Re: WANTED: Information on Apple II copy protection

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Michael Kelsey - Systems Staff writes ..
> 
> In article <19980312145701.JAA11523@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
>         petscii@aol.com (PetScii) writes:
> 
> > I've always been interested in the "dark secrets" of protecting disks!
> 
> I would like to know if anyone knows the copy-protection of the following
> programs.  These were the only programs in my elaborate collection that
> I plainly-and-simply could not duplicate (aside from memory capture using
> CTRL-CA-RESET).
> 
>         Shamus - uses the stack to protect itself when decoding. ....
 
>         Frogger - Assumed to use spiral-tracking, ....
> 
>         Hubbard Star Gazer - looks at first to use a standard protected
>                   DOS 3.3 format ....


     Shamus, Frogger, and Frogger II have all been cracked. There is no
information about Shamus's original protection. My version is a copy-- a
file included with a couple other games on a diskette side.

     Sega appears to have used spiral "arc tracking" to protect its
Frogger diskettes. It was recognized as a very tough protection to
defeat. One Computist contributor outlined patches which lead to a copy
with slightly glitchy performance. The original (and best) crack seems
to be the one you used-- i.e. capturing the program in RAM.

     There is no mention of Hubbard Star Gazer in Computist's "SoftKeys"
index and it does not appear in my collection or in any of my 5.25" Copy
II+ lists. Given the title, this could mean that it is educational
software that no one was much interested in copying. One possible
shortcut for copying such wares is to look for wares from the same
vendor for which there are cracks. A vendor will often employ the same
or a very similar protection for several products.



Rubywand