Jump to content
IGNORED

Hive multi-cart - It's alive!


Recommended Posts

It just seemed more natural to me to have it at the side because thirty year old plastic tends to be quite brittle. Making a neat looking slot on a sloped surface of brittle plastic would be even more problematic, given that its quite challenging on a straight side (for me at least).

 

 

Now that you put it this way, I'm kinda slapping my head for not realizing this sooner. It pretty much has to be on the side, unless you use Coleco cart shells or something.

 

As for rev's question - Just to cover off all bases in order, there are 4 possible situations here. In most compatible to least compatible order:

 

  1. Game is written "vanilla" and will run everywhere. Multicarts, burn to your own PCB, emulators, etc. No restrictions whatsoever.
  2. Game is written to take advantage of special hardware, but will still function on a plain system/PCB/whatever. Think of this like the Intellivoice situation - some games work just fine without it. Others do not, are are more like point 3.
  3. Game is written for specific hardware and will not play on any other hardware. This is what these 2 multicarts appear to be promising. If someone writes emulator support, then a ROM would eventually be playable there, too. But you can't use it on a CC, or some future multicart/PCB (unless the future ones are designed with this add-on hardware too). This is really just the equivalent of saying you need a PS4 to play PS4 games - you can't run them on an Xbone.
  4. Game is written with DRM. Absolutely none of 1-3 have anything to do with intentionally restricting you from playing the game however and wherever you want. There may be hardware requirements, but that's like having a PC game that requires 2GB of RAM. You need the hardware to play the game but you can play the game on whatever hardware you like. What DRM does is artificially restrict your copy of the game to run only on the hardware device "blessed" by the licensor. You cannot transfer, sell, backup, or do anything with this game, unless blessed by the owner. Essentially you are renting the game for the longer of a) your physical device lifetime, or b) them staying in business, willing to help, and not changing their licensing terms.

That being said, I have yet to stumble upon a DRM mechanism that has not been broken, and given the size and computation limitations involved here (maybe they're loading the LTO with 2GB of RAM just to handle complex encryption routines?) I doubt any DRM in the INTV scene will last long.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...