History CopyProtection / Nintendo

* The Chinese version of ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' will render everything in levels (except the HUD) in complete darkness if an illegal copy is detected.

* The ''VideoGame/BatmanReturns'' NES game runs several checks at certain points to see if the Batman logo on the title screen or the Konami logo have been modified. If they fail, Batman will take double damage, all passwords will be invalid, and the window at the end of 3-1 won't open, making the stage unbeatable.

** Similar chips were also used in the Super NES, although for the SNES it is likely that all regions use the same chip (the chip only assures that the cartridge was manufactured by Nintendo themselves, and has nothing to do with UsefulNotes/RegionCoding -- given that breaking (or filing) off a pair of tabs at the back of a North American SNES' cartridge slot is all it takes to get Japanese games running[[note]]Unfortunately the reverse is a lot more difficult as a SNES cart is slightly bigger than the Super Famicom cart slot[[/note]]).

* At a certain point in ''VideoGame/StarTropics'', you are instructed to enter a three digit code[[note]]747, for those curious[[/note]] to allow [=Sub-C=] to track down Dr. Jones. The game instructs you to submerge the letter that Dr. Jones gave you to find this code without clarifying that the "letter" in question is in fact one of the {{Feelies}} that came with the game. This aspect is simulated and digitized in the Wii Platform/VirtualConsole port, but not in the versions included with the [[UsefulNotes/PlugnPlayGame NES Classic Edition]] or a Nintendo Switch Online subscription since they don't come with digital manuals, although in the case of the NES Classic Edition, the code is provided in the the Start Up guide labeled as a "Startropics Tip," although it's in small black text, and may not be easily noticed.

Considering that Creator/{{Nintendo}} is extremely protective of their IPs, it shouldn’t be surprising that they have a history of taking deep measures to prevent piracy of their systems and games.

Considering that Creator/{{Nintendo}} is extremely protective of their works, it shouldn’t be surprising that they have a history of taking deep measures to prevent piracy of their systems and games.

Considering how Creator/{{Nintendo}} is extremely protective of their works, it shouldn’t be surprising that they have a history of taking deep measures to prevent piracy of their systems and games.

Considering how Creator/{{Nintendo}} is extremely protective of their works, it isn’t surprising that they have a history of taking deep measures to prevent piracy of their systems and games.

* The North American version of the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem used a proprietary (and patented) lockout chip called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10NES 10NES]], which reset the CPU if it did not detect a corresponding key chip on the game cartridge. Among other things, this allowed Nintendo to keep tight license control (and [[CensorshipBureau censorship]]) over ''developers'' attempting to publish games on the console, not just users attempting to make their own copies. This was at least in part because of the UsefulNotes/Atari2600 and other consoles of the pre-NES era having no lockout controls whatsoever, leading to a market flooded with UsefulNotes/{{Shovelware}}, which was a major factor in UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983; Nintendo was obviously keen on avoiding such a situation. Regardless, several companies discovered ways to beat the chip, such as piggybacking a chip from a licensed cartridge (Game Genie style) or using a voltage spike to knock out (bypass) the authentication circuit. Atari/Tengen (ironic, given their earlier role in necessitating such a system to begin with) notably obtained the specs of the chip by (falsely) claiming they needed it for evidence in a legal case of their own, using that information to make a duplicate chip, their "Rabbit" chip. Nintendo promptly sued them in return, winning one of two counts of infringement, but later choosing to settle out of court.

** This also applies to the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64. However, this time Nintendo went back to multiple chips, with three kinds deployed in NTSC regions (regardless of Japanese or North American releases) and two kinds deployed in PAL regions. for this setup, the other part of the chip was handled by the I/O chip itself on the [=N64=] and knocking it out would potentially kill the entire system. Additionally, the game can query the IO chip to ensure that the correct CIC chip is present.
* The Famicom Disk System's copy protection mechanism relied on a conceptually similar principle: the disks, which are nothing more than a semi-custom variant of Mitsumi's Quick Disk diskette format, had the wordmark "NINTENDO" molded at the bottom part of the disk, with the I and second N activating a switch that authenticated the games. As with the Game Boy, bootleggers can easily get away with duplicating the molds, but instead resort to [[PaperThinDisguise Paper Thin Disguises]] obfuscating the Nintendo name somewhat to "NINFENDO", "NINTEN", "NINJENDO", "INTEND" or any variation thereof, or even just "IN". Then again, it's just the matter of making the right indentations on the disk without the need to mold the Nintendo name or the aforementioned corruptions at all, making the protection scheme next to useless. In addition, third parties in Japan sold adapters for conventional Quick Disks to be converted to an FDS-compatible disk. (This was one of the many factors as to why Nintendo stuck with cartridges until the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube.)
* The UsefulNotes/GameBoy's anti-piracy protection system is an interesting example, being more of a passive system that relies more on their lawyers, akin to Sega's efforts on the Genesis, than on ''[=EarthBound=]''-style failsafes meant to cruelly penalize those who pirated it. The Game Boy boot ROM (often erroneously referred to by gamers as the BIOS, despite being technically more of a secure boot loader of sorts) checks for the presence of the Nintendo logo on the cartridge ROM, and if it matches the one stored on the boot ROM, the game loads up. Pirates can get away with just ripping it off an existing game for their bootleg titles to run, but as the "'''Nintendo®'''" logo is a registered trademark, that would make them an easy target for litigation: copyright may not be easily enforceable in certain jurisdictions, but trademarks are, hence the motivation for the scheme. A workaround taking advantage of a flaw in the system exists, as the bootloader reads the logo twice: once to display it on the LCD screen (along with the iconic "ping" sound), and the other to check if the original logo is in the cartridge ROM at all, to which a [[http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-04-born-slippy-the-making-of-star-fox proof of concept]] method of subverting it was submitted by Creator/ArgonautSoftware in a rather amusing way to get Nintendo's attention, which was a stark contrast to how the Big N infamously intimidated unlicensed developers during the NES days.

*** Speaking of Sega, while the [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Mega Drive/Genesis]] did the same general thing the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem did (differently shaped cartridges/slots), they had also planned on a Nintendo-style lockout system...until Creator/ElectronicArts reverse-engineered the system and used it to "negotiate" with Sega, resulting in Sega dropping the lockout policy entirely (and explaining why EA Genesis cartridges looked so different); this ultimately worked out for Sega as they were able to attract developers fed-up with Nintendo's strict policies.
* The UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube used a proprietary 8cm DVD based on the miniDVD. Both Gamecube and Wii discs use a slight variant of the DVD sector-level encoding, making it more or less a DVD-like optical disc format with SerialNumbersFiledOff. Contrary to popular belief, Nintendo optical discs aren't spun backwards, nor they are read outside-in. While they're mostly the same optical format as with conventional [=DVDs=], the main difference lies in obfuscating data on the disc, the encryption method used (which also involves the burst cutting area) and the proprietary filesystem. Certain DVD-ROM drives manufactured by LG are able to read through the discs, but these are rare and thus not readily available, so methods such as using Wii homebrew tools are a more viable approach.
* The Wii (as well as Wii Mode on the Wii U) will reject any UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole games on an SD card that weren't installed through the console itself. So do the [=DSi=] and 3DS, and this also applies to native games and apps on the SD card. This is because each game downloaded is immediately stamped (and probably encrypted) with the ID of the console that downloaded the game. Simply taking your SD card and putting it into another Wii will not work because the new console won't honor the game if the ID is different (or simply can't decrypt the game because the encryption key's different). However, doing a console transfer somehow and then putting in the SD card will allow the games on the SD card to be played on the new console- at the expense of the game no longer being playable on the old one.
* Game manuals for UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS games include a lovely bit of text: "''Important! Read the Nintendo 3DS operations manual before setup or use of your system''. This product contains technical protection measures. Use of an unauthorized device or any unauthorized technical modification to your Nintendo 3DS system, '''will''' render this game '''and/or system''' unplayable." Yes, Nintendo is putting it right there in the manual that if you attempt to modify your 3DS, they will attempt to brick it via firmware updates. The catch? At least one method of delivering these updates cannot be disabled, and (in theory, at least) all firmware updates must be accepted by the 3DS. It appeared to be an empty threat, considering the popularity of the 3DS for custom-built homebrew games and emulators; it's possible it simply meant that updates can brick the system if the firmware is modified.

* UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch:

* The UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance ''Franchise/DragonBall'' video game trilogy known as ''VideoGame/DragonBallZTheLegacyOfGoku'' (and the spiritual sequel, ''Anime/DragonBallGT: Transformation'') has its form of copy protection wherein a message pops up at a certain point saying "this game cannot be played on this hardware" and won't go away, should it detect that it isn't a legit copy (although there are rumours of some retail copies having this problem as well). The emulator [=VisualBoyAdvance=] used to have problems with this form of copy protection, which made playing the games on that emulator rather difficult. The problem: it checks for the Save Type Data and RTC. If the Save Type Data or RTC setting does not match the information concealed further into the cart, it will instantly declare that it is a "pirated cart". Since emulators allow one to change these settings, they would set to Auto, right? Auto either pulls the settings from the cart/ROM or from a database. If pulling from an outdated database or from the ROM, it will retrieve a false data, telling to use an invalid Save Type Data. A ''vba-over.ini'' can be used to automatically set the save type to the correct setting, ignoring the false data.

* At a certain point in ''VideoGame/StarTropics'', you are instructed to enter a three digit code[[note]]747, for those curious[[/note]] to allow [=Sub-C=] to track down Dr. Jones. The game instructs you to submerge the letter that Dr. Jones gave you to find this code without clarifying that the "letter" in question is in fact one of the {{Feelies}} that came with the game. This aspect is simulated and digitized in the Wii UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole port, but not in the versions included with the [[UsefulNotes/PlugnPlayGame NES Classic Edition]] or a Nintendo Switch Online subscription since they don't come with digital manuals, although in the case of the NES Classic Edition, the code is provided in the the Start Up guide labeled as a "Startropics Tip," although it's in small black text, and may not be easily noticed.

** However, the top-loading NES-101 omitted the lockout chips entirely, meaning that theoretically, a game made for the NES-101 may or may not be playable on the original NES-001.
** Similar chips were also used in the Super NES, although for the SNES it is likely that all regions use the same chip (the chip only assures that the cartridge was manufactured by Nintendo themselves, and has nothing to do with UsefulNotes/RegionCoding -- given that breaking (or filing) off a pair of tabs at the back of a North American SNES' cartridge slot is all it takes to get Japanese games running).

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesRingOfFates'' detects pirated copies. This causes the game to end after a while, with a "Thank you for playing!!" message, which certainly confused many pirates. Why not have a "Stop playing this game now, you dirty pirate!" message? This game was allowed as a demo in many stores, and this same message would play in the demos. The method of the Copy Protection is that the game has around a 30-45% chance of a random check to see if the game is a proper game... each time you change rooms in the dungeons. The demos were only given a certain amount of game memory and that does not include the key to stop the Copy Protection from activating. This truly is a great AP due to the way it confused so many Pirates.

* ''VideoGame/Gimmick1992'': At the beginning of [[SecretLevel Stage 7]], there is a small bug crawling on the wall above the gateway to the inside of the castle. When this bug is loaded into memory, the game silently runs a checksum routine to make sure that the code for the developer credits in the game's intro sequence has not been modified in any way. If the checksum fails, the game will lock up on a blank screen with the text "BLACK HOLE" (a direct ShoutOut to ''VideoGame/AtlantisNoNazo'', one of Creator/{{Sunsoft}}'s earliest Famicom games), making the GoldenEnding impossible to achieve.

* ''VideoGame/MrGimmick'': At the beginning of [[SecretLevel Stage 7]], there is a small bug crawling on the wall above the gateway to the inside of the castle. When this bug is loaded into memory, the game silently runs a checksum routine to make sure that the code for the developer credits in the game's intro sequence has not been modified in any way. If the checksum fails, the game will lock up on a blank screen with the text "BLACK HOLE" (a direct ShoutOut to ''VideoGame/AtlantisNoNazo'', one of Creator/{{Sunsoft}}'s earliest Famicom games), making the GoldenEnding impossible to achieve.

* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles III: The Manhattan Project'' reduces the damage the Turtles deal, doubles the damage they take, disables all {{Cheat Code}}s, and makes the FinalBoss, Super Shredder, [[UnwinnableByDesign invincible]] if the copyright code is modified.

* ''Digimon Story: Lost Evolution'' will lock the player out of menu access and other areas the moment the player arrives at North Bridge if its anti-piracy mechanism is triggered.