2gen header

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:43 pm

If you asked me - not. I don't have resources to produce and, especially, sell (see my country) real cartridge version. So if I'll release anything, it will be completely free.

tails92 · Post by **tails92** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:44 pm

Yes, the way Shiru said is the one to go. Protection in your game just puts off people from your work and you don't gain anything in exchange.
But I also think that the "Collectors' Edition" game shouldn't have any protection on it.
You otherwise end up looking like the exact same people who are against emulation, free research and homebrew.

Sik · Post by **Sik** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:45 pm

Supposing you could, Shiru >_>

Anyways, in my case I would make all games for free and working in emulators. I would never allow for any fee to cover distribution costs (with Internet we don't have any excuses), only to cover the reproduction costs if they get into a cartridge to be run on the real hardware, and nothing more. And still it would require my permission.

tails92 · Post by **tails92** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:50 pm

I'd allow any distribution fees, really, because I'd also like for my work to be distributed on CDs and such.
People can always get it off the internet if they want, anyway.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:53 pm

If I could, why not? This way was used by other people before (on other retro-systems).

Sik wrote:And still it would require my permission.

And how do you think you can protect your rights? Actually, nobody cares that you require.

For example. There, in Russia, is some fan translation groups. They make good translations of retro games (SMD ones included) and release it for free. They 'require' their permission to re-distribution too. But piracy cartridge manufacturers don't care about that and distribute these translations on real cartridges, even with own 'copyrights' and logos.

Sik · Post by **Sik** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:57 pm

Shiru wrote:If I could, why not? This way was used by other people before (on other retro-systems).

I was saying if you had the money >_>

Shiru wrote:
Sik wrote:And still it would require my permission.
And how do you think you can protect your rights? Actually, nobody cares that you require.

It's always nice to know if your game gets into a cartridge

TulioAdriano · Post by **TulioAdriano** » Mon May 05, 2008 8:04 pm

Back on the topic, what's the true purpose or advantage of having a 2gen bios, given the fact that it will never make to the hardware?

Or do you plan to have this bios on the game itself and override the md bios if present?

Btw Pier Solar is scheduled for start shipping October 29 if no disaster occurs.

Tulio

Sik · Post by **Sik** » Mon May 05, 2008 8:09 pm

TulioAdriano wrote:Back on the topic, what's the true purpose or advantage of having a 2gen bios, given the fact that it will never make to the hardware?

Who knows if it'll ever make it or not, but at least it would be available for emulators. Also I plan to include some functions for people that mod their consoles, like calculating the 68k speed (got the idea from Tiido's library). If you can change that, probably you can change the BIOS too (through not sure if there would be enough address lines for this one).

Anyways, the 2gen BIOS would feature internal SRAM like the Sega CD (but bigger, the 8KB there make no good

), so several copies of the ROM can share the same file. Who knows, if you ever make a Pier Solar 2, you could take the data from Pier Solar 1 for some cheat or something

TulioAdriano wrote:Or do you plan to have this bios on the game itself and override the md bios if present?

That would be more surprising than getting over the protection of the 32x BIOS without the security start-up code.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Mon May 05, 2008 8:11 pm

Sik wrote:I was saying if you had the money >_>

I can't understand that you asking.

If I'll release something, I'll release it for free in form of ROM image.

If I'd had resources (resources is not just money) to release real cartridge version, I'd go way which I said - free version in form of ROM image and collector's edition on real cartrdige (without protection).

I answered to your question?

HardWareMan · Post by **HardWareMan** » Tue May 06, 2008 4:15 am

Look at this: http://www.beggarprince.com/
Why still no ROM image? The game is not new, just another localization of old game. But why it still not dumped? For some reason nobody wants to dump it. I do not believe that all who bought unable to dump it, but nobody do this. There no HW protection, I think. Think about it.
BTW If some man will have an reason, he will do with your game with super protection all, what he wants. All he needs for this is just good reason.

Sik · Post by **Sik** » Tue May 06, 2008 4:45 am

I guess nobody dumped that ROM because it's just a translation?

(yes, I know some glitches were fixed, but still it's mainly a translation)

HardWareMan · Post by **HardWareMan** » Tue May 06, 2008 5:09 am

Sik wrote:I guess nobody dumped that ROM because it's just a translation? (yes, I know some glitches were fixed, but still it's mainly a translation)

Maybe, but why other pirates games still dumped at next day of presentation? There not just "translations", there are more terrible things... But somebody dumps it.

Sik · Post by **Sik** » Tue May 06, 2008 5:32 am

I've just remembered:

HardWareMan wrote:There no HW protection, I think.

I once heard those cartridges do have some kind of protection :/ Shouldn't be hard to crack it through, but I wonder if it's a dump protection.

You may say, whatever that the MD can read can be read by a copier. OK, now, let's suppose there's custom hardware that enables ROM access (except for the start up, of course). It would be enabled by just writing something with the 68k. A copier is never capable of doing this, so making it dump-proof. You would need to modify your copier to be able to dump the ROM.

tomaitheous · Post by **tomaitheous** » Tue May 06, 2008 5:56 am

Sik wrote: It would be enabled by just writing something with the 68k. A copier is never capable of doing this, so making it dump-proof. You would need to modify your copier to be able to dump the ROM.

Or worse - it could destroy the rom. Megaman X3 had this problem iirc.

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:15 am

I don't understand this ROM destruction thing....

Beggar Prince has some extra HW in cart, and it depends on it... same for my game.
Also, I will release a demo of my game, and when the cartridge is not in production anymore, some more emulator friendly version of the final version... I'm not a total monster, eventually things will be free...