Messages in game code for crackers

[Galahad/FLT]

"Oi out my code!"

"and now act two"

"well done nibbler, now try writing a full game.... PAUL!"

[andreas]

Originally Posted by Anakirob

That message and similar are pretty cool. The developers in question knew that crackers/cracking is their friend. I think cracked games probably INCREASED sales.

For me definitely. Whenever I got pissed off because a game couldn't be completed because of bad cracking (e. g. nasty second protection veeeeery late in the game), I bought it (well I had to )
There was no internet to just get an alternative version in 1 minute
Usually we had one and the same version spread around, be it a good or bad crack...
Same with unfinished beta versions disguised as final releases (e. g. PANG!)

And I'll be damned if e. g. the GODS sales weren't also boosted by the nasty "frustration effect" with the near-invincible enemies. Of course, there WERE other versions; but depending which part of the earth you were residing, chances were that you'd only get the mediocre crack where the cracking guys didn't make it to play a trick on that protection.
So you had the choice to tear out your hair tuft by tuft, or buy the damn thing.

[Galahad/FLT]

"Game dedicated to Jayne, with all my love 4ever - Simon Phipps 03/02/1989. U must be hacking to get here - All the best 2 U 4 the future."

[kamelito]

From Albedo 1988 by Myriad
You can read :
"Nombreux sont les pirates qui se
casseront les dents sur le codage
disquette développé par
Jean-Michel GEORGES."

Meaning something like
"Many crackers will
break their teeth on the
disk routines code developed by
Jean-Michel GEORGES"
I remember that in the original disk, the bootblock contained greetings for games companies, and "insults" to a list of crackers. This message is not present in the cracked game done by Thrust. I don't have the original to check, does anyone has it? (IPF?)

Comments from Thrust : "(P.S. NICE PROTECTION , MYRIAD !!)"

[dlfrsilver]

this game is almost forgotten and impossible to find

[kamelito]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

this game is almost forgotten and impossible to find

I know the developers so I can contact them in case they still have spare versions...

kml

[dlfrsilver]

why not then

[Jonathan Drain]

There's an article on everything2 by the Amiga coder of Double Dragon (also did the Amiga port of Final Fight):

I was quite pleased with Amiga Double Dragon 2, mainly because it had some slightly flashy techy things in it, and some fantastic music by a musician from the Netherlands, who went by the moniker 'Uncle Tom'. It also had some rock hard copy protection on the disk, which I spent about a week and a half programming, considered to be almost 'uncrackable', and which was duly neatly cracked by somecalled called 'Weetabix' (who said 'Nice Try!' on his intro page. Bastard! ;-) )

[pmc]

Originally Posted by StingRay

Found in the decrypted main file.

Looks like Giovanni was 14 and could be contacted on 7142267.

I wonder if he still answers...

Yeah I know it was sad but I had two minutes and I was bored...

[mai]

Another one: Necronom by Linel

TO ALL THE PIRATES WHO WILL HAVE RIPPED THIS GAME OFF,
WHY NOT STOP WASTING EVERYBODIES TIME AND WRITE SOMETHING USEFUL.

[mailman]

Perihelion by Psygnosis/Morbid Visions:

Yo buddy! I don't know and I don't care how and why are you here,
I just want to give you a few advises in case if you're here to CRACK
this stuff.Well,in every 80 seconds a man is murdered,and in every 10
seconds another one of our PROTECTION-STAGES starts. In other words,
you can be sure that you will NEVER have a WORKING CRACK of PERIHELION.
(WANNA BET?) Of course you're proud and you'll try (I too would try)
but you will fail because you won't even realize where did ya fail,
what's the problem,what is PROTECTION and what is not.Phew,that's life!
Will you play it over a dozen times? IT WON'T WORK! Will you release
a fuckin' dying half-crack? WHAT A SHAME! Relax honey,you're gonna
suck up not because you're SOOO LAME,but because WE ARE SOOO GOOD!
Right? Well,that's all for today,now go back to your childish toys
and let's see how our computerized insecticide works on parasites like
you. By the way,did ya know that PIRACY IS THEFT? Oh,surely not,sorry...
Now at least you cannot say we didn't warn you... SIGNED: MORBID VISIONS

[mai]

Next one: Mad Professor Mariarti
This time a message inside Protracker module:

hello hacker fucker this is matt furniss heres the deal. if you hack this game, i will find you where ever you are and break your legs and thats a promise.

..evil

[TCD]

Maybe that's the reason why the Skid Row intro scroller doesn't mention who cracked it...

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Maybe that's the reason why the Skid Row intro scroller doesn't mention who cracked it...

Not likely, all the early cracks from Skid Row didn't mention who cracked them.

Rather ironic seeing as Matt Furniss at one time was involved with Magnetic Fields I think (demo group not the developers), and they were heavily into spreading wares.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by plankton

I see lots of sour programmers bitching about piracy with the time that could be better spent by actually doing their job properly; especially in the case of richard aplin's abominable arcade conversions. He single handedly ruined so many guaranteed hits for amiga. Jerk.

I seriously hope that was a joke post, though I think it wasn't.

Richard Aplins efforts were a damned sight better than a lot of other developers who did arcade conversions and didn't spend remotely 4% of the effort Richard did.

Seriously, quite easily one of the most misinformed posts I have seen in a VERY long time.

[Maren]

Originally Posted by plankton

I see lots of sour programmers bitching about piracy with the time that could be better spent by actually doing their job properly

Protecting their job from pirate scum is actually part of their job.

[dlfrsilver]

Richard should have been supported by a talented graphic artist, but it was never the case. He did the code and the graphics ripping. He had only 2 hands to work with....

that was the main pb at this time (except Ocean france guys, which had 2 great artists for this purpose : P. Dessoly and T. Levastre).

[Retro1234]

Richard gets a hard time but Final Fight and Double Dragon 2 realy arnt that bad compared with other conversions.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Boo Boo

Richard gets a hard time but Final Fight and Double Dragon 2 realy arnt that bad compared with other conversions.

Exactly. They are not perfect, but imagine them in other peoples hands, I dread to think what Final Fight would have looked like had it been someone else doing the coding.

I thought Line of Fire was pretty good for its time, all the realtime scaling, you can just imagine another programmer simply not bothering and having a few anim frames.

[Mungo]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Magnetic Fields I think (demo group not the developers), and they were heavily into spreading wares.

They certainly were. Cosy was a one-man distribution centre. I often wonder how much of his time was spent flipping disks.