How much of the Pretendo Network can be Self Hosted?

Hi all, I just found out about Pretendo Network and I am very interested in the project.
It’s great to have a replacement for the Nintendo Network, especially one with such a dedicated team that’s able to independently fund it’s self.

Personally, when it comes to emulation and server hosting I’d like to have direct and local control. Sure I’d be limited to local interactions on my network and lose the ability to connect to anyone on the Online Pretendo Network, but that’s besides the point. Anyway, I did find this forum post about Self Hosting the Pretendo Network Server, and looking at all the GitHub repositories it seems almost all of them have support for docker.

So my question is, are we able to self host the entire project on our own local servers in addition to using the already existing Pretendo Network? Or is self hosting the network only limited to a few repositories and functions?

I’d love to be able to create my own Pretendo Network Server locally and restore all functionality to my console and Pokemon games including Mystery Gift events. I think just having a replacement is already a monumental leap in the right direction, but any number of issues can occur with projects in future. Take down notices, discontinuation of a project, Government censorship. So being able to use these tools to preserve, not just emulate services regardless of whether or not there is a Pretendo Network in future is crucial.

Side Note: Apparently there’s even a project to revive the dream world.

1 Like

Hello!

All of the open-source Pretendo Network servers can be self-hosted, except for the internal admin panel, which is closed source. You don’t need the admin panel to manage things though, as I’ve made scripts to automate server management tasks. Not all of the game servers are currently in my Pretendo Docker setup simply because I haven’t added them yet - it’s absolutely possible. As you might have seen, the Dockerfile was added to most of the game servers pretty recently.

I absolutely agree with your points about preservation - it’s awesome the Pretendo is open-source, so anyone can download and self-host it.

3 Likes