[comp.sys.mac.games] Infocom backup

tiktok@milton.u.washington.edu (Steve Feldon) (02/17/91)

I never found an Infocom game (and I've played a lot of them -- not finished
many, but played a lot) that couldn't be "freed" from its copyprotection by
StuffIt.  Just stuff the game, then unstuff it on your hard drive, or a back
up disk.  Some of them then allow themselves to be copied freely, and all of 
them (again, well over a dozen of the games) saved games perfectly to an 
HFS hard drive.

Also, I've never had any trouble with any of the Infocoms crashing on an
SE.

Please note:  Even though these games are no longer published, I am NOT 
condoning pirating them.  Even if you are now able to copy the software, 
virtually all of the games have "soft" copy protection as well, meaning 
if you don't have something that was in the package, the game is impossible
to play/win.  So don't do it.
-- 
==============================================================================
Steve Feldon                   | opinions  | "It's like... cows!"
tiktok@milton.u.washington.edu | all mine! | 		-- Mojo Feline, 1991
==============================================================================

long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com (Rich Long) (02/17/91)

In article <16545@milton.u.washington.edu>, tiktok@milton.u.washington.edu (Steve Feldon) writes...
>Please note:  Even though these games are no longer published, I am NOT 
>condoning pirating them.  Even if you are now able to copy the software, 

Excuse my ignorance if this has been hashed over, but what happened to
 Infocom?

Richard C. Long  *  long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com       
                 *  ...!decwrl!mcntsh.enet.dec.com!long 
                 *  long%mcntsh.dec@decwrl.enet.dec.com 

tiktok@milton.u.washington.edu (steve feldon) (02/17/91)

long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com (Rich Long) writes:
>Excuse my ignorance if this has been hashed over, but what happened to
> Infocom?

To my great regret, they were absorbed by Mediagenic, and are now just another
imprint on a line that consists almost exclusively of graphic action games.
All the old games, Zork trilogy, Planetfall, etc, have been allowed to fall
by the wayside, and are now hard to get.  I _t_h_i_n_k they still sell
Zork Zero and Beyond Zork, but I could be wrong.  If you are lucky, Egghead
can still order a few of the games, but the prices are in the $45 range.

-- 
==============================================================================
Steve Feldon                   | opinions  | "It's like... cows!"
tiktok@milton.u.washington.edu | all mine! | 		-- Mojo Feline, 1991
==============================================================================

sean@visix.com (Sean Trowbridge) (02/21/91)

In article <16545@milton.u.washington.edu>,
tiktok@milton.u.washington.edu (Steve Feldon) writes:
> I never found an Infocom game (and I've played a lot of them -- not
finished
> many, but played a lot) that couldn't be "freed" from its
copyprotection by
> StuffIt.  Just stuff the game, then unstuff it on your hard drive, or
a back
> up disk.  Some of them then allow themselves to be copied freely, and
all of 
> them (again, well over a dozen of the games) saved games perfectly to
an 
> HFS hard drive.

Interesting.  My method for making the old Infocom works is a little
more involved, but works perfectly (for me at least).

It is based on the fact that every Infocom game (at every text Infocom
game)
is simply a language interpreter
plus a data file.  On the mac, the language interpreter lives in the
resource
fork, and the data lives in the data fork.  Thus, if you delete all of
the
resources of an older game, and copy in all the resources of a newer
game,
you will then have updated the program of the old game.

If you know what you're doing, you should also change the finder BNDL
resources
to correspond with the old game, along with all references to the
4-letter file
type in the CODE resources.  This will allow the finder to tell the old
game's save files from the new game's save files, but it should work OK
without
this change.

> 
> Please note:  Even though these games are no longer published, I am
NOT 
> condoning pirating them.  Even if you are now able to copy the
software, 
> virtually all of the games have "soft" copy protection as well,
meaning 
> if you don't have something that was in the package, the game is
impossible
> to play/win.  So don't do it.

Seconded by me.  I'm not a lawyer, and am not sure about the legality of
this.
This information is strictly FYI only.  If you do try this, TRY IT ON A
COPY
of your file, not your original.  I'm not responsible for anyone
clobbering 
their games.

Consider me disclaimed.

--
Name: Sean Trowbridge  Job:Software Engineer   Quote: "Ho, Yes!" -
Employer: Visix Software Inc.                      The Church Police.
Disclaimer: Yeah, like I know anything.         E-mail: sean@visix.com