Lucasfilm Games on net? HELP!

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

ARGHS!

As many of you know, I recently bought an Apple ][gs.  Obviously, I bought
it secondhand.  Since the previous owner has no other Apple ][ equipment,
he threw in his software.

One of the programs I got with the computer is "Pipe Dream" from Lucasfilm
Games.  Unfortunately, all I have is the *original* disk...none of the
documentation.  And it is making me wish for the days of games which used
half-tracking, oddball sector headers, strange byte offsets, and other
techniques to make themselves uncopyable.  This one seems to have a
software key.  It lets me play for a bit, then gives me a screen saying,
"Sorry, you didn't enter the secret code" or words to that effect.

So here I am, an honest person running afoul of the ProDOS version of copy
protection.  Just because, by not playing with it for a while, the
previous owner lost, misplaced, or otherwise failed to include the
documentation for the game.

Any suggestions?  How to get 'hold of Lucasfilm and convince them that my
copy is legit?  Or how to "crack" this @#$! thing?  I barely have enough
time to play games, let alone try to figure out some nasty code scheme...!

On a related note, I also seem to have three sets of HyperStudio disks
(fortunately, I have the docs for these!).  Obviously, there have been
some updates here.  But I discovered that some of my software was not
properly installed on my hard drive (missing icons, etc.).  So I'd like to
figure out which disks are the most recent version!  Any tips?  None of
the disks have version numbers on them...

(Not to mention the GraphicWriter update situation...at least I finally
got THAT mess straightened out!)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(I guess I'll just play Sneakers for now...)
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