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ChipMusic.org / Forums / Nintendo Handhelds / alternate boot screens on gameboy - I thought this wasn't possible?
At some point I heard somewhere that it wasn't possible to change the "NINTENDO" text that you see when the gameboy boots.
Well user jackary was kind enough to send me this Gowin cart for free when I was desperately looking for a green cart shell. It's not exactly what I'm looking for, but it's waaaaay cool. I really just wanted the cart plastic, but I decided to try out the game anyway, and...
I thought this wasn't possible? How did they do this? Any thoughts *cough*nitro*cough*?
As far as I know, there isn't a way to permanently change the boot logo, but some carts/roms do have alternate ones.
Last edited by Limitbreak (Dec 3, 2013 5:25 pm)
Normally the Gameboy's internal boot ROM will check the logo and reject any game where the logo isn't correct. However, this memory area is read twice, once to copy the logo to video RAM and once to check that it's correct. So what a game can do is to activate one memory area, then another memory area with precise timings to both let the Gameboy boot ROM copy the custom logo to VRAM and pass the check.
Other cartridges that do this include Mega Memory, a 3rd party PDA type application and Nanoloop One, the funky PCB cartridge.
As always, I'm interested in getting thing like these as donations for research/preservation. Especially since you just want the plastic, and I'm mainly interested in the PCB. Though it would sort of feel like a shame to divide a rarity up into parts. Though, first you could it the cart PCB you want to put in it even fits well in the shell. Sometimes the pirates are a bit off on their measurements. But it's your cartridge and I'm asking to have something for free, haha.
If I rememeber correctly the reason why unlicensed developers did this was due to a lawsuit Sega had with an unlicensed Dev. There is nothing illegal about building your own Dev tools and releasing a game for a system without being licensed. Hence all the tengen games for the nes, there's nothing Nintendo could have done. So what sega did was require a game to show their logo on boot. This was because technically, it WAS illegal to reproduce their copyrighted logo without their permission. Iirc, that argument did not hold up in court.
I believe Nintendo did this with the gameboy both for that reason, to make it harder for pirates to reverse ebgineer, and as a way to have a checksum to make sure the cart is reading correctly.
Compare the gameboy to the nes that didn't have a system in place. Its very common to boot the nes fine with all sorts if cool graphics glitches. On a gameboy that's far less likely because if there's any issues the boot ROM will pick it up.
If I rememeber correctly the reason why unlicensed developers did this was due to a lawsuit Sega had with an unlicensed Dev.
Actually, what Sega did was a little different, the text "PRODUCED BY OR UNDER LICENSE FROM SEGA ENTERPRISES LTD." And that didn't hold up in court like you said. This was as early as 1992, so I'm not sure pirates would care enough to avoid showing the logo for this reason. But it would be interesting to see if there's any indication of the production year on the PCB. I think they do it just to be fancy.
And note that while the logo isn't shown on the screen with this method, it's still present in the ROM to pass the validation. If they wanted to sue, and they were likely to win, I think it wouldn't make any difference whether they displayed it on the screen or not as long as they distribute the graphics anywhere in the ROM.
Good points, but I'd still argue that it wasn't just pirates doing this, it was legitimate business selling legitimate original games. They just couldn't afford to get licensed. I can't imagine the megamem guys did it just to be fancy, when your a small team with little funding time is money and wasting time just to be fancy would never fly. However with the bypass switch having the megamem logo is super helpful to immediately know what you're booting. I guess we'll never know on that one.
While you're probably right that Nintendo would win in court, its still interesting to think about it. My argument would be that its not illegal to reproduce something you own for pesonal use. Could you argue that anyone using a megamem already owns a copy of the Nintendo logo by owning a gameboy?
Could you argue that anyone using a megamem already owns a copy of the Nintendo logo by owning a gameboy?
Firstly, your personal morals isn't necessarily the law.
Secondly, you wouldn't be the target of the legal action, but the people who made Megamem.
Thirdly, it's a moot discussion anyway, since Sega v. Accolade set a strong precedent against this being a valid form of protection against anything. The DMCA interoperability exemption also points in the same direction, that using a simple string like that does not constitute a violation.
As always, I'm interested in getting thing like these as donations for research/preservation. Especially since you just want the plastic, and I'm mainly interested in the PCB. Though it would sort of feel like a shame to divide a rarity up into parts. Though, first you could it the cart PCB you want to put in it even fits well in the shell. Sometimes the pirates are a bit off on their measurements. But it's your cartridge and I'm asking to have something for free, haha.
This was my exact thought process! "Maybe nitro could use this for study. But it would be a shame to split them up..." let me see if I can get it to do what I want it to, and if so they're going to wind up being split up anyway, so I'd be happy to send you the PCB. If not, maybe you have something fun lying around to trade me for the full cartridge?
just a quick postscript, I finally opened up the cart to figure out if I could use the plastic for anything, and the answer is, "not without significant cutting of one or the other".
The power switch cutout is larger than on a standard cart (and at an angle). The screw holes line up, but the bump in the back shell is bigger for some reason so it doesn't fit as well as it could.
Kindof a bummer, because these carts are pretty, and a whole slew of them recently appeared on eBay.
My argument would be that its not illegal to reproduce something you own for personal use.
"The backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic." -Nintendo.com
They're pretty strict.