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OffTopic > game console programming university class

#55428 - bagu - Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:57 pm

I'm in my second year studying game development, and was getting tired of everything being developed on/for PC, so I asked the people in charge if it would be possible to set up a class where we learned to code for game consoles. They were all for it, so they asked me to look deeper into it, especially the legal implications of using homebrew devkits for academic purposes.

So if anyone have any hints or tips about this, I'd be glad to hear. I've searched around in the fourms and found nothing firm enough to just say "There's no risk" to the people in charge..

Also if anyone know if it's at all possible to get an official development license from Sony or Nintendo for academic purposes (or heard about such a thing) please tell me.

Apparently they asked Microsoft for xbox dev-kits a couple of years ago, but they said no because some thid party chip supplier wouldn't let them (probably because getting everyone on campus to sign a NDA would never happen).

Thanks..
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#55431 - notb4dinner - Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:23 pm

It might also be possible to completley avoid the legal issues. One option to consider would be using a more open console like the GP32 whose manufacturer actively encourages homebrew developers. Depending on the focus of the course something like the XGameStation might also be worth looking at. Another option would be to switch directions a little bit and work on games for mobile phones in J2ME.

http://www.xgamestation.com/
http://www.gpx2.com/

#55434 - tepples - Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:37 pm

notb4dinner wrote:
Another option would be to switch directions a little bit and work on games for mobile phones in J2ME.

But then don't you have to buy everybody in the class a 2-year subscription to a homebrew-friendly wireless provider (i.e. not Verizon, which locks the phones with "Get It Now")?
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#55438 - bagu - Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:47 pm

J2ME is the focus of one of the mandatory game projects we're doing, that's the first one I'm trying to shift to using a homebrew devkit (I'd like to do it for the GBA).

The big idea is to get hacking on consoles generally available, which (unfortunately) rules out stuff like the gp32 and xgamestation..
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#55442 - notb4dinner - Wed Sep 28, 2005 3:25 pm

tepples wrote:
But then don't you have to buy everybody in the class a 2-year subscription to a homebrew-friendly wireless provider (i.e. not Verizon, which locks the phones with "Get It Now")?
It's not a problem in .au and I suspect it wouldn't be problem in .se either. Your mobile phone market is kinda screwed up.
bagu wrote:
The big idea is to get hacking on consoles generally available, which (unfortunately) rules out stuff like the gp32 and xgamestation..
Fair enough, that's certainly a worthwhile goal. Do you have any DMCA style anti-circumvention laws to contend with? If not the DS + passthrough + GBA cart should be free of copyright infringement, which is the only real problem with GBA homebrew (due to the check for the Nintendo logo in the ROM header).

#55450 - wintermute - Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:08 pm

notb4dinner wrote:
tepples wrote:
But then don't you have to buy everybody in the class a 2-year subscription to a homebrew-friendly wireless provider (i.e. not Verizon, which locks the phones with "Get It Now")?
It's not a problem in .au and I suspect it wouldn't be problem in .se either. Your mobile phone market is kinda screwed up.
bagu wrote:
The big idea is to get hacking on consoles generally available, which (unfortunately) rules out stuff like the gp32 and xgamestation..
Fair enough, that's certainly a worthwhile goal. Do you have any DMCA style anti-circumvention laws to contend with? If not the DS + passthrough + GBA cart should be free of copyright infringement, which is the only real problem with GBA homebrew (due to the check for the Nintendo logo in the ROM header).


It isn't an issue at all.

http://cse.stanford.edu/class/cs201/projects-99-00/intellectual-property-law/reverse_engineering.htm

As far as I'm aware there are no legal issues involved in actually writing homebrew code or even in reverse engineering consoles for that purpose. If you decide to sell an unlicensed product there are some issues with patent infringement relating to the media.

In the case of a university course the main issue might be with the provison of information deemed to be a trade secret without authorisation. I'm not sure how well that one holds up when so much information about the GBA is publically available. It's probably best to get some legal advice on that aspect.

For 100% guaranteed legitimacy you might care to look here -> http://www.snsys.com/Company/academic.htm

#56947 - keldon - Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:23 pm

http://linuxplay.com/acatalog/
http://playstation2-linux.com/

for 100 euros you can purchase a educational ps2 development kit