reynolds_l@apollo.UUCP (10/01/87)
Hi, folks!
Copy protection - I have a couple of programs left which I
have been unable to unprotect (only a fool actually installs a one-time
only installation program without backing/breaking the protection) and
I find that nobody seems to have much idea about how to zap them.
Both are games (Yes, I'm not ashamed to admit that I also use my
machine to play games!!) and the protection scheme on both makes
them unreliable in execution.
(God know copy protection is bad enough, but when the legal owner
can't use the damn things reliably....)
They are: Universe I & II (both from Omnitrend software, excellent
games but the protection is obtrusive)
and ...Mindscape's Balance Of Power (The new version with the EGA
and other bugs fixed...)
Anyone have any hints or pointers??
......Incidentally - I bought Balance of Power back in February, it never
worked reliably (well, it was V1.0!) often hanging the machine, and the screen
updates took literally minutes, so it was, in effect, unusable. I waited
until last month when Mindscape started shipping the "fixed" version - I had to
send them my key disk and wait a month for the replacement (!)....now the
new version can't be installed (they suspect it's due to the copy protection
scheme having a bug) and again, just maybe, sometimes you can get it to run...
or maybe not.....Maybe this is a new type of game - there really isn't any
BoP at all - instead you have to use your ingenuity to figure out real
world problems......
AAAAAAAARRRRGH!!!
Lee (reynolds_l@apollo)coulter@hpclisp.UUCP (10/02/87)
Have you tried COPYIIPC? It can make copies of a lot of copy-protected
stuff. It even unprotects some specific programs. A few copy protection
schemes require speical hardware for copying.
-- Michael Coulter {hplabs|ucbvax}!hpda!coulterRandomizer@cup.portal.com (10/03/87)
I recommend the copyIIpc option board for ~$84 at most major stores.
It will copy virtually any software exactly. Won't copy disks that
are laser etched though -- they DO make a more expensive board that does
copy laser burned disks and even mention a board called the GHOSTWRITE??
ghostwriter >>> that copies commodore, MAC diskettes etc. At $84
it's a good deal for a PC owner.
Software and Hardware for $84
randomizerwtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (10/09/87)
The normal procedure to reboot PeeCees and compatibles is to enter the ROM BIOS. You can do this by performing a long jump thusly: JMP F000:FFF0 This, more than likely, will perform a cold boot. To get a warm boot, you can feed a magic cookie into low memory. If the magic cookie is present, the ROM BIOS will skip over the memory check and video mode reset stuff. Note that DOS INT 19H (I think that is the number) purports to perform a warm boot, but this seems broken on a lot of klone musheenz. The magic cookie always works. Perform it thusly: MOV AX,0040 ;set up segment offset MOV DS,AX ;set segment reg. MOV AX,1234 ;neat cookie, huh? MOV [0072],AX ;cookie 1234 --> (0040:0072) JMP F000:FFF0 ;jump to BIOS you can easily enter the above sequence using DEBUG.COM. Refer to your manual [programmer's axiom: RTFM] for details on using debug. I have found being able to do a warmboot to reset a machine running procomm via the above from remote to be very useful. Hope this helps! Bill Bill Mayhew Electrical Engineering Division of Basic Medical Sciences Northeastern Ohio Universities' College of Medicine Rootstown (what a name!), OH 44272-9989 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@neoucom.UUCP (...!cbosgd!neoucom!wtm)