Can making a backup kill a game? Some kind of protection code?

[fitzsteve]

Hi All,

I have two copies of Rainbow Islands and somebody on another board was looking for a copy so I agreed to sell him one, anyway I tested it first, fired up my A600 and had a few games and all was fine.

So I took a couple of pics for him and thought to do a thorough test I'd make an ADF with EasyADF since i'd never tested that function.

Anyway I done this on my A1200 and EasyADF failed to make the ADF. I tested the game again after in my A600 and now it wont boot, it just guru's with a software failure immediately

Any idea's?

I have another copy so i'm not needing to bring this back to life but I don't want to risk any other disks in the same way!

Steve.

[Leffmann]

Copy protections can be very sophisticated, but at best they only involve the way data has been stored physically on the disk, and can only stop you from making a working copy of the game using standard hardware and copying methods, but they can never damage the disk. If your original game disk stopped working after you tried to copy it then it has simply reached its end of life due normal use and wear.

There's some good information on these things on http://www.softpres.org/

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Leffmann

Copy protections can be very sophisticated, but at best they only involve the way data has been stored physically on the disk, and can only stop you from making a working copy of the game using standard hardware and copying methods, but they can never damage the disk. If your original game disk stopped working after you tried to copy it then it has simply reached its end of life due normal use and wear.

There's some good information on these things on http://www.softpres.org/

Thanks mate, I thought it was probably just coincidence.. Good job i've got a spare

[cosmicfrog]

or all the magnetic stuff is now on the heads of your floppy drive
hope not, hope you tested drive with a blank disk

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

or all the magnetic stuff is now on the heads of your floppy drive
hope not, hope you tested drive with a blank disk

I've played other games fine since, but the next disks that went in the drive were 'backups' or 'blanksl

[IFW]

In short: no protection can do that - but damaged disk surface can

[alexh]

If the disk wasn't write protected, I guess a virus could have overwritten the bootblock?

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by alexh

If the disk wasn't write protected, I guess a virus could have overwritten the bootblock?

It was write protected, I think it was just its time to go...

[dlfrsilver]

many original disk were shit quality..... and since the way some protections drove the floppy drive, GRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOONNNNNNN.........GRRRIIIIII.....GROOONNNNNNNNN.

You follow me here ?

the floppies just hate this....

[lost_lemming]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Hi All,

I have two copies of Rainbow Islands

Is one of your copies from a black box which has "taito's island-hop coin-io" on the side? if so, my official disk never worked

[Minuous]

>the floppies just hate this....

I had a copy of APB that was like this, really banged the hell out of the drive when loading. My brothers didn't like me to play it because of that, said it would knock the heads out of alignment...it never did though fortunately.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by lost_lemming

Is one of your copies from a black box which has "taito's island-hop coin-io" on the side? if so, my official disk never worked

They're both unboxed.

Ones a grey disk (now dead) and the other is a blue disk.

Both were working last week in my A600 switched to 1.3 rom. Neither worked in my A1200..

Steve.

[Firthy2002]

I had blue disk version, don't think it worked on my A1200 either, IIRC.