Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!bu.edu!purdue!ccncsu!!miranda!jafo From: jafo@miranda.UUCP (Sean Reifschneider) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Awesome! No I am Pi**ed! Message-ID: Date: 12 Dec 90 13:50:04 GMT References: <3920@corpane.UUCP> <4647@disk.UUCP> Lines: 31 >In article caw@miroc.Chi.IL.US (Christopher A. Wichura) writes: >In article jafo@miranda.UUCP (Sean Reifschneider) writes: >>I just got a copy of Test Drive, and find the copy protection to be acceptable. >>I have it installed on my hard drive. If you try to run the program without >>the origional disc in the drive, it crashes. If you run it with the origional > ^^^^^^^ >>disc in the drive, it access the disc for a few seconds, then you can play >>from hard/ram disc. Works great! > >This is acceptable? I'd hardly call a copy protection that deliberately >crashes your machine when it fails acceptable. SimCity used to do this >before they went to the look-it-up-in-the-manual type of protection and I >hated it. There is no excuse for crashing the user's machine on purpose. >The software ought to (optionally) print a blurb and then simply exit, or >do what some of the games do and run with a limited subset of all features >(such as Red Storm Rising letting you play a training mission). I think it's acceptable. Since the program forces you to reboot to exit it anyway. My machine reboots anyway. Protection like FA/18 is good (look up wheel). The way it's protected now is great (no protection at all). Test drive is accpetable (because I can still install it on my hard drive). Falcon and Populous are unacceptable (can't install them on my hard drive, and Falcon is now unusable. Those are my criteria. I do like games with no protection that will exit and you are back to where you were before you loaded the game. There are very few games that do that, though. Sean -- From the desk of Sean Reifschneider. Isn't Amiga UUCP great? Thanks Matt. uunet.uu.net!ccncsu.colostate.edu!ncuug!miranda!jafo