First, before I go into anyything, I just want to say that I like both of the questions and ideas behind them.
I decided to look up some info for the Wiiware and found that their Game Development Kit (GDK) costs $2000 (USD). On top of that, you need a license from Nintendo to sell.
The Dark GDK that I'm using right now to make ST3 gives you a royalty-free license for personal use, but if you wish to sell, you need a license for that. After some looking for the values involved, someone said:
"It is free for personal use. If you want to sell something, you have to pay for a commercial licensce, which is $499 (USD)."
I can't seem to find it, but I remember when I first started getting the software that it said something about being allowed to obtain up to $5000 (USD) before having to pay royalties. Anyway, all this is only really an issue if it's made commercial for some profit. However, the PR would be killer! Imagine having your name attached to a project like this!
So...Nintendo now... I think that the possibility is there and the chance is there. A lot of indies (independent developers) and 3rd parties are really coming to the forefront as the gaming industry is exploding. Having a good demo to show would be ideal. Usually what they have issues with is the retail, as they don't want people making money off of their work without their permission. Games, especially retail and in the core sector, cost millions of dollars (believe me), and so setting up a business plan to work with them as a client is what usually happens in those cases.
In our case, we're just a bunch of people on these forums. We're not necessarily looking to make a ton of money on this (though it's always a nice thought). The PR would be a huge benefit of doing this. We may want to ask for their permission first before doing anything. Some games have done this with Square to use their sprites and such.
I remember seeing on youtube way back a team of people that got together, probably like how it is here, and they decided to make a 3D remake of Chrono Trigger. It was absoulutely stunning what they showed on youtube. Guess what though? Square shut them down. Whether they asked for permission or not beforehand, I don't know, but I don't think they did. I'm sure it wouldn't be such an issue as it was after if they had asked first (again, assuming they didn't in the first place. I'd need to look it up again. I don't think they did anyway).
So, to sum up, I think there is a chance of us doing something significant. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, and we've taken our first steps....oh, then there's people that build emulators/ROMs/ISOs...I think those people would have bigger legal issues. As long as we go about it the right way, we do have a real chance.
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Having a team of people would be nice as long as there wasn't any political issues / drama, and as long as people could agree on the same thing and move forward quickly. From the game I volunteer for, it has the opposite of both those things and it's awful. Quite annoying too when you want to make something and everyone has their own idea of how something should be, as well as liking/disliking things you may like/dislike, and all that goes with it. There's that saying also "Too many chefs spoil the soup". A small team would be good and I think this forum has a nice count.
Anyway, I think the commeraderie would be great. The support and encouragement would be just what everyone and this project needs. As long as the people are dedicated and motivated, the project will progress and it'll be fun at the same time.
Wow, it's been so long since I've been to Starment.net. Fond memories. That full fan-translation was for Mother 3, right? That's just amazing to hear about it, even after it's already happened. If we made a whole game though, we could seriously boast about it lol. It'd boost the forums a lot, popularity of StarTropics (if the game is good), and us too. Who knows? We may get opportunities to do more!
I've been thinking about it a bunch too and it would be awesome. It's always sad when good stories and adventures end, but maybe StarTropics doesn't have to end just yet