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From: sean@visix.com (Sean Trowbridge)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Infocom backup (was Re: Source for some Infocom games)
Message-ID: <1991Feb20.184202.2096@visix.com>
Date: 20 Feb 91 18:42:02 GMT
References: <22156@hydra.gatech.EDU> <16545@milton.u.washington.edu>
Sender: news@visix.com
Reply-To: sean@visix.com (Sean Trowbridge)
Organization: Visix Software Inc., Reston, Virginia
Lines: 62

In article <16545@milton.u.washington.edu>,
tiktok@milton.u.washington.edu (Steve Feldon) writes:
> I never found an Infocom game (and I've played a lot of them -- not
finished
> many, but played a lot) that couldn't be "freed" from its
copyprotection by
> StuffIt.  Just stuff the game, then unstuff it on your hard drive, or
a back
> up disk.  Some of them then allow themselves to be copied freely, and
all of 
> them (again, well over a dozen of the games) saved games perfectly to
an 
> HFS hard drive.

Interesting.  My method for making the old Infocom works is a little
more involved, but works perfectly (for me at least).

It is based on the fact that every Infocom game (at every text Infocom
game)
is simply a language interpreter
plus a data file.  On the mac, the language interpreter lives in the
resource
fork, and the data lives in the data fork.  Thus, if you delete all of
the
resources of an older game, and copy in all the resources of a newer
game,
you will then have updated the program of the old game.

If you know what you're doing, you should also change the finder BNDL
resources
to correspond with the old game, along with all references to the
4-letter file
type in the CODE resources.  This will allow the finder to tell the old
game's save files from the new game's save files, but it should work OK
without
this change.

> 
> Please note:  Even though these games are no longer published, I am
NOT 
> condoning pirating them.  Even if you are now able to copy the
software, 
> virtually all of the games have "soft" copy protection as well,
meaning 
> if you don't have something that was in the package, the game is
impossible
> to play/win.  So don't do it.

Seconded by me.  I'm not a lawyer, and am not sure about the legality of
this.
This information is strictly FYI only.  If you do try this, TRY IT ON A
COPY
of your file, not your original.  I'm not responsible for anyone
clobbering 
their games.

Consider me disclaimed.

--
Name: Sean Trowbridge  Job:Software Engineer   Quote: "Ho, Yes!" -
Employer: Visix Software Inc.                      The Church Police.
Disclaimer: Yeah, like I know anything.         E-mail: sean@visix.com