Itās free so thatās cool.
2 Likes
Thats nintendo for you
But i rather that than them charging 20 bucks for roms.
1 Like
5 Likes
Iām 99% sure Nintendo has nothing to do with the online situation.
Iām 101% sure itās the Bonds rights holders (Danjaq, Eon, et al) and the contracts surrounding the original game, at this point, in that the only way this was coming out was to just literally re-release the N64 version. As in, itās likely that to keep all the likeness and movie rights contracts in-tact from the original release, these are legally counting as copies sold of the N64 version on both platforms. It should be noted that the new graphics mode in the leaked remaster has no movie likenesses in new graphics mode - itās all Rare employees. It should also be noted that we already have an example of this - when they re-released Perfect Dark as an XBLA title, they had to nuke most of the original real-people faces from the game and replace them with new ones, which likely also prevented them and forced the dropping of the graphics switch feature they teased early on.
Nintendo gets online because they built a generic online into their N64 emulator that just passes buttons around in lockstep. Xbox version doesnāt get online because Microsoft doesnāt have a generic online functionality built into their N64 emulator, nor does any of their N64 emulated games on Rare Replay have online functionality. Actually integrating it into Live the way Microsoft requires online-capable retro releases would require modifying the original game extensively.
Maybe this will encourage Microsoft to finally implement a generic version of Xlink Kai for games being played in āBC Modeā (wouldnāt it be nice to just start an Xbox Live party and be able to play Crimson Skies via itās LAN mode with everyone in the party? Or have virtual controllers for games from consoles with no LAN?) and virtual controller mode for anything not Xbox. They kind of wrote themselves into a corner with policies requiring emulated games that have multiplayer to modify the original game heavily to acommodate requirements to pass certification and approvals. Thereās a reason Nintendo tends to be able to get so much companies to sign on to their retro game sales services - ājust give us the damn ROM and the right to sell it and weāll do the rest for youā is a lot easier hurdle to get over.
3 Likes
This brings up a really really odd thing that I encountered when trying to play Perfect Dark on Xbox 360 BC on my Series S.
I bought the game back in 2010 when it launched, and played a lot of local multiplayer. No one else bought it back then, so it was the only way we could play it. Out of my current gamer mates that I play with, two of them had Xbox accounts along with me.
After a gap of eight years, I buy my Series S and lo and behold, both of those friends are still my friends as they had Xbox Ones. Two of my other friends since joined Xbox, and I added them as friends on the Xbox Series S. When loading up Perfect Dark XBLA, OR Perfect Dark: Rare Replay, those new friends are not there.
The friends I added when we all had 360s were there.
The only way to get my new friends in a game was to literally type out their Gamertags inside the Perfect Dark 360 Backwards Compatible Xbox Guide Button menu as in, I had to add them as friends on an instance of the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility mode, even if we were friends on the current gen Xbox Live, and they also had to accept the invite inside the Xbox 360 Guide Button Menu.
Once Iād added them there, we were able to see them on the Friends list and add them to the game.
It was like Perfect Dark couldnāt see the friends until they were made on the 360 BC instance.
Maybe this needs itās own thread.
Thatās because 360 Live only supports 100 friends, so they donāt auto-add friends to the 360 side anymore (as it would eventually fail when it hits 100). Only real way to deal with two interacting systems where one has a lower limit.
4 Likes
Ahhhhhh thatās an amazing bit of knowledge, and clears a lot up! Brilliant.
No problem!
This is also the same reason you canāt make a gamertag longer than 12 characters anymore, as the #0000 that they add after non-unique gamertags is appended as the rest of the gamertag while in 360 mode. so GamerXD#1170 is GamerXD1170 on 360Live.
Imagine if when the Activision deal closes Xbox makes all the 007 games backwards compatible and they enter Gamepass.
Canāt exactly say the 007 rights are impossible now can we?
I wouldnāt be surprised if adding online/co-op to BC/older games is something Jason Ronaldās team moved onto after BC was done
Maybe thatās why Goldeneye isnāt actually out yet when thereās no reason for it not to be? Maybe the hold up is waiting for that to be added?
1 Like
It would be pretty awesome if they are trying to add online play to older games, they must be working on something after all.
I feel like I worded my post poorly lol
Obviously you canāt add online multiplayer to a game where multiplayer doesnāt exist in any form as it is. I was referring more to a game that maybe only had local multiplayer/split-screen.
Kinda like how the Switch NSO app does. Similar idea. I mean, if Nintendo can do it, Iād be staggered if Jason and his team of wizards canāt. Maybe they can even pull it off without the split/screen aspect staying?
1 Like
Yep thatās what I thought you meant, I clearly worded my response poorly too 
It would be good if they can āzoom inā rather than having the split screen on everyoneās screen.
1 Like
The swich online is pretty bad. Really bad. Even for snes game sit lags. Was lookiny forward to playing pokemon stadium mini games online but that magikarp and kakuna game will be silly
1 Like
I was going to say something similar. Such a big deal has been made out of it when the feature barely works.
I was under the impression they were working on xcloud.
Nice! I playing on N64 at a friendās house when I was a kid. Good times
2 Likes
It does work, but itās lockstep, like the older Haloes campaign co-op online modes, so your button presses are a sum of the latency between everyone playing the game. Itās never really going to handle a group across an ocean well.
Thereās nothing to do to improve it, because converting to async would require basically remaking the game. Thatās the downside, the upside is making the game work online justā¦ works, because the emulator is just passing button presses around and making the random number generator on each personās console roll the same numbers. As far as the game is concerned, it just sees 4 n64 controllers plugged in.
The funny part is since the games themselves have no idea theyāre being played online, people in your Switch sessions can use button codes to activate cheatsā¦ including the ones that make you invisible and invincible in multiplayer, so you definitely donāt want them to add emulator MP matchmaking 
2 Likes
I mean the main online on switch barely works. Playing Smash is horrible. I donāt have that Ethernet thing and have 0 plans to ever buy it. Nintendoās lazyness is not something iāll support.
But tbh some of the slower paced games are fine.
1 Like