The bad cracks / 100% working games thread

[demoniac]

Originally Posted by mai

Atomic Robo-Kid (1990)(Activision)(Disk 2 of 2)[cr Angels - Genesis]
seems to be bad cracked or damaged.
Its the original scene release, unfortunalety no different disk 2 of this game exists, even the disk 2 of "Skid Row" crack is not available.
I have tried disk 2 of the IPF release and this disk works together with the cracked disk 1.

Are you talking about the image with 7701a1a5 CRC? If so, I passed it 100%.

There's no D2 for SKR as they only made a 1-disk crack, which asks for the Disc 2 at some point IIRC.

[mai]

Originally Posted by demoniac

Are you talking about the image with 7701a1a5 CRC? If so, I passed it 100%.

There's no D2 for SKR as they only made a 1-disk crack, which asks for the Disc 2 at some point IIRC.

This is a little bit curious, i did not played for myself the game, but a friend told me, that he got an error(trashed screen, game freezes) while the game loads from disk2(7701a1a5). Than he used the IPF disk 2 instead, he was able to finish the game, maybe he used wrong WinUAE settings while playing the ADF.
I am not sure, if the "Skid Row" crack is really a 1-disk version, the friend also told me, that this crack also asks for disk 2, he has used
Atomic Robo-Kid (1990)(Activision)[cr SR - Valhalla][t +2 PNS].
Another curious thing is, that
Atomic Robo-Kid (1990)(Activision)[cr SR - Valhalla][t +6 NRG]
never asks for disk 2.
In the trainer menu you can select the starting level, but only up to level 7, the whole game has much more levels.
After finishing level 7 the game goes back to main menu.

[mai]

Skid Row version needs definitelly the disk 2, its not a 1-disk version!

[mai]

just tried a few times and the game crashes while loading Act 18(track42), if i use "Atomic Robo-Kid (1990)(Activision)(Disk 2 of 2)[cr Angels - Genesis]"
if i use IPF instead, then it works.

[demoniac]

Originally Posted by mai

Skid Row version needs definitelly the disk 2, its not a 1-disk version!

I know. I'm saying SKR messed up. They released only one disk (instead of two).

As for your d2 crashing, what floppy emulation speed do you have it set to?

[Don_Adan]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

A 1 level demo is one thing, but for a company to WILLINGLY give the ENTIRE game makes no sense whatsoever.

it would be commercial suicide for any company to do that.

Sorry, you're just making non-sensical posts now.

The Silents would have given away one table, not the whole game!

Sorry, but you're wrong (again?). There are two types of game demos. First are the
normal demos, easily recognizable. The second types are those demos released
by the authors during the release of the full game, to delay the crack of
the original (for a few days, weeks, months even) which was available for
sale during that time. Not many examples of titles like that, but I'm sure
one of those was Pinball Dreams (2 disks from Skid Row if I remember
correctly) and Curse of Enchantia (4 disk demo). Go ahead and search for
those, I'm sure you'll find out.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Don_Adan

Sorry, but you're wrong (again?). There are two types of game demos. First are the
normal demos, easily recognizable. The second types are those demos released
by the authors during the release of the full game, to delay the crack of
the original (for a few days, weeks, months even) which was available for
sale during that time. Not many examples of titles like that, but I'm sure
one of those was Pinball Dreams (2 disks from Skid Row if I remember
correctly) and Curse of Enchantia (4 disk demo). Go ahead and search for
those, I'm sure you'll find out.

Sigh. This is getting entirely boring now.

Your little dig with "Sorry, but you're wrong (again?)", you've yet to prove me wrong.

Considering i've been on both sides of the fence (illegal side and as a programmer for commercial software companies), i'm guessing that makes me more informed than you.

Pinball Dreams and Curse of Enchantia were REVIEW copies as was St.Dragon.

Core Design were about as anti-piracy and scene cracking groups as you can get, they never did nor ever would allow a copy to be spread, even in non final format.

They were ALL review copies. How do I know this? Because ADS of Fairlight, previously of Inner City/Mayhem, Quartex and a few others had a contact with someone in one of the magazines that supplied him review copies.

Manchester United Premier League Champions released by Fairlight in 1994 was a magazine review copy.

Take it from someone who IS more learned on this subject than yourself.

As far as I am concerned, this subject is now over, by me continuing to respond to your ill researched posts, is only going to irk me to the point where I will no longer be able to respond in the calm manner I am able to do at the moment.

I sure as hell take umbrage with your suggesting i'm a liar and wrong on a subject I clearly know something about.

[Don_Adan]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Sigh. This is getting entirely boring now.

Your little dig with "Sorry, but you're wrong (again?)", you've yet to prove me wrong.

Considering i've been on both sides of the fence (illegal side and as a programmer for commercial software companies), i'm guessing that makes me more informed than you.

Pinball Dreams and Curse of Enchantia were REVIEW copies as was St.Dragon.

Core Design were about as anti-piracy and scene cracking groups as you can get, they never did nor ever would allow a copy to be spread, even in non final format.

They were ALL review copies. How do I know this? Because ADS of Fairlight, previously of Inner City/Mayhem, Quartex and a few others had a contact with someone in one of the magazines that supplied him review copies.

Manchester United Premier League Champions released by Fairlight in 1994 was a magazine review copy.

Take it from someone who IS more learned on this subject than yourself.

As far as I am concerned, this subject is now over, by me continuing to respond to your ill researched posts, is only going to irk me to the point where I will no longer be able to respond in the calm manner I am able to do at the moment.

I sure as hell take umbrage with your suggesting i'm a liar and wrong on a subject I clearly know something about.

You are wrong Pinball Dreams was not review copy, better check Skid Row intro for info. Maybe Curse of Enchantia can be review copy, but this (4 disks) version is perhaps not available on the net for test, I overwrite my version with final version. And if I remember right in one of previous mail you wrote that Saint Dragon was full version. That's all.
BTW. Review copy was Tearaway Thomas (another FLT crack ?), then you can add this game to uncracked game lists.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Don_Adan

You are wrong Pinball Dreams was not review copy, better check Skid Row intro for info. Maybe Curse of Enchantia can be review copy, but this (4 disks) version is perhaps not available on the net for test, I overwrite my version with final version. And if I remember right in one of previous mail you wrote that Saint Dragon was full version. That's all.
BTW. Review copy was Tearaway Thomas (another FLT crack ?), then you can add this game to uncracked game lists.

You're confusing yourself.

It is possible for a review copy to be the full version, but the software company certainly don't expect it to be leaked and cracked. Obviously in the case of Curse of Enchantia, Core Design protected their game by it not being the full version, but enough of the game was there for a magazine to give a fair review. If it got leaked, then Core know its not the full game.

St.Dragon was the full game, the only thing missing on the Skid Row version was the Copylock that was on the final master, because they didn't expect St.Dragon to be leaked from a magazine to hackers.

No idea about Tearaway Thomas, pretty sure its the full game as several people have completed it, and considering the only copy protection on Tearaway Thomas was the document check, which appears at the start of the game.

[sun68]

S K I D R O W is Cool l

better lamer QUARTEX

[sun68]

Bla, Bla

GALAHAD was Member of INFECT

Its True!

Rulez

Signed

sun68

[turrican3]

i remember in universe there was a protection a code you have to enter to start a car .
is there a version carcked, where you don't have to enter the good code ?
beneth a steel sky had the same kind of protection no ?

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by sun68

Bla, Bla

GALAHAD was Member of INFECT

Its True!

Reduce your drug consumption... Infect was a german demo group (that released the few odd cracks) and Galahad was never a member.

Originally Posted by turrican3

beneth a steel sky had the same kind of protection no ?

There are fully working BASS versions.

[mr.vince]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

No idea about Tearaway Thomas, pretty sure its the full game as several people have completed it, and considering the only copy protection on Tearaway Thomas was the document check, which appears at the start of the game.

1. I really wish Don would stop all this whining... It's okay to report non-working games here, but I'd prefer hard facts here instead of any thesis about which percentage was not broken well. Thanks Galahad for staying so calm.

2. Tearaway Thomas has the very same message about being a review copy in the final game, too. So I bet this message being in the final game is not an indicator for the crack being made based on a review copy. Why do I know this? I did compare both versions because the original is PITA to use because the code sheet is photocopied (!) onto red paper and barely readable.

[mai]

Hound of Shadow, The (1989)(Electronic Arts)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr QS]
seems to be not cracked, it seems the all files on disk are unmodified, if i compare with IPF all files match exactly.
Several other disks in TOSEC collection are also uncracked, except:
Hound of Shadow, The (1989)(Electronic Arts)(Disk 1 of 2)[a]
72772616
>>>>>>>
Hound of Shadow, The (1989)(Electronic Arts)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr SAE]
and
Hound of Shadow, The (1989)(Electronic Arts)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr Fredo]
1D5CE473

Also the image found in Boilerroom, where you can read its cracked by "Defjam", seems to be not cracked, again all Files match with the IPF release.

[demoniac]

^ Maybe those are just spread by those spread by those groups? Any additional files on the disks?

[mai]

Originally Posted by demoniac

^ Maybe those are just spread by those spread by those groups? Any additional files on the disks?

Hound of Shadow, The (1989)(Electronic Arts)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr QS]
intro by "Quicksilver" and a message file by "Quicksilver" which says its cracked by "Defjam - CCS - ACC".
Another note is, that one bigfile(picturefile) is destroyed(checksum error).

[Don_Adan]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

You're confusing yourself.

It is possible for a review copy to be the full version, but the software company certainly don't expect it to be leaked and cracked. Obviously in the case of Curse of Enchantia, Core Design protected their game by it not being the full version, but enough of the game was there for a magazine to give a fair review. If it got leaked, then Core know its not the full game.

St.Dragon was the full game, the only thing missing on the Skid Row version was the Copylock that was on the final master, because they didn't expect St.Dragon to be leaked from a magazine to hackers.

No idea about Tearaway Thomas, pretty sure its the full game as several people have completed it, and considering the only copy protection on Tearaway Thomas was the document check, which appears at the start of the game.

I'll try to explain to you, as easy as possible so you would understand it (here's hoping).
For the start, I'll describe what is a good crack according to me:
1. All protection like doc check, copylock or MFM are removed, along with the checksum.
2. Contains all graphical (plus intro and outro) and sound data as the original game.
3. Crack runs on the same amount of memory (0.5MB Chip and 0.5MB Fast for example) as the original game.
4. Crack runs on the same CPU as the original game.
5. Crack runs on the same ROM as the original game.
6. Crack runs on the same number of different disk drives as the original game.
7. Crack is installable on a HD and runnable from it, if the original game can do so.
8. All codes (cheats and level changing) must work like in the original game.
9. Saving and loading works, if the original game does.
10. Must work on the same chipset as the original game.

Also, very useful features are:
1. PAL/NTSC fix.
2. Bugfixes of the original ingame errors.
3. HD installation, even if the original game doesn't allow it.
4. Repacking of the game so that it would fit on the same number of disks as the original (if possible).
5. Unabling the game to run on all possible configurations. This concerns all chipsets, amount of RAM, CPU or ROM type.

BTW. I don't like it when the cracker replaces the original credits (authors) or highscores, a cracktro or the bootblock is for that.

Just because you are/were a cracker and worked in a game development company does only mean you've got better knowledge then a simple Amiga user, not that you're the alpha and the omega, because you're not. Maybe you'll become one day, who knows.

Now let's get to all the errors which I'll try to list here, easily for you to understand (here's hoping).
1. Gem'X is a good crack you said. For me it isn't, because the cracker forgot about the outro data and keyboard control, and that's why you can't input any level or cheat codes, or see the ending. Try to play the game without being able to input the level code, you have to always start from the first level. Not to mention it looks different then the original, like a beta (or a review copy - as you call it), because it's data is different then the original data. What's funny, the cracker called it Gem'X 100%, but for me this isn't even a 70% crack. But maybe there is a different (badly cracked) version of the game released by the same or other group, I don't know, never seen it. And writing about something that it's 100%, when it isn't, says much about the abilities of the cracker. Or his ego.

2. You claim that the Saint Dragon crack (?) by Skid Row is the full game.Just because it uses a comparably same data as the original it doesn't necessary mean it uses all the data the original game uses. You can check that in Apidya by playing on any difficulty level (starting from EASY), and you'll soon find out that each time the game will be slightly different, both looking at the level design and graphics used. The most important aspect is always the code that runs the data files. Depending on free memory, processor type or chipset, the same game could look/run much/slightly different. For me the Skid Row crack is no review copy but a demo as it works differently then the original game. One can notice it quickly by simply playing that version and the original, in the demo after killing the Dragon you will loose all weapons while in the original you will not. This so-called crack was dated by Skid Row on the 4th of September 1990, while the original is dated at the 2nd November 1990. You really think that after 8 weeks all the authors did was adding the RNC copylock? For such a long time they could change/fix/add many different things in any game. And because it's best to give an example on what was change in those versions, here they are:

Full
dc.l $446E7818,$C52D2CA,$E4F096C4,$B94F4B75,$11763A39
dc.l $CAEC9589,$FBA9544D,$76D052F,$53D5D5E9,$EF86C5AF
dc.l $424A7964,$164A3BD9,$F0FEE99E,$AA445A7A,$7E4E586F
dc.l $6B1F0B3B,$C0B8EAF0,$95C4BD4F,$507D0256,$40676F09
dc.l $7F26CDDD,$8BEC90AD,$B94C5262,$6053D7C,$5E637403
dc.l $D2B855E,$6772097F,$3FDCB8EF,$FF88E458,$7F75051A
dc.l $7257637A,$D1934C0,$D1E5FF85,$A1B30A5A,$6710D0B
dc.l $37A5CCE3,$FBF1B6B6,$4E547F0D,$762838D9,$E7E79CDB
dc.l $40697409,$B3ACCD6,$EC9E82B4,$B8495610,$1032030
dc.l $DBA25E63,$7D050B33,$D1D1E4F0,$F1A2A244,$5E640A19
dc.l $277C476E,$7C6C183C,$CAD5EE9E,$90B0D742,$527D0656
dc.l $44631900,$1024C0B8,$FFF694C4,$A75F5364,$6023D3D
dc.l $D6A2437F,$6B030B37,$C6D0E5F7,$92B7F755,$6F6A047F
dc.l $34CCD6EC,$FB83E451,$747C0D14,$52CADEED,$9E85ACB2
dc.l $2A5C6417,$172A37AF,$F6FD8DFB,$BD495D62,$7609403A
dc.l $D5B9FFEB,$9BA9B42B,$4B61445E,$637C0206,$52C8DDEE
dc.l $F088C4BA,$4F581013,$32728CA,$F6E18982,$CE4C5569
dc.l $63083427,$A6D4EDF1,$8BA0AC5F,$3E7C0519,$3338C4F7
dc.l $969989A1,$565A673B

Demo
dc.l $5F6F6F09,$C725074,$7C081626,$D6985F63,$6F091372
dc.l $5E637403,$D2B8544,$63781C10,$3C85587F,$75051A72
dc.l $5A6B7419,$113BD1C1,$AB5B6F7E,$4133BC2,$D0FFBE40
dc.l $7278010F,$7246766A,$51B37A5,$DCE4E99F,$E49F0000

3. Concerning Curse Of Enchantia I'm not 100% sure if it was a demo or a review copy, because it's been a while and probably nobody has that version anymore so I could check. Anyways, that one was probably a demo version from the authors, so that it would've been cracked before the full game. You say that wasn't the case, but I rememeber a different Core Design game - Skeleton Krew. The demo version was cracked (?) by Paradox, and it succesfully delayed the cracking of the full game by Mok for Prestige, for many (at least 4) weeks. In the mean time the full game was sold in stores (the first few days/weeks are the most important after a release of a new game), and anybody who checked the bad crack noticed something's wrong with it, probably thought the crackers fucked something and because the game was quite good went out to buy the full game.

And another thing. You claim that the game Primal Rage is AGA only. Well, not exactly, it only requires 2MB of RAM (at least 1MB Chip) as I've finished (original 1.4 version and WT crack) it on my A2000 ECS.

Short: HD-Installer for Primal Rage AGA V1.1Author: Galahad/Fairlight and Codetapper/Action
Uploader: Codetapper/Action (codetapper at hotmail dot com)
Version: 1.1
Type: game/patch

This patch applies to Primal Rage AGA, ©1995 Atari Corp / Time WarnerInteractive 4 Disk version, original release

[Don_Adan]

Originally Posted by mr.vince

1. I really wish Don would stop all this whining... It's okay to report non-working games here, but I'd prefer hard facts here instead of any thesis about which percentage was not broken well. Thanks Galahad for staying so calm.

Like you wish, this is my last word in this thread, with "hard facts" even for you, I think.

[andreas]

6. Crack runs on the same number of different disk drives as the original game.

Awfully cool point.
So if the game only supported one drive, it would be a sacrilege if the crack supported 2 or 3 huh?
Hah, yes sure.