EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

A place where you can keep others updated about your NES-related projects through screenshots, videos or information in general.

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lidnariq
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by lidnariq »

3gengames wrote:Put the ROMS online and have it download them from a server just to host them. I'm sure it's a lot harder to extract them if they're not in the file.
Replay or monkey-in-the-middle attacks are approximately as easy as cracking offline DRM, and doing that only makes it more annoying for legit users because the person now has to have a good connection to the interwebz whenever they want to play.

I think watermarking and maybe obfuscation are the best choices. You don't want to sue them anyway (you're not the MPAA...), so you just want it to be the minimum of difficulty to make it awkward for them to extract the image but still 100% reliable for you. Adding the visible watermarking means now they don't get a copy identical to the master, so there's no urge to hoard, and maybe a little bit of name-and-shame.
zzo38
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by zzo38 »

You could have these options available for whoever made the game, and also display them to the user before downloading the games (so that you won't cheat the user from their money):
  • Encrypt (the file cannot be moved from the system)
  • Watermark (the file can be copied to use with real hardware and any other emulators, but each copy is different and might be traced)
  • Signature (the file can be copied to use with real hardware and any other emulators, and each copy is the same, but there is digital signature to verify it)
  • Plain (the file can be copied to use with real hardware and any other emulators, and each copy is exactly the same as the master; some features (such as achievements) might be disabled if this is used, but other features (such as cheat codes and debugging) might be enabled only with plain ROMs)
(Free Hero Mesh - FOSS puzzle game engine)
3gengames
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by 3gengames »

You could also, say, have the code/ram/data be patched by the emu, like wait for a start up state or something. If it doesn't detect it, just make the game bad to play. Like earthbound did. Stupid hard, no final boss, erased save data, make "random" crashes, etc. I'd say random crashes triggered by a random program so it happens minutes in to the game would be great as you can make it as hard to trace as possible, and allow it to take a while to do and such.
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Movax12
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by Movax12 »

One could implement some kind of required server communication with server side key verification. Maybe also include some kind of game expansion (code/data download) and/or high score database.
Sik
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by Sik »

Movax12 wrote:One could implement some kind of required server communication with server side key verification.
How is this any better than downloading the ROM every time? You need a guaranteed good connection to internet again.
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Movax12
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by Movax12 »

Then allow for x executions without a connection. There is no other way that I can think of that can't very easily be hacked.
A game with code to connect and verify could still be hacked, but a loss of features changes things more than something that is just for copy protection.
Shiru
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by Shiru »

Desire of total control raises a lot of problems, isn't? And the best thing it is hopeless, any protection will be broken, it is just matter of time.

I would rather think of alternative ways that based on total freedom rather than total control, it seems to be more perspective.
3gengames
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by 3gengames »

Put ads in the project, so even if they steal it, the other 1000 people who played and didn't steal helped make it okay?
Zelex
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by Zelex »

Shiru wrote:Desire of total control raises a lot of problems, isn't? And the best thing it is hopeless, any protection will be broken, it is just matter of time.

I would rather think of alternative ways that based on total freedom rather than total control, it seems to be more perspective.
I agree. At most you can just delay the inevitable, however delaying the inevitable isn't always a bad thing.
zzo38
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by zzo38 »

Shiru wrote:Desire of total control raises a lot of problems, isn't? And the best thing it is hopeless, any protection will be broken, it is just matter of time.

I would rather think of alternative ways that based on total freedom rather than total control, it seems to be more perspective.
While I completely agree, I have suggested a compromise nevertheless.
(Free Hero Mesh - FOSS puzzle game engine)
Shiru
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by Shiru »

Speaking of methods of tying a version of a game to a custom emulator, there is a simple thing to do that will introduce major headache to those who would like to hack it back to put on a cart.

There are plenty of unused/undocumented opcodes that aren't really used. Now, we can make them to do useful things in a custom emulator. Say, we'll add operation stz addr. In source code of the game we can have a macro that will do it either normal way, with few opcodes, or with this new custom opcode. It will be used all around code, and with simple recompile we can have a normal version and this 'protected' one. Even if a hacker will know what the new opcode does (by decompiling the custom emulator or just by a guess), he'll sure be able to hack an existing emulator to support it, if he aren't too lazy. But to make it work on the real hardware he will have to replace the opcode. Since it does job of few opcodes, a lot of code shifts and inserts will be needed, or a full disassemble to recompile - that's just too much of work and will take quite some time even for someone who is brave enough to do it.
Zelex
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by Zelex »

Shiru wrote:Speaking of methods of tying a version of a game to a custom emulator, there is a simple thing to do that will introduce major headache to those who would like to hack it back to put on a cart.

There are plenty of unused/undocumented opcodes that aren't really used. Now, we can make them to do useful things in a custom emulator. Say, we'll add operation stz addr. In source code of the game we can have a macro that will do it either normal way, with few opcodes, or with this new custom opcode. It will be used all around code, and with simple recompile we can have a normal version and this 'protected' one. Even if a hacker will know what the new opcode does (by decompiling the custom emulator or just by a guess), he'll sure be able to hack an existing emulator to support it, if he aren't too lazy. But to make it work on the real hardware he will have to replace the opcode. Since it does job of few opcodes, a lot of code shifts and inserts will be needed, or a full disassemble to recompile - that's just too much of work and will take quite some time even for someone who is brave enough to do it.
Sounds like a neat idea :) I don't mind doing it if you feel it would be useful to you.
Sik
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by Sik »

May as well just not make a NES game and make an Ouya game instead...
tepples
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by tepples »

Of course that depends on how you see the learning curve for Java + Android + OpenGL ES development vs. 6502 + 2C02 development. Making an NES game and wrapping it with Emuya might actually be easier for some regulars here.
Zelex
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Re: EMUya - A emulation store for homebrew NES development

Post by Zelex »

I should be ready in a couple weeks for a brave soul out there to beta test the in app purchasing with :) We would need to work out specifics on what they want to charge and what kind of encryption level they are comfortable with. Also, for those on the forums, I've decided to stick to my guns with the you decide how much % that goes to the store, even if that number is 0% for any number of copies you sell. It is more important for me to see a thriving NES indie development scene than it is for me to break even. I cannot however affect what Ouya takes (30%), so pad that ouya store tax into your prices.

Also for pricing you can reference: http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?749 ... -OUYA-Game
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