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Huh. I thought this was fast, being just 3 years after the Switch came out. I was under the impression emulators normally start being available about 10 years after a console is released, but I checked and Dolphin actually released in 2003, just two years after the GameCube.
So this is not a emulator in the traditional sense. The code is not having to be transformed from one architecture to another. GPU calls might. And of course some code to fool the game into thinking it’s a switch. But the CPU code should be native
 
Yet more evidence that Apple should have bought (or at least partnered with) Nintendo if they were even vaguely interested in the gaming market. Imagine if the next Apple TV was in fact the Switch Pro and supported HDR and upscaling to 4K (very unlikely to support 4K rendering). $300 for the basic box with a gamecard slot and Switch controllers. Nintendo always ship consoles with low storage so 64 or 128 GB would be plenty. Access to Nintendo IP games via Apple Arcade for $10/month (or bought in the stores / digitally) combined with the Apple TV 4K stuff.

Nintendo benefits from access to Apple Silicon and their digital distribution network. It would be unstoppable.
 
And within 1 week's time, Nintendo sends cease and desist letter. 🤣
Nintendo is notorious about things like this.

Yeah, but they have no legal basis for a claim unless an emulator like this somehow includes Nintendo's proprietary code in it.

This is how most emulators get away with it. They practically don't contain any code that belongs to the original hardware (i.e.: no BIOS or firmware). You'll have to provide the BIOS or firmware that you backup from a real device that you own in order to run the emulator in the first place.

seems odd MacRumors would advertise this given it's basically piracy or the tools for piracy.

Piracy implies I did not pay hard-earned money for a copy of a game.

Per this:

Under section 117, you or someone you authorize may make a copy of an original computer program if the new copy is being made for archival (i.e., backup) purposes only; you are the legal owner of the copy; and any copy made for archival purposes is either destroyed, or transferred with the original copy, once the original copy is sold, given away, or otherwise transferred.

You are allowed to make backups of software that you own (i.e. can prove that you own legally by providing a sale receipt). Typically, an emulator developer will make backups of his own games in order to reverse-engineer (and this too is legal, by the way) and start developing said emulator.

So making backups or building/using software and hardware tools to make backups of stuff that you actually own... is legal. Unsurprisingly.

Anyone who continues to say an emulator is illegal or that it relates to "piracy" is very... misinformed, I think. Please do some more research on this topic.
 
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Huh. I thought this was fast, being just 3 years after the Switch came out. I was under the impression emulators normally start being available about 10 years after a console is released, but I checked and Dolphin actually released in 2003, just two years after the GameCube.

Generally that's because a new console is pretty powerful at the time.
It would be like Expecting the M1 to be able to ever emulate a PS5 or XBox series X

The switch was pretty out of date even when it 1st launched, so it makes sense it's not going to take so long to emulate it.
 
Yet more evidence that Apple should have bought (or at least partnered with) Nintendo if they were even vaguely interested in the gaming market. Imagine if the next Apple TV was in fact the Switch Pro and supported HDR and upscaling to 4K (very unlikely to support 4K rendering). $300 for the basic box with a gamecard slot and Switch controllers. Nintendo always ship consoles with low storage so 64 or 128 GB would be plenty. Access to Nintendo IP games via Apple Arcade for $10/month (or bought in the stores / digitally) combined with the Apple TV 4K stuff.

Nintendo benefits from access to Apple Silicon and their digital distribution network. It would be unstoppable.
One problem. Nintendo is very much a Japanese company. I don’t ever see them selling to an American company. Even for billions.
 
Generally that's because a new console is pretty powerful at the time.
It would be like Expecting the M1 to be able to ever emulate a PS5 or XBox series X

The switch was pretty out of date even when it 1st launched, so it makes sense it's not going to take so long to emulate it.
It’s because it’s not emulation it’s vitualization
 
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It’s because it’s not emulation it’s vitualization

As far as I know, Yuzu actually has an ARM dynamic recompiler to achieve what it does, and it also has to emulate the sound processor and GPU separately. If the author of this build of it just took the code as/is, apply MoltenVK, fix some UI stuffs, and compile, then chances are... this is still "emulation", not "virtualization".

"Virtualization" implies the author is basically "fooling" Nintendo Switch games to "see" Apple's M1 CPU/GPU, etc... but I don't think that's the case at all. In fact, having to use MoltenVK is a dead giveaway: the GPU code is basically being routed from the Switch's NVN API to Vulkan and then to Metal.

CPU code is probably being recompiled to... ARM64. Note that M1 does not support ARM 32-bit mode at all, but the Cortex-A57 in the nVidia Tegra X1 does. I'm not sure if the Switch even has any 32-bit calls, but... Yuzu does include ARM 32-bit recompiler in its code.

TL;DR: I think this is still emulation, and if my knowledge of Yuzu's performance is still "up to date", it means that this runs at probably like... 10fps at most.
 
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Cause that is apples goal
That’s just blatant dishonesty. They’re not locking down the OS to only App Store apps, they’ve said this explicitly numerous times. Go ahead and download an App from a developers website right now.

See how it can download and install?

Why would that work NOW if Apple is going to do away with it (never mind the antitrust implications)? Are you proposing that Apple Silicon is being released with MORE functionality that will be taken away? 🙄
 
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