Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!super!udel!rochester!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bu-cs!bucsb!crewman
From: crewman@bucsb.UUCP (Jerry J. Shekhel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga software piracy
Message-ID: <2318@bucsb.UUCP>
Date: 16 Dec 88 02:22:17 GMT
References: <27072@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <42600045@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu>
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga
Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci.
Lines: 32

In article <42600045@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu> petersen@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>The 8-bit atari computers used the cartrige idea for game distribution. 
>However it was not 100% successful, the main way to beak it was do make a
>dump of the cartrige onto a disk then run it from there.
>

Absolutely true.  Cartridges are not any better than any of the other
protection schemes.  In fact I believe there is no foolproof protection
scheme.  The point is that somewhere in the program there is code which
checks for the protection.  Disk-based software may have a bit of code
that tests for the existence of some unreproducible media element, like
an unusual track, etc., before allowing itself to be run.  Cartridge-based
software often checks that its code cannot be modified (i.e., it is ROM)
before continuing.  Find that bit of code, patch it out, and you've just
cracked your first piece of software.  I did this many years ago, almost
by accident, on an 8-bit micro.  A certain game I liked checked a bad
sector on its disk very often, which made an annoying sound.  After finding
the code that did this and changing one byte on the disk, I made the bril-
liant discovery that the game was now easily copiable.  Of course, modern
game software is much more prudently protected, but I cannot think of
an absolutely safe protection method.

>
>The only way that the current game machines get
>away with this kind of copy protection is because they don't have any
>writeable storage like a general purpose computer would have.
>

Absolutely.

		-- JJS