Citra shutting down infuriates me more than Yuzu. Yuzu was kinda expected because the Switch is still an active system, but because of collateral damage, Citra went down as well. That was the best 3DS emulator and no other has a high compatibility rate at the moment. The 3DS is legacy hardware now, so shutting that down was a dick move.

You know what's more absurd? Some years from now, Nintendo will probably use yuzu code to emulate switch in their current console.

Citra being downed is absurd.

I've been an emulation fan going back to when MAME was a one person project. The Yuzu situation reminds me of Ultra-HLE (N64 emulator) and Bleem (PSX emulator). Both of these came out during the lifetime of the hardware it emulated, and both got smacked down by Nintendo / Sony. It was a blow to the emulation scene, but as you know, N64 and PSX emulation is alive and well today. Emulating systems is not illegal, and as long as the emulator developers avoid making money off of their work (and avoid current systems of course) then they will be fine. Emulation is not going anywhere.

Whoa, whoa there, buddy. I didn't even have time to grab a snack and drink, because dang it I need one after this news.

Thanks for providing a very well thought out and professional perspective on the Yuzu / Nintendo situation. Your channel is always one of the best when it comes to emulation and I can't tell you how much I appreciate your information and advice on the preservation of these systems, and their respective audio and visual art. Keep up the great work!

Ryujinx just had UI improvements in latest update. A much nicer game layout now. I liked how Yuzu handled game controllers better though.

I love the push for retro emulation for the ability for us to keep enjoying these pieces of media history that have been lost to the wind. I can understand what is going on with this situation and know people always find ways to work around it. Being able to keep those memories fresh and these pieces of history and art alive is what brings me the most joy. The digital domain is finding its place in antiquated history and I don't want to see it turned to digital dust in the wind. Thanks for your thoughts on the topic Russ.

Well presented and well thought out Russ! Well done.

Nintendo first party exclusives aside, the thousands of indie and third party titles are usually widely available on other platforms - notably, Steam, where they're likely to work on PCs for years to come.

I'm glad that the last version of Yuzu was pretty solid in performance and that version should last us for a while. It runs almost any switch game I've tried. The handheld market is obviously more impacted than PC since Ryujinx is still a great emulator and is still in development.

I literally got yuzu and citra setup on my Retroid 4 Pro right before the take down.. so lucky. Thanks for the content RGC, don't slow down.

The issue wasn't emulation, but the fact totk was leaked before the actual release of the game and Yuzu devs actively profited from it before even Nintendo did it. We have to thank Yuzu and Citra's shutdown to all these folks around the internet bragging about how "smart" they're for playing totk even before de "morans" who bought it. The emulation community weakens because of such behavior! When we make emulation about piracy the big companies gain resources to strike harder and even destroy whole niches of emulation. But when it's made about access and preservation this community is UNSTOPPABLE! I wish everyone had seen it!

Definitely a respectable approach to the future of emulation and your videos moving forward. I'm still interested in every other existing emulator with new and old handhelds alike, so I'll be watching regardless of the unfortunate halt in Yuzu and Citra development and inability to showcase them without the risk Nintendork striking you down. Love the work you're doing and appreciate the update on your channel after all that's happened!

You can get it off Internet archive

Always appreciate your candor and positivity. I look forward to seeing where the channel goes. You're a national treasure!

Great video Russ. Listened while I cooked on the grill. Thanks for the entertainment!

I think the patreon also gave Nintendo real numbers to understand how yuzu was being used when TOTK was launched. Without the subscriber count and the early access incentive nintendo would have virtually no way of prooving that pirated copies of TOTK were being emulated. As oppose to just being played on a hacked switch

I did see it coming thanks for the analysis on the matter, Russ

Looking forward to seeing where you go with the channel, Russ. 🎉

Someone will use a clone of the last repo and keep Citra and yuzu running, if not under the same name. A popular manga app, tachiyomi, had the same issue, and someone picked up the torch within 24 hours.

This is a really big bummer. Im pretty new to the retro emulation community, about 6 months, and this is the first big blow to emulation I’ve experienced. As for the future, I’d love to at least see performance benchmarks for switch on these new devices with the next best available switch emulator. But it’s totally understandable if that’s not doable right now. I’d love to see the 3DS and Japanese 3DS modding videos. I see tons on marketplace in my area and have always been curious to get one and tinker. We’ll be fine through this, it’s just a change to adjust to. Thanks for keeping the community alive and well Russ! :)

Glad I downloaded the latest update

Appreciate the solid summary Russ

I think the 3DS video ideas sound great! Looking forward to those!

i don't give a shit what nintendo says, i am emulating all of their systems and will continue to do so.

This is the concern I have when "buying" videos as well, from Amazon, etc. Will they always be available? But while I understand the Yuzu takedown, I agree with you that 3DS emulation through Citra should have been left alone. If it's not an active system, it moves into the realm of preservation. At some point, the technology available to physically play games on the older systems will not exist, and emulation will be the solution. I'd like to see a video on the Japanese 3DS system, as well as jailbreaking and set-up, as my current 3DS is no longer working. Thanks for the video!

Smart decisions Russ. Thanks for the fireside chat ✌🏻

Just a quick note, Ryujinx got an entirely new UI in a major update this past weekend, you might want to check it out.

I believe Switch emulation shows a few things: 1) there is a desire to carry fewer devices that serve more functions, and 2) there might be some frustration with Switch performance. It is no secret that the handheld is using a SoC that is roughly a decade old at this stage, and even top end devices rarely last so long. If we could measure those two driving forces, I wonder what they would translate into in terms of raw numbers. I assume Nintendo probably has some marketing/product strategists that have a better picture of this, but I a sure those sales figures act as a strong counterpoint. I would love to be a fly on the wall for those conversations.

I was wondering where those upcoming 3ds videos went haha, I'll be looking forward to them!

Nice level headed approach. Its nice to hear an unbiased explanation

“The way they allow you to play”

The code for the early access builds was available to everyone. Only the builds were paywalled.

My thoughts are 🫡

Great to hear a measured reponse to the last few days news!

Stay Retro folks. History tells us that messing with stuff that is still on the shelf is not retro.

Yuzu could be compiled for free. You didnt need EA its just convenient. Also Ryu had TOTK working before Yuzu and i was there to see lol

Very sensible and reasonable discussion man, well done! 🥰

Hello Russ, Highly appreciate your high quality videos over the years. Thank you! I think you can still show your 3DS and N.Switch emulation results but not mentioning the emulator’s names. Tell your audiences to check your older videos to get to know what emulators were used, “because of many reasons”. That makes your videos remain high quality by not missing 3DS and N.Switch results. I hope you would keep it on. All the best!

I'm surprised by the number of people who genuinely cannot see any issue with an emulator that targets a company's _current console_ on the market, and which lets you play those games at higher framerates and resolutions. That, coupled with how people would brag about how they were playing some Switch games ahead of their public release, is essentially saying 🖕🏻 you to Nintendo. Are people really now **surprised Pikachu face** that Nintendo's lawyers have said: no, 🖕🏻 you! 🤷🏻‍♂️

I have to tell you, I really appreciate you and what you do. I’m new to all of this and am also of the same mindset of being able to play all of the retro systems in one place is fantastic. As a switch owner, being able to play those games was just gravy. I guess we have to stay tuned.

your a LEGEND in the gaming comunity! we love you! hope all is well for you and yours! stay royal!

Good video well needed! Thanks I hope things stop at thenyuzu and citra and we can move forward.

Great video, Russ. I saw someone in the comments of MVG's video speculating that Nintendo chose this time to strike once they had a solid case because the Switch 2 is going to have a similar OS and API layers. It feels like this is an extremely unique case because gaming is so much bigger now, and the Switch is so underpowered.

Was waiting on your response 👌

Thanks!

this is why i recently starting collecting basically every old game id wanna play in the future and the emulator that plays them. Ive also seen some games being removed from vimms lair

Love the work Russ.

This was an amazing discussion on the topic. All sides were intelligently dissected and it’s honestly, just great journalism, which I don’t think we always think of when watching KZfaq. Ha.

Some people are already working on a new fork of Yuzu called Suyu. I was watching them develop it live. It was awesome!

We live in strange times and I think this is just the beginning of the end. It was nice to experience the golden age of emulation.

Glad your planning on doing modded 3ds videos. 3ds is still strong, red viper just made virtualboy playable in 3D on 3ds and it looks amazing- surprised Nintendo never did this

Damnnit Russ, I came here expecting a fancy video!

Great video Russ, I knew Yuzu was over when they had day 1 patches for new games, no way they can get away with that in court.

Bless you 🙏

thank you for the info and also for not yelling angrily at the camera like some other KZfaqrs.

Good take on the situation, Russ. Also, the Japanese Region 3DS sounds like a fun project. I personally think other options will find their way into the wild. 3DS emulation being a lot closer, hopefully. I know besides Panda, there is Mikage that is being developed (albeit behind closed doors, but that might be a good thing after recent events).

Thank you Russ

You make some good and well thought out points. I have never done any Nintendo Switch emulation, simply because I didn't want to jailbreak my Switch to back up my games and risk being locked out of my Nintendo account, even though I have an earlier version of the Switch console that can be more readily jail broken. I bought my Steam Deck LCD, and subsequently Steam Deck OLED, to primarily play the games in my Steam library, as I especially like the Steam Deck's console experience. I have experimented with emulation on the Steam Deck, so I could play my GBA games that I really liked, but I can no longer play on my GBA console because it failed. I also play Zelda BOTW and Metroid Prime on my Steam Deck, but I bought the Nintendo WiiU games versions for the Deck, in addition to having already bought them as game cartridges for the Switch, so I paid Nintendo twice for the experience, as I prefer playing these two games on my Steam Deck compared with my Nintendo Switch. I do wish Nintendo would spend as much money / effort on improving their customer experience as they do on litigation. Nintendo's recent antics and sharp practices of effectively making you buy the same game many times over as you upgrade to their newer gaming consoles, discouraged me from buying an OLED Nintendo Switch, and leaves me questioning should I reward such behaviour and buy a Nintendo Switch 2, should one ever be released. Why don't Nintendo take a leaf out of Sony's book, and release some of their back catalogue of old console games for the PC. Most modern PC gaming consoles have touch screens and gyros etc. that would allow them to readily play PC versions of old DS and 3DS games, and then I wouldn't need to mess around with emulation. I recently re-imaged my Steam Deck LCD, and didn't bother with reinstalling EMUDeck etc, and instead focussed on my Steam Library and XBox Cloud gaming, so I could stream some of my XBox Game Pass games to my Steam Deck which works really well after adding the relevant Microsoft provided Edge shortcuts and artwork to my Steam Library.

Russ, your videos encouraged me to buy an Odin 2 and no regrets 👍

Thank you for addressing this and you're right on the money.

Bleem and Virtual Game Station were awesome PS1 emulators back in the day, and it hurt to lose those products that I paid for. It took many years, but now we have some incredible emulators that strive for accuracy, not just zero-day compatibility (as impressive as that is from the user's perspective, it's a nightmare for publishers). The Yuzu model was quite the anomaly in the emulation scene; we just just need to recall the past and practice patience.

It is important to note that Yuzu was not deemed illegal by a judge, and therefore, they were not fined $2.4 million. Yuzu decided to settle with Nintendo for that amount because they were aware that they would lose the case. Their downfall was due to the fact that they created a Patreon account and shared ROMs on Google Drive. If future developers don't set up a Patreon and share ROMS, they will be all right.

Great balanced video.

Glad I just updated on my Odin 2

Very balanced perspective on a controversial issue, great video. My only comment about Yuzu development would be, whether anyone agrees or disagrees with what Nintendo did, doesn’t it seem pretty risky to develop any sort of software to help emulate the primary money-making console of a very large company that is well-known for being litigious about IP, and doing it in a country where IP and copyright protections are relatively strong? I’m sure Nintendo has a lot of lawyers on retainer in the USA, and this seems like the best sort of target for them to make Nintendo happy about its IP protection. Yuzu was popular enough that bringing it down would get everyone’s attention, but not so popular (and wealthy) that they could actually fight Nintendo in court, so Nintendo scores a relatively large “win” for little effort.

Great chat Russ! Re: testing Switch emulation on new devices, maybe u could test on Ryujinx, but show literal footage of the game on Switch? So we'd more listen to the words than the visuals.

I would love to see some Analogue Pocket stuff, emulation, new adapters and newest firmware update etc.

A big point, and I’ve seen others bellow say this as well, is that citra going down seems to be collateral damage or damage control, theirs no mention or evidence that Nintendo had them pull citra, it was (as far as we know) a decision by the team themselves, probably as a reaction to the lawsuit and fine

I really appreciate all the work done for all emulators - past and present consoles. I think it’s awesome that we can play Switch games on Steam Deck and other platforms. That being said - I don’t think we should be emulating current gen systems. It just paints too much of a target on our backs to companies like Nintendo. If Yuzu hadn’t been profiting off of the project in any way - I don’t think Nintendo would have gone after them. The problem (at least with Switch emulation in my opinion) has never been that emulation takes place - it’s that piracy takes place. I have a modded switch and have backed up all my games and have some loaded on my Steam Deck, but I have never given my game files to anyone else, nor have I downloaded/recieved game files from anyone else. That’s all fine and well given the results of Sony v. Bleem and Sony v. Connectix. I don’t want to see anything change in regards to the legality of emulation BUT if Nintendo is so gung-ho about changing things - start a new case that addresses emulation in modern terms. So many people talk about how the Sony emulation cases were decided 20+ years ago and they are no longer relevant. I personally think they are - but times changes. Piracy is the main issue here - and that’s harder to tackle. When games leak ahead of time and people can play them via emulators - that CAN eat into potential sales. Not always - I know some people will pirate the game prior to official launch, play it, and still buy it when it comes out. Sure - Nintendo didn’t lose any money from that customer - however if that person shares gameplay online, or redistributes the game files with others - those others may not behave the same. Maybe they see gameplay that doesn’t look good (because of the emulation quality) and decide not to buy it even though it would play better on official hardware (they just wouldn’t know about that prior to launch). It’s because of these bad actors that the emulation scene has such a target painted on our backs. Until people stop promoting piracy - this issue will never go away. And by that I mean that I know it will never go away.

Very well handled Russ!

i would be fine with you just describing yuzu/citra performance without showing footage, i think you are detailed enough to get a good idea. looking forward to the 3ds videos :)

Its a bummer from the present stand point. For the future, its very likely a fork will pick up Yuzu's work and go from there. Same for Citra. Its just a matter of time until even more alternatives exist, so yeah, its fucked now, indiferent in the future.

Buying a Japanese New 3DS LL was a mixed bag for me, I got a defective unit with a bad headphone jack, sound would only play through earbuds or headphones when plugged in but the unit itself always thought headphones were plugged in so it refused to play sound through the speakers. I had a workaround in the form of Luma3DS which had an option to forcibly route the sound through to the speakers but that only worked for native 3DS apps, so no regular DS games, emulated or otherwise would have sound. Same thing for GBA emulation, but open_agb_firm had a similar option to route the sound forcibly through the speakers, so that worked as well. Anyway rant over, moral of the story is that as long as you find the guide it's super easy to get a Japanese 3DS changed to a new region and they're pretty decently priced as well, so if you're on the fence about buying one, go for it!

Thanks for the video, Russ! I'm sure there are loads of resources available but if you need a hand with translation for the Japanese 3ds, please give me a shout!

Preservation, etc is so key. It's not nintendo, but I was telling someone about Telltale's Poker Night and Poker Night 2 (you can play with the Heavy from TF2, ClapTrap from Borderlands, etc) and it's no longer avialable for purchase. So *I* can play it because I bought it a long time ago, but no one I tell about it now in 2024 can.

I've always wanted a handheld and one of the uses I was planning for it was, of course, Yuzu. (Planning also to buy the games) I finally got one, It will arrive tomorrow but now there is no Yuzu anymore.

Been waiting for this video over these last few days.

Yuzu and Citra will love on. They were both open source and now people are pissed off at Nintendo, especially hackers and hobbiest developers

What does this mean now for reviews as we are nearing levels of performance with these handhelds that Switch is a good test, or benchmark as you mentioned. Where do we go from here?

Ryujinx has update/patch/gamefix almost every day I open it, big respect for its team.

THEY. WERE. CHARGING. MONEY. We had this conversation about emulators decades ago - defenders made the argument that reverse-engineering hardware was a purely scientific endeavor. That was the protection emulators had and Yuzu painted a huge target on their backs by abandoning that. The age of the console was inconsequential.

Glad to hear about you will continue to make 3ds videos. Unfortunately corporations do not care about us so we shouldn’t care about them. Time to leave our safety on land with all IP based entertainment if they’re no longer willing to cooperate.

I owned a 3DS early in its life (right up to the release of Pokemon X and Y) and I never owned a Switch. As far as emulation goes, it sucks from a preservation standpoint, and I kind of don't care from a illicit standpoint because I don't feel either of those systems have compelling enough games to even bother with the legal risks. As far as the Switch in particular, it was in a weird spot since it was running older hardware from the start, which was gonna make it a more feasible target for emulation. The combination of factors made this result an inevitability, it's just a sucky result. Switch and 3DS emulation will come back, a few years from now, I'm pretty sure. There are those who do care about this stuff that will have already archived games, keys, and source codes, and they'll be smarter about it.

So glad I have an external with an entire Batocera build and a SD card for my deck. I love batocera because I can make a library and never put it online, it's completely safe from outside forces.

After thinking on this for a few days, I think there are generational differences at play here. Who didn’t have a “neighborhood” copy of software in the 80s and 90s? I remember in my high school Cisco Networking class, we had a copy of Windows XP that was passed around prior to release by a few days. Our teacher over heard us talking and kind of called us out, kind of hurt he wasn’t offered it early. Apple became what it is today because Napster and Limewire, etc all got shutdown while iTunes made it affordable and easy to pay what we now know is for the ability to access a license, not actually own it like physical. Who didn’t have mixtapes and recorded shows off their VCR? …I’m still curious why companies haven’t tried to ban DVRs… I think we have a culture that toes the piracy line with different feelings based on different upbringings, both generationally, but also regarding what is and isn’t perceived piracy. Obviously there are legal definitions, but there are also plenty of laws that are no longer enforced, but still in the books. Piracy can obviously be enforced, but even Nintendo seems to pick its battles. Ultimately- devs, stop pre-release compatibility, if not all current gen emulation. Stop pay walls - I’m fine with “$5 to remove ads” or “$5 coffee donation”, but the optics of “Pay $10 to get this additional access” seems a little too far. Publishers need to do better, too. We need options to preserve purchases and not be expected to pay multiple times to play things on current hardware - Steam has done it for years and years! Windows still has Windows Phone purchases I made. C’mon Nintendo!

As someone that really got into emulation after seeing your videos, it’s sad to see 2 more emulators not only stopped development but straight up disappeared thanks to Nintendo. I personally only used them just to test what games my devices can handle, and I have both a switch and modded 3ds to play those games anyway, so it’s not a total loss for me. Still It’s nice having the option to play games you already own in a new, enhanced way. Hopefully in the future we’ll get new emulators that are just as good as Yuzu and Citra if not better.

Yay for the potential new 3DS videos. I didn't know Citra is gone now as well.

brasil rapa, ninguem entra aqui nao, jamais vao tirar o ryujinx de nós

Right now if you look around you can find people hosting sources and even binaries so I recommend downloading that for preservation. Also as an AMD user Ryujinx works better on my PC on Linux but losing Yuzu is definitely will cause a chilling effect. But the good thing is that Yuzu was GPL code so that means someone else in the future would be able to continue the work.

@retrogamecorps i have a qq . i was in the market and was planning to buy odin 2. afte this case yuzu and other emulators now. are nust closing their shops and i am not sure how will the future if emulation will hold. not promising tbh as of currently. Do you think right now going for odin 2 or any similar device is a good idea or maybe but a first party handheld.like switch or ps maybe. anyways great work as always.. #fan. and thank you

This kills any interest I had in getting the switch 2. I’ll stick with my steam deck and give valve my money.

thanks for new video ;)

I am a big fan of nintendo, and have spent alot of money on their systems and games. In the future, i will never purchase any "virtual" e-shop products and will stick to buying physical media only. This is not just a nintendo issue, but applies to movies and music as well.

Idea: use a graphic to show gaming performance for yuzu going forward for games and then use b roll to show other games while you talk about it.

New fork of Yuzu's already announced

So Switch - We got Ryujinx, we good. 3DS - What was left for Citra to do, that can't be picked up in a few years? Go get a backup of Citra, it's like a Hydra as people are saying, it's not going anywhere, so we're good there too. Lets be chill and enjoy giving Nintendo the bird, this is Streisanding really badly for them, and I'm glad that Nintendo will lose out because they're "a holes"

I feel it for the AYN team. And the future of the Odin. The 2 is pretty solid though, for many years it’ll be a great device.

What a bummer. I had hoped it would go to court and Nintendo would have lost. Now they've 'won', and it could be a potential harm for the future of emulation cases.