Date   : Tue, 06 May 2003 11:24:13 +0200
From   : John Kortink <kortink@...>
Subject: Re: BBC Micro Games Copy Protection

On Mon, 05 May 2003 23:10:06 +0000, you wrote:

>John Kortink wrote:
>
>> I can remember what a nightmare the tape version of Elite was.
>> It used every trick in the book, fake tape blocks, interrupt
>> routines, tricky timing, garbled routines, jumping all over
>> the place, using almost every free byte in the machine. I did
>> manage to hack it (still have the hacked version). I later bought
>> the disc version as well though. I had got to see so much of the
>> Elite code by then that I built some code to hack out all the
>> spaceship wireframe models so you could print them (published
>> in A&B Computing June 1986, 'Elite fleet') and increase the
>> number of random Saturn dots plotted on the opening screen).
>
>I thought the elite tape version was extremely easy to crack. I remember
>the use of an IRQ routine to flip the last block bit for the last file,
>but nothing else stands out in my memory as being difficult (I've still

That was only the first hurdle. Then the tape could be
copied, yes. But it was followed by a very varied array
of copy-to-floppy defenses (I remember counting at least
10 different ones, and that stuck in my mind because most
other games at the time relied on only a few minor or major
hurdles).

>[...]
>
>As other noted, the really tricky ones are supposed to be the Kevin
>Edwards games (like galaforce), and Alien 8. I was planning to have a go
>last summer to see how difficult it would be but still haven't got round
>to it...

I think Galaforce was one of the games that used the 'EOR
with timer value' loops described earlier in the thread.
Alien 8 I can't remember much about, although I did buy
it. I do remember the Ultimate protections were rather
nasty compared to others.

>P.S. Was anyone else here disappointed as I was in the tape version of
>Elite? No missions, very few ships, no military or mining lasers...

Yes. I bought the disc version lateron, just for the missions. :-(
Of course, the extra stuff was really due to the advantages of the
storage medium rather than a deliberate attempt to cripple the tape
version.


John Kortink