lamb@thumper.UUCP (03/09/87)
I'm trying to make backup copies of the Electronic Arts disks
Deluxe Music Construction Set and The Bard's Tale. None of the
public domain or shareware disk copiers that I have can do this, so
I am considering purchasing either Marauder II or The Mirror.
Trouble is, I don't know if either of these will work.
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has used either of these
programs to copy DMCS or TBT. Did it work? What parameters (if any)
did you need to use? Please note that it is not necessary to me
that the copy is unprotected, although that would be a plus if I ever
get a hard disk.
Please mail responses to me rather than clutter the net. If anyone
else wants to know, send me some mail and I will let you know what
I hear.
I do realize that EA offers an unprotected version of DMCS to
current owners at $20. I mailed in the little green card with my
check the day after Christmas and have yet to see the disk or my
cancelled check. I'm getting tired of waiting (anybody from EA out
there listening?).
John Lamb {bellcore, research, allegra}!thumper!lambwtm@neoucom.UUCP (03/13/87)
Hi, Yes, Marauder II will apparently back-up the new EA disks. Please, no griping; I DID buy Deluxe Music, and have yet to get my duly authorized backup copy, but I have received my DPaint II backup -- it took about 6 (gak!) weeks for them to send it. We were able to back up the copy of Deluxe Music that we bought in Cleveland, OH with Marauder II without any problems. Interestingly, the copy protection seems to have been disabled on the backup copy, something that I don't consider all that necessary. In fact copying the protection scheme along would prevent unuathorized re-backing up by other people. What is neat about Marauder II is that it uses a parameter file for the copy anaysis. If you've got a modem, you can download the lastest version of the parameter file from the company's BBS. That's not bad, as the file is only about 6K long. If I had any complaints about Marauder II, it would be that it is one of those silly programs that makes you look up things from the owner's manual before it will run for you. Here's a complaint about Deluxe music that I don't recall having seen in the last lenghty posting on the Net. In the code of the program, the fixed disk is referred to as "HD0", rather than "DH0" that it should be. It took a while to figure out why the program was barfing on the fixed disk, since the requester box says "DH0". Once we nailed down the problem, Filezap quickly put an end to the transliteration problem. Of course, back it up rather than filezapping your original copy! If memory serves me right, the fixed disk is also goofed up in DPaint II, but with a different misspelling. Bill Mayhew Division of Basic Medical Sciences Northeastern Ohio Universities' College of Medicine Rootstown, OH 44272 USA phone: 216-325-2511 (wtm@neoucom.UUCP ...!cbatt!neoucom!wtm)
lamb@thumper.UUCP (03/13/87)
Thanks to those who responded to tell me that Marauder II with the
first update will back up both Deluxe Music Construction Set and
The Bard's Tale. Someone also said that they thought Discovery
Software had a BBS for registered owners of their products from
which you can get the update at no additional charge (other than
the cost of the phone call). I don't know the phone number, but
their voice line is (215)242-4666.
So far, I have gotten no responses about The Mirror, but I recently
found out that 'research' no longer forwards mail to 'thumper', so
if you sent me something that way, please try again through 'allegra'
or 'bellcore'.
John Lamb, Bell Communications Research
{bellcore, allegra}!thumper!lamblachac@topaz.UUCP (03/14/87)
In article <491@thumper.UUCP> lamb@thumper.UUCP writes: >Thanks to those who responded to tell me that Marauder II with the >first update will back up both Deluxe Music Construction Set and >The Bard's Tale. Someone also said that they thought Discovery >Software had a BBS for registered owners of their products from >which you can get the update at no additional charge (other than >the cost of the phone call). I don't know the phone number, but >their voice line is (215)242-4666. I was waiting for someone to mention this, now I can flame... --------- The latest word from Discovery, and Rick Ross (I heard this info second hand from someone who calls Discovery's BBS): Rick has rewritten M II. It seems there was a "pirate" program that ran in the background while running the original M II. This program told you what the keywords were to type in so you wouldn't have to refer to the manual. It seems Rick found out, rewrote M II so you couldn't do that, and is now charging $15 per ugrade. That includes brain files from what I understand. Considering that brainfiles need to be ugraded every 2 to 4 weeks, Discovery will be getting almost $30 a month from registered users, a bit of a ripoff if you ask me. Disclaimer: (Gee, my first disclaimer) As I have said, all this information is secondhand. It could be true or it could all be wrong. As Ripley said: "Believe it or not!" -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Isn't fun the best thing to have?" lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu