Nintendo has issued a complaint under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act against ‘Super Mario 64 Online,’ a hack of the original Nintendo 64 game that allowed several players to play the game together online.
The hack was created by Kaze Emanuar, a well-known Super Mario 64 modder who has previously created an unofficial sequel to the game called Last Impact, as well as a user-friendly Super Mario 64 level editor. Emanuar’s mods are popular in the modding community and have previously gone viral for showing how far he could push the boundaries on a classic game that was originally released in 1996. The YouTube video for Super Mario 64 Online, for example, had 1.1 million views before YouTube took it down because of Nintendo’s DMCA complaint.
Videos by VICE
Emanuar told me in a Discord chat that he found out about Nintendo’s action when he saw emails from YouTube, Discord, and Patreon notifying him that his work has been removed from these services due to Nintendo’s DMCA complaint.
On his now-terminated Patreon page, fans of Emanuar’s mod could donate money to support his work.
“It improves my life and I wanted to do it as a side income alongside university, but it’s not like I’m super fucked now,” Emanuar told me.
Emanuar said that he hasn’t been personally contacted by Nintendo, but that the company has previously issued a DMCA complaint against Last Impact.
“I cant tell them anything they don’t know yet. i don’t understand their decision, maybe they are the ones that should educate me on why this is a smart business move lol,” he said.
“Nintendo’s broad library of characters, products, and brands are enjoyed by people around the world, and we appreciate the passion of our fans,” Nintendo of America told me in an email. “But just as Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of others, we must also protect our own characters, trademarks and other content.”
For now, Emanuar said that he will “pause” development on Super Mario 64 mods. He’s going to wait until the release of the newest Mario game on the Nintendo Switch, Super Mario Odyssey, then pick development back up and see if Nintendo issues another DMCA complaint.
Update: This story has been updated with comment from Nintendo.
