Childhood memories, bare with me...
Back in 1976 I was just a kid who got a
pong clone on my birthday, when I opened it up out of curiosity there was something interesting about the mode select switch. After closer inspection I noticed that the lever could be pulled two more steps when the case was off enabling a "duck hunt" game which was not possible to play with the case on because the panel didn't allow the switch to reach this position.
This is my earliest memory of "hacking" a video game, it was an awkward feeling to realize that the only thing separating the two versions of this pong clone was how far the CNC machine had cut that case slit. As you probably guessed I filed up the case slit enabling the switch to reach all game modes.
Discovering this and fixing the problem was very satisfying, actually more so than actually playing the silly
pong game. I think many users here on EAB can relate to this feeling, both regarding cracking software and hacking hardware.
IMHO, the reason this type of licensing is a bad idea for ACA-1221 is because I want Jens to get paid for his work, rather than having some 'keygen' appear in the near future. At the same time it would be great fun to try and code such a tool...see my point?
