4 ms·

If you were to do this today, how could you make it foolproof?

by brcmthrowaway 2mo ago

shoo 2mo ago
there isn't a market for gamers buying games on CDs these days, so it's not really a problem that needs to be solved
- brcmthrowaway 2mo ago
  Well how does Steam do DRM?
  - wbl 2mo ago
    Its easier on a system that doesn't need to do broadcast distribution and with servers available.
  - jamesfinlayson 2mo ago
    I think most (all?) Steam games link steam_api.dll (or something like that) which somehow figures out the running Steam process and thus the Steam ID, and then does a HTTP API request to check that you own the title. Like 15 years ago Steam launched CEG (Custom Executable Generation) - I remember reading a write-up a while ago, but each user had a customer launcher generated on install I think, and I think there was an extra segment put into the .exe file and that was put to use somehow, though I don't know if CEG is still a thing.
    - select1 2mo ago
      The ownership check you are referring to is a local check. There is another check (involving EncryptedAppTickets) which is not local, but far fewer games use that. CEG is long dead/was broken immediately in a pragmatic, automatable way.
- charcircuit 2mo ago
  The same problem exists with PC games released on DVDs.
  - merb 2mo ago
    there isn't a market for gamers buying games on DVDs these days. BlueRay the same. Of course there are voice that do want real disks but sadly that time is over. Digital sales won.
    - charcircuit 2mo ago
      There is, at least for collector's editions. I'll continue to support physical for as long as possible.
      - merb 2mo ago
        Some collectors editions do come without a game cd nowadays.
confusedbucket 2mo ago
COD:BO7's single-player uses dedicated servers. Terrible, yes, but that's as foolproof as it gets when it comes to piracy. They also probably did this to combat all the 'services' offering to unlock camos/cosmetics that you'd normally have to grind for; players would give someone their credentials (probably stolen later and sold to cheaters) and the person on the other side would then use a hacked client to trick the backend into thinking they completed all the challenges. With a server-side campaign, that probably got much more time consuming, I reckon.
rasz 2mo ago
Every game separately encrypted then compressed into solid archives. Pressed in a way every game lands on different precise height of CD, padded before compression if necessary so it takes enough space on CD. Separate machine burning tiny holes in CD from the back, but not so tiny that CIRC could fixes them. At least one hole per file. Install locates the damage and gives you code encoding locations. Over the phone You receive ECC code. No more magic keygens, pirates have to distribute whole multi megabyte games.
- tetrisgm 2mo ago
  I respect the creativity, but this was a 22mb game. Nothing arj or rar wouldn’t handle. Or going on irc
  - rasz 2mo ago
    Sure, but the question wasnt about solving world hunger, wars and global piracy :) Its a solution for limiting pirate-ability of this particular CDs contents. Encode data in a way short ECC code dictated over the phone is enough to reconstruct one missing sector (2KB).

If you were to do this today, how could you make it foolproof?

shoo 2mo ago

there isn't a market for gamers buying games on CDs these days, so it's not really a problem that needs to be solved

brcmthrowaway 2mo ago
Well how does Steam do DRM?
- wbl 2mo ago
  Its easier on a system that doesn't need to do broadcast distribution and with servers available.
- jamesfinlayson 2mo ago
  I think most (all?) Steam games link steam_api.dll (or something like that) which somehow figures out the running Steam process and thus the Steam ID, and then does a HTTP API request to check that you own the title. Like 15 years ago Steam launched CEG (Custom Executable Generation) - I remember reading a write-up a while ago, but each user had a customer launcher generated on install I think, and I think there was an extra segment put into the .exe file and that was put to use somehow, though I don't know if CEG is still a thing.
  - select1 2mo ago
    The ownership check you are referring to is a local check. There is another check (involving EncryptedAppTickets) which is not local, but far fewer games use that. CEG is long dead/was broken immediately in a pragmatic, automatable way.
charcircuit 2mo ago
The same problem exists with PC games released on DVDs.
- merb 2mo ago
  there isn't a market for gamers buying games on DVDs these days. BlueRay the same. Of course there are voice that do want real disks but sadly that time is over. Digital sales won.
  - charcircuit 2mo ago
    There is, at least for collector's editions. I'll continue to support physical for as long as possible.
    - merb 2mo ago
      Some collectors editions do come without a game cd nowadays.

confusedbucket 2mo ago

COD:BO7's single-player uses dedicated servers. Terrible, yes, but that's as foolproof as it gets when it comes to piracy. They also probably did this to combat all the 'services' offering to unlock camos/cosmetics that you'd normally have to grind for; players would give someone their credentials (probably stolen later and sold to cheaters) and the person on the other side would then use a hacked client to trick the backend into thinking they completed all the challenges. With a server-side campaign, that probably got much more time consuming, I reckon.

rasz 2mo ago

Every game separately encrypted then compressed into solid archives. Pressed in a way every game lands on different precise height of CD, padded before compression if necessary so it takes enough space on CD. Separate machine burning tiny holes in CD from the back, but not so tiny that CIRC could fixes them. At least one hole per file. Install locates the damage and gives you code encoding locations. Over the phone You receive ECC code. No more magic keygens, pirates have to distribute whole multi megabyte games.

tetrisgm 2mo ago
I respect the creativity, but this was a 22mb game. Nothing arj or rar wouldn’t handle. Or going on irc
- rasz 2mo ago
  Sure, but the question wasnt about solving world hunger, wars and global piracy :) Its a solution for limiting pirate-ability of this particular CDs contents. Encode data in a way short ECC code dictated over the phone is enough to reconstruct one missing sector (2KB).