|
A ROM image, or simply ROM, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip, often from a video game cartridge, a computer's firmware, or from an arcade game's main board. The term is frequently used in the context of emulation, whereby older games or computer firmware are copied to ROM files on modern computers and can, using a piece of software known as an emulator, be run on the newer computer. Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. ...
IBM PCjr; two ROM cartridge slots are below the floppy drives. ...
A microcontroller, like this PIC18F8720 is controlled by firmware stored inside on FLASH memory In computing, firmware is a computer program that is embedded in a hardware device, for example a microcontroller. ...
Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ...
An arcade system board is a standardized printed circuit board or group of printed circuit boards that are used as the basis for multiple arcade games with very similar hardware requirements. ...
This article is about emulation in computer science. ...
This article is about emulators in computer science. ...
ROM images are also used when developing for embedded computers. 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 system. At present, this article deals mainly with the use of ROM in relation to emulation. A router, an example of an embedded system. ...
Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. ...
Usage of ROMs
Changing meaning ROM chips, while still in use, have been replaced in many instances by optical media such as CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs, magnetic media such as hard disks and magnetic tapes and, more recently, Flash Memory chips. However, the term ROM is commonly misused to cover many of these newer media so, for instance, a computer game copied from a magnetic tape may also be referred to as a ROM. Images copied from optical media are also called ISO images, after the standard file system for optical media, ISO 9660. Many ROMs used by emulators, of particular note, console emulators are not true images of the ROM chips present on the Cartridge PCBs. They are often modified to allow easier functionality in emulators through methods such as combining the images from multiple ROM chips, or adding header information. The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ...
DVD is an optical disc storage media format that is used for playback of movies with high video and sound quality and for storing data. ...
A USB flash drive. ...
For library and office filing systems, see Library classification. ...
ISO 9660, a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization, defines a file system for CD-ROM media. ...
Dumping ROMs 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 dumping. For most common home video game systems, these devices are widely available. Dumping ROMs from arcade machines, which in fact are highly customized PCB's, often requires individual setups for each machine along with a large amount of expertise. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
“GBA†redirects here. ...
Part of a 1983 Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer board. ...
Creating ROMs from other media is often considerably easier and can often be performed with off-the-shelf hardware. For example, the creation of ROMs from games stored on magnetic tapes (from, for example, the Sinclair ZX80 computer) generally involves simply playing the magnetic tape using a standard audio tape player connected to the line-in of a PC sound card. This is then recorded to an audio file and transformed into a ROM file using a simple program. Likewise, many CD and DVD games may be copied using a standard PC CD/DVD drive. Sinclair is a surname which derives from the name Saint Clare (Saint-Clair in French). ...
The Sinclair ZX80 was a home computer brought to market in 1980 by Sinclair Research. ...
Audio storage refers to techniques and formats used to store audio with the goal to reproduce the audio later using audio signal processing to something that resembles the original. ...
A sound card (also known as an audio card) is a computer expansion card that can input and output sound under control of computer programs. ...
Copy prevention mechanisms 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 of modern games which are still commercially viable. Seeing this as potentially reducing sales of their products, many game distributors have incorporated features into newer games which are designed to prevent copying, while still allowing the original game to be played. For instance, the Nintendo GameCube used a non-standard 8 cm DVD-like optical media which for a long time prevented games from being copied to PCs. It was not until a security hole was found in Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II that GameCube games could be successfully copied to a PC. The Nintendo GameCube (GCN) is Nintendos fourth home video game console, belonging to the sixth generation era. ...
In computer software a security vulnerability is a software bug that can be used deliberately to violate security. ...
Phantasy Star Online (PSO) was an online title for Sega Dreamcast released in 2000. ...
SNK (now known as SNK Playmore) also employed a protection on their Neo Geo games (because of bootlegs flooding the market) starting with The King of Fighters 1999 which used an encryption algorithm on the graphics ROMs that prevented them to be played in an emulator. Many thought that this was the end of NeoGeo emulation but the protection didn't last long because soon enough emulation gurus found a way to decrypt the ROMs (as early as 2000), dump them successfully and make them playable in any given NeoGeo emulator. SNK redirects here. ...
Neo-Geo is the name of a cartridge-based arcade and home video game system released in 1990 by Japanese game company SNK. The system offered comparatively colorful 2D graphics and high-quality sound. ...
The Cathach of St. ...
Another company that used to protect their arcade games was Capcom which is known for its CPS-2 arcade board (Capcom Play System II) that has a heavy protection algorithm that was broken 7 years after the system's release in 1993 by CPS2Shock Team but even this wasn't a true emulation of the protection because it used XOR tables to trick the game to decrypt and 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).[1] The full decryption algorithm was worked out by Nicola Salmoria, Andreas Naive, and Charles MacDonald (of MAME Dev) in 2007. For the original NASA meaning, see capsule communicator. ...
CPS-2 hardware. ...
MAME is an emulator application designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software, with the intent of preserving gaming history and preventing vintage games from being lost or forgotten. ...
Capcom's latest arcade board to date is the CPS-3, whose encrypted ROMs have resisted emulation attempts until June 2007, when the encryption method was reverse-engineered by Andreas Naive. MAME and a variant of the CPS-2 emulator Nebula currently emulate CPS-3 games. The CPS-3 ) or Capcom Play System 3 is an arcade system board that was introduced by Capcom in 1996 with the game Warzard (known as Red Earth outside Japan). ...
June 2007 is the sixth month of that year. ...
Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc. ...
MAME is an emulator application designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software, with the intent of preserving gaming history and preventing vintage games from being lost or forgotten. ...
ROMs and preservation 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 a decade. This is beginning to become a problem as early computer systems may be, at the time of writing, fifty or sixty years old while early home video consoles may be nearing thirty years old. Due to this aging, there is a significant threat 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 ROMs. When stored on standardised media such as CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs, they can be copied to future media with significantly reduced effort.
The trend towards mass digital distribution of ROMs, while potentially damaging to copyright holders, may also have a positive effect on preservation. While over time many original copies of older games may deteriorate, be broken or thrown away, a copy in ROM form may be distributed throughout the world, allowing games which would otherwise have been lost a greater chance of survival.
Collecting ROMs Like many other items such as stamps and coins, ROMs are also collected by many people. The motives for doing this vary from a desire to preserve the history of computer and video games to obsessive collectors. Those who desire to collect all ROMs have been derided by the team behind the MAME emulator as PokéROMs, in a reference to the Pokémon catchphrase "gotta catch 'em all". PokéROM can also refer to "Pocket ROMs" as Pokémon refers to "Pocket Monsters"; since the advent of the GP2X, PSP, DS and other portable handheld gaming machines capable of emulation and even with some Cellphones, people can now have an entire library of old games in their "pocket". A selection of Hong Kong postage stamps A postage stamp is evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services. ...
This article is about monetary coins. ...
MAME is an emulator application designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software, with the intent of preserving gaming history and preventing vintage games from being lost or forgotten. ...
The official Pokémon logo. ...
The GP2X is an open-source, Linux-based handheld video game console and media player created and sold by GamePark Holdings of South Korea. ...
The PlayStation Portable , officially abbreviated as PSP) is a handheld game console released and currently manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. ...
DS, Ds or dS can mean: Nintendo DS, a handheld gaming device made by Nintendo Several games for Nintendo DS whose titles use the abbreviation DS in their title: Advance Wars: Dual Strike Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Digimon Story Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers Mr. ...
This article is about emulation in computer science. ...
Cellular redirects here. ...
Given this desire by many people to collect ROMs, there are many projects on the internet which dump ROMs, catalogue them or provide tools to verify the correctness and completeness of ROM collections. For instance, the TOSEC and Good Tools projects produce regularly-updated databases of games and other software for various old computers and video games consoles. TOSEC, or The Old School Emulation Center, is a group of people dedicated to the preservation of games and other programs for home computer and console systems. ...
The Good Tools are a set of ROM auditing tools written by Cowering for MS-DOS, which are capable of auditing and maintaining collections of ROMs for various video game consoles and home computer systems. ...
According to some, the "Holy Grail" of ROM collecting is the NES Nintendo World Championship 1990 cartridge ROM image, of which there were only 127 original cartridges in the world. However, the game has since been dumped as a ROM Image and copies are much more widely available. For other uses, see Holy Grail (disambiguation). ...
In 1990 Nintendo held a special video game competition. ...
A ROM image, or simply ROM, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip, often from a video game cartridge, a computers firmware, or from an arcade games main board. ...
Internet distribution of ROMs The trading of ROMs over the internet is extremely widespread. Many methods are used for such distribution, including: Although the large size of games for recent consoles makes the distribution of more than one game at a time impractical, it is often the case for older consoles that many thousands of games can be distributed together as a collection. For example, the entire Good2600 set of 2,687 Atari 2600 games could be downloaded in around two minutes over a broadband connection. HTTP (for HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the primary method used to convey information on the World Wide Web. ...
This article is about the File Transfer Protocol standardised by the IETF. For other file transfer protocols, see File transfer protocol (disambiguation). ...
This article is about the protocol. ...
Direct connect is a peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol. ...
eMule is a peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows. ...
IRC redirects here. ...
Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) is an IRC-related sub-protocol enabling peers to interconnect using an IRC server for handshaking in order to exchange files or perform non-relayed chats. ...
Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, decentralized, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name. ...
The Good Tools are a set of ROM auditing tools written by Cowering for MS-DOS, which are capable of auditing and maintaining collections of ROMs for various video game consoles and home computer systems. ...
The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, is the video game console credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. ...
Broadband in telecommunications is a term that refers to a signaling method that includes or handles a relatively wide range of frequencies, which may be divided into channels or frequency bins. ...
Hacks and fan translations Once games have been made available in ROM format, it is possible for users to make modifications to the games. This may take the form of modifying graphics, changing the levels, tweaking the difficulty factor, or even translating the game into a language in which it was not originally made available.
Hacks can often take the form of humorous modifications to games, as is the case with a hack of the NES version of Mario Brothers, entitled “Afro Mario Brothers” which featured the famous brothers wearing Afro haircuts. Also the mod Metroid Redesign is a Super Metroid ROM hack which totally revamps the game and also adds new objectives. “NES†redirects here. ...
This article is about the original arcade game and its ports. ...
Woman with an afro at the Tribeca Film Festival For the Italian painter known as Afro, see Afro Basaldella. ...
“Metroid 3†redirects here. ...
A large scene has developed to translate games. Many games receive a release in one part of the world but not in another. For example, many RPGs which are released in Japan go unreleased in the west. For games where there is an obvious demand in other countries, a group of fan translators will often translate the game themselves. For example, the game Tales of Phantasia (1995) was officially released only in Japan. However, the game's on-screen text was translated into English by the group DeJap Translations in 2001. Further to this, a project called Vocals of Phantasia was set up to go one step further and translate the actual speech from the game. An official English version was not released until March 2006, some five years after the fan translation was released. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Fan translation refers to the unofficial translation of various forms of media by fans, usually into a language in which an official translated version is not available. ...
Tales of Phantasia ) is a Super Famicom game in the RPG genre published by Namco and released in Japan in 1995. ...
see also: 1994 in games, 1996 in games Games Released or Invented in 1995 Star Wars Customizable Card Game Chrono Trigger Game awards given in 1995 Spiel des Jahres: The Settlers of Catan (German title is Die Siedler von Catan) - Klaus Teuber, Kosmos Categories: Game stubs | 1995 ...
DeJap Translations is a group of game hackers dedicated to translating Japanese video games into English, by means of applying a patch to a dumped ROM. They are best known for their fan translation work on Tales of Phantasia, Dragon Quest V, and Star Ocean. ...
see also: 2000 in games, 2002 in games Games Released or Invented in 2001 Amber Sparks:Ultimate Destruction(remake) Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting released for the 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. ...
These are the Games Released in 2006(rumored) Amber Sparks:Ultimate Destruction 3:The X Files The Barnyard Brooke Fox:The Movie Cars(2006 movie) The Misadventures of Maya & Miguel Postcards From Buster 2 Spider-Man:The return of Doc-Ock True Crime:The Anna Kelley Experience WWE Raw 31...
see also Fan translation and Rom Hacking Fan translation refers to the unofficial translation of various forms of media by fans, usually into a language in which an official translated version is not available. ...
Screenshot of Lunar Magic, a level editor for Super Mario World, illustrating how a user can modify the game. ...
Legal status of ROMs ROMs themselves are not illegal per se. This section gives a general discussion of the legal status of ROMs as regards the various uses to which they may be put, though this should not be construed as legal advice.
Games owned by the user In some countries, it is legal for an individual to personally make backup copies of a game they own. Individuals may make backup copies for various reasons, perhaps as insurance against losing the game or as redundancy in the event that the original game's medium becomes unreadable. See the section on ROMs and Preservation.
However, in the U.S. it has been illegal since 1983 for a user to create their own backups of video game ROMs onto other cartridges. This was decided in the court case of Atari v. JS&A. JS&A manufactured a "game backup" device that allowed users to dump their Atari ROMs onto a blank cartridge. JS&A argued that the archival rule allowed for this. The court disagreed, noting that ROM media was not subject to the same volatility as magnetic media (for which the law was created). Thus, not being so relatively vulnerable, ROMs were not applicable under section 17 USC 117(a)(2).
Some games companies, such as Nintendo, print warnings inside their game manuals that they do not allow users to make backup or archival copies. Whether or not these warnings in this specific form can be considered valid contracts is legally questionable. For an overview of relevant issues, see user agreement (EULA), shrink wrap contract, clickwrap, Fair Use, Fair Dealing and DMCA. Nintendo Company, Limited (ä»»å¤©å ‚ or ニンテンドー NintendÅ; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ...
A contract is a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties that the law will enforce. ...
A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ...
Shrink wrap contracts are license agreements or other terms and conditions of a (putatively) contractual nature which can only be read and accepted by the consumer after opening the product. ...
A clickwrap agreement (also known as a clickthrough agreement or clickwrap license) is a common type of agreement (often used in connection with software licenses). ...
For fair use in trademark law, see Fair use (US trademark law). ...
Fair dealing is a doctrine of limitations and exceptions to copyright which is found in many of the common law jurisdictions of the Commonwealth of Nations. ...
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a controversial United States copyright law which criminalizes production and dissemination of technology that can circumvent measures taken to protect copyright, not merely infringement of copyright itself, and heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. ...
24 hours claim Some ROM websites claim it is legal to download and keep a ROM of a game one doesn't own for as long as 24 hours, after which it is one's responsibility to delete it. Even though it is widespread (most likely due to copycat reactions), this claim is completely false, as there has never been such a law.
Officially licensed ROMs It is, of course, legal to purchase a ROM image which has been licensed to you by the rights holder. For example, Atari made a number of their original arcade games available in ROM format which is compatible with the MAME emulator through the online ROM retailer Star ROMs. Star Roms stopped licensing ROMs in February 2006, though. Nintendo provides a service on their 7th generation console, the Wii, that allows players to purchase old games from various systems, such as the NES, which will download a ROM image and emulator upon purchase (see Virtual Console). This article is about the corporate game company. ...
MAME is an emulator application designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software, with the intent of preserving gaming history and preventing vintage games from being lost or forgotten. ...
Nintendo Company, Limited (ä»»å¤©å ‚ or ニンテンドー NintendÅ; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ...
The Wii (pronounced as the pronoun we, IPA: ) is the fifth home video game console released by Nintendo. ...
“NES†redirects here. ...
This article is about Nintendos emulation feature and download service. ...
Freely licensed ROMs The vast majority of computer & video games from the history of such games are no longer manufactured. As such, the copyright holders of some games have offered free licenses to those games, often on the condition that they be used only for non-commercial purposes. For example, two of the games emulated in MAME, Gridlee and Robby Roto, have been made available under such licenses. As such, they are made freely available from the MAME Home Page. Gridlee is a 1983 arcade game produced by Videa. ...
Robby Roto is a 1981 arcade game produced by Bally Midway. ...
There are also homebrew ROMs available for many systems. These ROMs are unequivocally legal to distribute and run, per the creator's license. Homebrew is a term frequently applied only to video games that are produced by consumers on proprietary game platforms; in other words, game platforms that are not typically user-programmable, or use proprietary hardware for storage. ...
Unlicensed ROMs While some games which no longer make any profit fit into the category above, the vast majority are no longer available in any form. The legality of obtaining such games varies from country to country. Some countries have special exceptions in copyright laws or case law which permit (or discourage less) copying when an item is not available for legal purchase or when the copying is for non-commercial or research purposes, while other countries may make such practices firmly illegal. There is often a distinction drawn between distribution and downloading, with distribution being seen as the greater offence.
Abandonware It is often the case that games which are still in copyright are no longer sold or marketed by their copyright holders. This may be due to the perceived lack of demand for the game or for other reasons. Some of those engaged in ROM trading claim that such games should be deemed abandoned by their copyright holders and that the game, termed "Abandonware", can be freely traded by users. Abandonware is widely thought to be computer software that is no longer current. ...
This invokes the concept of Abandonment from trademark law, whereby trademarks which are no longer exploited by their holders become abandoned. While this concept exists in trademark law, there is no equivalent concept in copyright law. In fact, the copyright laws of most countries, including all signatories of the Berne Convention, grant copyright holders the exclusive right to distribute, or not distribute, a work until such time as the copyright expires under law or is granted to the public domain by the copyright holder. “(TM)†redirects here. ...
The Bass Red Triangle, was the first trademark registered in Britain in 1876. ...
For the treaty establishing the General Postal Union, see Treaty of Bern. ...
The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...
Commercial distribution Commercial distribution of copyrighted games without the consent of the copyright holder is generally illegal in almost all countries, with those who take part in that activity being liable for both criminal and civil penalties.
Online auction sites such as eBay have sometimes been used by sellers to sell unauthorised copies of games which are advertised as legitimate copies. Such sellers, in addition to violating copyright laws, may also be prosecuted for fraud and/or false advertising. This article is about the online auction center. ...
Enforcement There have been few convictions and lawsuits related to ROM trading. Criminal convictions tend to be related to high-profile warez groups which trade combinations of recent films and computer games. In contrast, the ROM scene tends to concentrate mostly on older games. Given the lack of continuing profit from most older games, the grievances of games companies rarely exceed sending a cease and desist order which compels the recipient to stop distributing the copyrighted works in question. Many have argued that it would be irrational for a company to spend money prosecuting for games that they are no longer making profit from, as there would be no damages to speak of. Even so, this has not deterred Nintendo from pursuing a number of lawsuits against ROM distribution websites via non-profit subsidiaries. The reasoning for Nintendo's defense of its aging properties may be explained by its Wii store, which allows users to purchase these games for emulation on the Wii through the use of its Virtual Console service. Warez refers primarily to copyrighted works traded in violation of copyright law. ...
This article is about motion pictures. ...
Computer and video games redirects here. ...
Cease-and-desist is a legal term meaning essentially stop: It is used in demands for a person or organization to stop doing something (to cease and desist from doing it). ...
Nintendo Company, Limited (ä»»å¤©å ‚ or ニンテンドー NintendÅ; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ...
The Wii (pronounced as the pronoun we, IPA: ) is the fifth home video game console released by Nintendo. ...
This article is about Nintendos emulation feature and download service. ...
Recently, Romulation.net, a large ROM site, received a Cease & Desist letter from the ESA, and was consequently closed. It is worth noting that as of 30th October 2007 the two most recent ROM dumps are still being hosted in the root directory of the site. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the computer and video game industry in the United States. ...
See also This article is about emulators in computer science. ...
A console emulator is a program that allows a computer to emulate a video game console. ...
An in-circuit emulator (ICE) also called on-circuit debugger (OCD) or background debug module (BDM) is a hardware device used to debug the software of an embedded system. ...
In computing, binary translation is the emulation of one instruction set by another through translation of code. ...
Fan translation refers to the unofficial translation of various forms of media by fans, usually into a language in which an official translated version is not available. ...
A disk image is a computer file containing the complete contents and structure of a data storage medium or device, such as a Hard drive, CD or DVD. The term has been generalized to cover any such file, whether originated from an actual physical storage device or not. ...
References
External links |
Feeds |
Contact