A Fan Is Attempting to Port Celeste to the NES
A dedicated retro gamng fan named iProgramInCpp is successfully working on porting the beloved indie platformer Celeste to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This endeavour showcases remarkable dedication and technical prowess as it aims to recreate Celeste’s critically acclaimed gameplay within the constraints of the 8-bit console.
The project features music contributions from talented chiptune artists livvy94, zeta0134, and Persune. Additionally, the developers of the Geometry Dash NES port, Famidash, have provided support. The demo for this port covers the first two chapters of Celeste, and has been released to coincide with the 7th anniversary since Celeste’s original release in 2018.
What You Should Expect From Celeste On NES
The demo offers an impressive glimpse into what the final product will look like. However, some aspects are still in development mode as the project is a work-in-progress. For instance, current versions lack background colours; instead utilizing solid black voids.
How To Contribute
iProgramInCpp is soliciting feedback for further improvements from both casual players and experts alike. Fans can either provide their input through its Discord server (link in the original article) or by contributing coding knowledge, particularly in 6502 assembly language.
How To Play The Demo
A GitHub link can be found in the original article.
How well do you think Celeste can be reproduced on the NES?
I have mixed feelings about this, it’s one of those games where people get distracted by the symbolism and graphics, that they fail to notice what the creator’s trying to say.
They think it’s about finding your identity and how asserting yourself as something society says you’re not supposed to be is like climbing a mountain, and just miss the REAL message…
Which is of course that transpeople can double jump, air dash, and bounce off walls!
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The 8bit Celeste music sounds pretty good on the demo!
It’ll be interesting to see how it compares to the brilliant 8 bit port of Celeste to the Spectrum Next.
Oh, I thought they were just talking about Celeste Classic. Wow that’s insanely cool
now this… is an 8 bit game
Nintendo lawsuit in 3… 2… 1…
Nintendo doesn’t really go after homebrew game devs. They do however go after emulators.
They go after anybody that targets their IP. But, a port of a non-Nintendo game is probably going to stay under their radar.
IIRC if you use any proprietary code made by Nintendo they can possibly have legal action. there was one guy who was making Portal on the
GameCubeN64 and used some of Nintendos “libultra” and that opened him up to being sued.
Valve DMCA’d the project as the legal equivalent of a ‘mercy kill’ which was controversial as some of their games stated off as fan mods and now they took down one.
It does appear that some other people are trying to re-make it without nintinos code and valve hasn’t DMCA’d it https://github.com/mwpenny/portal64-still-aliveI’m not talking about what’s legally possible or not. Just what would probably keep them under the radar.
Of course Nintendo is going to protect a library that isn’t publicly-available. That would be like releasing an computer emulator with the basic OS ROMs included. The emulation is legal. The code on the chips is not.
Why would I want a port to the NES? Wouldn’t we rarher port those games to PC vs the other way? I understand the callange, but maybe I don’t understand the why. What am I missing?
The game already exists on PC, and you can already trivially play NES games on PC.
I have a number of these games that have been recreated for old consoles - they’re often called demakes.
Partly just because it’s cool? It’s nice to see old console development alive, and you can run it on FPGA and emulator handhelds too. I have a Miyoo Mini that fits in my pocket that I can play a shit load of NES, SNES, GB, GBA, etc games on. It’s cool having more stuff added to that library.
It’d be cool to load it on a homebrewed NES Classic/mini
It’s fun
This kind of thing is literally a case of “why not?” It’s challenging and fun for the creator most likely and also insanely cool when it’s done successfully.
Okay thanks now I understand.
The game exists on multiple platforms. These are just fun programming challenges for people. They’re not intended for widespread appeal. But people will find them, play them and have fun with them.
I find the game to not be in my style save for the pico 8 one. idk if it’s just me but I find that a lot of indie games that go for the 8 bit aesthetic are far too off-putting. like ooooh!! it’s another indie game going for the retro look without actually imitating that hardware. so what…
honestly if you’re going to go for that look either fully commit to it or don’t do it at all. And if I’m going to be real here, this nes game is more to my liking
