Re: WildCard By Central Point Question

["Bryan Villados" <news002@macgeek.org>]

I have a weird question... How did software companies produce the original
diskettes with the copy protection applied? Did they own proprietary
hardware that enabled them to manufacture the diskettes? Obviously they
didn't use things like Locksmith or EDD to mass-produce the diskettes. And
software that utilized things like SpiraDisc must have some method of making
the master disk.

--- Bryan

"Andy McFadden" <fadden@fadden.com> wrote in message
news:Iox0a.64428$Ik.2629233@typhoon.sonic.net...
> Bryan Parkoff <BParkoff@satx.rr.com> wrote:
> >     I understand that it is SpiraDisc.  How does SpiraDisc block Apple
II
> > users from reading data using nibble editor.  Is it true that we have to
> > read 6502 code (assembler) from the track 0 sector 0 before we can
> > understand what 6502 code (assembler) manipulate with the disk?
>
> It uses quarter-tracking.  Apple II 5.25" disk drive controllers give
> software direct control over the stepper motor, so you can do funky things
> like freeze the head partway between tracks.  This didn't work on some
> 3rd-party 5.25" drives, causing certain people to lend certain other
> people copies of Frogger, which subsequently got cracked, written up,
> and submitted to COMPUTIST.
>
> (Try that today and the DMCA police would have you in jail.)
>
> Anyway.  You need to get the data from the tracks *and* have it
> properly synchronized, so that when they move from track 0 to track 0.25
> the next set of data is right under the read head.  If the data doesn't
> show up quickly enough, they know it's a copy and the boot fails.
>
> Copying is tricky because there's a lot of "leakage" from adjacent
> half-tracks.  If you tried to write the disc as a series of tracks,
> you'd be stepping on the half-tracks and quarter-tracks to either side.
> Which might work out okay if you could get the synchronization just right.
>
> Spiradisc was a thing of beauty.  I wish I could find my write-up of
> the Maze Craze disk, which had a disk-present check that Frogger didn't.
> I also truncated the Frogger write-up severely because I just referred
> to the Maze Craze discussion (i.e. there's not a lot of details about
> the protection itself).  Sadly, the Maze Craze "softkey" was rejected
> for publication, so if I can't find it then it probably doesn't exist.
>
> Among their many tricks was an XOR of the copy protection code, so you
> can't find it by scanning through the disk or through memory unless you
NMI
> right when the protection check is happening.  You *must* boot trace the
> disk, stopping it at various points.  They used every trick in the book.
> In the end it didn't save them. :-)
>
> >     Where can I obtain the information like CompuList #52?  I did check
> > www.apple2.org.za, but it does not provide enough information.
>
> There were scans of COMPUTIST issues on a web site, but I don't know if
> it's still up (or what the URL was).
>
> --
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