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“A Dark Room” Developer bundles Ruby interpreter and code editor into Switch release (already taken down; see threadmarks for updates)

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Deleted member 5028

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,724
Seemingly nobody at Nintendo noticed. From the developer responsible for porting/enhancing. Video at the link.

Dear Ruby devs and game devs. I have a crazy announcement I want to share. Please boost.

Last week I released A Dark Room to the Nintendo Switch. Within the game, I also shipped a Ruby interpreter and a code editor as an Easter Egg.

*This Easter Egg effectively turns every consumer spec-ed Nintendo Switch into a Ruby Machine.*

1. Download A Dark Room from the US/EU.
2. Connect a USB keyboard and press the "~" key.
3. Follow the onscreen instructions.
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This hasn't popped up here yet, but there was some interest in the game that I had to share considering you can execute your own code directly on a Switch.
 
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KRBM

KRBM

Banned
Jan 9, 2018
684
Some brilliant hacker's gonna use this to jailbreak the Switch right? Either way, cool thing to do by the dev.
 
SigSig

SigSig

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,777
That's really cool. Can games have forced updates? I'm tempted to buy this, ruby is fun.
 
smisk

smisk

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,003
This is pretty cool.. Betting the game will be pulled in no time though.
 
Sean Mirrsen

Sean Mirrsen

Banned
May 9, 2018
1,159
Hailinel said:
Game yanked from the eShop in 3..2...
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Indeed.

It's not even a question of Nintendo being security-obsessed, it's a plain developer conduct matter. If he really "snuck it in", then that functionality did not go through Nintendo's testing and certification. He brings up FUZE as a counterexample, but FUZE got delayed for over a year, and was/is/will be tested extensively for possible breaks and things it's not supposed to do. If this Ruby interpreter did not go through that testing, this game is going to be pulled in no time flat, and either return after it passes full certification, or not return at all due to developer being banned for trying to pull this stunt.
 
Aurongel

Aurongel

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
7,065
The dev tools being packaged directly into the product itself and being accessible right from the device is... odd?

But I suppose stranger things have happened where I worked, we just recently discovered that we were shipping a handful of unit tests in our production code and had been doing so for several years.
 
snausages

snausages

Member
Feb 12, 2018
10,377
The developer is saying he's trying to keep it on the DL, but guess that this is going to spread around now lol

Can we block updates to games on Switch?
 
Lant_War

Lant_War

Classic Anus Game
The Fallen
Jul 14, 2018
23,601
That's great. Shame it didn't get a physical release though, it's most likely getting pulled in no time.
 
gofreak

gofreak

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,739
andymoogle said:
Seems like a good way to get banned from ever releasing games on a Nintendo platform again.
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Or, potentially, any closed platform.

It would be one thing if it was accidental...that it was by design by his own admission seems very risky for the dev's reputation, unless he doesn't care about future publishing on platforms like this.
 
Sean Mirrsen

Sean Mirrsen

Banned
May 9, 2018
1,159
Lite_Agent said:
Why would this be an issue when Fuze is to be released next month?

https://www.fuze.co.uk/nintendo-switch.html
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See:
Sean Mirrsen said:
It's not even a question of Nintendo being security-obsessed, it's a plain developer conduct matter. If he really "snuck it in", then that functionality did not go through Nintendo's testing and certification. He brings up FUZE as a counterexample, but FUZE got delayed for over a year, and was/is/will be tested extensively for possible breaks and things it's not supposed to do. If this Ruby interpreter did not go through that testing, this game is going to be pulled in no time flat, and either return after it passes full certification, or not return at all due to developer being banned for trying to pull this stunt.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
grand

grand

Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,047
This seems like the sort of thing an indie developer should've ran through PR or a lawyer before putting out a statement
 
Mr.MondayNight

Mr.MondayNight

Member
Dec 15, 2017
10
Chicago, IL
If it runs it just inside the game itself I don't see a problem, but if it allows you to run code on the Switch outside of the environment set up JUST for the game, this is going to become a softmod really quick and Nintendo is going to come after him with razorblades and lemon juice
 
Watchtower

Watchtower

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,664
That's really cool.

He and the game are also colossally fucked. People better be snatching this quick.
 
Shoichi

Shoichi

Member
Jan 10, 2018
10,466
Have a feeling Nintendo foreseen issues like this and would have prevented this by running games in a sandbox environment with no access to modify the code of the Switch OS.

Still not good for the developer if he hid this piece of data from Nintendo
 
Vena

Vena

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,477
Shoichi said:
Have a feeling Nintendo foreseen issues like this and would have prevented this by running games in a sandbox environment with no access to modify the code of the Switch OS.

Still not good for the developer if he hid this piece of data from Nintendo
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The game (like all games) is extensively sandboxed, so even if you broke out with one Ruby's many known bugs, you'd still be in userland sandboxing.

The issue here is this dude is basically asking to get himself permanently blacklisted from development forever, you can't just sneak in code with known ACE vulnerabilities and think no one is going to be fucking furious. He's basically taken the contract he signed on good faith and pissed all over it. Its an extremely shitty and selfish thing to do.
 
BY2K

BY2K

Membero Americo
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,686
Québec, Canada
He's lucky if he doesn't get blacklisted by Microsoft and Sony on top of being blacklisted by Nintendo.

None of them would allow this, is he out of his freaking mind!?
 
Thrill_house

Thrill_house

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,638
Uhhhhh I wouldn't be surprised if all of the big 3 black listed this guy. If this does what I think it does, poor fucking form on his part.
 
Zips

Zips

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,913
This feels like it's right up there with the people who film themselves doing stupid stuff and upload it to YouTube.
 
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