Re: Possibly the most copy protected Apple program I've seen

["Jplcsch" <jplcsch@wanadoo.fr>]

First : Could you send an image under .dsk format even if the disk don't
work ?

Second :
It's possible that your original  disk'll be uncopiable (prolok protection
for example) but it's impossible that the disk'll be uncrackable. Prolok is
the worst protection I know, it's an alteration of the magnetic area but
it's crackable.

|Third
The others protection are a control between sectors. Look if you see some
instrcutions like
LDA C08C,X
BMI xxx
Or look for a nibble count.




"Jayson Smith" <nospamratguyspambegone@nospamplease.bellsouth.ihatespam.net>
wrote in message news:Gwi6d.60001$as2.56812@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
> Hi,
> Just thought I'd share my experiences with a very heavily copy protected
> software and see if anybody has any thoughts as to what's really going on
> under the hood.  Unless there's interest, I'll not name the actual
program,
> especially since I have successfully cracked it but for an unrecoverable
> disk error on my only copy of the program.  I'll just say that it is a
> program designed to be used with the Echo speech synthesizer card.
> The weird thing about this program is that normal DOS 3.3 can't read the
> disk.  But, the custom DOS on the disk *can* read normal DOS 3.3 disks.
> This is actually important for one part of the program in question.
> Now, for some clever tricks this custom DOS has up its sleeve.  First of
> all, hitting a reset causes about a half second delay (maybe it's erasing
> something in memory?) then a reboot.  That's probably pretty normal.  But
> what's stranger is that when the program exits, or even if there's an
error
> loading the program, and you're left sitting at the Applesoft prompt, any
> command typed, or even just a blank line, will net the same result.  A
> slight delay, then a reboot!  So you can't load/list/save/etc.
> The way I cracked this is quite interesting.  I had a normal DOS disk set
up
> to run FID at startup.  Now remember that this custom DOS can read and
write
> normal DOS disks as well.  So I booted up the custom DOS, then just as the
> head was traveling to track seventeen so DOS could read the catalog track,
I
> yank open the drive door, pull out the disk then quickly, while the head
is
> recalibrating after not being able to read from an open drive, put in the
> normal FID disk and close the door!  Voila!  Now Fid's running and I can
> just copy the files to a standard DOS disk.
> Upon further examination, I found that the actual Applesoft programs also
> have a few tricks up their sleeves.  First of all, as each program starts
it
> messes up the reset vector so reset causes a reboot.  Also, should any
> program terminate in error, it clears itself from memory, so a 'list' gets
> you nothing!
> Jayson
>
>
>