Making a game uncrackable

[kremiso]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Stryx on Amiga?

yup, some deep protection i presume
basically you can play in the first level, but when you try to open doors with grabbed keys, nothing (to open doors you must press F3/F4 don't remember the correct key atm)

obviously all ok with the .ipf version instead
there was a thread here on eab too

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by kremiso

yup, some deep protection i presume
basically you can play in the first level, but when you try to open doors with grabbed keys, nothing (to open doors you must press F3/F4 don't remember the correct key atm)

obviously all ok with the .ipf version instead
there was a thread here on eab too

Thanks for that, can confirm that both the Quartex and RSI cracked versions missed the checksum in memory.

Will be redoing the game to be 100% cracked and on 1 disk

[kremiso]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Thanks for that, can confirm that both the Quartex and RSI cracked versions missed the checksum in memory.

Will be redoing the game to be 100% cracked and on 1 disk

Amazing, i will be proud to test the result

i take the opportunity to ask about a title missing from the .adf tosec
it is Millenium : Return to Earth
basically it is the usa release of Millennium 2.2, but with different graphics
(similar to the pc ega one, just more colorful), that i like most

seems never released an adf of this, little shiny gem

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by kremiso

Amazing, i will be proud to test the result

i take the opportunity to ask about a title missing from the .adf tosec
it is Millenium : Return to Earth
basically it is the usa release of Millennium 2.2, but with different graphics
(similar to the pc ega one, just more colorful), that i like most

seems never released an adf of this, little shiny gem

OK, will take a look at that also

[rothers]

Surely the best way is just to have loads of stuff in the manual which can't be figured out without it?

You could make a game ridiculously difficult to play without a manual if you wanted to.

[demoniac]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Thanks for that, can confirm that both the Quartex and RSI cracked versions missed the checksum in memory.

Will be redoing the game to be 100% cracked and on 1 disk

Any plans to add a trainer with collision disabled option? I remembered that the collision was annoying as the character gets knocked back 2 meters every time.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by demoniac

Any plans to add a trainer with collision disabled option? I remembered that the collision was annoying as the character gets knocked back 2 meters every time.

I could take a look I suppose, or maybe I could persuade Flashtro to have a go

[Gorf]

Here is a good article about a clever copy-protection method from "Western Security Ltd." used for the BBC Micro.
https://scarybeastsecurity.blogspot....rotection.html

Long story short: it uses imperfections of individual floppy drives and disks to do some kind of "fingerprinting" - other drives on other disks would produce slightly different track length.

Of course: once you know what to look for....

[kremiso]

Originally Posted by demoniac

Any plans to add a trainer with collision disabled option? I remembered that the collision was annoying as the character gets knocked back 2 meters every time.

i remember at time various talks about game being harder due the bad crack...
well, the original was imo quite the same

the later shoot em up (sort of) sequences are true pita

[Minuous]

This method is interesting, was anything similar ever used on the Amiga?

https://scarybeastsecurity.blogspot....rotection.html

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by alexh

It would depend how integrated the chip function was to the game. And how exclusive it was. Something complex enough the game wouldn't work without it. A math accelerator or gfx decompressor.

A lot of later console games had extra hardware in them that was needed because the console hardware wasn't good enough by itself. In effect the game came with its own hardware upgrade. And when you think about it, every cart is a hardware upgrade that provides extra ROM, something disk based machines never got.

So can we imagine Amiga games distributed on carts coming with extra RAM, a faster CPU, graphics coprocessor etc.? Sure, but nobody would have bought them because the price would be ridiculous. Consoles were cheap enough that some people could afford expensive carts, and gamers were wowed by what their machines could do without appreciating that they were actually buying a separate hardware upgrade with every cart.

Whenever someone tells you how much better games on consoles were than contemporary Amigas, remind them of that. For most Amiga users a game only cost the price of a blank disk, and today it only costs the time to download an adf file. But many console games will always be too expensive to copy, even if the hardware is ever cracked. Amiga could have done that too with a different marketing model.

[kremiso]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

I could take a look I suppose, or maybe I could persuade Flashtro to have a go

don't know if it can be useful
modifying the original cheat in some way ?

http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/cheats.php?id=1209

quite impossible to use it on pc due the keyboard ghosting, maybe let it working just pressing an only key...

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by rothers

Surely the best way is just to have loads of stuff in the manual which can't be figured out without it?

You could make a game ridiculously difficult to play without a manual if you wanted to.

While definitely not bad, there are several problems with this approach:

- certain types of games just do not require any manual (shoot 'em ups, racing games etc. spring to mind)

- manuals can be copied too.

- large manuals cost extra money which most publishers didn't want to spend

[sparhawk]

Originally Posted by StingRay

While definitely not bad, there are several problems with this approach:

And on top of that, would you like to play a game where you constantly have to refer to the manual? I don't.

[Chips]

Originally Posted by jotd

Some games like Unreal were very tough to reverse engineer. Bad luck: the disk format was "warpable"/copiable in nibble mode. So there weren't cracks but the game could be copied as is and worked.

wasn't unreal protection made by old crackers ? Some developpers in the team has some ties with scene...

[Weasel Fierce]

Out of curiosity, are there any commercial titles for the Amiga that have not been cracked yet? Not counting really obscure titles.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Weasel Fierce

Out of curiosity, are there any commercial titles for the Amiga that have not been cracked yet? Not counting really obscure titles.

Yes the french version of Dragon Flight from Thalion has never been cracked.
We only have the original version protected in the TOSEC.

[UnnamedCourier]

Actually, does anyone have any concrete examples of anti piracy features in badly cracked Amiga games (the Jurassic Park example is interesting)?
I distinctly remember playing a cracked version of Cannon Fodder and getting up to the second stage of Mission 11. In this you essentially have to steal a tank and blow up a wooden stockade to free a civilian. Only playing the cracked version, this was impossible - the stockade could sustain infinite hits and not blow up.
I eventually bought a legit copy, and of course it blew up first time once shot.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by UnnamedCourier

Actually, does anyone have any concrete examples of anti piracy features in badly cracked Amiga games (the Jurassic Park example is interesting)?
I distinctly remember playing a cracked version of Cannon Fodder and getting up to the second stage of Mission 11. In this you essentially have to steal a tank and blow up a wooden stockade to free a civilian. Only playing the cracked version, this was impossible - the stockade could sustain infinite hits and not blow up.
I eventually bought a legit copy, and of course it blew up first time once shot.

Cannon Fodder has bugs in the code.