Just wondering if it is legal to build games for the Gameboy Advance. I have read from different places that it is and in others that it isn''t.

It is legal if Nintendo sells you a license

It''s legal even if you don''t have a license, as long as you don''t use any of Nintendo''s resources to do so.

That is, no pirated SDKs, etc.

You''d have trouble publishing an unlicensed game, though.

I''m sure it''s illegal to sell/publish an game that''s not officially approved by Nintendo and published by a licensed Nintendo publisher.

That said, there''s no harm in using public domain tools develop a demo, then shop the demo around to licensed publishers...

Sony is promoting this exact concept with their PS2-Linux kit. Develop prototypes on the Linux kit, then shop the demo/prototype around to licensed publishers.

Graham Rhodes
Senior Scientist
Applied Research Associates, Inc.

quote: Original post by grhodes_at_work
I''m sure it''s illegal to sell/publish an game that''s not officially approved by Nintendo and published by a licensed Nintendo publisher.

Bear in mind that Codemasters challenged this in a UK court and won. So although it may be illegal in most territories, there is legal precedent to show that it is legal in the UK.



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If my memory serves me correctly its ''illegal'' because to boot the cart it requires the Nintendo logo to be shown which is going to be protected. As Kylotan says there have been a few cases like Codemasters where this has been tested in court and proved as fair use or similar. (I think this was against Sega)

But then you have the further problem of designing, manafacturing and distributing carts plus finding a publisher willing to help you deal with any fallout it generates.

Also at the moment I don''t think Nintendo are looking for more licensed GBA developers.

I have some experience with GBA coding, porting one of my PC games to GBA just to figure it out a bit and then worked on some other stuff in the various bitmap and tile modes. I got started from GBADev.org, it''s pretty simple to program for actually.

~WarDekar