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Hackers Unlock NES Classic, Upload New Games Via USB Cable (arstechnica.com)
Just because Nintendo doesn't officially let their tiny replica NES receive new games doesn't mean hackers won't find a way to add their own. This week, hackers in Japan and Russia figured out soft-mod solutions to adding new games to the NES Classic, meaning you don't need to grab a screwdriver or a soldering iron to mod your own console. Ars Technica reports: According to the whiz kids at Reddit's NESClassicMods community, the solution won't work until you've created a save file in Super Mario Bros' first slot. (Chances are, you've already done this just by playing the game, since creating game saves is so easy with this system.) Once you've done that, connect your NES Classic Edition to a computer via a micro-USB cable, then boot the NES in "FEL" mode. This is done by holding down the system's reset button while pushing down the power button from a powered-off state. While you're booting, you should also run a "sunxi-FEL" interface on your computer. (An open-source version of compatible "USBBoot" software can be found here.) The rest of the steps land firmly in "operate at your own risk" territory, as they require copying your NES Classic's internal data to your computer, then modifying and adding files via an application made by hackers. Doing so, by the way, includes the dubious step of supplying your own ROM files, which you may have either dumped from your own cartridges or downloaded from other Internet users. One tool linked from that Reddit community, however, comes with two open-source NES ROMs that are in the legal free-and-clear to upload to your hardware. Once you've added your own game files, which should also include custom JPGs that will appear in the NES Classic's "box art" GUI, you'll have to repack the hardware's kernel, then fully flash the hardware yourself. Do all of those steps correctly, and you'll see every single game you've added appear in the slick, default interface.
Good job. You probably don't want to update it with any official Nintendo firmware update after that.
Doesn't look like there is any copy protection. The steps are, basically, copy the system image to a PC over USB, modify it, copy it back.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
It looks like Nintendo did their own, slightly quirky, thing in terms of how the ROMs are stored; but the procedure otherwise uses the same tools you use to manipulate Allwinner SoCs over USB. Since this console is just a cut-down Allwinner board, that isn't a surprise; but (as we know from dealing with cellphones and some tablets from the more obnoxious vendors) the ability to lock the bootloader so that it flatly refuses to do anything with an unsigned payload is a pretty standard feature. Some vendors don't turn it on; or allow it to be turned off; but the hardware is generally capable of it.
Given Nintendo's historical opposition to basically anything they don't explicitly allow happening on their consoles, it seems like a real surprise that this one cheerfully accepts being reflashed with a modified system image. Does Nintendo just not care in this case? Are they doing console lockdown almost as retro as the games being emulated?
Where do you get these free PCs?
Actually Crackers break through security (mostly into other computers, but also anything that thinks it's protected)
Hackers write code. Anyone writing code without having previously written a flow chart and and the entire algorithm before actually putting it into the whatever development platform they're using, is hacking. It is not breaking into other computers, that is cracking.
You know, like a safe cracker. I'm sure you've heard of that from the pre-computer days. I'm also sure you've heard of writers being called hacks in the pre-computer days as well. If you haven't heard that, just stream some classic movies.
They could have easily charged $100 if it had every NES game on there. To get any money all for games that old would/should be like manna from Heaven to the companies that own the IP.
AC clearly only knows the MSM version of what "hacking" is. aka. teh hax0rz!
A lot of Slashdot users have friends and family members who don't belong on this site by your criterion. They lack the time to set up RetroPie individually for each of them. Besides, I thought an RPi board, case, and controller already cost as much as this Nintendo product, and that's without ROM licenses.
Office buildings around the place I live. It's strange, put on a boilersuit, put some PC-Company looking logo on it, when asked something grunt something back in a foreign language and show a sheet of paper that says you're supposed to pick up a PC, grab a PC and leave.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
For one thing, the computer desk is usually in a separate room from the living room TV, and not everybody has the authority to pull HDMI and USB cables through the wall, especially if they rent or live in a jurisdiction that has made it a crime for anybody but a licensed electrician to pull cables through a wall. For another, a Windows PC usually* can't be used for web browsing or whatever other tasks while it is in use for NES emulation.
* Without paying extra for Remote Desktop and the like.
People who own only an iPhone, iPad, and game consoles. Apple's App Store Review Guidelines require iOS apps to be "self-contained", meaning an emulator must come with any required ROMs. In practice, this means only a game's publisher can publish an emulator on the App Store.
So you're saying that the hacks have hacked "hack", then? Why don't they just hack up a hairball and put that on the page and call it progress? It would make as much sense.
Hack means what it meant. Morons with a limited vocabulary and an inability to use language don't get to dictate changes to everyone else.
The only acceptable time for "hack" and "crack" to be interchangeable when talking about computer intrusions is when there was a need for some new software to be written in order to allow the intrusion. That's actually pretty common, until the script kiddies get involved. Script kiddies aren't hackers (as we've been saying for years), they're merely crackers. Guys that write software to exploit a vulnerability are both. That is the only reason to allow the continued use of "hack" in these articles.
The hackers in this article are most certainly hackers, as they wrote the "sunxi-FEL" interface for the host computer. They're also crackers, since they broke the security measures in place to keep them out. Either term applies here. It does not always apply. And we should never cede ground to mouthbreathers.
What is the internal capacity? Is there only enough for roughly 30 NES games or does it have enough space for 300? How about 3000?
Does it support all the mappers or only a few specific ones? (MMC3, VRC2, etc)
I think we lost this fight.