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I am still working on them all, yes. No legal trouble so far. I don't use any information that isn't publicly available (although let's be honest, no one can t
by byuu 9y ago
I am still working on them all, yes.
No legal trouble so far. I don't use any information that isn't publicly available (although let's be honest, no one can truly say that all public documentation was created clean room; and emudevs can't know without having seen the original or being informed of this), and I also don't include any copyrighted code. Only very small boot IPLROMs that qualify for fair use (ineligibility for copyright) under Lexmark v SCC.
The real kicker is the Game Boy Advance. It requires a 16KiB BIOS to boot. Any attempts at a high level emulation or a recreation of the ARM assembly code will result in inaccurate emulation, which is a bridge I won't cross. Games can literally read the whole BIOS out (unofficially, but it's possible.) Thus, games can even go as far as to compare every byte of the BIOS. Without the BIOS, the detection of an emulator is an absolutely trivial matter.
I suspect it would be safe to include it, but will not risk it after Sony v Connectix -- easily the worst court precedent in the history of emulation. A judge who had absolutely no understanding of technical matters with regards to emulation and how his ruling created a perfect end-run against the possibility of ever producing a perfect, legal, free emulator.
I'm also hamstrung on the coprocessor firmware included within many game cartridges. Titles using such things won't boot in higan like they will in emulators that use HLE, thus making my emulator more difficult to use than everyone else's.