Re: Cracking HomeWord

[Ivan X <ivanxqz@yahoo.com>]

I love HomeWord. Its preview mode at the bottom right of the screen was
really innovative.

If you can get it to work in AppleWin at all, and they're truly cracked,
then you should be able to just use COPYA (or C2+ or Disk Muncher or
whatever) to copy them to a regular .DSK in drive 2. Of course, I have no
way of predicting whether it will work under ][+ emulation, but at least you
could try it on other emulators easily.

Or if you want to snailmail me a copy on a floppy, I can easily make a .DSK
image with my LC IIe Card.

On 8/12/09 2:30 PM, in article
bdd87fbf-249e-499b-a70a-183afd1c4ab0@g31g2000yqc.googlegroups.com, "N.N.
Thayer" <nnthayer@hotmail.com> wrote:

> I'm no expert on cracking, or the Apple II disk subsystem, which can
> be something of a barrier in my perpetual mission to rip and archive
> images of every single piece of Apple II software that I come across
> (since 500 years from now, the images are all that will exist).  :)
> My latest obstacle: Sierra On-Line's HomeWord!
> 
> In terms of UI, this is an excellent piece of software - I've found it
> far easier to use than any of the other word-processing programs of
> the time, with the possible exception of Bank Street Writer.  (Funny
> how that ease of use seems to disappear with more professional-level
> utilities...)  HomeWord Plus, the version on Asimov, requires a 128k //
> e or //c or later; only the original HomeWord runs on a ][/][+.
> 
> I actually have two versions of HomeWord: version 1.1, released in
> '83, and version 2.4, released the following year.  Both are pirated
> copies from my dad's old collection.  I know they weren't originally
> copied via a nibble-copier or Copy II Plus, because when I tried those
> methods, the results were unusuable.  I was able to use ADT to rip DSK
> images - but those turned out to be unusuable as well.
> 
> Puzzled, I dug around and found this cracking doc for HomeWord:
> 
> http://www.skepticfiles.org/cowtext/apple/krack2ap.htm
> 
> Examining the track and sector that the doc specified, I found what it
> referred to in HomeWord 1.1, but not in 2.4.  I made the change it
> described, saved, and it worked as advertised - I was able to make
> straight copies of HomeWord 1.1 to other disks.  So however my dad had
> originally managed to copy this disk, it was without the aid of this
> particular crack.
> 
> What I was still *not* able to do, however, was rip it to a DSK image
> over ADT; the images produced were unusuable.  In a last-ditch effort,
> I used the Saltine's Super Transcopy method to create a NIB image...
> with interesting results.  When loading it in the AppleWin emulator,
> the image will boot and function perfectly if I'm set to //e
> emulation, but in ][+ emulation it simply halts claiming that
> "HomeWord will not run with a joystick plugged into the game port."
> This is an odd claim for it to be making, since (1) I have the
> joystick disabled in the emulator and (2) I have a real joystick
> connected to my real Apple ][+, with no ill effects (although it is
> through a 9-pin adapter).
> 
> So, that's my status at the moment - a NIB image of HomeWord 1.1 that
> functions in one specific emulation mode.  Better than nothing, I
> suppose, but I'd like to get it into the more desirable DSK (for what
> I do, that's far and away the best image format), and I'd also like to
> get HomeWord 2.4 ripped as well, especially since the physical disk
> for that one is on its last legs.  If anyone would like to assist, or
> is just curious, I can post the NIB or even send out disks.
> 
> - Neil