when was the first mod?

[camochase]

I have noidea when this was. so i figured why not ask the modding community. When was the first game mod that allowed for playable roms. i imagine it has to be around the time the first computer came out

 

[DinohScene]

NES had copyboxes.
Which allowed to play backupped games.

I bet that older consoles also had similar devices.
C64 had a floppy drive wich could play copied games.

 

[Depravo]

I remember when games came on tapes that could be copied on any twin cassette deck.

 

[finkmac]

Every Cartridge-Based system was able to play ROMs out of the box, since ROM = Read Only Memory…

 

[FAST6191]

As others have said "pretty much from the start".

However software as its own entity is actually newer than the advent of programmable computers and going slightly beyond that early home computers were soldered together by the end user.

A video you might like to watch
Defcon 18 - You're stealing it wrong

 

[Engert]

It’s hard to say and it’s debatable by Historians but most people argue that the first Mod was around the time of Moses. He was able to kick/allow people into his group and he had quite the forum which was not really a Democracy per se.

 

[Maxternal]

You have to also consider that in the beginning of computing and gaming there wasn't a fine line between a home computer and a game console. It wasn't like the computer was a completely separate entity that you could use to store your ROM files and the copy them to the console. Things were so low level you kinda had to "mod" it to get it to work in the first place.

 

[PolloDiablo]

As others have said "pretty much from the start".

However software as its own entity is actually newer than the advent of programmable computers and going slightly beyond that early home computers were soldered together by the end user.

A video you might like to watch
Defcon 18 - You're stealing it wrong

that Afghanistan joke was awful

 

[Wizerzak]

Well considering that the early consoles / computers had little in the way of copyright protection... pretty much since ever.

 

[Pleng]

I remember (poorly) hacking Dizzy sprites into DJ Puff's Volcanic Capers on the C64 using an Action Replay cartridge. Back in the day's when Action Replay cartridges were cool (seriously!)

 

[Veho]

Well considering that the early consoles / computers had little in the way of copyright protection... pretty much since ever.

They were copy-protected by the fact they used cartridges, and the fact you needed a ton of expensive equipment and a small factory to produce a copy.

 

[Arm73]

Well I supposed there's always been a way to play (or watch ) pirated content, going as far back as the early 80's for me when I use to get copies of games for my ZX Spectrum ( like it's already been mentioned, those computers had software on cassette tapes, and all you needed was a dual deck in order to copy them ).

However " strictly " speaking of modchips, I must say I first get acquainted with the term, in the mid 90s when most of my friends had a modded PSX capable of running fake games ( I mean copies ) .
There were electronic shops performing the soldering mod for a few quids in my town.

Soft-modding consoles can't be completely regarded as mod-chipping it, even when the end result is practically the same.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

I used to be friends with a smaller cracking group in the early 80's, they did a lot of Apple IIe stuff... lol

I believe there was Eprom carts for the 2600 but you needed hardware to write them and a connection to a computer of the time. Also you needed an original to copy since downloading them was very limited at the time. Probably BBS stuff mostly.

Edit:

They were copy-protected by the fact they used cartridges, and the fact you needed a ton of expensive equipment and a small factory to produce a copy.

Not as much equipment as you would think. Still expensive but people did buy and use these things.


http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/165065-duplicator-sp-280-made-by-unimex/

 

[Veho]

Not as much equipment as you would think. Still expensive but people did buy and use these things.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/165065-duplicator-sp-280-made-by-unimex/

I never said the copy protection was 100% effective
I was exaggerating with the "factory" thing; you could always just solder your own out of hobby shop parts (some of the consoles at the time were manufactured that way as well ).
How much did such a device (and a blank cartridge) cost?

 

[Foxi4]

Every Cartridge-Based system was able to play ROMs out of the box, since ROM = Read Only Memory…

Not the NES, at least not all of'em.

 

[gifi4]

It’s hard to say and it’s debatable by Historians but most people argue that the first Mod was around the time of Moses. He was able to kick/allow people into his group and he had quite the forum which was not really a Democracy per se.

This has nothing to do with the thread but...
Every time I see your damn avatar, all that goes through my mind is "You think I've got c**t written on my forehead?" Cracks me up every time xD

 

[finkmac]

Not the NES, at least not all of'em.

What does the 10NES have to do with it? NES Cartridges have the games stored on ROM chips, therefore they can play ROMs...

 

[Foxi4]

What does the 10NES have to do with it? NES Cartridges have the games stored on ROM chips, therefore they can play ROMs...

OH! That's what you meant! I thought you meant "ROM's on flashcarts" or something.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

I never said the copy protection was 100% effective
I was exaggerating with the "factory" thing; you could always just solder your own out of hobby shop parts (some of the consoles at the time were manufactured that way as well ).
How much did such a device (and a blank cartridge) cost?

I am not sure how much they costed, I remember some one I knew had something like the one I linked (might have been the same one for all I know.) My best guess is in the 300-600 dollar range for the machine and the carts where probably 5-10 each? I could be horrendously off since the things where built in Poland or something so could have been pretty cheap at the time?

http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/Misc/unimex.htm

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atar...ator-sp280-unimex-duplikator-sp280_20312.html

Fake Edit: Too lazy to update my post, I did find the price for it. In 1984 when it launched the machine costed 200 DM (Deutsche Marks) Still digging for the price of the carts, and as far as DM to Dollars back in 1984 yikes that's a whole different research project lol Not sure what the exchange rate was back then....

http://guide.digitpress.com:8080/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=23828

One cool thing about looking at all this information I stumbled across this thing... and now I want one lol

Actual edit: This one looks even cooler, you could load games on cassette tape... lol

http://www.atarimania.com/list_ads_atari_page-_5-_2.html

 

[pwsincd]

I used to lend friends games and tape to tape copy them for my Commodore vic20 , BBC micro volume levels had to be controlled though couldnt just bang em in .

ME and my friends during computer studies (as it was called back then) used to flash games to eeproms to insert into the BBC and build a Teletext style menu to load them. Got me my O Level that did lmao ...

EDIT : to answer the OP this was around about 1983/4 , jesus was it really...