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Comment by duiker101 | Hacker News Reader

One of the most interesting parts of the talk was the fact that the boot code checks that the game contains the Nintendo logo @19.15. Very smart way of keeping control of the game releases. They have always been very good at keeping their games and copyrights.

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Thanks, I had skipped to random parts and missed this one. Here is a transcript:

"The game has to have a copy of that Nintendo logo inside. If it doesn't match, the game does not boot. This was meant so that Nintendo could control which games are released for the platform, because all games had to contain the logo, which is not just a copyright violation but also a trademark violation if you include that and don't have Nintendo's permission".

Neat :)

It's a legal trick that doesn't actually work. Sega tried the same trick and lost when they took it to court in 1992.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade

It's brilliant. Though this seems like a very "greedy corporation" move nowadays, this was the secret to Nintendo's success eay on. By keeping a tight control over the platform, it guaranteed high quality games and avoided the shoveware of Atari 2600. One could argue Apple emulated this same model 20 years later with the initial tight control over the App Store, to great effect.

I think it was easier to get away with it, when it was simply a entertainment device. But with smartphones etc being about so much more (like say basic communication with an autistic child) it becomes a much harder sell.

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