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I always upvote everything GB-related on HN. Keep it coming! GB Studio, upvote. Cool people writing their own emus, upvote. Analogue Pocket, upvote. My sinc

by Andrex 3y ago

I always upvote everything GB-related on HN. Keep it coming! GB Studio, upvote. Cool people writing their own emus, upvote. Analogue Pocket, upvote. My sincere wish is that one day Nintendo somehow, someway, open up legitimate Game Boy publishing for third-parties again. Release the patents, allow developers the use of the Nintendo logo in the one very very specific place it's necessary to allow GB games to boot, etc. Maybe open sourcing schematics and internal docs. But that's as likely as them releasing a (new) Mario game on PC... For me, the GB is that perfect middle ground between too arcane/simple and too modern/complex (both the design of the games and in the programming required). If the platform were opened, it would be kind of a "forever console." It would obviously not compete with new systems or anything like that, so it would always be pretty niche. It would be a fantastic educational tool to get kids into programming and game design at various levels. Maybe in another 20-30 years...

thebrid 3y ago
You might be in luck here! In the US, patents last for only 20 years. Since, the Game Boy was released in 1989, any patents are long since expired. Using the Nintendo logo might (NB: Not a Lawyer!) be permissible if it's required for software to run on the hardware. This was a big part of the Sega v. Accolade case.[1] There are still new games being released on cartridge for the original Game Boy. The most recent I'm aware of is Ruby & Rusty last year.[2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade [2] https://www.bitmapsoft.co.uk/product/ruby-rusty-save-the-crows/ https://www.bitmapsoft.co.uk/product/ruby-rusty-save-the-cro...
- circuit10 3y ago
  There’s also this workaround for the logo: https://youtu.be/ix5yZm4fwFQ https://youtu.be/ix5yZm4fwFQ
- flatiron 3y ago
  Didn’t EA go to court with Sega over exactly this? I believe the court said using a trademark as a device to prevent access to a device was not applicable.
- Andrex 3y ago
  There's new games being released on physical carts almost weekly it feels like. Two publishers I've been keeping a very close eye on are SpaceBot Interactive and Ferrante Crafts. https://www.spacebot-interactive.com/games https://www.spacebot-interactive.com/games https://www.etsy.com/shop/FerranteCrafts?ref=usf_2020 https://www.etsy.com/shop/FerranteCrafts?ref=usf_2020 Also, seems like there's some legal stuff around this I need to research more extensively. But the spirit of what I was trying to say is that it would be awesome to have Nintendo officially bless it... But it's unlikely they ever will.
hypercube33 3y ago
Someone figured out how to boot a GameBoy without showing the logo but I am having trouble finding it on mobile. clever ram swap hack.
rollcat 3y ago
I feel this way about the GBA. It's modern enough to offer things like a 32-bit pipelined CPU that can be targeted with a modern C[0] or Rust[1] toolchain, but you are still extremely close to the metal. Even decade old PCs can run emulators that focus on accuracy rather than raw performance, and the physical AGS-101 has pretty nice backlight without any mods. Plus many of the games have aged extremely well, with the graphical style of e.g. Pokemon Emerald still being closely followed in modern indie games. [0]: https://gbadev.org https://gbadev.org [1]: https://docs.rs/gba/latest/gba/ https://docs.rs/gba/latest/gba/
- lostgame 3y ago
  I, too; am a huge fan of GBA homebrew dev, in high school; honestly, it was supremely helpful in me mastering the C language, and; even better - it led to my DS development days, which was far, far, more fun. Dealing with the DS, especially; wow. Two screens, touch input, I gotta say, as a developer it felt like an open canvas; even if I was; like...15 at the time, lol. It's what led me into iOS development when the App Store was officially announced. (I must've been 18 at that time? 19?) I, again; saw this as a multi-touch open canvas for creating basically anything my mind could imagine, at the time; the extreme restrictions Apple placed on App Development were actually nothing compared to the limitations of e.g. the DS, much less the GBA. (at least the DS had a wi-fi stack, lol...)
gatane 3y ago
What about fantasy consoles? PICO-8 and TIC80 for example, they have built in sprite, music and code editors

by Andrex 3y ago

thebrid 3y ago

You might be in luck here! In the US, patents last for only 20 years. Since, the Game Boy was released in 1989, any patents are long since expired. Using the Nintendo logo might (NB: Not a Lawyer!) be permissible if it's required for software to run on the hardware. This was a big part of the Sega v. Accolade case.[1] There are still new games being released on cartridge for the original Game Boy. The most recent I'm aware of is Ruby & Rusty last year.[2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade [2] https://www.bitmapsoft.co.uk/product/ruby-rusty-save-the-crows/ https://www.bitmapsoft.co.uk/product/ruby-rusty-save-the-cro...

circuit10 3y ago
There’s also this workaround for the logo: https://youtu.be/ix5yZm4fwFQ https://youtu.be/ix5yZm4fwFQ
flatiron 3y ago
Didn’t EA go to court with Sega over exactly this? I believe the court said using a trademark as a device to prevent access to a device was not applicable.
Andrex 3y ago
There's new games being released on physical carts almost weekly it feels like. Two publishers I've been keeping a very close eye on are SpaceBot Interactive and Ferrante Crafts. https://www.spacebot-interactive.com/games https://www.spacebot-interactive.com/games https://www.etsy.com/shop/FerranteCrafts?ref=usf_2020 https://www.etsy.com/shop/FerranteCrafts?ref=usf_2020 Also, seems like there's some legal stuff around this I need to research more extensively. But the spirit of what I was trying to say is that it would be awesome to have Nintendo officially bless it... But it's unlikely they ever will.

hypercube33 3y ago

Someone figured out how to boot a GameBoy without showing the logo but I am having trouble finding it on mobile. clever ram swap hack.

rollcat 3y ago

I feel this way about the GBA. It's modern enough to offer things like a 32-bit pipelined CPU that can be targeted with a modern C[0] or Rust[1] toolchain, but you are still extremely close to the metal. Even decade old PCs can run emulators that focus on accuracy rather than raw performance, and the physical AGS-101 has pretty nice backlight without any mods. Plus many of the games have aged extremely well, with the graphical style of e.g. Pokemon Emerald still being closely followed in modern indie games. [0]: https://gbadev.org https://gbadev.org [1]: https://docs.rs/gba/latest/gba/ https://docs.rs/gba/latest/gba/

lostgame 3y ago
I, too; am a huge fan of GBA homebrew dev, in high school; honestly, it was supremely helpful in me mastering the C language, and; even better - it led to my DS development days, which was far, far, more fun. Dealing with the DS, especially; wow. Two screens, touch input, I gotta say, as a developer it felt like an open canvas; even if I was; like...15 at the time, lol. It's what led me into iOS development when the App Store was officially announced. (I must've been 18 at that time? 19?) I, again; saw this as a multi-touch open canvas for creating basically anything my mind could imagine, at the time; the extreme restrictions Apple placed on App Development were actually nothing compared to the limitations of e.g. the DS, much less the GBA. (at least the DS had a wi-fi stack, lol...)

gatane 3y ago

What about fantasy consoles? PICO-8 and TIC80 for example, they have built in sprite, music and code editors