Camerica NES Copy Protection

[hurt]

I picked up a odd looking gold NES game a few weeks back at the thrift shop. I never had really heard about it "The Ultimate Stuntman"... From playing it, I could have been just as happy never hearing about it...

 

Anyway it has a switch on the back of the cart

 

See here http://twitpic.com/zaurr (Sorry phone pic).

 

I have looked on google and it seems to get around some NES license issue. Is this just a matter of them installing a switch that made it not play on a NES and saying the customer had to switch it to be able to play on a NES?

 

 

Can anyone explain how this helped to get by license issues, or was it just a horrible attempt to get by them and Camerica ended up getting burned in the end?

[tz101]

So the game is made by Camerica? Really funny the legal dancing they did to avoid lawsuit: Forcing the purchaser to switch the game over to NES compatibility so they could claim they did not sell it with that intent. Thinly veiled argument for any court to rule on in any case. Only one question: What was it designed for when not switched for NES compatibility? Was there another game console that it would play on in that mode?

[shadow460]

Perhaps they wanted users to be able to switch off the voltage surge for use in top loading NES consoles. If you apply a certain voltage to the 10NES it will shut itself off and allow the system to boot normally.

[hurt]

My bad it seems it is for the EUR NES.

 

Since Camerica still lacked license to produce NES games, they had to create their own cartridges
that would bypass Nintendo's lock-out chip. Like the circuit used in Color Dreams cartridges, the
Camerica lock-out defeat generated glitch pulses that froze the chip. The cartridges they made were
shaped slightly differently from Nintendo's cartridges, though they still fit in the NES. The most
notable difference however was in color: all Camerica cartridges were gold and later silver. They
also featured a switch for play on European NES consoles.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camerica

Edited February 18, 2010 by hurt