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video consoles may be almost forty years old. Due to this aging, there is a significant worry that many early computer and video games may not survive without being transferred to new media. So, those with an interest in preservation are actively seeking older arcade and video games and attempting to dump them to ROM images. When stored on standardized media such as CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs, they can be copied to future media with significantly reduced effort.
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While ROM images are often used as a means of preserving the history of computer games, they are also often used to facilitate the unauthorized copying and redistribution of modern games. Viewing this as potentially reducing sales of their products, many game companies have incorporated features into
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MAME is strictly a non-profit project. Its main purpose is to be a reference to the inner workings of the emulated arcade machines. This is done both for educational purposes and for preservation purposes, in order to prevent many historical games from disappearing forever once the hardware they run
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The lifespan of digital media is rarely great. While black-and-white photographs may survive for a century or more, many digital media can become unreadable after only 10 years. This is beginning to become a problem as early computer systems may be presently fifty or sixty years old while early home
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arcade board. This contained a heavy copy protection algorithm which was not broken until 7 years after the system's release in 1993. The original crack by the CPS2Shock Team was not a true emulation of the protection because it used XOR tables to bypass the original encryption and allow the game to
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The trend towards mass digital distribution of ROM image files, while potentially damaging to copyright holders, may also have a positive effect on preservation. While over time many original ROM copies of older games may deteriorate, be broken or thrown away, a copy in file form may be distributed
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Another copy prevention technique used in cartridge-games was to have the game attempt to write to ROM. On an authentic cartridge this would do nothing; however, emulators would often allow the write to succeed. Pirate cartridges also often used writable chips instead of ROM. By reading the value
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play in an emulator. Their stated intent was to wait until CPS-2 games were no longer profitable to release the decryption method (three years after the last game release). The full decryption algorithm was cracked in 2007 by Nicola
Salmoria, Andreas Naive and Charles MacDonald of the
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Once games have been made available in ROM format, it is possible for users to make modifications. This may take the form of altering graphics, changing game levels, tweaking difficulty factor, or even translation into a language for which a game was not originally made available.
453:. In spite of massive fan response and several petitions for an English translation, the only response from Nintendo was that Mother 3 would be translated and released in Europe, which it never was. Instead, the fan website Starmen.net undertook a massive
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was begun to translate the actual speech from the game. An official
English version was not released until March 2006, some five years after the text translation was released. Another example was that of Mother 3, a Japan-only sequel to the cult-favorite
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back to see whether the write succeeded, the game could tell whether it was running from an authentic cartridge. Alternatively, the game may simply attempt to overwrite critical program instructions, which if successful renders it unplayable.
185:, whereby older games or firmware are copied to ROM files on modern computers and can, using a piece of software known as an emulator, be run on a different device than which they were designed for. ROM burners are used to copy ROM images to
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in 1999, which used an encryption algorithm on the graphics ROMs to prevent them from being played in an emulator. Many thought that this would mark the end of Neo Geo emulation. However, as early as 2000,
359:. Software which is being developed for embedded computers is often written to ROM files for testing on a standard computer before it is written to a ROM chip for use in the embedded systems.
541:. This is then recorded to an audio file and transformed into a tape image file using another program. Likewise, many CD and DVD games may be copied using a standard PC CD/DVD drive.
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and released the translated version of Mother 3 in
October, 2008. The translation was praised by fans and even employees from Nintendo, Square Enix, and other industry professionals.
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Hacks may range from simple tweaks such as graphic fixes and cheats, to full-blown redesigns of the game, in effect creating an entirely new game using the original as a base.
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A large scene has developed to translate games into other languages. Many games receive a release in one part of the world, but not in another. For example, many
312:. The game would send data to this hardware by attempting to write it to specific areas of ROM; thus, if the ROM were writable, this process would corrupt data.
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ROMs can be copied from the read-only memory chips found in cartridge-based games and many arcade machines using a dedicated device in a process known as
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was only officially released in Japan; DeJap
Translations translated the game's on-screen text into English in 2001. Further to this, a project called
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uses non-standard 8 cm DVD-like optical media, which for a long time prevented games stored on those discs from being copied. It was not until a
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Creating images from other media is often considerably easier and can often be performed with off-the-shelf hardware. For example, the creation of
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468:(Animal Forest) has also been translated into English. The game was originally only released on N64 in Japan, but it was ported to
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Fans of classic games argue that emulation preserves video arcade games, many of which would otherwise be approaching extinction.
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newer games which are designed to prevent copying, while still allowing the original game to be played. For instance, the
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he archivists feel that the more copyable something is, the more likely it's going to survive in the long term.
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found a way to decrypt and dump the ROMs successfully, making them playable once again in a Neo Geo emulator.
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Some games, such as Game Boy games, also had other hardware such as memory bank controllers connected to the
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throughout the world, allowing games which would otherwise have been lost a greater chance of survival.
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228:. For most common home video game systems, these devices are widely available, examples being the
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will often translate the game themselves to meet demand for titles. For example, the 1995 game
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that GameCube games could be successfully copied, using the GameCube itself to read the discs.
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Another company which used to employ methods of copy prevention on their arcade games was
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Conley, James; Andros, Ed; Chinai, Priti; Lipkowitz, Elise; Perez, David (Spring 2004).
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computer) generally involves simply playing the magnetic tape using a standard
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586:"Use of a Game Over: Emulation and the Video Game Industry, A White Paper"
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can often take humorous forms, as is the case with a hack of the
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Dumping ROMs from arcade machines, which are highly customized
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go unreleased in the West and East outside Japan. A group of
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GameFAQs Help : Game Piracy: ROMs and Warez
Information
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Northwestern
Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property
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from games stored on magnetic tapes (from, for example, the
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650:"Game over? Not if preservationists have their way"
507:. Images copied from optical media are also called
270:also employed a method of copy prevention on their
60:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
323:by Andreas Naive. It is currently implemented by
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181:. The term is frequently used in the context of
423:that revamps the game and adds new objectives.
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409:, which features the famous brothers wearing
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327:and a variant of the CPS-2 emulator Nebula.
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158:which contains a copy of the data from a
120:Learn how and when to remove this message
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537:player connected to the line-in of a PC
355:ROM images are used when developing for
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262:Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
14:
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697:EmuFAQ Addendum - The Question of ROMs
503:(and other disk formats) are known as
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687:Nintendo's Intellectual Property FAQ
315:Capcom's latest arcade board is the
58:adding citations to reliable sources
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572:The Future Intent of CPS2shock
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382:Fan translation of video games
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1:
1431:Preboot Execution Environment
1036:Run-Time Abstraction Services
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343:typically take ROM images as
217:A ROM dumping device for the
890:MultiProcessor Specification
511:, after one of the standard
341:Video game console emulators
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1461:Remote Initial Program Load
1058:Common Firmware Environment
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495:, while those derived from
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1050:Hybrid firmware bootloader
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648:Hyman, Paul (2004-10-08).
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376:Hacks and fan translations
247:Copy protection mechanisms
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1099:Comparison of bootloaders
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487:Image files derived from
292:, which is known for its
27:Data dump from a ROM chip
570:CPS2Shock (2001-jan-07)
428:role-playing video games
987:Phoenix SecureCore UEFI
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655:The Hollywood Reporter
574:, accessed 2007-aug-10
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662:on September 28, 2009
274:games, starting with
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1613:Video game emulation
1306:EFI system partition
1272:GUID Partition Table
1222:Windows Boot Manager
1092:Bootloader unlocking
904:Legacy Plug and Play
828:Open-source firmware
821:Proprietary firmware
363:Digital preservation
277:The King of Fighters
167:video game cartridge
54:improve this article
1313:BIOS boot partition
1286:Apple Partition Map
1117:Acronis OS Selector
957:American Megatrends
515:for optical media,
483:Similar image types
455:translation project
446:Vocals of Phantasia
407:Afro Mario Brothers
139:ROM burner for the
137:Intelligent Systems
1574:Power-on self-test
1279:Master boot record
441:Tales of Phantasia
357:embedded computers
321:reverse-engineered
301:development team.
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173:, or from an
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156:computer file
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85:
81:
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71: –
70:
66:
65:Find sources:
59:
55:
49:
48:
43:This article
41:
37:
32:
31:
19:
1538:
1478:ROM variants
1422:Network boot
1400:Raspberry Pi
1166:systemd-boot
670:
664:. Retrieved
660:the original
653:
643:
634:
628:. Retrieved
626:. 2007-11-30
621:
618:"About MAME"
612:
604:
598:. Retrieved
593:
589:
579:
566:
521:
513:file systems
497:floppy disks
486:
478:
472:and renamed
465:
459:
439:
430:released in
425:
418:
414:
406:
400:
389:
370:
366:
354:
351:Software ROM
339:
314:
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250:
238:
225:
223:
151:
147:
145:
116:
107:
97:
90:
83:
76:
64:
52:Please help
47:verification
44:
1532:ROM hacking
1468:Wake-on-LAN
1131:BootManager
1083:Bootloaders
524:tape images
505:disk images
493:tape images
402:Mario Bros.
399:version of
386:ROM hacking
175:arcade game
141:Nintendo DS
69:"ROM image"
1597:Categories
1567:Instant-on
1553:Devicetree
1393:Bus Pirate
1297:Partitions
1065:Das U-Boot
950:Award BIOS
867:Video BIOS
845:Interfaces
666:2009-05-06
630:2009-05-06
600:2009-05-06
558:References
539:sound card
535:audio tape
509:ISO images
451:Earthbound
230:Doctor V64
203:QA testing
189:, such as
179:main board
110:March 2008
80:newspapers
1539:ROM image
1330:Utilities
1187:OpeniBoot
1029:Kickstart
1022:LinuxBoot
1015:Libreboot
980:InsydeH2O
971:AMI Aptio
911:AlphaBIOS
744:Processes
551:Intel HEX
405:, titled
336:Emulation
232:, or the
199:debugging
195:ROM chips
183:emulation
148:ROM image
1608:Firmware
1581:EDL mode
1560:Fastboot
1525:Boot ROM
1385:Hardware
1373:Heimdall
1359:UEFITool
1345:flashrom
1337:Software
1215:SYSLINUX
1152:GNU GRUB
1008:Coreboot
1001:OpenBIOS
805:firmware
803:Booting
733:Firmware
545:See also
528:Sinclair
517:ISO 9660
470:GameCube
254:GameCube
209:Creation
187:hardware
171:firmware
152:ROM file
18:ROM file
1517:Related
1454:NetBoot
1194:RedBoot
1173:loadlin
1124:Barebox
964:AMIBIOS
943:SeaBIOS
782:Android
752:Windows
737:booting
501:CD-ROMs
347:files.
283:hackers
272:Neo Geo
234:Retrode
226:dumping
154:, is a
94:scholar
1507:EEPROM
1407:ft2232
1320:/boot/
1236:Yaboot
1201:rEFInd
413:. The
290:Capcom
197:, for
96:
89:
82:
75:
67:
1500:EPROM
1352:fwupd
1208:rEFIt
1180:NTLDR
1159:iBoot
813:Types
775:Linux
464:game
432:Japan
393:Hacks
345:input
317:CPS-3
294:CPS-2
193:, or
150:, or
101:JSTOR
87:books
1493:PROM
1445:iPXE
1438:gPXE
1366:Odin
1250:MILO
1229:xOSL
1072:ARCS
883:ACPI
860:BIOS
853:UEFI
735:and
623:MAME
531:ZX80
499:and
384:and
331:Uses
325:MAME
299:MAME
241:PCBs
201:and
163:chip
73:news
1486:ROM
925:SFI
918:SRM
897:APM
596:(2)
462:N64
397:NES
268:SNK
177:'s
56:by
1599::
766:NT
759:9x
669:.
652:.
633:.
620:.
603:.
592:.
588:.
519:.
476:.
236:.
205:.
146:A
725:e
718:t
711:v
594:2
123:)
117:(
112:)
108:(
98:·
91:·
84:·
77:·
50:.
20:)
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