| Author: | Vesa Paatero (registered user: 1 posts ) |
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| Date: | Sun, Sep 23rd, 2012 @ 08:02 ( . ) |
Hi everyone, Back then (in early nineties I guess) I tried to obtain a copy of Autoduel in spite of the warning somewhere in the accompanying materials that the game disk (side A or 1) could get broken if copying is attempted... And guess what: It did! The C64 Preservation Project's database says about Autoduel that the copy protection is based on checking whether track 6 is unformatted. However, I haven't found any description or theory explaining how a copy protection that breaks the original is accomplished. I suppose it doesn't always happen, otherwise it would be more widely known. If I remember correctly, the broken disk behaved so that a read error (and the stepping motor making the typical noise) occurred as because of the copy protection, but after the copying attempt the drive stopped with the light blinking. (On the other hand, I can't be sure whether it was exactly the same read error.) The copying attempt was performed using a 1541-II disk drive. The software was either Fast Hack 'em or a similar one whose name I don't remember -- the only one we knew of that seemed to be better than Fast Hack'em in whole-disk copying. So, could the copy protection scheme be based on something bad happening when the whole-disk copier reads those areas on track 6 that are normally never read? .. or reading them in an order different from the game software? Anyway, the detrimental change should affect areas that _are_ always read. Strange. Breaking my friend's game in spite of the warning was somewhat traumatic, I have to admit... Fortunately, my friend had bought the disk second-hand as part of a larger bunch of games, and a cracked version of the game appeared within our reach a little later. However, the cracked version had a bug that caused the game to crash occasionally, which was very bad in that game because saved games would get lost also unless explicitly backupped by copying side B of the game disk. To this day it is unclear to me whether the crashing bug was already present in the original version or only in the piratic one. Any ideas or similar experiences? Regards, Vesa |
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