Nintendo really likes emulation!

[zektor]

That must be the reason they have a patent on a "Gameboy Emulator":

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...S=PN/6,672,963

[SoulBlazer]

Hum.....

Two possible reasons for doing this

1) A patent was needed to make sure Nintendo would'nt have any problems making the GBC and GBA 'backwards compatible' with all of the older GB games, and they want to leave the option open to make a GB emulator for some system later on.

2) The patent was obtained so that Nintendo could sue the living daylights out of anyone making a GB emulator.

I hope the former, but I suspect the latter.

[TRM]

funny, I suspect the latter too.

[punkoffgirl]

Let's move this over to the gaming forum!

[Duncan]

You all realize, of course, that both the Super Game Boy (for SNES) and Game Boy Player (for the Cube) are effectively GB emulators.

[fishsandwich]

Are there really emulator programs in the Super Game Boy and the GB player for the Cube? I always assumed they had the same CPU chips found in the original handhelds, just without the display screens (and with the necessary additions to make them play with the host console and display on a TV)

Cheers

[Anexanhume]

I don't know, look at the "Abstract." It seems to me like they're wanting to patent it so they can sell the technology to cell phone, pda, and transportation companies to provide game boy games in their own machines. Cell phones are so popular that this has the potential to reach a huge market.

However, the two aforementioned reasons are completely plausible too.

Take a look at the references as well. The Turbo Express is mentioned several times, as well as the Lynx, Nomad, Microvision, and the snes emulator snes9x as well as MAME and a few other emulators and consoles. I can understand the emulators, but can anyone explain why they would reference other people's technology when they're quite capable of making their own handheld technology? Yet, if those handhelds have specific patents for some design technique, then it makes sense.

[Bratwurst]

You all realize, of course, that both the Super Game Boy (for SNES) and Game Boy Player (for the Cube) are effectively GB emulators.

Not quite, there are chips found in both peripherals that are also
found in the Gameboy portables, in those cases it was a lot more
efficient to pay a few bucks to use the same processor again, than
to use a more powerful processor just to handle everything in
software. Why is the Gameboy Player half the price (relatively)
of the real Gameboy Advance? No LCD screen.

[Ed Oscuro]

I remember seeing this topic a year or two ago, so I'm not going to reread that information (if I say something wrong as a result, correct me of course).

The two reasons Nintendo has listed are basically meant to cover their ass in filing this patent, and nothing more.

Nevermind that emulation already has been done, and that the Prior Art restriction should come into play, but they wouldn't use the back of the seat example because Nintendo likes making and selling hardware whenever possible (remember Nintendo saying they wish to turn around the Japanese economy with sales of the DS?), but even if they did plain old copyright issues would be their major platform.

This patent has always mystified me...it's almost as if it was never approved or is still pending, since they haven't been able to do much with it.

That, or it's some special sort of emulation setup that they just wanted to cover...it's odd.

[zektor]

The thing is this:

Nintendo themselves have already deemed emulators as "illegal". Now that being said, they go ahead and patent an emulator completely contradicting themselves, because as you all know, you cannot patent something illegal!

[Ed Oscuro]

You've confused the issues.

Emulators aren't illegal - that's already been decided (Sony versus Betamax is the big precedent). Emulators that use copyrighted or patented materials in the course of operation ARE illegal, and that's the way things should be. Hence the need to go root around for the PlayStation BIOS files when you're trying to do a bit of emulation.
I shouldn't be able to legally just download Nintendo's front end or Nintendo's games or even the Award BIOS and use it as I wish - all have their restrictions of use, and they're fair.

There were some folks for many years trying to create an emulator of the Macintosh PowerPC without reverse-engineering (i.e. taking the source of ROM binaries or decompiling code), and that's a hard, hard job. It's really the only way to do things without falling afoul of the law (unless you can totally trust your team to recode everything and never mention you're misusing copyrighted/patented materials).

[Bock]

It's probable that Wario Ware for Nintendo Gamecube use some form of GBA emulation.

[Duncan]

EDIT: Mistake post, sorry.

[rbudrick]

You've confused the issues.

Emulators aren't illegal - that's already been decided (Sony versus Betamax is the big precedent). Emulators that use copyrighted or patented materials in the course of operation ARE illegal, and that's the way things should be. Hence the need to go root around for the PlayStation BIOS files when you're trying to do a bit of emulation.
I shouldn't be able to legally just download Nintendo's front end or Nintendo's games or even the Award BIOS and use it as I wish - all have their restrictions of use, and they're fair.

There were some folks for many years trying to create an emulator of the Macintosh PowerPC without reverse-engineering (i.e. taking the source of ROM binaries or decompiling code), and that's a hard, hard job. It's really the only way to do things without falling afoul of the law (unless you can totally trust your team to recode everything and never mention you're misusing copyrighted/patented materials).

True, true, all of it. However, Nintendo did indeed say repeatedly that emulators are illegal.....haven't heard a peep on this in recent years though. Nintendo was very adamant about this tho...but they use emulation in lots of stuff now...look at how many Metroid games have the original hidden away in it.

-Rob

[Ed Oscuro]

Nintendo isn't my preferred choice of legal advisor, and they don't have my best interests in mind - just their profits. They're not antiheroes of the gaming market, for sure, but I don't accept a wad of chewed straw just because it's out of the horse's mouth, either.

[ubersaurus]

Eh, maybe they're making a GB emulater for the DS? Supposedly it can't play GB games, just gba...

[Ed Oscuro]

That patent was filed away back when the GBA was new, long before the DS showed up. Eh.

Say, Ubersaurus, isn't that Churchill av taken from the pic where he's holding a Tommy gun? The Germans used it as propaganda to show what a lawless man Churchill was

[BigGeorgeJohnson]

The patent is for piracy. The gaming community loses billions of dollars each year to piracy, and not just Nintendo, all developers and publishers do as well. Nintendo has always fought the hardest to have it eleminated. It's more targeted towards China and other parts of SE Asia. The main problem Nintendo has in the states is GBA piracy. People get those flash carts and get a bunch of roms off the net for free. And of course you can play the roms on emulators also. So....

If Nintendo gets the patent for a licensed by Nintendo emulator no one else could release commercial emulators for the pc and I would expect Nintendo to come out with the all new gba and ds connectivity to pc whatever.

But most all emulators are freeware anyway. So I'm not sure if that would help thier cause. So I'm guessing it's just more of a deterrent against things like VGS and Bleem. In other words, they got it so no one will release a commercial GBA or DS emulator.

[ubersaurus]

That patent was filed away back when the GBA was new, long before the DS showed up. Eh.

Say, Ubersaurus, isn't that Churchill av taken from the pic where he's holding a Tommy gun? The Germans used it as propaganda to show what a lawless man Churchill was

That's right. We all know what a lawless man Churchill is though...aside from fighting dinosaurs and tanks in the wilderness during world war 2, he proceeded to travel through time to do battle with the insane president Lincoln in an epic wrestling match and civil war that will be sung about for many moons to come.

Does the GBA emulate GB games to any degree, or does it just rely on existing hardware under the hood? You never know...I'm sure part of it is to cover their assets, but you can never be too sure.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, considering that GBA games such as Metroid Fusion make use of the original GB's sound channels...I'm guessing it's all hardware, and it's still in use because Nintendo didn't want to abandon it, but couldn't fit a proper new chip in if they kept reverse compatibility in.

Maybe some parts are "emulated," in the sense that you can have hardware emulating other hardware.

So the answer is yes...there's newer chips in the GBA that can function exactly like the old ones! Software emulation...I doubt that very much.