Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!convex!killer!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mailrus!ames!haven!umd5!hans
From: hans@umd5.umd.edu (Hans Breitenlohner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Was: Flight Sim II <=> XF551 incompatible forever
Message-ID: <4269@umd5.umd.edu>
Date: 23 Nov 88 23:59:52 GMT
References: <1270013@hpclkms.HP.COM> <2567@ihlpm.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: hans@umd5.umd.edu (Hans Breitenlohner)
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Lines: 28

In article <2567@ihlpm.ATT.COM> njd@ihlpm.ATT.COM (DiMasi) writes:
>> 
>> Also, I think the FSII incompatibility with the XF551 is not related to this
>> problem.  It has to do with the copy protection scheme that FSII uses.  (Terry,
>> am I right?  Enquiring minds want to know :-)   That's what happens when 
>> software is copy protected.
>> 
>
>The 8-bit gurus on DELPHI (and I believe I saw this here too) said that the
>problem with FSII indeed stems from the protection scheme:  sensitivity to
>disk speed is at least part of it.  The '551 reportedly runs at about 300 rpm,
>instead of the usual 288 or so for other 8-bit drives.  Does anyone have a
>_definitive_ answer to the question, "will Sublogic [ever] support the '551?"
>
This is indeed one of the aspects of copy protection which give it a bad name.
Since Sublogic seems unresponsive, I would pursue one of the following
three approaches, if I encountered this problem:
  1. Adjust the drive speed to 288 rpm permanently, and hope that everything
     else keeps on working.
  2. if (1) does not work out, install some "enhancement" to the drive's
     speed-regulating circuitry, so that the speed can be switched between
     288 and 300 rpm.
  3. Work on a software solution (i.e. crack the copy protection).
I am well aware that both (2) and (3) require a substantial investment of
time.

I am also quite appalled that any copy protection scheme should fail over a
4% increase in drive speed.