Who wants a stack of originals?

[andreas]

Originally posted by Galahad/FLT I have managed to break many a Copylocked game without needing the original to get the serial key

... and with a lot of merit from Mr. Larmer's side.
In my opinion, that copylock decoder deserves the predicate "Amiga Tool of the Century"™.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally posted by andreas
... and with a lot of merit from Mr. Larmer's side.
In my opinion, that copylock decoder deserves the predicate "Amiga Tool of the Century"™.

I have NEVER used Mr. Larmers Copylock decoder!

I was most likely deprotecting Copylocked games long before Mr. Larmer even had an Amiga!

[DrBong]

Originally posted by Galahad/FLT
Experience is using a real Amiga for me. I am quite sure WinUAE in tandem with IPF files suits others, but I have a wealth of experience doing it this way, so I'll not worry.

So what is the big secret then, PM me, I'm all intrigued now!

And that's the big pity about the CAPS project at the moment......unless I'm mistaken, real Amiga users can't write IPFs back to disk to restore their originals, nor use the images on HD to play the games ala WinUAE.

Does the "surprise" perhaps remedy this?

Originally posted by IFW
In most cases you are better of with the ipf since you can fully trace them in winuae thus can extract disk keys from Copylock and others etc, without bothering too much about the tricks the game pulls to prevent that

Most cases? I can't see how. WinUAE without emulation of the MMU is diabolical for WHDLoad patching. You just have to look at Abaddon's last lot of patches released last year to know that. Many of them are still bug-ridden.

[IFW]

When you need to trace a program it is much easier through emulation.
While it was easy to crack a game with a freezer and seeing values etc when you had the original disk to play with on a real machine (a decade ago ) it is not always that easy without that.
Disks may easily go bad over posting especially disks at this age.

As for issues/bugs with whdl installs if you were to tell the guys about the problems they could fix it more easily.

As for the secret it is not secret... I am just not going to spoil it and let Fiath to post when ready

[fiath]

Originally posted by DrBong
unless I'm mistaken, real Amiga users can't write IPFs back to disk to restore their originals,

We could always have waited until we finished what was needed to write the disks back - but that would have easily taken another year so I don't suspect it would have been a popular decision.

It is no easy task to write all the IPF's back to disk - we are talking the need for reproduction as the machines that cost £15000 at the time did it (you could not do it without). Should we be blamed for this?

But anyway, it will happen. It is just going to take time. In the mean while, we can do the best we can to preserve as much as possible - and that includes showing people we are active so they contribute the games not yet preserved.

nor use the images on HD to play the games ala WinUAE.

Yes you can, and you always have, you just need WinUAE to install them first!

Gimme a couple of hours and we will officially announce the "new item".

[Twistin'Ghost]

Originally posted by fiath
It is no easy task to write all the IPF's back to disk - we are talking the need for reproduction as the machines that cost £15000 at the time did it (you could not do it without). Should we be blamed for this?

I gotta say, you CAPS people are very diplomatic and mild mannered when faced with criticisms over what users don't have yet. I have always admired that characteristic in you people. Lashing back is such an easy thing to do, but I have never seen such a response from the CAPS camp. Bloody cheers!

[Antiriad]

Right. After muchos faffing i have decided to CAPS all my Amiga originals. I have the tool set from April. I shall assume this is the latest one and start workin!

[whiteb]

Originally posted by fiath
[Gimme a couple of hours and we will officially announce the "new item". [/B]

Well considering i am 8 hours ahead of you on the clock... your long overdue. :P

WHAT IS THE NEW ITEM !!!!!!!!!!!

[IFW]

Originally posted by Twistin'Ghost
I gotta say, you CAPS people are very diplomatic and mild mannered when faced with criticisms over what users don't have yet. I have always admired that characteristic in you people. Lashing back is such an easy thing to do, but I have never seen such a response from the CAPS camp. Bloody cheers!

Thanks a zillion
Sometimes it is not exactly easy - you know what I am referring to...

[andreas]

@Galahad: DOH!
I bet I managed to confuse you again with Codetapper!!

arrrrgh...

[IFW]

Andreas just wait for CT to kill you for this!

[whiteb]

Caps website updated

Unfortunately none of what I submitted is available

[IFW]

huh?
Powermonger, Populous, X-Out, SSI

Take a closer look dear fellow ghost

I suggest trying the "few more ipfs" link

[DrBong]

Originally posted by Twistin'Ghost
I gotta say, you CAPS people are very diplomatic and mild mannered when faced with criticisms over what users don't have yet. I have always admired that characteristic in you people. Lashing back is such an easy thing to do, but I have never seen such a response from the CAPS camp. Bloody cheers!

Admittedly my post was designed partly to see if the "surprise" would be uncovered sooner rather than later. I guess that has been achieved now

Nice work CAPS! Let's hope support for the Amiga CAPS library is taken up by Amiga developers.

The other reasons for my post was to:

(1) indicate that some Amiga users would love to make use of IPFs on the native hardware (rather than via emulation)

(2) correct what I saw was a false impression given by IFW that WHDLoad patching was easier in most cases using IPFs and WinUAE (Abaddon coded his last lot of patches using WinUAE rather than a real Amiga with MMU and the results were not good- not his fault or anyone else's of course- but not good all the same).

If I was trying to be brutal I could have done a lot worse than my last post. Apologies all the same to Fiath and IFW if I came across as brutal.

[IFW]

winuae is not the tool to make an install it is just help if needed.
Obviously a real install should be done and verified on a real miggy, but there are cases when cheating on protection tricks is a good alternative e.g. saving precious time for other installs to do

Don't worry your post had nothing to do about when the update was posted. If it had to be 3 months from now on, it would have been 3 months

[DrBong]

Originally posted by fiath
It is no easy task to write all the IPF's back to disk - we are talking the need for reproduction as the machines that cost £15000 at the time did it (you could not do it without). Should we be blamed for this?

I wasn't blaming you for that as you explained this to me in another thread a while back. That bit was just a statement of fact. I was hoping the "surprise" would address the bit that came after that, about IPFs not being able to be used on real Amigas as they could be with WinUAE. Thankfully it seems to!

[DrBong]

Originally posted by IFW
Don't worry your post had nothing to do about when the update was posted. If it had to be 3 months from now on, it would have been 3 months

[IFW]

But it's more fun that it is now, isn't it?

note: I know it's been posted on our site, but... whatever happens do not bug well known amiga authors for the apps/updates they will happen as time permits.

[Twistin'Ghost]

@DrBong
Sorry...it didn't occur to me that you'd think I was referring to your post. In fact, I was just referring to the CAPS response, which in turn reminded me of how civilized those guys are when questioned about anything. More than anything else, I had in mind a debate on a different site which I found to be, frankly, repugnant. It smacked of elitism and sour grapes, was blasphemous, derogatory and thankless, and only appeared to exist for the purpose of creating friction via showboating and class separatism. Despite the ugly language and intimations, the CAPS team (as always) defeated the butt-ugly dragon using truth and chivalry. If I were in the same situation, things would have turned nasty and the cobra would be attacking the mongoose with toxic virulence. Hopefully I can learn from their example and be inspired by their calm gracefulness on all but M$ fanboys.

[fiath]