At 2:11 AM 01/18/0, John Saeger wrote:
>Russ Perry Jr wrote:
>> Look for a copyright string around $0AA0 in PICKLOCK.
>Yep, there's a copyright message there all right. But, it says copyright
>Atari, not Harry Dodgson or Video 61.
Yeah, I verified that today. Thanks for checking too. It looks like
we're out of trouble with Video61. Too cool.
>The following games also have back doors:
Verified? Or assumed?
>Food Fight
>Galaga
>Joust
And why would these have back doors if they're Atari games?
>if somebody buys a Joust cart from O'Sheas, pinches a few KB of code to
>get the encryption key passed and the startup vectors, and then replaces
>the Joust game code with their own game code, solders a new EPROM into
>the cart and ships it, buying a fresh copy of Joust for every game of
>their own that they ship, maybe that's O.K. to do.
Ha ha! I strongly doubt the courts would see it that way, but it's a
funny example and would have a judge scratching his head for a while.
After all, every copy is paid for; the author makes no claim to the 4K,
only his own code; etc.
>Chances are people producing small quantities of games may be buying one
>of the above carts for their games anyway.
Yeah, I'm sure O'Shea's will get a big order when someone finally
releases a new game.
>But back to Video 61. What's the worst case scenario? What if PICKLOCK is
>*identical* to 4KB of Harry's cart? Does that necessarily mean that using
>PICKLOCK is infringing on Harry? Maybe, but not necessarily. It really
>depends on the contract between Harry/Video 61 and Atari.
If a cart used Harry's 4K, there are three bits it would likely use: reset,
NMI, and IRQ. Using those functions without permission would be a violation.
Though that DOES depend on the contracts... The way I understand it, Atari
gave Harry permission to use and modify the 4K he put in the Monitor Cart,
and Harry licensed use of his 4K to Video61.
>It would be nice if Video 61 would lighten up a bit with the saber rattling.
That's kind of my personal opinion... But to be fair, it's not like he's
out there publicly bullying folk (which is why I was keeping it quiet at
first). I think Lance was merely sounding off worries about what releasing
the Monitor Cart again might lead to.
>Then maybe it would be easier for people to see them as a possibly
>valuable service provider for helping people to publish games.
As far as I know Lance, he's put out a bunch of Atari 8-bit carts and
hasn't sued anyone. :-)
>All this talk about legal stuff only makes me defensive and certainly
>doesn't predispose me to consider them as a publishing option.
I hope this mild paranoia isn't a direct translation of my worries, which
seem to be panning out for good after all.
>As far as I'm concerned, people should have a right to write games for a
>machine if they want.
For any machine without a licensing structure for third parties, I
wholeheartedly agree. I still agree with license-driven machines (NES,
PSX, that sort of thing), but there are legal reasons it might not be
so straightforward.
>And the exclusionary licensing stuff is only borderline legal anyway --
>if that. This is something Microsoft seems to be finding out lately.
Are you talking monopoly allegations, or other cases?
I believe licensing is entirely legal, but I'm sure not a fan when the
owners take gestapo-ish stands against those getting around the licensing
(like what Sony did to Bleem! at one of the trade shows -- yikes!).
>As for what gets posted on the list, that's up to Glenn I think. If he
>wants to change his guidelines then he can tell us. But I'm leaving
>PICKLOCK up on my web site until I become convinced that it is actually
>infringing on Harry/Video 61,
And it isn't!
>or somebody from Atari/Hasbro tells me they're having a problem with it.
I'm sure that won't happen.
>> That begs a question... Can you put 2600 games on 7800 boards?
>Yes, I believe so. I think you can write large flat-model (up to 48K) or
>bankswitched (up to 128K) 2600 games and put them on a 7800 cart no problem.
>No encryption problems if you don't turn on the Maria chip.
Actually, I meant the question in a more physical way... If I put a
2600 EPROM on a 7800 board, can I plug it into my 2600? I know that
7800 games have more pins on the board, but do the extra pins mess up
anything in a 2600? Or is the board too wide (it occurs to me that
I've never compared them!)?
//*================================================================++
|| Russ Perry Jr 2175 S Tonne Dr #105 Arlington Hts IL 60005 ||
|| 847-952-9729 slapdash@xxxxxxxxxxxx VIDEOGAME COLLECTOR! ||
++================================================================*//
--
Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/
Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/
