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Comment by mattl | Hacker News Reader

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mattl·

Curious which technique they use to bypass the Nintendo logo on boot

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I’m not a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure that Sega lost a major court case in regards to this nearly 30 years ago.

Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade?wprov=sfti1

Either it's in the console ROM, in which case it's not a problem, or it's in the cartridge ROM, in which case I'd imagine it's just a matter of replacing the raster data with something else.

Yeah demoscene has a few hacks to get around the checks.

It's in the game, but the console famously checks that the code for the logo is present, and refuses to run any game which doesn't have the code in place.

It was used as a way to prevent anyone unauthorized making games. If you copy the logo, you have violated trademark and copyright law, and if you don't copy the logo, your game won't run.

Detail here: https://catskull.net/gameboy-boot-screen-logo.html

If I remember correctly, the ROM gets read once to check, and then again to display. One could use some circuitry to deliver another logo on the second read.

Also, a court struck down this approach to locking a console from playing third party games anyway.

That's why all modern consoles use digital signatures.

Why is it not a problem if it's in the console ROM? How do they get around it?

The idea is that by forcing games to include the trademarked Nintendo logo in the game ROM, an unlicensed dev would be guilty of trademark infringement if they used the logo.

There is a way you can hack it by changing the logo somewhere through the second check.

But couldn’t you also write an exception in the emulator itself? (I’m actually not sure - just genuinely curious!)

I believe the game also runs on a real Game Boy

Right, so I guess the second note doesn't apply but the first is how they did it, I figure.

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