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Started by Ludovica Ferri (@ludo_) ·

the NES had DRM, and Tengen got the code from the Copyright Office

Tengen's engineers couldn't crack Nintendo's lockout chip in time, so its lawyers asked the US Copyright Office for a copy of the lockout program, saying they needed it for litigation. That part did not go over well in court.

6 sources · 46 min down the hole

How I got here

Started with
Why does my NES keep blinking?
Ended at
“why does my nes blink”

The Trail

  1. “nes lockout chip tengen how did they get around it” (google.com)
  2. CIC (Nintendo) (en.wikipedia.org)
  3. Tengen (company) (en.wikipedia.org)
  4. Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America Inc. (en.wikipedia.org)
  5. Color Dreams (en.wikipedia.org)

    an unlicensed publisher that just stunned the lockout chip with voltage spikes

  6. “why does my nes blink” (reddit.com)

What I came away with

The blinking power light on an old NES is usually the lockout chip failing to recognize the cartridge (often dirty or bent contacts) and resetting the console over and over. Blowing into the cartridge mostly didn't help, and the moisture probably made the contacts worse.

Keep going