dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins) (01/09/91)
I own F16 Combat Pilot. I have three problems with it, for which I am looking
for solutions. See the bottom of this post for information on what I will
trade for solutions to these problems:
F16 CP would be my favorite combat flight simulator
(superior to Falcon), if it were not for the following three things that have
nothing to do with the game, but which make it practically unusable:
- - -
1. It has disk-based copy protection, which makes me afraid to play it. With
the amount of time I would be spending with it, and the amount of disk
accessing it does, I know that eventually that disk will wear out. I haven't
yet found a cracked version or a disk copier that would enable me to exercise
my legal right to have a backup.
2. It ALSO has word-in-the-manual copy protection. And this one is pretty
bad; it gives the number of a paragraph on a page and the number of the word
it wants from that paragraph. Unfortunately,
A. Paragraphs are split across pages, so it's hard to tell which paragraph
the program is asking for.
B. Pages are filled with headers and bulleted and numbered items, as well as
text paragraphs. Sometimes a header is considered a paragraph, sometimes it
isn't. Sometimes an item is introduced by a boldface word. Is it word 1 or
not considered part of the paragraph?
C. Sometimes it isn't clear whether items such as "ECM" or "29" or "AGM-65"
are words to be counted or not.
Thank God it only asks once per boot. I've taken to numbering paragraphs
whenever a guess turns out right, and after a few instances of retrying as
many as six times (it asks for a different word after each failure), I've
developed a feel for how it counts things.
3. Each time it saves status to the save disk, it corrupts that disk a little
more. After 10-15 writes to the save disk, the program can't read its own
save disk any more.
I get around this problem by using a program that quickly copies AmigaDOS
disks and allows retries on bad sectors (TurboBACKUP). Usually after five or
so saves, the disk isn't too badly corrupted to be copied by Turbo, with a few
retries on marginal sectors.
However, this means I have to frequently quit playing the game in order to
copy the save disk; you didn't really expect a program this heavily
copy-protected to multitask, did you?
And of course when I reboot the game, I have to go through the
word-in-the-manual nonsense again.
- - -
So here are my questions:
1. Can anyone tell me what copy program will duplicate this program, or (by
email) where I can get a version that's been cracked to remove the disk copy
protection? I am not interested in pirating the game; I want to encourage
software companies to make more programs like this. Even if I were, it's
pretty much unplayable without the manual.
2. Can anyone tell me (by email) where I can get a version that's been cracked
to remove that *&^%*$&#! word-in-the-manual copy protection? It's driving me
BATTY! Sometimes I still have to try three or more times, and I HAVE the
manual.
3. Can anyone tell me where I can get a version that's been modified to write
the save files as standard AmigaDOS files, so that I don't have to keep
killing the game to make backups of the save disk?
For the first-received reliable information that solves any one of these
problems, I will mail $5.00 US, or up to three disks of PD and shareware
software from my library.
For the first-received reliable information that solves two or three of these
problems, I will mail $10 US, or up to two disks of freely redistributable
software and any one of the following games which I have purchased but no
longer play (solved, mastered, lost interest, or is not my kind of game):
Jet
Test Drive
Three Stooges
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Defender of the Crown
Zoom!
Emerald Mine
StarGlider II
By the way, all of the above are also for sale for $10 apiece (plus you pay
shipping if you purchase one, I pay shipping if you solve my problems).
Dan Hankins
dan-hankins@cup.portal.com
dan.hankins@pro-realm.cts.com
Time-Life Mystery of the Unknown #547:
Who invented soap-on-a-rope, and why?
ztsindi@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Bill Gant) (01/09/91)
Posted for Clayton J. Miner...Text to Follow ----------------------------------------------------------------- | Todd G Vaarwerk | Bitnet: ZTSINDI@UBVMS | | State University of | Internet: ZTSINDI@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU | | New York at Buffalo | VAARWERK@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU | |---------------------------------------------------------------| | Disclaimer: Believe what you want .. I trashed all my views of| | reality ages ago d8-) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- In article <37765@cup.portal.com>, dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins) writes... >I own F16 Combat Pilot. I have three problems with it, for which I am looking >for solutions. See the bottom of this post for information on what I will >trade for solutions to these problems: > >F16 CP would be my favorite combat flight simulator >(superior to Falcon), if it were not for the following three things that have >nothing to do with the game, but which make it practically unusable: > > - - - > >1. It has disk-based copy protection, which makes me afraid to play it. With >the amount of time I would be spending with it, and the amount of disk >accessing it does, I know that eventually that disk will wear out. I haven't >yet found a cracked version or a disk copier that would enable me to exercise >my legal right to have a backup. > >2. It ALSO has word-in-the-manual copy protection. And this one is pretty >bad; it gives the number of a paragraph on a page and the number of the word >it wants from that paragraph. Unfortunately, I do not know if this will help at all, but I also own F-16 Combat Pilot, and I dislike looking up protects, so I obtained a cracked version of the game. I do not know what effect it has on the Game Save problem, but it solves one or two items you have difficulty with. I agree with you that I am not interested in expanding the pirate field at all, but I do find it useful for obtaining de-protected versions of software that I have paid for. If you would like me to send you a deprotected copy for you to examine and try out, just E-Mail me you land mail adress and I will get in to the mail post haste. Until then, keep 'em flying. +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Clayton J. Miner - Reality Engineer | +-------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ | SysOp - Known World BBS | Bitnet: ZTSINDI@UBVMS | | (716)-883-3083 300-2400 | Internet: ZTSINDI@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU | +-------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ | The views of this post are not those of the host organization. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
com259h@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au (01/11/91)
In article <37765@cup.portal.com>, dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins) writes: > I own F16 Combat Pilot. I have three problems with it, for which I am looking > for solutions. See the bottom of this post for information on what I will > trade for solutions to these problems: > > F16 CP would be my favorite combat flight simulator > (superior to Falcon), if it were not for the following three things that have > nothing to do with the game, but which make it practically unusable: [flames abbreviated. custom disk format. cant make backup to play from] Yeah, I hate this too. [copy protection is word from manual type] > A. Paragraphs are split across pages, so it's hard to tell which paragraph > the program is asking for. I just count paragraphs from the top of the page, even if one starts on the previous page. I've never had a problem doing this. [more stuff about what is a paragraph, and what is a word] True. > Thank God it only asks once per boot. I've taken to numbering paragraphs YOW! Once per boot? Mine makes me find a key word EVERY time I take off. Sometimes I take off 8 or 9 times in a single session. 8( > 3. Each time it saves status to the save disk, it corrupts that disk a little > more. After 10-15 writes to the save disk, the program can't read its own > save disk any more. I've never had this problem. I'm on my 5'th campaign and still using the same save disk that I started with. I've probably saved to it over 40 times by now. Do you clean the heads on the drive often? [some questions about where to get a de-protected copy from] I can't answer any of your questions. Bull@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au OR com259h@monu1.cc.monash.oz Alias: Gareth Bull, The Opal Dragon ---------> " If I said it, then *I* said it! " <----------