23 Game Boy Via ROM
Nintendo’s Game Boy, internally known as the Dot Matrix Game (DMG), did not feature the CIC protection chip that we’ll discuss in Chapter 25. Instead of a lockout chip, the game cartridge is required to contain Nintendo’s logo.
This is enforced by a first-stage boot ROM that compares its own copy of the logo to one in the cartridge. If the logos match, a short animation and sound are presented before the ROM disables itself and jumps into the game cartridge. In this chapter, we’ll take the last chapter’s theory and use it to rip out the ROM contents and make our own disassembly.
Perhaps you’ve already realized that anyone can put any logo into a cartridge, and that the logo comparison is not a technical challenge when making ...
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