will shut the fan servers down eventually
This reminds me a lot of the original Xbox and how the fans created there own servers for that. I would love to see this pushed further.
Nintendo won’t allow it, they will shut it down