Messages in game code for crackers

gary · 14 June 2002, 09:06

For any ex-crackers reading this, did you come across software that had hidden messages intended to be read by a would-be cracker?

I suspect that if there was room free, some programmers (maybe while writing the copy-protection) would probably leave discouraging/offensive/pleading messages to anyone looking through their code

I seem to remember comments in the Pinball Dreams code mentioning copying the software, and in Lotus2 there was a sound sample (played in the title tune very softly) which was speech which said something like "You will not copy this game".

Are there any others?

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 20:14

Here are some in-game messages to crackers!

Alien Breed:

"STOP IT =NOW=, OK! You will gain *NOTHING* from breaking this protection, but I guess you're too fucking ignorant, narrow-minded or maybe even too stupid to understand that. Yeah, so you and your 'leaders' and 'spreaders' (that's what they like to call themselves, but they're nothing but LEECHES gaining some kind of fame from the work you do) will have something to spread around on BBS', ok... But what the hell do they, or you, REALLY get for all that, huh? Ok credits... So they can download some shit games or other software, but in a wider perspective? I'll tell you =NOTHING=. It's pointless. If you don't realize that now, I assure you that in a few years you will look back at this time and wonder why you did it. I know that from experience. Go and do something constructive, like studying, socializing, programming or whatever! Cracking is not constructive. To you it might seem like a challenge or something you do to get famous, well OK it is a challenge to crack, and you do get famous if you're good at it. Famous for a while, a short while. But nobody will care about that five years from now. You will benefit much more from getting a job, education or a girlfriend, I'm telling you because I KNOW. I was a cracker once, one of the best. In a time when you could actually send the originals by mail, work for a day or two, and then send the cracked version back, and still have a world-first release. Then the scene consisted by computer freaks who made it for the fun of it. The scene today is perverted and lead by ignorant computer-illiterate idiots, only in for the fame and money. They think they're famous and legendary, but nobody likes or admires them for sure. I HATE IT! Now I've realized the stupidity of my actions, and I wish I could undo them. You'll also do just that in a few years too if you have a conscience, and wish you had done something else. SO DON'T CRACK IT!"

Amiga1992 · 14 June 2002, 20:17

There's the classic Jeff Minter message inside one of his games, forgot which one.... What was the line??? I forgot everything ! Damn. I will look onto this one later.

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 20:23

Blood Money:

"Well hello there hackers. I'll warn you now that this game has a LOT of protection, so it will be a few late nights for you lot. It's a mugs game anyway, you should be writing games and making loads of money like me (you too could afford a 16V Astra GTE), but you are obviously lacking in a few brain cells & will put a weeks work into cracking this for what? SOD ALL, thats what. Well if you do manage to crack it send me a copy: DAVE JONES, DMA DESIGN, MINTLAW PARK, WEST FERRY, DUNDEE DD5 1RD. In return you will get sod all as usual. In the meantime I'll be thinking of you when I'm in Florida, spending some of my dosh."

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 20:27

Cabal

"celui qui crack Cabal est un ANE...!"

Translation - "Whoever cracks Cabal is a FOOL...!"

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 20:29

Castle Kingdoms:

"CASTLE KINGDOMS © MUTATION SOFTWARE 1997 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.WHY ARE YOU READING THIS TEXT THERES NOTHING TO CRACK HERE M8

"

Ian · 14 June 2002, 20:31

Quote:

Originally posted by CodyJarrett
(you too could afford a 16V Astra GTE)

Last of the big spenders eh

They must of cost all of £10000 when he wrote that

Now if he said a Cossie then maybe someone would have took notice.

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 20:39

Elite:

"NOVELLA PROTECTION VIOLATION The SLEEPER has been installed! When it wakes, expect major damage to CMOS circuitry.

Development of good software takes time and costs money. Stealing software can only damage the future availability of first class products and artificially increases the cost to genuine purchasers. To discourage theft we have installed 'The SLEEPER'. Expect CMOS failure at sometime in the future if 'cracked copies' are used. You have been warned!"

14 June 2002, 20:41

Dragon's Lair: Escape From Singe's Castle:

This one is pathetic (oh, please, please...)

"Once again, a small note to pirates and crackers: I thank you very much for delaying the release of DL1, but must once again ask you to please wait with Escape. We have tried to provide the Amiga community with the best possible game for your money (unlike many other companies), and hope that once again there will be enough sales into the future to support yet another game we are planning for the Amiga: TERMINATOR! Please consider delaying your release of Escape. As more and more quality companies leave the Amiga for the more profitable IBM, C64 and Nintendo markets, it is up to you, the users, to show which computer is truly Visionary. Randy "Irwin" Linden"

Randy Linden aka the guy behind PSX emu Bleem

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 20:46

F1 Tornado:

"If you can't crack this game then you are lamer than lame.. PIRACY IS THEFT... IF YOU COPY THIS GAME THEN REMEMBER - IF F.A.S.T. CATCH YOU THE MAXIMUM PENALTY IS SIX MONTHS IN PRISON... If you crack this game then there's plenty of space for an intro (from sectors 600+) so do something good!! Do you want to cheat??? Then here's some 'codes' to type in on the title screen .... type in everything between the asterisks, including punctuation... Cheat 1 - *I AM A SIX HEADED ALIEN FROM OUTER SPACE*Cheat 2 - *EARWIGS ARE THE MASTER RACE*Cheat 3 - *QUEX, I LOVE YOU, AND I WILL BUY ALL OF YOUR GAMES - HONEST* there also is another but I'll leave it to you to find out.... Please leave in these codes instead of doing a trainer cos" [Message mysteriously ends! - Cody]

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 20:54

Jurassic Park AGA:

"CRACK THIS GAME AND YOU DIE!!!!!!! I AM NOT KIDDING!! I KNOW WHO YOU ALL ARE!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!"

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 20:58

Little Puff In Dragonland:

"Project 66 - (C) 1990 Codemasters Ltd. - Programmed by Derek Leigh-Gilchrist. VERSION 1.12 - don't crack this! For more info read the text at the start of the protection..."

14 June 2002, 21:02

Quote:

Jurassic Park AGA:
"CRACK THIS GAME AND YOU DIE!!!!!!! I AM NOT KIDDING!! I KNOW WHO YOU ALL ARE!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!"

That one is as lame as the game itself

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 21:02

Metal Law:

"HIGHSCORES
1ST 300000 KILL ALL
2ND 250000 BLOODY
3RD 200000 MOTHER-
4TH 150000 FUCKING
5TH 100000 CRACKERS!!"

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 21:04

Naughty Ones:

"Sorry guys. No time for a proper protection. Have mercy!.. Melon Dezign did a lot for the scene, so please give us a break. No challenge in breaking this one anyways... PS: We were NEVER paid to make an intro for anyone, but maybe you will reward us by not cracking/spreading this one... OK?? PPS: Just spend my last money buying a mobilephone, so I really need every dime this game can make... Merry Xmas everyone, seeing you around..."

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 21:05

Navy Seals:

"Crackers Nightmare :-(
Assembled on 19/6/1991 at 12:26:19"

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 21:15

Suspicious Cargo:

"Mr. E Says HI! to all the sad crackers (that means you) who can't crack this 100%... Have fun with the chexsums lamers!!!....I'll be looking out for a copy I can finish , so sad bastards, merry Xmas. Till then, WAR......Dave Exile says "The game may run, be does it play till the end???" - you dicks probably can't finish it to find out anyhow.THOSE WHO CAN, WRITE GAMES, THOSE WHO CAN'T JUST CRACK GAMES. I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU SAD PEOPLE. MAYBE ONE DAY YOU WILL GET A LIFE. OH, BUT YOU WOULD NEED A PERSONALITY FOR THAT...AND YOU MIGHT HAVE TO COME OUT OF YOUR BEDROOM. TILL THEN, YOU'L HAVE TO GET YOUR KICKS FROM CRACKING GAMES AND READING WANK MAGS......Over and out, Dave The Exile."

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 21:16

Sword Of Sodan:

"hi, strange place to meet?? i guess it's ok for you to peek around in my boot block, but if you are out to crack this program, may the worst curse be on you forever!"

CodyJarrett · 14 June 2002, 21:26

Toobin':

"(c)domark 1989 by teque developments

big f--k offs go to quartex - paralamia accumulamers the band - mag.fields and any other girly cracking / swapping groups. ha ha ha

message to red sector your mega demo is - totally mega cool. we all love vector balls

did you know that slime who crack games have very small dicks and are homosexual message end... bye"

DPainter · 14 June 2002, 21:26

Here's an excerpt from a USENET message dated May 1984 (Google link ):

Quote:

An interesting note: Some companies are starting to leave messages
for pirates inside protected code. One program asked nicely not to
distibuted the now assumed cracked program at a large scale level.
Electromic Arts sprinkles throughout its game disks this message:
"Don't break this game, write you own instead!" Very amusing. However,
Electronic Arts failed to realize (or maybe it was intentional) that
every place on the disk where this message was (there were 3 places),
there was code right next to it which had something to do with the
protection. Made it much more easier to crack. Anyway, I'm taking
a little advice from Electronic Arts: I am going to start to write
my own....PROTECTIONS! (If you can't beat them, and I can beat them,
join them I guess.) Look for me on my latest protection; we pirates
who have looked at several different kinds of protections are the best
at writing our own. Who said I can't change my stripes......

14 June 2002, 09:06	#1
gary Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Perth, Western Australia Age: 50 Posts: 283	Messages in game code for crackers For any ex-crackers reading this, did you come across software that had hidden messages intended to be read by a would-be cracker? I suspect that if there was room free, some programmers (maybe while writing the copy-protection) would probably leave discouraging/offensive/pleading messages to anyone looking through their code I seem to remember comments in the Pinball Dreams code mentioning copying the software, and in Lotus2 there was a sound sample (played in the title tune very softly) which was speech which said something like "You will not copy this game". Are there any others?

14 June 2002, 20:29	#6
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Castle Kingdoms: "CASTLE KINGDOMS © MUTATION SOFTWARE 1997 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.WHY ARE YOU READING THIS TEXT THERES NOTHING TO CRACK HERE M8"

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14 June 2002, 20:14	#2
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Here are some in-game messages to crackers! Alien Breed: "STOP IT =NOW=, OK! You will gain NOTHING from breaking this protection, but I guess you're too fucking ignorant, narrow-minded or maybe even too stupid to understand that. Yeah, so you and your 'leaders' and 'spreaders' (that's what they like to call themselves, but they're nothing but LEECHES gaining some kind of fame from the work you do) will have something to spread around on BBS', ok... But what the hell do they, or you, REALLY get for all that, huh? Ok credits... So they can download some shit games or other software, but in a wider perspective? I'll tell you =NOTHING=. It's pointless. If you don't realize that now, I assure you that in a few years you will look back at this time and wonder why you did it. I know that from experience. Go and do something constructive, like studying, socializing, programming or whatever! Cracking is not constructive. To you it might seem like a challenge or something you do to get famous, well OK it is a challenge to crack, and you do get famous if you're good at it. Famous for a while, a short while. But nobody will care about that five years from now. You will benefit much more from getting a job, education or a girlfriend, I'm telling you because I KNOW. I was a cracker once, one of the best. In a time when you could actually send the originals by mail, work for a day or two, and then send the cracked version back, and still have a world-first release. Then the scene consisted by computer freaks who made it for the fun of it. The scene today is perverted and lead by ignorant computer-illiterate idiots, only in for the fame and money. They think they're famous and legendary, but nobody likes or admires them for sure. I HATE IT! Now I've realized the stupidity of my actions, and I wish I could undo them. You'll also do just that in a few years too if you have a conscience, and wish you had done something else. SO DON'T CRACK IT!"

14 June 2002, 20:17	#3
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	There's the classic Jeff Minter message inside one of his games, forgot which one.... What was the line??? I forgot everything ! Damn. I will look onto this one later.

14 June 2002, 20:23	#4
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Blood Money: "Well hello there hackers. I'll warn you now that this game has a LOT of protection, so it will be a few late nights for you lot. It's a mugs game anyway, you should be writing games and making loads of money like me (you too could afford a 16V Astra GTE), but you are obviously lacking in a few brain cells & will put a weeks work into cracking this for what? SOD ALL, thats what. Well if you do manage to crack it send me a copy: DAVE JONES, DMA DESIGN, MINTLAW PARK, WEST FERRY, DUNDEE DD5 1RD. In return you will get sod all as usual. In the meantime I'll be thinking of you when I'm in Florida, spending some of my dosh."

14 June 2002, 20:27	#5
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Cabal "celui qui crack Cabal est un ANE...!" Translation - "Whoever cracks Cabal is a FOOL...!"

14 June 2002, 20:39	#8
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Elite: "NOVELLA PROTECTION VIOLATION The SLEEPER has been installed! When it wakes, expect major damage to CMOS circuitry. Development of good software takes time and costs money. Stealing software can only damage the future availability of first class products and artificially increases the cost to genuine purchasers. To discourage theft we have installed 'The SLEEPER'. Expect CMOS failure at sometime in the future if 'cracked copies' are used. You have been warned!"

14 June 2002, 20:41	#9
Uukrul Posts: n/a	Dragon's Lair: Escape From Singe's Castle: This one is pathetic (oh, please, please...) "Once again, a small note to pirates and crackers: I thank you very much for delaying the release of DL1, but must once again ask you to please wait with Escape. We have tried to provide the Amiga community with the best possible game for your money (unlike many other companies), and hope that once again there will be enough sales into the future to support yet another game we are planning for the Amiga: TERMINATOR! Please consider delaying your release of Escape. As more and more quality companies leave the Amiga for the more profitable IBM, C64 and Nintendo markets, it is up to you, the users, to show which computer is truly Visionary. Randy "Irwin" Linden" Randy Linden aka the guy behind PSX emu Bleem

14 June 2002, 20:46	#10
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	F1 Tornado: "If you can't crack this game then you are lamer than lame.. PIRACY IS THEFT... IF YOU COPY THIS GAME THEN REMEMBER - IF F.A.S.T. CATCH YOU THE MAXIMUM PENALTY IS SIX MONTHS IN PRISON... If you crack this game then there's plenty of space for an intro (from sectors 600+) so do something good!! Do you want to cheat??? Then here's some 'codes' to type in on the title screen .... type in everything between the asterisks, including punctuation... Cheat 1 - I AM A SIX HEADED ALIEN FROM OUTER SPACECheat 2 - EARWIGS ARE THE MASTER RACECheat 3 - QUEX, I LOVE YOU, AND I WILL BUY ALL OF YOUR GAMES - HONEST there also is another but I'll leave it to you to find out.... Please leave in these codes instead of doing a trainer cos" [Message mysteriously ends! - Cody]

14 June 2002, 20:54	#11
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Jurassic Park AGA: "CRACK THIS GAME AND YOU DIE!!!!!!! I AM NOT KIDDING!! I KNOW WHO YOU ALL ARE!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!"

14 June 2002, 20:58	#12
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Little Puff In Dragonland: "Project 66 - (C) 1990 Codemasters Ltd. - Programmed by Derek Leigh-Gilchrist. VERSION 1.12 - don't crack this! For more info read the text at the start of the protection..."

14 June 2002, 21:02	#14
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Metal Law: "HIGHSCORES 1ST 300000 KILL ALL 2ND 250000 BLOODY 3RD 200000 MOTHER- 4TH 150000 FUCKING 5TH 100000 CRACKERS!!"

14 June 2002, 21:04	#15
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Naughty Ones: "Sorry guys. No time for a proper protection. Have mercy!.. Melon Dezign did a lot for the scene, so please give us a break. No challenge in breaking this one anyways... PS: We were NEVER paid to make an intro for anyone, but maybe you will reward us by not cracking/spreading this one... OK?? PPS: Just spend my last money buying a mobilephone, so I really need every dime this game can make... Merry Xmas everyone, seeing you around..."

14 June 2002, 21:05	#16
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Navy Seals: "Crackers Nightmare :-( Assembled on 19/6/1991 at 12:26:19"

14 June 2002, 21:15	#17
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Suspicious Cargo: "Mr. E Says HI! to all the sad crackers (that means you) who can't crack this 100%... Have fun with the chexsums lamers!!!....I'll be looking out for a copy I can finish , so sad bastards, merry Xmas. Till then, WAR......Dave Exile says "The game may run, be does it play till the end???" - you dicks probably can't finish it to find out anyhow.THOSE WHO CAN, WRITE GAMES, THOSE WHO CAN'T JUST CRACK GAMES. I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU SAD PEOPLE. MAYBE ONE DAY YOU WILL GET A LIFE. OH, BUT YOU WOULD NEED A PERSONALITY FOR THAT...AND YOU MIGHT HAVE TO COME OUT OF YOUR BEDROOM. TILL THEN, YOU'L HAVE TO GET YOUR KICKS FROM CRACKING GAMES AND READING WANK MAGS......Over and out, Dave The Exile."

14 June 2002, 21:16	#18
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Sword Of Sodan: "hi, strange place to meet?? i guess it's ok for you to peek around in my boot block, but if you are out to crack this program, may the worst curse be on you forever!"

14 June 2002, 21:26	#19
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,160	Toobin': "(c)domark 1989 by teque developments big f--k offs go to quartex - paralamia accumulamers the band - mag.fields and any other girly cracking / swapping groups. ha ha ha message to red sector your mega demo is - totally mega cool. we all love vector balls did you know that slime who crack games have very small dicks and are homosexual message end... bye"

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