Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!homxb!mtuxo!mtune!lzaz!lznv!psc From: psc@lznv.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: How do I backup EA games? Message-ID: <1182@lznv.ATT.COM> Date: Wed, 11-Nov-87 11:08:36 EST Article-I.D.: lznv.1182 Posted: Wed Nov 11 11:08:36 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 14-Nov-87 11:56:24 EST References: <16036@topaz.rutgers.edu> <15000042@silver> <6150@sunybcs.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Lines: 53 Summary: Some can go to hard disk - different protection schemes In article <6150@sunybcs.UUCP>, ugfailau@sunybcs.uucp (Fai Lau) writes: > I have a few EA games > (Amnesia, music writer, Chuck Yeager's flight simulator, what else?) > and have had wet dreams about being able to move them onto my > hard disk!!! When it usually loads about eight times faster and > I don't have to reboot the whole system when I'm done. > > Fai Lau, SUNY at Buffalo (The Arctic Wonderland) > UUCP: ..{mit-ems|watmath|rocksanne}!sunybcs!ugfailau, BI: ugfailau@sunybcs There are (roughly) three kinds of games. The first is self-booting games (e.g., Music and Pinball Construction Sets, Boulder Dash, and Seven Cities of Gold, all from Electronic Arts, and Flight Simulator from Microsoft). You may be able to copy them, but they'll never run from MS-DOS. This is a real pain if you want to use some DOS feature in them (e.g., mouse driver and menu to move the cursor better than arrow keys alone). The second type is games that run under MS-DOS, but need to detect some sort of copy protection signature. Examples are Chuck Yeager's Flight Simulator from Electronic Arts, which *can* be loaded on the hard disk but still requires a key disk, and Microprose's Gunship, which can be installed (and deinstalled and reinstalled) on your hard disk, putting the signature there. I just run these from the original floppy disk, for two reasons. First, I need to save space on my mere 20M disk. Second, we have two AT&T PC 6300s in the house, and we'd like to be able to conveniently run on either system (one at a time). The third kind of game has no disk-based copy protection scheme. Electronic Arts' Starflight has a difficult (but not impossible) to copy "password wheel". It looks like a decoder ring. When you try to take off, you're given three words and challenged to provide the password. You can always take off, but if you got the password wrong, you're immediately surrounded by police ships, and can't play any more. Infocom is famous for providing vital clues in their game packaging, which is harder to copy than their (no longer copy protected) disks. Some publishers would rather trust users than fight with them. This is a good idea in the long run, but too many users think that anything *easy* to copy is *ethical* to copy. Smokey the Bar says, "Only you can stamp out software pirates " -Paul S. R. Chisholm, {ihnp4,cbosgd,allegra,rutgers}!mtune!lznv!psc AT&T Mail !psrchisholm, Internet psc@lznv.att.com Disclaimer: I'm not speaking for my employer, I'm just speaking my mind. I own all the games I've described above. I either purchased them, or received them as gifts from friends who have purchased them. I don't copy software I haven't bought, and I register for shareware I use a lot. I don't use any copy protected software, except some games.