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Oh, wow... now my mind is blown for real. May I ask how you know that? Does this mean that the person actually cracked this game recently just to post such a

Oh, wow... now my mind is blown for real. May I ask how you know that? Does this mean that the person actually cracked this game recently just to post such a write up?

homarp 11y ago
see https://archive.org/details/apple_ii_library_4am https://archive.org/details/apple_ii_library_4am A collection of historical software for Apple II computers from the 1980s and early 1990s. Each item was originally copy protected (i.e. the original floppy disk could not be copied to another floppy disk), but the copy protection has been removed and documented. Most items also include a "work disk" comprising the intermediate files created during the deprotection. To send feedback, ask questions, or get notified of new releases, follow @a2_4am on Twitter.
- incepted 11y ago
  Fascinating. Do you know how they do it? I mean, in order to crack these games, they need to have the original physical floppy, don't they? Or do they have a digital version of the protected floppy with all its weird sectoring and data on it?.
  - MagerValp 11y ago
    Well you'd have to start with an original floppy or cassette, wouldn't you? Some still enjoy cracking on the real hardware, but most make a low level floppy or tape image and work from that. I've only cracked relatively simple stuff, but working in an emulator is a LOT easier than working on real hardware. In an emulator you can freeze the system and inspect both the computer and the disk drive, set breakpoints, modify memory, and so on, and it's totally undetectable to the protection code.
aw3c2 11y ago
> 2015-12-31 ;)
usotsuki 11y ago
Precisely. A lot of the stuff he's cracked has never had a usable rip done even 30 years after people started moving on to bigger and better, and he's still finding new stuff that has never been dumped before and needs copy protection removed. Right after he put out the crack, I was working on a (hard-drive friendly) port to ProDOS based on it.

Oh, wow... now my mind is blown for real. May I ask how you know that? Does this mean that the person actually cracked this game recently just to post such a write up?

homarp 11y ago

see https://archive.org/details/apple_ii_library_4am https://archive.org/details/apple_ii_library_4am A collection of historical software for Apple II computers from the 1980s and early 1990s. Each item was originally copy protected (i.e. the original floppy disk could not be copied to another floppy disk), but the copy protection has been removed and documented. Most items also include a "work disk" comprising the intermediate files created during the deprotection. To send feedback, ask questions, or get notified of new releases, follow @a2_4am on Twitter.

incepted 11y ago
Fascinating. Do you know how they do it? I mean, in order to crack these games, they need to have the original physical floppy, don't they? Or do they have a digital version of the protected floppy with all its weird sectoring and data on it?.
- MagerValp 11y ago
  Well you'd have to start with an original floppy or cassette, wouldn't you? Some still enjoy cracking on the real hardware, but most make a low level floppy or tape image and work from that. I've only cracked relatively simple stuff, but working in an emulator is a LOT easier than working on real hardware. In an emulator you can freeze the system and inspect both the computer and the disk drive, set breakpoints, modify memory, and so on, and it's totally undetectable to the protection code.

aw3c2 11y ago

> 2015-12-31 ;)

usotsuki 11y ago

Precisely. A lot of the stuff he's cracked has never had a usable rip done even 30 years after people started moving on to bigger and better, and he's still finding new stuff that has never been dumped before and needs copy protection removed. Right after he put out the crack, I was working on a (hard-drive friendly) port to ProDOS based on it.