Forum - View topicINTEREST: Samsung Licenses SmartBoy Phone Add-on to Play Game Boy Cartridges
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Alex3142
Posts: 16 |
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How is this not illegal???
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ScruffyKiwi
 Posts: 712 Location: New Zealand |
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My guess is because it relies on having the actual game carts. |
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encrypted12345
Posts: 728 |
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Emulation is fully legal, even if what you're emulating usually isn't. In this case, it should be fine since you need the actual cartilage and the GB and GBC are out of print anyways. I suppose you could technically make your own cartilage and stick the game in the device to play it, but there are already free GBC app emulators that only need the game file. |
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ikarisama
 Posts: 33 Location: Penticton B.C. |
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Because the Patent for the Game Boy expired in 2009. Now anyone can make a device that plays legitimate Game Boy Carts, as long as the word Nintendo does not appear anywhere on the device or packaging. |
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1265 |
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Not that I have any clue how well this is gonna do, but I suppose I should double check if there's any remaining Gameboy games I don't have vulnerable to price jumps juuuuust in case...
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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The SmartBoy looks impressive with its retro appeal, but I wonder how long the smartphone's battery will last while using it...
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WatcherZer
Posts: 325 |
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Copying the bios of the hardware to use for emulation was illegal too, so emulators either required an illegal copy or attempted to backwards engineer how it worked by simulating input/output and memory functions. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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I was going to ask about the legality of this too, especially with a company as big as Samsung behind it, but it looks like it's been explained.
All of my Game Boy games have had their save batteries run out though. |
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AtoMan
Posts: 161 |
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Eh, Hyperkin's devices were always on the expensive side, but $50 for a glorified controller with cartridge reader? And USB-C type, where MicroUSB is still the most popular one? This is surely a toy for rich people.
Most emulators didn't need it, and now that patents have apparently expired... |
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Ggultra2764
 Subscriber Posts: 3988 Location: New York state. |
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If I recall, this is the same company that make emulated NES/ SNES/ Sega Genesis consoles like the Retron series and SupaBoy, correct?
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belvadeer
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Only for Android phones? That's disappointing.
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bleachigo66
 Posts: 246 |
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I have a question for those who know how emulation works, as there appear to be several who do in this thread, and I've never touched any kind of emulator. Pokemon Gold and Silver rely on their own internal battery for maintaining a save file, so any copy of the games that has a dead battery (which since the games were released 17 years ago, I'm assuming is most, if not all copies) can no longer save and every time you boot it up you'll have to start the game over.
So my question is: do emulators like this use memory independent from the game cartridges and thus would be able to save the progress you make in gold and silver? I've kept every single Pokemon game from red and blue, to sun and moon and a system that can play them, but if I would finally be able to play all the way through my favorite games and not have to worry about coming back to it and all my Pokémon/progress being gone I would gladly buy this just for that. (Just want to include a disclaimer that I know it's possible to change the battery in the cartrige, but eventually that one will die as well and everything would be lost once again. Young me was traumatized when all my Pokémon were taken randomly and I'm not willing to deal with that again, okay. Haha) Last edited by bleachigo66 on Fri May 19, 2017 9:44 am; edited 1 time in total |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Well, it comes with the territory considering it's made by Samsung. They'll want to promote usage of their own phones. |
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belvadeer
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I know. I'm just saying it's too bad it's been licensed by Samsung. Then again, I'm sure Apple would turn their noses up and say this is really stupid to begin with, considering their attitude. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Emulators usually store battery-based saved game data in a separate file to the ROM image by default. Certainly, every emulator for a Game Boy variant that I have ever used has included such a feature. Support for saving and loading system RAM snapshots (for impromptu saving at any time in the game) are equally commonplace. |
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