smith@nrl-aic.arpa (Russ Smith) (07/04/88)
[posted to the generic ARPANET amiga-relay list] Recently a "patch" for the brain-damaged F/A-18 Interceptor copy "protection" was posted (S. Casey was the poster). This patch will only work if the version of Interceptor you have is the one that this patch was written for. If ONE BYTE is different, you get a destroyed copy. A "better" patch program would check the context of the changed locations FIRST, verifying that things are the same, THEN changing the locations. Though I know of no "other" versions of Interceptor out there, it IS possible, so caution is suggested. All zeroed out values should have been 0xF prior to change and you should NEVER modify your original. Be sure to make that copy and modify the copy only. [Note that one "bug fix" on EA's part is sufficient to render that patch program invalid. Bug fixes do not necessarily result in new version numbers...]
sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) (07/05/88)
In article <3207@louie.udel.EDU> smith@nrl-aic.arpa (Russ Smith) writes: >[posted to the generic ARPANET amiga-relay list] I did not post it to the generic ARPANET amiga-relay list. I posted it to Usenet just like this one, and it was gatewayed over there. I take no responsibility for anything I post that goes outside the Usenet domain without my knowledge. >Recently a "patch" for the brain-damaged F/A-18 Interceptor copy >"protection" was posted (S. Casey was the poster). This patch will only >work if the version of Interceptor you have is the one that >this patch was written for. Well, there is only one version known at this date, so it is about 99% likely to work on everyone's copy. >If ONE BYTE is different, you get a destroyed copy. This might be true, and probably is, but I'm nitpicking and saying that it isn't necessarily true. Besides, I TOLD EVERYONE to use a backup copy. This extra warning is unnecessary. But, if you apply the patch and it blows up, put your original disk in drive zero, the copy in drive one, and: copy df0:"F-18 Interceptor" df1: Now that wasn't so bad. >A "better" patch program would check the context of >the changed locations FIRST, verifying that things are the same, THEN >changing the locations. That's true. It's still easier than newzap, isn't it. >Though I know of no "other" versions of >Interceptor out there, it IS possible, so caution is suggested. All >zeroed out values should have been 0xF prior to change and you should >NEVER modify your original. Be sure to make that copy and modify the copy >only. Like I said, I TOLD EVERYONE TO USE A BACKUP COPY! This warning is redundant. >[Note that one "bug fix" on EA's part is sufficient to render that >patch program invalid. Bug fixes do not necessarily result in new version >numbers...] Not necessarily. It may or may not work in the future. We'll just have to whip up another patch, won't we? Sean -- *** Sean Casey sean@ms.uky.edu, sean@ukma.bitnet *** The IPCF Roto-Rooter man. {backbone|rutgers|uunet}!ukma!sean *** U of K, Lexington Kentucky, USA Internet site? "talk sean@g.ms.uky.edu" *** ``I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way.''