Valve shuts down a cool looking N64 Portal demake, but its dev doesn't want you to be mad at anyone
In another world, maybe.
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Portal 64, a very cool-looking Nintendo 64-inspired Portal demake, was cancelled earlier this week because of Valve, but its dev doesn't want you to be mad at anyone.
We all love a good demake, and Portal 64 was looking like it was set to be just that - a demake of the classic puzzle game rendered in a style like that you'd see on the N64. Unfortunately, as announced on the project creator James Lambert's Patreon (via Time Extension), Valve actually reached out about the project, asking for it to be shut down. "Because the project depends on Nintendo’s proprietary libraries, they have asked me to take the project down," Lambert explained - Nintendo is famously litigious after all, so it's a move that makes sense from Valve, even if it's an unfortunate one.
Now, in a new YouTube video from Lambert, the dev added a bit more context to the situation (thanks, PCGamesN). "I can’t say I didn’t expect this at some point. It’s their IP on a Nintendo console. I was hopeful I could get it to completion, but this is not unexpected." To briefly explain what Lambert means there, the Portal 64 dev was actually making the game so that it could be played on a Nintendo 64, using Nintendo's official SDK LibUltra, the tools used to make all N64 games.
"While I might not be a big enough target for Nintendo to come after, Valve is. So if they put their stamp of approval on the project, that could be grounds for Nintendo to come after them… I don’t blame them at all, and I don’t think you should either. Don’t be mad at Valve here, the project was probably doomed to be taken down from the beginning."
Valve does regularly allow large-scale fan-made projects of its works, it's part of why there are still thriving communities surrounding its games, but considering Nintendo literally put a man into debt for the rest of his life over hacking Nintendo consoles, it isn't surprising that Valve would want to shut down a project like Portal 64.
On the plus side, Lambert is now looking at making his own game, with plans to make it playable on both the N64 and PC, so if you were interested in his work, there still should be something coming.