Bad news for GBA emulation

[Josh]

A friend showed me this article just a few minutes ago. I figured you guys might find it interesting with the tactics against emulation that Nintendo is taking.

http://theregister.co.uk/content/68/36218.html

[Sprung]

Had Nintendo done this before the GBA Emu saturated the interent, they might have had a chance; but now, there is no way to stop the spread of the emu, because so many people already have it.

ROMs...maybe. Although many people already have the cart reader, and P2P. Nintendo will find that non-server based P2P will fare quite better than the easly killed Napster referenced in the article...

[Ifrit]

Originally posted by knowitman
A friend showed me this article just a few minutes ago. I figured you guys might find it interesting with the tactics against emulation that Nintendo is taking.

http://theregister.co.uk/content/68/36218.html

Thats no fun.... nintendo sucks balls

[mushindo]

Yeah, because after all, they did spend millions to engineer the system... How silly of them wanting to protect themselves from being totally exploited

[Del_Boy]

I read this yesterday. I 100% support Nintendo.

This patent doesn't stop people making PC or console based emulators for the GBA (nor could they stop that if they tried to be honest). It does however have the intention of at least making it harder to make one for a low powered mobile device - ie:

A Zodiac Tapwave (rather than a Laptop)

So that game specific HLE (like UHLE) is ruled out.

Think of it this way. How would an emulator for a handheld machine such as the Tapwave be of benefit for Nintendo? There are no legal ways to play the roms. If Nintendo allowed this without a fight then it'd set a precedent for everyone else to do it.

Lest we forget that this company/group of individuals was also profiteering from this. It really is in Nintendos right to try to do their best to prohibit this.

If it really does go to court (apparently it is being challenged) then I would expect Nintendo to win thru sheer financial muscle.

[Ifrit]

Huh.... so this does NOT affect PC emulation? Then im all the way behind nintendo

[Josh]

I can understand Nintendo's stance and why they wanted to do it. I'm just surprised that they haven't tried to stop anything going further on the PC side of emulation.

[trclinkscales]

i think the reason nintendo went with cartrages for the n64 instead of cds was based on the fact that cartrages would probobly be harder to copy and/or emulate

[Del_Boy]

Sony tried Vs Bleem and failed
Other companies have tried and failed

If Nintendo went after this with just a 'Emulation is illegal' arguement then they would lose. Thanks to shrewd lawyers taking advantage of a terrible patent system they have a legal foothold in this battle.

Personally the biggest things I'd attempt to stop if I were Nintendo would be Rom sites and Flash linkers.

[Del_Boy]

I think the reason nintendo went with cartrages for the n64 instead of cds was based on the fact that cartrages would probobly be harder to copy and/or emulate

Indeed that was part of the reasoning. Another part was access times for a CD were and still are slower than with Cartridge based media.... course we all know in hindsight it was a bad decision :/

[Josh]

i think the reason nintendo went with cartrages for the n64 instead of cds was based on the fact that cartrages would probobly be harder to copy and/or emulate

Nintendo actually went to cartridges because they could sell them at higher prices. I think that cartridges are harder to make roms from, but they are also smaller in filesize making them easier to distribute. It wouldn't make it any harder to emulate. With CDs you have to have to emulate the cd drive using your current one.

[trclinkscales]

ok that make sence...i had heard that from a friend so thats why i thought that

[Del_Boy]

Nintendo actually went to cartridges because they could sell them at higher prices.

Debatable, cartridges cost more to produce. So the higher price tags were really to be expected, especially with some of the higher MB games.

[Blaze]

Originally posted by Del_Boy
Personally the biggest things I'd attempt to stop if I were Nintendo would be Rom sites and Flash linkers.

True on that but its too late to stop them now.You would get some but not all of them.And even after you got some of them,they would probably change their name and website and have even more roms.

[az_bont]

Originally posted by Del_Boy
Sony tried Vs Bleem and failed
Other companies have tried and failed

Well, I wouldn't say they failed entirely - they did bankrupt the company, aqquire the legal rights to the emulator and cease production and distribution. A success, for the most part, I'd say.