If it’s physically impossible to write to a ROM (read-only memory) cartridge, how do manufacturers do it?

Question

Is somehow locked physically during production, or through software?

In: 210

Answer 1

The best explanation I have is that your question is wrong. It’s impossible to REWRITE a piece of ROM. When it gets made, the information is built into it, for instance an integrated circuit (in which they build the part and lay the circuitry in it as it’s being made, the circuit functioning as the data). It’s written in the process of manufacturing. If you wanted to rewrite it as the end user, you’d need to somehow rip the whole thing apart and put new circuits in, IE destroying the part and technically just recycling the raw materials through the same manufacturing process.

I used a lot of incorrect terminology, sorry, but if I was more technical it would stop being an ELI5. If you want more extensive information, you want to look at how ROM is manufactured because there are a lot of different storage methods, just like editable memory.