SpritesMind.Net

After expedited discovery and a hearing, the district court granted Sega’s motion. Prior to the hearing, Sega introduced the declaration of Takeshi Nagashima, an employee of Sega. Nagashima stated that it was possible either to create a game program which did not contain the TMSS code but would still operate on the Genesis III, or to modify a game program so that the Sega Message would not appear when the game cartridge was inserted. Nagashima stated that he had been able to make both modifications using standard components, at a total extra cost of approximately fifty cents. At the hearing, counsel for Sega produced two game cartridges which, he represented, contained the modifications made by Nagashima, and demonstrated to the district judge that the Sega Message <977 F.2d 1517> did not appear when the cartridges were inserted into a Genesis III console. Sega offered to make the cartridges available for inspection by Accolade’s counsel, but declined to let Accolade’s software engineers examine the cartridges or to reveal the manner in which the cartridges had been modified. The district court concluded that the TMSS code was not functional and that Accolade could not assert a functionality defense to Sega’s claim of trademark infringement.

Jorge Nuno wrote:"...modifications using standard components, at a total extra cost of approximately fifty cents." This could mean a regular 74HC chip, and indeed you can use an OR-gate (74HC32) connected to A23 and A22 and use the output as a rom chip select. The /Cart pin must be pulled high, too.

Nagashima stated that it was possible either to create a game program which did not contain the TMSS code but would still operate on the Genesis III...

char strng[]={'S','E'-'S','G'-'E'-'S','A'-'G'-'E'-'S'};

aux = 0;

for(i=0;i<4;i++) {aux+=strng[i]; tmss[i]=aux;}