The specification can be semantically clear, I suppose, but the fact that it has "maybes" in it or allows for them, and requires the "maybe" to be changed to a "definite" once somebody has found an easter egg, turns it into a complete joke. Strongly oppose. Imagine somebody who opposes the input device field as a matter of principle, like certain people here, reading something like that in a spec. What an embarrassment. Absolute certainty may be impossible, but if you cannot say with at least 95% certainty what the correct value is, then the specification is mis-specified. Correct specification would be Famicom vs. NES console, which can be said with absolute certainty based on the region in which it was sold.
(Of course, that would be problematic as well with Nintendo games whose ROM content is identical in U.S. and Japanese versions, but that is because the "T.V. System" was so badly specified back in 2006, and one cannot completely redefine it from scratch without invalidating the "huge unknown" of released NES 2.0 homebrew games. I would have specified with four bits --- Japan, North America, Licensed PAL Region, Dendy Region --- with bits set if that particular ROM content was sold in the respective region. That would have taken care of NES/Famicom differences, TV System, controllers, early Nintendo games being sold with identical ROM content everywhere, as well as any detecting-and-self-adjusting games. But it's too late for that.)
Fiskbit wrote:What I'm interested in here is if there are practical problems with choosing one or the other option. Were any games released outside Japan that still check the microphone bit or can be affected by it? Japanese games that respond to both microphone and 2P start/select? Japanese games that use the microphone and encounter glitching if 2P start/select are pressed?
Japanese games that glitch with 2P START/SELECT? I am not aware of any, and if they exist, they would glitch with the A.V. Famicom as well.
As for North American or PAL games that glitch with the Microphone, I am not aware of any that "glitch" either, though Paperboy will not register button presses while the microphone bit is set, because it compares all bits of $4016 against $41. Note that the microphone bit is never set for an extended period of time but instead oscillates in the presence of a loud signal, as expected by Zelda's microphone code.
I just played the game on my Sharp Twin Famicom, and in practice, using the microphone is not a problem unless I violently blow, constantly, directly into the 2P microphone at very close distance, which then causes the paperboy to waggle around a little while I am pressing left or right. This is not a problem at all with a keyboard/joystick-mapped microphone bit (just don't hit that button!), and in rainwarrior's esoteric situation of an actual microphone, hardware-accurate emulation would require setting the bit's input threshold to such a value that only prolonged loud shouting would trigger it.