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Codetapper · 05 June 2001, 03:24

In the old days I used to think a copy was as good as the original. However, if you look at a lot of games, they are not as good as the originals for various reasons:

1. Intros removed to save space (eg. Nitro, Shadow of the Beast 2 and 3, Eliminator). Crackers couldn't get the game onto the same number of disks so removed features from the original.

2. Text changed. Lots of idiot lamers decided changing the text in a game showed how clever they were. I prefer to see the original messages rather than Cracked by the best XXXX Greets to all my mates YYYY and ZZZZ is a complete lamer etc.

3. Cracktros and import-tros. I for one don't mind seeing a cracktro on a release (some are great like Ivan Ironman Stewarts cracked by Paradox), but some games ended up having massive loading sequences as group after group tacked their 2c worth on the front of the game. Wizkid, Zeewolf, Turtles etc ended up looking very lame with >3 intros on the front. Plus it doesn't take much skill to import a game and tack an intro onto the front. And who really gives a monkey's who happened to bring the game into a particular country anyway?

4. Disk swapping. Not so important now with HD versions out, but take a game like Mortal Kombat 1 or 2, original is 2 and 3 disks respectively, the crack is 3 and 4 disks. The disk swapping was a nightmare on the cracked versions. All Readysoft games also fall into this problem where the original has about 100k extra data on each disk than the crack can hold so it gets dumped onto an extra disk. Note that the guys that cracked these types of games were/are legends as it is no easy feat to make them work with more disks than the original had and requires extensive hacking of the loading routines.

So all in all, while you may have approximately the same data as the original and no annoying words from the manual to type in, original software is often more pleasurable to use than cracked stuff!

[Note: There are of course a few benefits of cracked games, quite often they worked on more machines than the original due to stupid copy protection systems, memory allocation re-written and occassionally a gem was released where a 2 disk game ended up on a single disk without removing anything - F29 Retaliator for example.]

05 June 2001, 03:24	#20
Codetapper 2 contact me: email only! Join Date: May 2001 Location: Auckland / New Zealand Posts: 3,187	Pirated games vs originals In the old days I used to think a copy was as good as the original. However, if you look at a lot of games, they are not as good as the originals for various reasons: 1. Intros removed to save space (eg. Nitro, Shadow of the Beast 2 and 3, Eliminator). Crackers couldn't get the game onto the same number of disks so removed features from the original. 2. Text changed. Lots of idiot lamers decided changing the text in a game showed how clever they were. I prefer to see the original messages rather than Cracked by the best XXXX Greets to all my mates YYYY and ZZZZ is a complete lamer etc. 3. Cracktros and import-tros. I for one don't mind seeing a cracktro on a release (some are great like Ivan Ironman Stewarts cracked by Paradox), but some games ended up having massive loading sequences as group after group tacked their 2c worth on the front of the game. Wizkid, Zeewolf, Turtles etc ended up looking very lame with >3 intros on the front. Plus it doesn't take much skill to import a game and tack an intro onto the front. And who really gives a monkey's who happened to bring the game into a particular country anyway? 4. Disk swapping. Not so important now with HD versions out, but take a game like Mortal Kombat 1 or 2, original is 2 and 3 disks respectively, the crack is 3 and 4 disks. The disk swapping was a nightmare on the cracked versions. All Readysoft games also fall into this problem where the original has about 100k extra data on each disk than the crack can hold so it gets dumped onto an extra disk. Note that the guys that cracked these types of games were/are legends as it is no easy feat to make them work with more disks than the original had and requires extensive hacking of the loading routines. So all in all, while you may have approximately the same data as the original and no annoying words from the manual to type in, original software is often more pleasurable to use than cracked stuff! [Note: There are of course a few benefits of cracked games, quite often they worked on more machines than the original due to stupid copy protection systems, memory allocation re-written and occassionally a gem was released where a 2 disk game ended up on a single disk without removing anything - F29 Retaliator for example.]