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From: colas@lemur.inria.fr (Colas Nahaboo)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: Piracy, HW copiers and other issues.
Message-ID: <1991Feb25.131919@lemur.inria.fr>
Date: 25 Feb 91 12:19:19 GMT
References: <45625@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Sender: news@mirsa.inria.fr
Reply-To: colas@lemur.inria.fr (Colas Nahaboo)
Organization: Koala Project, Bull Research France
Lines: 42
Nntp-Posting-Host: lemur.inria.fr

In article <45625@nigel.ee.udel.edu>, PYC118@uriacc.uri.edu (FO Q) writes:
> Due to several personal inquiries concerning hardware copiers I think a
> comparison of the two most popular such copiers will be of interest.

Thanks for such an informative posting!

I will add  my experience on "Freeze-Frame" devices, such as Action Replay
and Nordic Power.
These devices allows you to take a "snapshot" of a running program, save them
to disk and restart them + other goodies (gradual slowdown of the machine,
autofire for joysticks). I will only speak of AR, since I do not know any
NP owners (if you are, could you post a review?)

I found out that these devices can be used to backup your software, with the 
added plus that since you dump your memory, chances are that your dump won't
work on other people machines with different configs, so that it cant be used to
spread disks. However it is I think invaluable for backuping software for
archival copies. I was able to backup my copy of lemmings, which wasn't copied
with synchro express. It is however tricky to use, since you must find the good
spot where you can interrupt the program whithout disturbing it, and it can be a
tricky process. 

Problems are that this card (A2000)/ cartridge (A500) ignores memory higher than
1 mega and HDs, so you cannot save only to floppies (slow), and you cannot save
a game that has loaded in real fast ram. it does allow you to run programs in
512K, and save/restore quickly (~ 1 second) to the other 512K,
which is a really handy feature.

I think it is a mandatory buy for any amiga game player! So you can save your
F19 flight during the missions, at the start of each Lotus esprit races, 
(now I have all the 15 levels saved, so I can re-play any of them)
and go in slow motion in lemmings for precise timing (for digging for instance).
A great performance/price ratio at ~ $120.
It allows you to enjoy a game that was previously unplayable because the
programmers were lazy enough not to code a "same game anywhere" option.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a pirate, I use a computer at work, and life told me that
you ALWAYS need to backup your disks.

--
Colas Nahaboo, colas@sa.inria.fr, Bull Research, Koala Project, GWM X11 WM
Phone:(33) 93.65.77.70(.66 Fax), INRIA, B.P.109 - 06561 Valbonne Cedex, FRANCE.