Comments on: Wacky copy protection methods from the good old days

By: Nicholas Maietta

Nicholas Maietta — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:13:31 +0000

I think it’s about time business start re-thinking their business models. We live in a different world, and too many of these people who create software, games, music and movies… still focus on a pay-per-copy model. There has to be a better way, and i’m sure many of the companies who thought outside the box are doing just fine.

When my mom wrote her book, she never did it to make money. Instead, she just wanted to tell her story. Out of hundreds of publishing companies, just 2 decided to make her a deal. She refused, and now her book sells at a slightly higher price per copy, but she retains full control over distribution. She had to think outside the box. Plenty of business will sell a book if it fits in with their ideas.

I have an uncle who’s friend made a CD in the Santa Cruz, CA area, and she distributes music through select shops around the country. She’s not trying to get her music distributed in WalMart or Target. Instead, the small shops sell plenty of copies and keeps her and the shop owners in business.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:30:57 +0000

I remember the manuals for X-Wing and TIE Fighter had access codes you needed for login; the screen would show you a code in Aurebesh and you had to find the corresponding code and type out the english equivalent. They were three-letter Aurabesh and full English words so just knowing how to transliterate wouldn’t get you anywhere.

By: Patch

Patch — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:03:13 +0000

Chuck Yeagers Air Combat asked you to type in some detail about one of the in game planes. When I lost my ‘manual’ (Read 20 photocopied pages :/) I had to keep going round til it asked me the one I could remember.

The beauty was that the game had loads of plane stats included, so I just went to the plane info pages and noted down the details there. Interestingly not all of them were correct as far as the copy protection was concerned.

Zool had a black on black code wheel I remember. That was difficult to read in the daylight, let alone in my dingy computer room.

I got a copy of test drive three with out any of the copy protection, the game became ‘how far can you get in the 30 seconds that it gives you before the car blows up’.

By: Bl0ss0m

Bl0ss0m — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:12:42 +0000

Ha, we managed to copy Monkey island anyway – then we photocopied the wheel and stuck it together! I loved playing that game so much as a kid!

By: Starzky

Starzky — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:28:58 +0000

Zork Zero had the blueprint from Frobozz Construction with a yellow sticky note telling you where the item was in the maze, plus a calendar that gave clues without which you’d be stuffed. Not to mention the scrap of parchment that was completely useless in game. You HAD to look at the physical copy of it for it to be of any use.

Leisure Suit Larry’s adult protection wasn’t so useful once you worked out that Ctrl+Alt+X bypassed the whole lot…

By: zzzz

zzzz — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:28:43 +0000

the program NeverLock solved most of the manual based protection issues for those people who, errrr, lost their manuals.

By: Lolthien

Lolthien — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:22:37 +0000

What about Star Control 2?

You had to have the giant paper map with THOUSANDS of stars on it, and it asked you for the star at two very specific coordinates.. often there was a grouping of four or five stars and you’d have to keep trying to get the right one.

By: Esparta Palma

Esparta Palma — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:32:29 +0000

The SPSS software still has a dongle protection (usb presentation)

By: gSathe

gSathe — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:02:08 +0000

I could be wrong, it’s been a long time, but I sorta remember something along these lines from Ultima 7 – you’re asked questions as part of the main quest, which were given as part of the lore in the manual… I wasn’t all that great protection I guess, but it really kind of was a plus, you know?

By: Spunky Muldonn

Spunky Muldonn — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:30:20 +0000

I remember the first Championship Manager had attendance figures posted inside the box lid.

DRM isn’t about stopping piracy, though, it’s about control these days.

Think about it: Ten years from now, you want to play Spore. Or any other game with DRM that requires activation. It’s thanks to pirates we’ll still be able to play these games. I doubt you’ll be able to still activate Spore and the like in ten years time. The companies are building in an expiration date. Planned obsolescence if you will. Essentially forcing you to buy new games.

Pirates should be commended IMO for archiving these works for the future, when EA and the like would rather you never play the game you bought and buy another one. It’s thanks to them we’re still able to play a lot of older games, and their work has become even more important in this era of crippling controls. (Can’t call it copy protection as any check of a torrent site shows that claim is nonsense.)

And not all versions of Elite came with that stupid copy protection. (Though it’s amusing to see that even back then, the developers didn’t give a damn about screwing over a percentage of users.) The version I had on the Spectrum didn’t.

And anyone who wants to know the effectiveness of dongles… Just google the Amiga version of Robocop 3. Classic story that always makes me laugh.

Lesson to developers: NEVER say something is uncrackable.