Amiga cracking group re-adding copy protection to cracks in UAE?

[mc68060]

There's a weird article about a guy researching the cracking scene on the German news site Spiegel Online today. Here is the link: https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/co...b-8c16e35820af

What I found very confusing was that the interviewer claimed there was an Amiga cracking group which got hired by a businessman from the UAE (United Arab Emirates -- not what you think!!) in the early 90s to re-implement copy protection in cracked games so that he could sell them again. I have never heard such a story before. Does anybody know what this is about or is this just complete and total bullsh*t?

Here's the original passage in German: Manche Kontakte waren schillernd: Eine deutsche Amiga-Crackergruppe soll in den frühen Neunzigerjahren per Exklusivdeal für einen Geschäftsmann aus den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten Spiele geknackt und wieder mit Kopierschutz versehen haben, damit er sie verkaufen konnte. Wie reagierte man in der Szene darauf?

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by mc68060

There's a weird article about a guy researching the cracking scene on the German news site Spiegel Online today. Here is the link: https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/co...b-8c16e35820af

What I found very confusing was that the interviewer claimed there was an Amiga cracking group which got hired by a businessman from the UAE (United Arab Emirates -- not what you think!!) in the early 90s to re-implement copy protection in cracked games so that he could sell them again. I have never heard such a story before. Does anybody know what this is about or is this just complete and total bullsh*t?

Here's the original passage in German: Manche Kontakte waren schillernd: Eine deutsche Amiga-Crackergruppe soll in den frühen Neunzigerjahren per Exklusivdeal für einen Geschäftsmann aus den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten Spiele geknackt und wieder mit Kopierschutz versehen haben, damit er sie verkaufen konnte. Wie reagierte man in der Szene darauf?

I'm calling bull on this one. Maybe they were paid to remove the cracktros but adding in copy protection would mean he'd need access to hardware to duplicate them or pay to have them duplicated which would not be cost effective unless he was mass distributing them

[alexh]

I think this is bull too. They would need trace machines to write the disks and very few of them out there anymore.

I *think* the company.pl paid people to remove cracktros so they could officially sell cracked games. They had the licenses to the games just not access to the original disk images. Cracks were widespread whereas IPF images not so much plus I think the SPS plugin added licensing issues.

To those who don't know, thecompany.pl sells (or did sell) Amiga games as PC games bundled into a single EXE with a pre-configured GUI less version of the emulator, a kickstart (replacement?) ROM and the game disk. They run as though they are native to most unsuspecting users.

[alexh]

Even today with the equipment to write IPF images back to disks (Kryoflux, SCA, Greasweasel) the market for counterfeit "original" rare and expensive Amiga/ST games must be incredibly small? I sometimes see 16-bit games being sold for £300+ on eBay but that is what... 3hrs work to a top professional software engineer?

[grond]

@alexh:

The article mentioned by mc68060 referred to something that supposedly happened back in the day when there certainly was a market for copies.

[Retro1234]

not saying it's true but you could probably do it with something like a cyclone and then people couldn't copy it and would have to come to you again to purchase a copy.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by alexh

Even today with the equipment to write IPF images back to disks (Kryoflux, SCA, Greasweasel) the market for counterfeit "original" rare and expensive Amiga/ST games must be incredibly small? I sometimes see 16-bit games being sold for £300+ on eBay but that is what... 3hrs work to a top professional software engineer?

No need to be a top professional software engineer...... things have been "democratized" these days.

[WayneK]

I do remember there being guys out there (who remembers "Free Kuwait" Quartex BBS?) who funded the originals that were supplied, on the understanding that once it was supplied/warped they were sent the boxed original (sometimes multiple units) by courier as quickly as possible - they then sold this in their country before anyone else there had the latest game, presumably for a tidy profit!
I'll join the others in calling BS on re-protecting cracked versions for sale...

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by mc68060

There's a weird article about a guy researching the cracking scene on the German news site Spiegel Online today. Here is the link: https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/co...b-8c16e35820af

What I found very confusing was that the interviewer claimed there was an Amiga cracking group which got hired by a businessman from the UAE (United Arab Emirates -- not what you think!!) in the early 90s to re-implement copy protection in cracked games so that he could sell them again. I have never heard such a story before. Does anybody know what this is about or is this just complete and total bullsh*t?

Here's the original passage in German: Manche Kontakte waren schillernd: Eine deutsche Amiga-Crackergruppe soll in den frühen Neunzigerjahren per Exklusivdeal für einen Geschäftsmann aus den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten Spiele geknackt und wieder mit Kopierschutz versehen haben, damit er sie verkaufen konnte. Wie reagierte man in der Szene darauf?

Sounds bollocks to me, why bother with the cracked copies when he could simply use something like Synchro Express or Cyclone which was usually pretty good, and just duplicate originals?

Also the Amiga was never a massive thing in the Middle East, seems like an awful lot of trouble for such a small market, that would be completely negated by anyone that had a modem

[Matt_H]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

I'm calling bull on this one. Maybe they were paid to remove the cracktros but adding in copy protection would mean he'd need access to hardware to duplicate them or pay to have them duplicated which would not be cost effective unless he was mass distributing them

I agree that this is very unlikely, but couldn't off-disk or manual-based copy protection be re-added without access to mass duplication facilities?


i.e., it's a copyable disk but includes a bootblock that asks for page 5, word 7 of the locally produced manual before loading the game.

[jotd]

yes it's possible but then (for a DOS game):

- install df0: => cracked

or

- edit startup sequence => cracked

adding a protection to a finished product need very powerful tools like Rob Northen or Ben Herdnon executable encrypters (and a keydisk). Or cyclone to copy an existing keydisk (or an existing game) and then apply RN executable copylock on the cracked executable / add a bootblock check. Very unlikely.

Slightly related: when I contacted the Bitmap Brothers in 1996 to ask them if I could create a HD install of "The Chaos Engine 2", they sent me the original, we agreed that the install couldn't just remove the protection, as the game was pretty new. So I created an installer (pre-JST IIRC) which checked the copylock of the disk when installing, and hardcoded the installed path somewhere too once installed. Not sure if it was a rock solid protection but it qualified as one.

To do that installer, I had to crack their protection (RN copylock), then add it again in the install process.

[Matt_H]

Originally Posted by jotd

yes it's possible but then (for a DOS game):

- install df0: => cracked

or

- edit startup sequence => cracked

True, although I had imagined a little more sophistication in the bootblock that would make the game unloadable if it were overwritten. But I am definitely not an expert on the feasibility of these things.


Still, depending on who this hypothetical re-protected version was targeted at, this level of protection might have been enough. Someone with minimal computer skills who saw the Amiga as a games machine and not a computer might not be able to figure out how to defeat it.


e.g., when I was in college/university I put a simple password protection tool into WBStartup. Any of us here could defeat it in 3 seconds, but it prevented any other nosy residents (who had never even heard of an Amiga) from messing up my system.

Slightly related: when I contacted the Bitmap Brothers in 1996 to ask them if I could create a HD install of "The Chaos Engine 2", they sent me the original, we agreed that the install couldn't just remove the protection, as the game was pretty new. So I created an installer (pre-JST IIRC) which checked the copylock of the disk when installing, and hardcoded the installed path somewhere too once installed. Not sure if it was a rock solid protection but it qualified as one.

To do that installer, I had to crack their protection (RN copylock), then add it again in the install process.

Ah, the pre-JST/pre-WHDLoad days of HD installs. I remember when they were later all purged from Aminet. Such a shame. Obviously the tools we have now are far superior, but they were still an important part of Amiga cultural history.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by jotd

yes it's possible but then (for a DOS game):

- install df0: => cracked

or

- edit startup sequence => cracked

adding a protection to a finished product need very powerful tools like Rob Northen or Ben Herdnon executable encrypters (and a keydisk). Or cyclone to copy an existing keydisk (or an existing game) and then apply RN executable copylock on the cracked executable / add a bootblock check. Very unlikely.

Slightly related: when I contacted the Bitmap Brothers in 1996 to ask them if I could create a HD install of "The Chaos Engine 2", they sent me the original, we agreed that the install couldn't just remove the protection, as the game was pretty new. So I created an installer (pre-JST IIRC) which checked the copylock of the disk when installing, and hardcoded the installed path somewhere too once installed. Not sure if it was a rock solid protection but it qualified as one.

To do that installer, I had to crack their protection (RN copylock), then add it again in the install process.

I had the same condition for Amiga Format. Bitmap Bros knew it was mainly the protection issue that caused Speedball 2 to not work on AGA machines, so they were concerned I would just crack it and leave it protectionless, so I was asked by AF if there was any way I could ensure it would still only work with an original, so I included a much more basic Copylock that worked correctly on faster processors, and did lots of complicated crap so that even a casual nosey person would have trouble following it.

[malko]

Originally Posted by jotd

[...] HD install of "The Chaos Engine 2" [...]

A real HD installer ? Do you still have it somewhere ?

[jotd]

well, it's a JST-like technology. Won't help any better than the existing whdload slaves.

But for history, here's the raw package with source code of the install/protection check. I had checked machine ROM & CPU to integrate them in the encryption key so if someone shared his install it had little chance to work.

Chaos2HDdev.zip