4 ms·
BIOS ROMs can be copyrighted, without which a system won't work, though they can be reverse engineered in a legally defensible way. An interesting read on the h
by hcs 9y ago
BIOS ROMs can be copyrighted, without which a system won't work, though they can be reverse engineered in a legally defensible way. An interesting read on the history of computer cloning here:
http://www.filfre.net/2014/10/send-in-the-clones/ http://www.filfre.net/2014/10/send-in-the-clones/
The NES had no BIOS, though.
What I'd be more worried about is patents, though I think they've all expired by now for anything that would have applied to the original NES hardware.
- baldfat 9y agoHow does any computer not have a BIOS????
- hcs 9y agoThe cartridge just plugs directly into the CPU, essentially every game provides its own BIOS. You can only get away with this with systems where software is provided on pluggable ROMs, Fairchild Channel F being the first video game example and similarly the better-known Atari VCS (aka 2600). Technically the NES does have a ROM in the CIC lockout chip, which talks to another CIC on the cartridge to ensure it is a legitimate copy, but this is entirely irrelevant to gameplay and invisible to software (unlike similar chips on the N64 which the game could check at runtime). Indeed with the NES-101 (toploader) this was removed, arguably to improve reliability (if you ever saw the blinking LED on an NES, that's the CIC resetting the hardware).