Methods for protecting discs from copying
ZXNet echo conference «zxnet.soft»
Hello Grand
> Grand:
> And soon (1993-94) a “chopped” version from Fancy appeared; she is exactly like
> it seems to me - a person who played a real storage room Elite - more
> of the other cracks is similar to the original.
There were only 2 main 'Elite-3' cracks - mine, and from Fancy (and from my
Kondratyev & Larkov and Tankard later made their own versions). It hardly makes sense
talk about 'similarity' to the original, since cracks by and large
They differed from it only in the lack of protection and menus for working with the disk.
But if we talk about protecting the original 'Elite-3
Hello Titus
Tit> made for 'Street Fighter'
Hello SMT
> Message from SMT:
> I have the UDI of this game. there the incorrect one is used as part of the protection
> numbering of tracks in sector headers, and the sector reading code is corrected
> VG track register. is this her? (doesn't look like a solid bitmap, but
> I didn’t break it deeply)
Hmm... really. I looked at the version that I have - exactly,
Non-standard numbering is used. Although I absolutely remember what I did
that protection, without sectors at all. If I have time, I'll rummage through the disks, maybe
I'll find it.
And the meaning there was this: recording on the track was carried out entirely, using
track formatting commands. And so that there is no failure on synchronization codes during
while the track was being read, the block being written was completely missing bits
synchro combinations. This is in general terms...
Although the effectiveness of this protection was not particularly high... Wrote just for
variety :-)
Hello Titus
Tit> Although the effectiveness of this protection was not particularly high... Posted by
Tit> just for variety :-)
Oh, that was a long time ago..... The protection was broken the next day after it was delivered
from Moscow from SoftStar...or they took FFC from Lekha, I don’t remember exactly, but it took 4 hours
for sure.........
Hello, sheltem
> Message from sheltem:
> 4 hours were spent on this for sure...............
>
Why is it taking so long? ;) The protection was purely nominal, from ordinary users ;)
Hello, CityAceE
It was not he (or not only him) who set up the defense, but Shadow Soft
Shadow Soft is me. More precisely, me and my neighbor Shadrin. Shadrin + Kladow =
Shadow. This was exactly my protection, for 256 flights. There was a hole in the defense
you could copy without problems, you just had to know how.
My Elite3 differs from my Elite3 only in the presence of Demo, and a fix
a couple of bugs during the game. The protection remained the same (in principle). III released
literally a couple of months after II, and I changed my number mainly because
almost simultaneously with the release of my Elite2, 2 more Elite2 came out (however, not much more
differed from the original).
There were only 2 main 'Elite-3' cracks - mine, and from Fancy (and from my
Then they made their own versions of Kondratyev & Larkov and Tankard). Well, be proud of it now.
After the broken version appeared, I did not receive another penny from it. What am I
lost? Nothing. What did the fans of this game lose? Yes, that's it. Elite4 versions are not
appeared (although it was planned). I didn’t start playing games at all after that.
Why? You won’t be able to make money anyway, so why try?
Hello, Vladimir Kladov
> Message from Vladimir Kladov:
> Well, be proud now. After the broken version appeared, I did not receive s
> not a penny more. What did I lose? Nothing. What did the amateurs lose?
> this game? Yes, that's it. The Elite4 version did not appear (although it was planned).
> I didn’t start playing games at all after that. Why? No matter
> you won’t be able to make money, why try.
>
Hmm... To make money on speckies (and not only on it), you had to be before
just a good manager... The main cream of money in those days was skimmed
only traders - those who sold programs intercity and traded them on
markets. It was not in their interests to remove protection, at least at first -
the main traders in 94-95 already had Amigas, on which almost any
The protection of that time was copied without problems, including Elite-3. But with this
defense there was one small nuance - it did not work either at the Pentagon or at
many other popular models. Personally, I did not break it for sale - for me
I wanted to play it myself ;) (I bought it on the market honestly, pirated,
copied by traders on the Amiga :)) I corrected a few things in it and added
more convenient disk menu and installed its own protection (not against copying, against hacking,out of sporting interest). I also miscalculated my defense - it didn’t work
on machines with a separate memory field (with wait cycles). Naturally the guys with
shadow monitors, they hacked it from St. Petersburg with a magic button, and a
my cracked crack...
Personally, I myself did not make money on the Spectrum from cracks, intranets, demos, games, music
and system programs even $100. Sometimes I made money by trading floppy disks
much more...
Most likely the eternal question is 'who is to blame?' will remain unresolved... Author,
miscalculated with the defense? A trader churning out copies on an Amiga? Hacker? I think that
no one... :v2_cool:
Hello Titus
I think that all those who tried to benefit by circumventing merit are to blame
programmer, actually resorting to deception.
Don’t take this as some kind of personal complaint, but how is this quack
version ("not for sale - I wanted to play it myself") ended up in
someone else (“the guys with shadow monitors from St. Petersburg hacked her with magic
button, and my crack appeared...")?
Hello Vilan
> Message for Vilan:
> Do not consider this to be any personal claims, but how is this
> cracked version ("not for sale - I wanted to play it myself
> play") ended up with someone else ("the guys with shadow monitors, from
> Peter was hacked with a magic button, and my crack appeared
> crack...")?
>
In my opinion, the answer suggests itself - I gave it away myself :)
Do you want to incriminate me somehow? ;)
Hello Titus
Tit> Do you want to accuse me of some kind of guilt? ;)
No. But through logical constructions it turns out that the “non-existence” of the same
Elite-4, you still had a hand (even if not with malicious intent) ;)
Hello Vilan
> Message from Vilan:
> No. But by logical construction it turns out that k
> you still had a hand in the “non-existence” of the same Elite-4 (even though
> not even with malicious intent);)
>
Ay-ay-ay... If you played the 'pirate' Elite-3, then I'm afraid you too
had a hand in this... albeit not with malicious intent: v2_blush:
Hello Titus
At that time, EVERYTHING and EVERYTHING was cracked, at first purely for oneself -> friends
come in->"Dude!!! Let me play!!!" -> "take it, it's a pity, but no one
don't give it up - O.K.!!!" ->4 days have passed (most likely less).....->it turns out already
Everyone has “your” version :confused: :confused: ->and it starts->friends “Yes
My little bro - how many times have I told him - DON’T TAKE MY DISCS!!!” - and he
bastard, while I was at the institute, I took them to my friend :mad: :mad: "and so on
geometric progression .................... and this happened in 99 cases out of
100.............it was almost useless to fight this.....
Hello, CityAceE
Gra> It was not he (or not he alone) who set up the protection, but Shadow Soft
Vla> Shadow Soft - that's me. More precisely, me and my neighbor Shadrin. Shadrin +
Vla> Kladow = Shadow
Well, there's one less mystery about the ZX...
But actually in that conversation
[http://www.zx.pk.ru/showpost.php?p=8992&postcount=25] people were interested
others: were there "floating bits" on the original Elite 2 (3) disc?
Tit> There were only 2 main cracks of 'Elite-3' - mine, and from Fancy...
There was probably the very first crack Elite 2 (which, as we now know, is not enough
how it differed from Elite 3), made by Guild of Siberian Hackers. I can send
(in the sense of sending a file). :)
Hello Titus
Tit> There were only 2 main cracks of 'Elite-3' - mine, and from Fancy (and from
Tit> of mine later they made their own versions Kondratiev & Larkov and Tankard
Misha and I are not hackers at all, Anthony just brought your version, like he was waiting for it,
I've heard so much, I've got enough, let's see quickly, and she's colored for us
squares (or (c)1982, I don’t remember) instead of a game. I had to break it.
But we simply didn’t have the original one from Kladov.
Hello bpm
> Message from Grand:
> Well, another mystery on the ZX has become less...
> But in fact, in that conversation, people were interested in something else: were there
> "floating bits" on the original Elite 2 (3) disc?
>
As far as I remember, there were no floating bits.
> Message from bpm:
> Misha and I are not hackers at all, Anthony just brought your version, like
> I’ve been waiting so long, I’ve heard so much, I got it, let’s see soon, eh
> she gave us colored squares (or (c)1982, I don’t remember) instead of a game.
> Had to break it.
>
The credit for breaking my version is, of course, mine - I defended it in such a way that
the wait machines did not work, there was no scorpion or other
similar spec for verification. Another thing is that without seeing the original, and not knowing that
in my version the disk menu is also mine (the original menu was very inconvenient),
they simply removed my nickname from the information, probably thinking that there were more traces of me in
there was nothing left for the program :v2_tong2:
(in secret, in some releases of very famous sceners there are also
there are versions with my 'autographs' :v2_wink2: )