Worst copy protection?

[Macca]

Originally Posted by dire_wolf

Frontier, checking a certain letter on a certain line on a certain page every five fricken minutes

The way Frontier was meant to work is that if you got the right letter it would not pop up for longer, so the more you got right the less frequent it would pop up. If you got it wrong it would pop up more frequently. It was a hope that this would cause crackers to have no idea if it was properly cracked or not I believe.

I bought the original and it still annoyed me

M.

[Anubis]

Erm, is that game any good? What do you recommend for FM Towns CD?

[Belgarath]

What game? Samurai Spirits? It's the Japanese version of Samurai Shodown, just play the Neo Geo version in MAME. For FM Towns emulation I tend to use Unz; MAME may be a better option for some games though.

[Anubis]

I haven't used Unz in ages. Should probably revisit it. Most of FMTowns games I played I used ScummVM. (Adventures) Thanks, will revisit this forgotten machine. I noticed Batocera has bios and folders for both FM Towns and FM Towns CD.

[masteries]

Its not Amiga related, but the Rambo 3 copy protection of the ZX Spectrum version is considered the worst when I was child,

But its the worst due to it was unbeatable; a very skirl sound that you cannot copy using a high quality audio equipment; due to the original tape sound easily break the saturation level (a saturated volume level copy is a corrupted copy); and if you decrease the volume level on the HiFi equipment, the data easily falls behind recognition level; another corrupted copy.

Obviously, none of the ZX Spectrum times copy software are useful, due to the data is stored at an extreme high baud rate, and these required to load a custom tape loader.

[jotd]

that doesn't qualify as "worst copy protection" but rather "best copy protection": can't be copied, original works. Exactly the same for formats like RN copylock (except that cyclone could copy it, but for instance Cyclone failed to copy Deliverance properly IIRC)

uncopiable maybe but unbeatable no. The custom loader has to be saved as standard loader. Load the custom loader and disassemble it / patch it so it stops when it has loaded the game. Then dump the game using standard loader.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by masteries

Its not Amiga related, but the Rambo 3 copy protection of the ZX Spectrum version is considered the worst when I was child,

But its the worst due to it was unbeatable; a very skirl sound that you cannot copy using a high quality audio equipment; due to the original tape sound easily break the saturation level (a saturated volume level copy is a corrupted copy); and if you decrease the volume level on the HiFi equipment, the data easily falls behind recognition level; another corrupted copy.

Obviously, none of the ZX Spectrum times copy software are useful, due to the data is stored at an extreme high baud rate, and these required to load a custom tape loader.

Rambo III on zx spectrum uses a speedlock v7. The CPC version a speedlock v6.


Rambo III zx spectrum use turbo data blocks 120% faster than the regular spectrum blocks. this means around 2000 bauds.

Think about Mask on CPC that use micro-blocks with a 2500 bauds speed. That's another story.

The problem on speedlock tapes is that you need to have a spectrum with no shit and no problem on the tape drive.

The same thing applies to the Amstrad CPC, which use the same protection and in almost all the revisions.

[Nobby_UK]

Originally Posted by capehorn

What about those colour coded pictures, i.e. Operation Stealth, where light blue, silver and white all looked EXACTLY the same.

That's the one I was thinking about


https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/0...ShotId,997545/

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by capehorn

What about those colour coded pictures, i.e. Operation Stealth, where light blue, silver and white all looked EXACTLY the same.

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

That's the one I was thinking about


https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/0...ShotId,997545/

Here's a screenshot of the copy protection picture that Galahad added to the Scoopex crack that he did:

[jotd]

if you're colorblind you're pretty much stuck with all those crap color protections.

[sneckburger]

I managed to crack the Simon the Sorcerer Copy protection using trial and error.
I don't remember it taking too long to create my own code sheet using process of elimination. Didn't need a complete one either as just about half would be enough to get the game on most of the time.

I did a similar thing with Soccer Kid you had to match the drawing of soccer kid found in the corner of each page of the manual. You could just photocopy it all, which one of my mates did but if you don't have access to a photocopier in '93 I just drew stick figures of every position soccer kid was in and gave each a number.
Was just a case of writing a short list of numbers. Ended up been easier to use than the original by not having to flip though pages of a booklet.

Sometimes makes you think why they even bothered at all, If a 13 year old could crack them I'm sure they must have thought it was a weak copy protection when they added them.

[dlfrsilver]

Simon the sorcerer uses protection checksums.

[Agilent]

Originally Posted by sneckburger

I managed to crack the Simon the Sorcerer Copy protection using trial and error.
I don't remember it taking too long to create my own code sheet using process of elimination. Didn't need a complete one either as just about half would be enough to get the game on most of the time.

I did a similar thing with Soccer Kid you had to match the drawing of soccer kid found in the corner of each page of the manual. You could just photocopy it all, which one of my mates did but if you don't have access to a photocopier in '93 I just drew stick figures of every position soccer kid was in and gave each a number.
Was just a case of writing a short list of numbers. Ended up been easier to use than the original by not having to flip though pages of a booklet.

Sometimes makes you think why they even bothered at all, If a 13 year old could crack them I'm sure they must have thought it was a weak copy protection when they added them.

Did you remember to crack all the ckecksums in Soccer Kid..

[BarryB]

Can you count Copy Protections that can be bypassed by commenting out a file in the S-S? Kind of a 'worse' way to copy protect a disk!

Grid Start you just comment out the line: addbuffers
Three Stooges you just comment out the line: (C)Cinemaware - The Three Stooges

[jotd]

Can you could copy protections that can be bypassed by unpacking the executable? (Nightshift).

Anyway, off topic here. This thread is about worst copy protections like "most annoying".

I don't think anyone mentionned it, but there's a game (by Electronic Zoo, but I don't remember the title) where you had a LIMITED TIME to enter the protection, else it crashed...

[BarryB]

Lenslok protection does that!

[Hercules]

Jet Set Willy for the ZX Spectrum. I used my school maths book to copy all the colour codes.

[Minuous]

According to Computer Trade Weekly, Xenon 2 had a failure rate of 80%. That's pretty atrocious copy protection when 4 out of 5 of your legitimate users are locked out :-(

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Minuous

According to Computer Trade Weekly, Xenon 2 had a failure rate of 80%. That's pretty atrocious copy protection when 4 out of 5 of your legitimate users are locked out :-(

Which version of Xenon 2 ?

[Minuous]

Presumably the initial version. My source is Megacomp #4, p. 11; it doesn't go into a lot of details.