| Tachikoma said: First Basic Program reffers to IC level code which would be encryption on the savedata, just the same as the Gamecube and N64 used. Second basic program would be file management code for handling files within its memory. And yes it does look like, from the patent documentation that a seperate optical drive unit will be usable but that doesnt change the fact that the console itself does not have the ability to read disks or game data from external memory cards, the wording does not suggest a version WITH an optical drive at all, it suggests an external device seperate from the main console. The FBP on memory card being a portion of the OS makes no difference to its operation as a memory card as the memory card would need to communicate with the OS directly to handle crypto and validity checking, ndeed if they go the same way as the N64, GC and PS2 the memory card data would be accessible in the boot chain for service level code execution (Recovery, diagnostics). But hey, I don't personally care what you want to believe or how you want to intepret things, if it makes you sleep better at night more power to you. |
Once again, the actual patent document describes it as an EXAMPLE of how the data might be distributed. It's not intended as covering all circumstances. The patent is focused on digital download, so obviously they're not going to show games being loaded via memory card in the patent.
As for the optical drive, the wording actually implies a DIFFERENT but equivalent console having an optical drive: " The same interface as that of the optical disk drive mounted on another compatible game apparatus is employed for the interface of the internal HDD 13 in the game apparatus 1 according to the present example embodiment"
So it's likely that they mean two versions of the same system, and not just a way to plug in a disk drive. But either way, the point we've established is that they clearly aren't forsaking retail. The patent specifically discusses the case of optical drives, and the patent includes a specific discussion of running "programs" from a memory card, something that the Wii U doesn't do (except in Wii mode). Even as a "basic program", the point is made. And since the patent isn't about running software from a memory card, they just needed a scenario to talk about, not all possible scenarios. Hence why they also didn't talk about what the hardware would look like with the optical drive attached.
