mitchell@janus.Berkeley.EDU (Evan Mitchell) (03/10/90)
Fool that I am, I took the plunge and purchased a Synchro Express II hardware/ software disk copier. You know, the one that's advertised in all the Amiga rags and guarentees to copy EVERY piece of software. Well, I called them up and the nice woman on the phone assured me that it would work with my setup. In fact, she said the only title that couldn't be backed up was Sword of Sodan. GOOD NEWS: She said it would arrive in about 3 days, it arrived in 3 days! Installation was simple and straight forward. (BTW, the hardware doesn't look like the thing pictured in the add, it looks more like a gender-bender than anything else) Simply plug your drive into the synchro unit, and plug the synchro unit into your computer. (of course your power must be off) The software is auto booting and is simple to use. There aren't many gadgets and no pull down menus. Pressing the right mouse button allows you to choose between normal/index/syncro copying. With the hardware in place most disks should be easily copiable using the normal mode. It's VERY fast! Using certain combinations of options I was able to backup "TV Sports Football" "Batman", "Double Dragon", and SpaceHarrier/Live and Let Die. However, I wasn't able to give it a real test yet. ( I don't play any of the games I listed anymore, so I'm not yet impressed) BAD NEWS: I couldn't make copies of "Summer Challenge" (amazing! I only paid 12 bucks for it and it has the best copy protection yet) or "Superstar Indoor Sports" (9 bucks!). The hardware also doesn't do what it's supposed to. There is a pass-thru switch on the hardware that is supposed to allow you opperate your machine normaly with the synchro unit installs. It doesn't work! OVERALL IMPRESSION: I'm not sure yet! I haven't had a chance to really test the device yet. Also I my setup might not allow me to make copies of everthing. I have an A500 (1 meg/old agnes) with a PRO-drive. I think the pro-drive may have some timing problems since I was unable to load Sword of Sodan with it. Anyway, If I get a chance I'll try to backup some of my real games (i.e. Blood Money, Beast) and also borrow my friends drive to see if there are any differences. More to come... -Evan Jay Mitchell mitchell@janus.berkeley.edu
hue@netcom.UUCP (Jonathan Hue) (03/10/90)
The local Amiga store (HT Electronics) said in their newsletter that they had about an 80% success rate copying copy-protected software. -Jonathan
king@cell.mot.COM (Steven King) (03/13/90)
A friend of mine bought Synchro Express. There are a good many things it won't copy. In fact, it strikes me that Nib (which is public domain) has about the same success rate. The problem with SE is that sometimes the failures aren't immediately obvious. For example, my backup of Dungeon Master booted and ran without a hitch -- UNTIL I got to a certain point in the dungeon. Whacko! Not a pleasant demise, even for adventurers... My recommendation is to stay away from this thing. With the success rate I've seen, I don't think it's worth the money. (Then again, I'm not paranoid about backing up my disks, either. Even if it had a 100% success rate I still wouldn't pay more than $10 for it...) -- ---------------------------------------------------+--------------------------- I'm very good at giving directions, especially if | Steve King (708) 991-8056 I'm giving them to myself, 'cause I know what I'm | ...uunet!motcid!king talking about. | ...ddsw1!palnet!stevek