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quick question about the NES
clayhillpeak
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
so i remember hearing a while back that the "copyright" or what ever you want to call it (cant think of the word right now) ended on the nes giving anyone the ability to put out a console that can take 8 bit games. i read of this one console that could do both 8bit and 16bit games. does anyone know what im talking about? if you do please let me know it would be very much appreciated. thanks for your time!
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aye, but it can't be too long till it expires on the snes.
sounds about right, since its been about 2/3 since the NES one expired (or at least, thats when I first saw famiclones)
edit - Wikipedia says NES patents expired in 2005, and the Famicom first hit the market in 1983, so Snes first hit the market in 1990. 2012 would seem to be when the SNES patents expire.
just to give you an idea of the lag time though, here's a patent for the GameCube issued in 2006.
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=43&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=(nintendo+AND+console)&OS=nintendo+and+console&RS=(nintendo+AND+console)
The FC Twin. Apparently it plays NES and SNES games.
I lol'd
Amazon probably doesn't know. I've seen plenty of malls sell those throughly-illegal 50-NES-games-in-one things that come in cheaper-looking N64 controllers.
If I remember correctly, there are roughly two or three dozen patents listed in the back of that manual. There's no way I'm fishing that thing out and listing them all, so those three will have to do.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
The first one isn't even a Nintendo patent, the second one is for the cartridge which was filed in 1987 and issued 1991, and the third one was for the circuit board filed in 86 and granted in 89.
So, it looks like 1991-92 is probably a good year to consider the SNES patents issued.
Second rule of Teacher Club: You DO NOT touch the kids.
You might be thinking of the law that if somebody doesn't actively use/protect their IP, its fair game to copy. So, for example, fangames based on other games, are perfectly legal, untill the owner of said IP steps in and issues a C&D.
I remember last year the Generation NEX console being a big thing though, but people were dissappointed when the system couldn't play certain games (one of the major ones being Castlevania III).
I feel rather fortunate my NES and SNES from back in ye olden days still work. If I can interject a question, is it possible to modify an NES to remove it's security lock-out chip? I have a few spare decks so it might be worth trying for myself.
Brawl: 3265 4738 2973
It's easier and cheaper just to bust out with a launch copy of Duck Hunt and use the universal cartridge inside.
T I M E P A R A D O X EDIT: Really, Fyrewulff? I thought they were only in the first few shipments of launch titles during the USA launch (the real one, not the NYC one).
We would have heard about it already. The NES patent ran out two years ago, which means that there's still about 4 years left for the SNES (being that the SNES came out 6 years after the NES).
And yeah, we'll be middle-aged by the time Pong becomes public domain, I'm afraid.
Damn, over 20 years... when you put it in perspective like that, the SNES is getting depressingly old...
in a couple of years, the NES will be 25 years old. It's almost old enough to be qualified as an antique.
I mean, I'm a kid of the 80's, but watching all your pop culture get so freaking old...
I have an urge to play SMB3 now...