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...have appeared in their original form elsewhere, on non-Nintendo systems, without edited graphics or anything? Aside from multi-platform releases.

The only exceptions I can think of are the PS1 releases of the FF games and Mega Man 1-3 in Wily Wars. Both of which were a while ago.

I've wondered why we haven't seen original-version re-releases of things like Final Fantasy VI and various successful and even semi=successful third-party NES, SNES, GBA, etc. games. And why Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI had to be re-released with new graphics, while VII, VIII, IX, and XIII didn't. And why Capcom had to "recreate" the NES feel using a game engine programmed from scratch for their PC release of Mega Man Legacy Collection.

I've had a hunch that part of Nintendo's contract is that, unless it's a multiplatform release initially, you can't rerelease the same game on a non-Nintendo platform.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 27th August 2016 16:03

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current games (2024-02-19):
Fairy Fencer F ADF
Pokémon Perfect Crystal

finished so far this year:
Gato Roboto
drowning, drowning
New Super Mario Bros.
TMNT 3: Radical Rescue

tabled: Lost Ruins

All of the original NES Mega Man games were released on PSX in Japan and are available for purchase on the Playstation store as PSX classics. Those are the ones that come off the top of my head. I have Mega Man II on my PS3.

But I really couldn't see why you wouldn't want to at least attempt to upgrade the game to 16-bit if porting it over to a more powerful system and in those cases I'm sure that's what happened. Super Mario Bros. 1-3 were all ported over to GBA I think, with very minor if any graphical upgrades.

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Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 27th August 2016 16:57)

And why Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI had to be re-released with new graphics, while VII, VIII, IX, and XIII didn't. And why Capcom had to "recreate" the NES feel using a game engine programmed from scratch for their PC release of Mega Man Legacy Collection.

I doubt there are any Nintendo-specific issues here, but if you're going to release the exact same binary distribution of a game that came with another system, how are you going to get it to run?

Option one: full system emulation. But if you're going to effectively sell a direct emulator of an old system, you'd better have permission from the original hardware vendor or be prepared to face the consequences. Sony were the first ones to really test this with their successful attack on Bleem! in the nineties, and Nintendo don't seem the type to agree to such a thing. (Sega, on the other hand, emulate their glory days like there's no tomorrow.)

Option two is what Mega Man Legacy Collection did, along with the PS1 Square rereleases: ship out the original binary data (in the MM/CT cases, as the full, original ROM), but instead of emulating the console that used to execute it, just write a custom engine that relies on retrieving original graphics and level data. It's more work, but there are many advantages: you're not automatically going to need permission to emulate someone else's hardware (though you may have other publishing rights to deal with), you're not going to risk the "modding scene" running other unlicenced games on your emulator, and you're no longer shackled by the precise limitations of that original hardware, so your new engine can avoid slowdown, flickering, scrolling glitches, you name it. This was technically necessary on the PS1 as the system was nowhere near powerful enough to emulate a SNES.

Once you've built that engine, well, maybe you decide your mobile port would look better with upscaled graphics, so you get Mavis the secretary to download ResizeItFree™ 2000 and scale all the tiles individually using the least appropriate method she can find. And that explains FF5 and FF6.

FF4 is a barely modified port of an existing 3DS release, so that sort of flies in the face of any logical Nintendo exclusivity, no? But you can bet they still had the original source code for that release, so porting it would have been less of an archaeological exercise.

FF7-9 just aren't as easy to scale without redoing a lot. I suspect this is the same reason MGS HD collection omitted MGS1.

Also, Perfect Dark was released on Xbox Live Arcade. The models and textures were enhanced, but not everyone is as low effort about these things as Square. Likewise Banjo-Kazooie, and legends tell that a Goldeneye port was completed, but went unreleased due to issues with the Bond licence (and no, I don't mean the Craigified 2010 remake). Rare was even owned by Nintendo when the original games came out.

Nintendo may still own publishing rights to some older games, but this hardly seems like a universal Nintendo contract. If it were, I doubt just editing some random aspect (graphics for 5-6, engine for MM) would be enough to stave off the eager Nintendo lawyers; there's no attempt to pass them off as different games.

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FF4 is a barely modified port of an existing 3DS release, so that sort of flies in the face of any logical Nintendo exclusivity, no?

Oh, I totally forgot about that one. Thanks.

I was curious about all this because I was wondering what technical or legal barriers there were to all those requests that publishers bring back all sorts of really neat console and handheld games onto the PC, and whether it is valid for people to request the games in their original form as opposed to some modified form that people may not agree on.

If the barriers are technical rather than legal, then that bodes better for such requests as well as the potential for porting random obscure games to PC.

--------------------

current games (2024-02-19):
Fairy Fencer F ADF
Pokémon Perfect Crystal

finished so far this year:
Gato Roboto
drowning, drowning
New Super Mario Bros.
TMNT 3: Radical Rescue

tabled: Lost Ruins