Fan Made Games

[Nightingale]

Actually, you can run CC like any other ROM or even copy it onto a cartridge and play it on real hardware, no patching required.

I have dumped some 66 hours on it on my the GameBoy emulator on my PS3 and works flawlessly.

[Moonface]

Actually, you can run CC like any other ROM or even copy it onto a cartridge and play it on real hardware, no patching required.

By a cartridge do you mean an actual Gameboy cartridge?

[Maniakkid25]

Well, a Gameboy COMPATIBLE cartridge, yes. Flash Cartridges (so called because it uses flash memory) are a wonderful, wonderful invention for cartridge-based systems that let you load whatever games you want on it, and then have it run on original consoles. EverDrive is by far the most famous brand, but lots of companies (usually in China) make them. I have one for my 3DS, though it can't actually run 3DS games because it has a time bomb designed to brick the thing if I try to use it without custom firmware. Yay.

Speaking of ROMhacks, I'm reminded of a really, REALLY silly project from a few years back. Have you ever heard of the Chinese release of Final Fantasy VII? If you haven't, you are in for a wacky ride, because that's a Famicom game! YES, REALLY! And there does exist a patch to translate it to English, so you can play it in all its glory. And then, when you've done that, there's a ROMHack of that game to transform it into something more closely resembling its PS1 release. Fans. Are. Insane!

[Moonface]

Just saw this and thought it looked really cool so wanted to share it. I'm sure Nintendo will probably DMCA this thing but if the people making this are smart they'll have already planned for that going into this to have a back-up reskin plan set up and just use the DMCA to drive more attention to their work.

[Mr EliteL]

Wow, very surprised how well made that Mario fan game looks. The only way it could possibly avoid complete destruction from Nintendo is if the full game is completely free, but I also doubt that'll keep them away from the inevitable DMCA. I'll keep my fingers crossed though with the low hopes of seeing it succeed/staying alive.
EDIT: Hm, the creator posted that Nintendo won't go after games like theirs in the comment section, ah maybe a little bit of hope then though the replies are saying both it's safe and it won't be.

[Moonface]

There have been cases of Nintendo fan projects in the past that never asked for a cent (because that's just always a stupid idea no matter who's IP you use) that got shut down, so it being free doesn't guarantee safety at all. I don't know really what, if anything, guarantees safety from a Nintendo DMCA besides sheer luck or just keeping quiet until you release the project so it gets spread before Nintendo can stop it.

With the effort involved here though I kinda wish it would go with an original IP just so they can maybe get money for the work, but of course it's about whatever they're happy with. I can't think of any Mario fan games that did get shut down though so I guess they have a good chance of being safe.

[Maniakkid25]

There have been cases of Nintendo fan projects in the past that never asked for a cent (because that's just always a stupid idea no matter who's IP you use) that got shut down, so it being free doesn't guarantee safety at all. I don't know really what, if anything, guarantees safety from a Nintendo DMCA besides sheer luck or just keeping quiet until you release the project so it gets spread before Nintendo can stop it.

I can answer this: permission from the copyright holder. That's the only thing that guarantees that you can get safety from a Cease and Desist or DMCA (so get it in writing). There are many, many more times IP owners have ruined everyone's fun by taking down fan made productions, free or not. My personal "favorite" story is Them's Fightin' Herds. It started life as Fighting is Magic. As you might be able to guess from the title, it was a fan game of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Naturally, that attracted Hasbro's lawyers like flies to shit, and they were sent a cease and desist. But the game had enough momentum behind it that it was able to retool, and get crowdfunded.

[Moonface]

My personal "favorite" story is Them's Fightin' Herds. It started life as Fighting is Magic. As you might be able to guess from the title, it was a fan game of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Naturally, that attracted Hasbro's lawyers like flies to shit, and they were sent a cease and desist. But the game had enough momentum behind it that it was able to retool, and get crowdfunded.

I never realized that game was originally FiM. I just remember seeing talk about FiM when it was first starting out and then when I stopped seeing the name I figured the project just got dropped or that it was just being discussed mostly within the MLP fandom after the initial wave of attention from non-MLP folk died off. It's funny because when I first saw TFH I immediately thought of MLP but I never put two and two together.

[Arcyriea]

I will drop this there

[Kyng]

As a child, I was a fan of a game called "Spybot: the Nightfall Incident". Despite the fact that it was on LEGO's website, it had basically no LEGO in it: it was a tactical puzzle game themed around hacking.

Now, 20 years on, a dedicated fan has created a game based on it, with the name "Nightfall Hacker". Being a fan-made project, it doesn't have quite the same production values - but, the core gameplay is all still there, and it's added some new units to improve on what the original game offered !