Don_C_Rudolph@cup.portal.com (02/09/88)
I bought the game, F-15 Strike Eagle. The original disk has a hole with a diameter about the size of a pencil lead in it. I tried copying the original disk with COPYIIPC, but cannot play the game with the copied disk. I have been told that older versions of F-15 do not have the hole. I would like to be able to make a backup copy. I also would like to play the game on my hard disk. Does anyone have suggestions?
Don_C_Rudolph@cup.portal.com (02/14/88)
Sorry folks, but I put out some bad info over the net. I described my F-15 Strike Eagle diskette as having a hole in it. Well, I just found out that all floppies have that hole. It is called it a reference hole. I've just never noticed it before. How do you make an embarassed happy face? That doesn't really change things, however. I would still like to know how I can put the game on my hard disk. Can anyone help?
halvers@iraq.steinmetz (peter c halverson) (02/15/88)
Expires: Sender: Followup-To: Distribution: Keywords: In article <3186@cup.portal.com> Don_C_Rudolph@cup.portal.com writes: >Sorry folks, but I put out some bad info over the net. I described my >F-15 Strike Eagle diskette as having a hole in it. Well, I just found >out that all floppies have that hole. Wow, I never noticed this before either. I took a look at my software collection, and *every* *single* *disk* has a hole in it. It's always located near the middle of the disk, looking something like this: +--------------------------+ | | | [ | | | _____ | | / \ | | | | | | \_____/ | | ^ | | | | | | | +-------------|------------+ +---- hole is here Has anyone else noticed this, or is there something wrong with all of my disks? Could this have anything to do with these "virus" programs that I keep hearing about? ~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~ Pete Halverson ARPA: halverson@ge-crd.ARPA General Electric Company UUCP: uunet!steinmetz!iraq!halvers Corporate R & D Schenectady, NY "Trust me; I know what I'm doing." --- Inspector Sledge Hammer
cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) (02/16/88)
> In article <3186@cup.portal.com> Don_C_Rudolph@cup.portal.com writes: > >Sorry folks, but I put out some bad info over the net. I described my > >F-15 Strike Eagle diskette as having a hole in it. Well, I just found > >out that all floppies have that hole. > > Wow, I never noticed this before either. I took a look at my software > collection, and *every* *single* *disk* has a hole in it. It's always > located near the middle of the disk, looking something like this: > > +--------------------------+ > | | > | [ > | | > | _____ | > | / \ | > | | | | > | \_____/ | > | ^ | > | | | > | | | > +-------------|------------+ > +---- hole is here > > Has anyone else noticed this, or is there something wrong with all > of my disks? Could this have anything to do with these "virus" programs > that I keep hearing about? Great sarcasm, but the reference hole isn't the hub hole. It's a hole in the disk visible through a small cutout next to the hub hole. Clayton E. Cramer
gary@hpbbrd.HP.COM (Gary Tuosto) (02/17/88)
A friend of mine recently told me about a copy protection technique that sounds just like what you've described, Don. It seems that some software makers use a laser to put a hole in their diskettes in a specific place. When the executable file is run it attempts to write on that spot and immediately after that attempts to read what it just wrote. Since the original disk is damaged it will give an '00000000' back no matter what. Any copied disk however will not be damaged there and the program can read the information it put there which proves that the disc had been copied. This might be what you're experiencing or some variation of the technique. I wish you luck and may the force be with you. Gary
dbraun@cadev4.intel.com (Doug Braun ~) (02/18/88)
In article <3186@cup.portal.com> Don_C_Rudolph@cup.portal.com writes: >Sorry folks, but I put out some bad info over the net. I described my >F-15 Strike Eagle diskette as having a hole in it. Well, I just found >out that all floppies have that hole. It is called it a reference >hole. I've just never noticed it before. How do you make an >embarassed happy face? > Actually, having an extra index hole could be an excellent method of copy protection. An extra hole wouldn't affect normal operation because it is only used to tell if the disk is spinning, and during formatting. The scheme would work like this: The program tries to read a non-existent sector. Normally, the controller chip tries to read until the disk has gone through N revolutions, as determined by counting index marks. With an extra hole, there will be twice as many index marks, so the controller times out in N/2 revolutions. The program just keeps track of this time, and if it is too long (i.e. not shortened by an extra hole) the program exits. This might bomb on ATs, etc., though. Doug Braun Intel Corp CAD 408 496-5939 / decwrl \ | hplabs | -| oliveb |- !intelca!mipos3!cadev4!dbraun | amd | \ qantel /