JPH0330916Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (Industrial application field) This invention relates to a cartridge for a game machine, and is particularly applicable to a game machine which is detachably attached to a game machine body and which is attached to the game machine body when playing a game. related to cartridges for

(Prior Art) Recently, machines for copying or dubbing cartridges for game machines have been released. However, conventionally, there is no cartridge for game machines that has a function to prevent copying or dubbing by such machines.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Therefore, the main purpose of this invention is to provide a novel cartridge for a game machine that has a function of preventing copying or dubbing.

(Means for Solving the Problem) This idea, to put it simply, consists of a board housed in a case, a character memory attached to the board, and a character memory for storing a large amount of character data necessary for the game. , a program memory attached to the board, which stores a program for controlling the character memory, which is made up of a plurality of program steps, and also stores a password for a specific program step; This cartridge for a game machine is provided with activation means for activating all or part of a character memory based on a password issued.

(Operation) A password (program data) from a particular program step of the program memory is provided to the activation means. The activation means activates all or part of the character memory only when this password is received. Predetermined character data is called from the activated character memory in accordance with the program from the program memory. This character data is processed by the game machine itself and displayed on the display screen for the game.

(Effect of the invention) According to this invention, the character memory can be activated only by writing a predetermined password into a specific program step of the program memory, so that the program step can be selected at any time. Moreover, by setting the password arbitrarily, copying or dubbing of the program memory and character memory of the game machine cartridge can be prevented. In other words, if you try to copy or dub, it is necessary to analyze each of the enormous program steps in the program memory and to analyze which program data contains the password, and analysis of such programs is extremely difficult. Therefore, according to this invention, copying or dubbing of game machine cartridges can be virtually completely prevented. Furthermore, even if a game machine has such a dubbing prevention function, the activation means can be composed of, for example, one semiconductor element, that is, the prevention function can be achieved with a simple circuit. This does not result in an increase in the cost of cartridges for use.

The above-mentioned objects, other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become clearer from the following detailed description of embodiments with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment of this invention. A game machine cartridge (hereinafter simply referred to as "cartridge") 10 includes a case 12 formed of an upper case 12a and a lower case 12b. This case 12 is substantially rectangular in plan and has a protrusion 14 formed on one side thereof. An opening 16 is formed by this protrusion 14, and the case 1
The other sides of 2 are closed by the side walls.

A substrate 18 is housed in the case 12, and a protrusion 20 corresponding to the protrusion 16 of the case 12 described above is formed on the substrate 18. Therefore, the protrusion 20 of the substrate 18 is exposed through the opening 16 of the case 12. And this protrusion 20
There is a contact point 2 that constitutes a connection means with the game console main body.
2, 22, . . . are formed in a distributed manner in the direction in which the sides of the protruding portion 20 extend.

Mounted on the substrate 18 are a program memory 24, a character memory 26, and a semiconductor element 28, which is a feature of this embodiment. Semiconductor element 2
8 may be a counter, a latch circuit, etc., as will be explained in detail later. These elements 24, 26 and 28 are connected to appropriate patterns on the substrate 18 and, if necessary, to predetermined contacts 22 having protrusions 20 formed thereon.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing an example of a home video game machine in which the cartridge shown in FIG. 1 can be used. As described above, the cartridge 10 includes the program memory 24, the character memory 26, and the semiconductor element 28 mounted on the board 18, and the protrusion 20 of the board 18 is connected to the edge connector 32 of the game machine main body 30. By doing so, the cartridge 10 and the game machine main body 30 are electrically connected to constitute one game system.

The game console main body 30 includes a microprocessor 3, such as an integrated circuit “2A03” manufactured by Nintendo.
4, and this microprocessor 34 includes an I/
Game controllers 38a and 38b are connected through the O interface 36. The game console main body 30 further includes a PPU (image processing unit) 40, a video RAM 42, and an RF modulator 4.
4 is provided. For example, the integrated circuit "2C02" manufactured by Nintendo is used as the PPU40.
0 reads video data from the video RAM 42 under the control of the game microprocessor and supplies it to the RF modulator 44 as a video signal. The RF modulator 44 outputs the applied video signal as, for example, an NTSC television signal for a TV receiver.

Here, with reference to FIG. 3, the mutual relationship among the program memory 24, character memory 26, and semiconductor element 28 will be described in detail. The program memory 24 is, for example, 256KB.
The character memory 26 also consists of a 256KB ROM.

A chip enable terminal CE of the program memory 26 is connected to ground, and a predetermined power supply voltage Vcc is applied to this memory 24 from a power supply terminal.
In addition, the output enable terminal OE of the program memory 24 is connected to the game console main body 3 through a predetermined terminal (for example, terminal No. 14) of the edge connector 32.
0 (Figure 2). Furthermore, the program memory 24 has address terminals consisting of 14 bits "A0 to A13" and "D0 to D0".
7" 8-bit data terminals. These address terminals are connected to the edge connector 32.
The game machine main body 30 is connected through the terminal, and data from predetermined data terminals, in this embodiment, the lower 4 bits of terminals D0 to D3 are provided as 4-bit inputs to the semiconductor element 28, respectively.

The chip enable terminal CE and output enable terminal OE of the character memory 26 are both connected to the game machine main body 3 through the edge connector 32.
0 connected. In addition, this character memory 26 is also connected to a predetermined DC power supply from a similar power supply terminal.
Vcc is given. Furthermore, this character memory 26 includes 15-bit address terminals "A0-A14" and 8-bit data terminals "D0-D7". Address terminals A0 to A12 are
The game machine main body 30 is connected through the edge connector 32. Data terminals D0 to D7 are also connected to a similar game machine main body 30. The remaining address terminals A13 and A14 are given two predetermined bits of the output of the semiconductor element 28, in this embodiment the lower two bits. In addition, character memory 2
In this embodiment, 6 is configured as a set of memory banks of, for example, every 64 KB as shown in FIG. In other words, this character memory 26
contains four banks of 64KB. The respective banks BK0, BK1, BK2 and BK3 have addresses “0000~1FFF”, “2000~3FFF”,
Defined by "4000~5FFF" and "6000~7FFF".

In this embodiment, an integrated circuit "74LS161" manufactured by TI, for example, is used as the semiconductor element 28, and therefore, the semiconductor element 28 is configured as a 4-bit counter. As described above, the lower 4 bits D0 to D0 of the data terminal of the program memory 24 are used as preset inputs for the counter 28.
D3 is applied to the clock terminal CK, and an output enable signal from the game machine main body 32 to the program memory 24 is applied to the clock terminal CK through the edge connector 32. Therefore, this counter 28
A count input is given each time the program memory 24 is selected by the game machine main body 30, and the counter 28 is incremented (or decremented) according to the count input.
The count value of this counter 28 is 4 bits, but in this embodiment, only the lower 2 bits are given to the two address terminals A13 and A14 of the character memory 26, as described above. Therefore, in the character memory 26, one of the banks BK0 to BK3 specified by the lower two bits of the output of the counter 28 is enabled. For example, the output of counter 28 is “00”
When , bank BK0 is selected and “01”
When the value is "10", the bank BK2 is selected, and when the value is "11", the bank BK3 is selected. Therefore, if a password for setting the lower two bits of the counter 28 of a specific program step in the program memory 24 to such data is stored, the character memory 26 can be
A necessary bank will be selected as the program in the program memory 24 progresses.

Specifically, the password is set to the counter 28 by storing the password in advance at a specific address in the program memory 26. At this time, the address to be stored must contain the same data as the data to be stored. As a password or password, 4
Using bits, for example, “0000” to “1111”
Up to 16 types are available.

Here, for example, password 10 (PASS10)
The case where the counter 28 is set will be explained as an example. The "LDA PASS10" program instruction is read from a specific step of the first program memory 24. This program instruction is an instruction to load the password 10 into an accumulator or an A register (not shown). Therefore, at this time, the microprocessor 34 of the game machine main body 30 loads the data of the password 10, for example "1001" read from the program address, into the accumulator. "STA PASS10" is stored in the subsequent step of the program memory 24. This program command is a command to store the loaded password 10 data of the accumulator in the program memory 24. In response, the microprocessor 34 outputs a write signal for the program memory 24 through a predetermined terminal of the edge connector 32. At this time, since the program memory 24 is a ROM, it cannot actually be written to, but this write signal is given to the load terminal LD of the counter 28,
Therefore, in the program step, the data "1001" of the password 10 exists in the data terminals D0 to D3 of the program memory 24, and the data "1001" is set in the counter 28. At the counter 28,
Therefore, at that point, the data of password 10 is given to the 4-bit output terminal. The lower two bits of this counter 28 are stored in the character memory 26.
This is given as bank switching data. In this case, the password 10 is "1001" and its lower two bits are "01", so the bank BK1 defined by the address "2000-3FFF" of the character memory 26 is selected. Therefore, character data required at that time may be stored in this bank BK1.

With this configuration, this cartridge 10
A person who wishes to copy or dub the program must know that a specific address in the program memory 24 contains a predetermined password. This is because if an incorrect password is set in the counter 28, the character memory 26
This is because a different bank will be selected, that is, in the above example, a bank other than bank BK1 will be selected, and the necessary character data will not be obtained at that time. Therefore, for example, if the password of the cassette is changed for each type of game, a large number of almost infinite combinations are possible depending on the combination of the password type and the number of program steps. , it would be possible to virtually completely prevent copying or dubbing of the cassette.

FIG. 5 is a main circuit diagram showing another embodiment of this invention. In this embodiment, data terminals D0, D1, D4 and D5 of the program memory 24 are connected as preset inputs of the counter 28. Therefore, in this embodiment, the remaining bits may be set as "X" so that these four bits become substantially "0000" to "1111". On the other hand, the lower two bits of the output of the counter 28 are applied to the chip enable terminal CE and the output enable terminal OE of the character memory 26. The upper two bits are applied to address terminals A11 and A12 of character memory 26 through diodes 46 and 48.

In the embodiment of FIG. 5, if the correct password is not set for the counter 28, incorrect data will be input to the enable terminals CE and OE, and therefore,
In this state, the character memory 26 is in a high impedance state and cannot operate normally. The mask as the character memory 26 determines whether the enable terminals CE and OE are active high or active low.
It may be arbitrarily determined depending on the ROM specifications.

On the other hand, the polarities of diodes 46 and 48 are set according to the content of the password. In other words, the diodes 46 and 48 are connected to the address terminal A11 or A1 of the character memory 26 from the counter 28 when the corresponding output of the counter 28 is a password of "0".
2 is connected in the forward direction. Conversely, if the password causes the corresponding output bit to be "1", the opposite character memory 26 is set.
The address terminal A11 or A12 of the counter 28 is connected in the forward direction.
For other connections, for example, if the corresponding bit is "0" and the character memory 26 is connected in the forward direction from the counter 28, the corresponding address terminal A11 or A12 of the character memory 26 will be connected as follows. Regardless of the address data from the game machine main body 30, it is forced to be "0". Further, when the corresponding output bit is "1", a diode 46 or 48 is connected in the direction from the counter 28 to the character memory 26.
When connected, the corresponding address terminal A12 or A13 is forced to be "1" regardless of the address data from the game machine main body.
Therefore, by changing the connection of the diodes according to the password for each type of game, copying or dubbing of the cassette can be more reliably prevented.

Furthermore, the character memory 26 can be protected using a password using software. For example, immediately after starting up the game console 10, first enter a fake password into the counter 2.
8 settings. At that time, the character memory 26
If the character data read from is incorrect, the correct password is reset and the game program is started. However, if correct character data is read out from the character memory 26 using a false password, a false password is set again and this continues until the incorrect character data is output. If you do this,
A fake cassette that cannot be password protected will make it impossible for the game program to run normally. In this way, by combining a correct password with a false password, complete identical hardware is required, and copying or dubbing of cassettes can be further prevented.

In the above-described embodiments, the semiconductor element 28 is used as a mere latch circuit so that the password from the program memory 24 is output as is. However, it would also be possible to use this as a normal counter. For example, when setting password 10, if the command "count 10 times" is output as the password and the counter 28 counts 10 times in response, a predetermined address terminal or enable terminal of the character memory 26 is set. ta “0”
Alternatively, "1" may be input.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing an example of a home video game machine in which the cassette of FIG. 1 can be used. FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a main part of the embodiment shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is an illustrative diagram illustrating the bank structure of the character memory. FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing the main parts of another embodiment of this invention. In the figure, 24 is a program memory, 26
indicates a character memory, and 28 indicates a semiconductor element.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] 1. A cartridge for a game machine that is detachably attached to a game machine body and that is attached to the game machine body when playing a game, comprising: a case; a board housed in the case; and the board. a character memory mounted on the board for storing a plurality of character data necessary for the game; a character memory mounted on the board and storing a program comprising a plurality of program steps and for controlling the character memory; Also, a program memory in which a password is stored for a specific program step, and a program memory provided on the board for activating all or part of the character memory based on a password read from the program memory. A cartridge for a game machine, comprising activation means. 2. The game machine cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the activation means includes a semiconductor element for receiving the password and providing a predetermined output to the character memory. 3. The game machine cartridge according to claim 2, wherein the character memory includes a plurality of address terminals, and the output of the semiconductor element is given to a predetermined one of the address terminals. 4. The character memory is divided into a plurality of banks, and the output from the semiconductor element is given as bank selection data for selecting a predetermined one of the banks.
Cartridge for game consoles as described in section. 5. The game machine cartridge according to claim 4, wherein the semiconductor element includes a counter whose initial value is set by the password. 6. The game machine cartridge according to claim 4, wherein the semiconductor device includes a latch circuit for latching a predetermined bit of the password. 7. The game machine cartridge according to claim 2, wherein the character memory includes an enable terminal, and the output of the semiconductor element is provided by the enable terminal. 8. The game machine cartridge according to claim 2, which includes a diode connected between the output of the semiconductor element and a specific address terminal of the character memory with a polarity depending on the password. .