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Wanderer
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 478 |
And people wonder why...
I sometimes feel that the scene is 'lame'. I'm not going to get into that argument all over again.
This time, I'm blowing off steam. I released two games on the C64. One was called Jailbreak and the other called Virus. Both were basic attempts at a game, nothing extraordinary.
Years later, in 2005, I would come back to the scene to try to find some of my old releases. I found that Jailbreak had been "cracked" by another group and trained.
Jailbreak was never protected to begin with. It was uploaded to all of the warez boards when I released it. It even says "RFO" for Rage for Order on the wall of the prison. The level packing looks like shit and it spends more time processing the packer that the original did. The original was already packed (individual files crunched) and did not need a level packer.
Yet it was re-released with a trainer. Back in my day we would never re-release anything that had already been put out.
I also found Virus (thanks to Sailor of Triad). And low and behold, someone informs me there is a Virus 2. I checked and sure enough there is a sequal to my game.
EPIC (Warlord and Mendrake) managed to "crack" and "train" this game. Here's the kicker... it's the same game as mine, exactly. All they did was change the music and a few sprites. How does a public domain game with no protection get "CRACKED" ? And the trainer is the exact same trainer I had INCLUDED in the game to prevent people from re-releasing.
This is the second program I've put out that, years later, I would find "cracked and trained" when there was no crack, and using my own trainer. Changing sprites and music and calling it a sequel is pathetic.
Can you now see why I feel the way I do about the scene at times? If you're going to do this, at least don't pretend you cracked anything and leave the intro on from the person who wrote it.
Oh and guess what, Virus 2 was NTSC fixed by EPIC too. That's good because as I live in Canada and my c64 is NTSC, I would sure hate to release a game that didn't work on NTSC machines to begin with LMFAO.
And less than 24 hours after I found a copy of Virus and uploaded it to CSDB, some group re-released it in less than 24 hours with one more trainer.
It's pretty sad when a programmer has to include every single conceivable trainer known to man in his work, for if he doesn't someone will come along and strip off his intro and put it out with another trainer.
If I wanted Jailbreak +20 and Virus +22 I would have written it that way. :)
If the scene has not (partially) become lame, someone tell me how you can crack and train a public domain game, twice, taken from a BBS and already trained? When I left the scene this was unheard of, and today it seems the norm.
http://www.ontarioghosttowns.com/c64
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H.O
Account closed
Registered: Oct 2002
Posts: 70 |
I'm not gonna enter this particular discussion, except for a tangential post: (Besides, I've made my point on the issue clear before)
I actually made a really lame adventure game (using The Quill) once, which was never released.
So, the copy protection is really simple (a pre-loader which loads the code for the game) and the game is quite simple too, but if anyone wants to put their hands on something that actually needs cracking, and which hasnt been released, be my guest:
http://www.science451.org/secret/quill%20adventures.rar
Oh, by the way; if anyone do decide to spend their free time on cracking this, see if you can remove the intro screen (which plays the Swedish National Anthem every time you die -- which you do a lot) since its majorly friggin annoying :)
The game in question was created in 86 (I think), and as long as you dont make money of it (hah! as if) you are free to do whatever you want with the code.
(Oh, and by the way, the phonenumbers in the game are long since dead. I have no idea if anyone has those phonenumbers these days, but they certainly wont go to any of the creators of the game)
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H.O
Account closed
Registered: Oct 2002
Posts: 70 |
On another note, though. Wanderer, would you please stop removing entries that has gotten comments on them? Pretty please?
It's really annoying to see a bunch of comments on the first page, only to find them leading nowhere since the entry has been removed.
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Wanderer
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 478 |
I've found three versions of my original game. In one case they left my intro on, which was nice.
In the other two cases, they stripped it, and claimed to have cracked/trained it. Now as an ex-scener I'm not against cracking and training. Hey, I'm all for it.
But...
How do you NTSC fix what was written in NTSC?
How do you train for unlimited lives when I included an unlimited life trainer?
How do you crack what was uploaded to a BBS without any protection?
I think my point has been made. Anyway that's all I'm gonna say :)
P.S. I removed the entry because I'm creating a new one to include all of the versions of the game instead of having three different ones. |
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Courage
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 16 |
Quote: I've found three versions of my original game. In one case they left my intro on, which was nice.
In the other two cases, they stripped it, and claimed to have cracked/trained it. Now as an ex-scener I'm not against cracking and training. Hey, I'm all for it.
But...
How do you NTSC fix what was written in NTSC?
How do you train for unlimited lives when I included an unlimited life trainer?
How do you crack what was uploaded to a BBS without any protection?
I think my point has been made. Anyway that's all I'm gonna say :)
P.S. I removed the entry because I'm creating a new one to include all of the versions of the game instead of having three different ones.
Who has make the first release of Virus? 'Cause i want to give this guy 10 points for being the greatest cracker, NTSC-fixer and coder!
@Wanderer: Don't wonder! Some of these (self proclaimed) "Elite-Sceners" of today think it is cool to do things which were unimaginable 10 or 15 years ago! ;)
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Tch
Account closed
Registered: Sep 2004
Posts: 512 |
Amazing,this beats all..
To be honest here,I have hardly ever ´cracked´ a game.
The only protections I have encountered were passwords or ´trainer-disabelers´.
Most games didn´t have protections whatsoever and those games that detected cartridges when loading simply sucked.
I stuck in my Power-cartridge after it had loaded,et voila,instant access. ;)
I did make a little password-entering-program and that worked most of the time.
Breaking a C64 encryptioncode is not hard when you know what is essential to run a program. ;)
Anyway,to stick to the topic..
I think the word "cracked" never really ment something when it comes to C64 games.
There are EXCEPTIONS,no doubt about it!
But i think that cracking is simply a way of coding.
Only problem is that when I say: "Rolling Ronny+8 coded and trained by blahblah",it´d look like I made the game.
Still,releasing ´cracks´ as mentioned above,deserves the death-penalty! (very slowly&painfully,take your time!) :P |
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Wanderer
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 478 |
As if to prove my point... not more than 5 minutes ago I found an old game of mine called Catch 'Em. It was released as a single file game by me, directly to the BBS's.
Somehow it turned from a freely available unprotected game into something that Depredators released as a 'crack' and so did Unicess.
Three games released to the scene, no protection at all. Just one scener showing his work to others, the same as one would through a demo. Yet because you can play it, European's thought that they could release what was already out there as their 'crack'.
How sad.
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Stingray
Account closed
Registered: Feb 2003
Posts: 117 |
Virus? Is in that two player tetris clone?
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Wanderer
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 478 |
No that is Vioris.
There were two Virus' on the c64.
Mine was a small shoot 'em up, pretty simple code.
I guess once it made its way overseas a few Euro's felt it was okay to pretend it was protected and "crack" it. Take EPIC for example, they said they cracked AND trained it. All they did was remove my trainer screen and make their own. If it was a real release it might have worked and nobody would have noticed. But as I coded the trainer right into the game, and know for fact it was not protected, I have to say Mendrake of Epic is not too cool.
As for Unicess, this is the second time they've "cracked" an unprotected freeware program of mine.
Sad sad sad. Anyway thanks for the shoulder to cry on. I'm over it now :)
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The Overkiller
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 342 |
Wanderer:
I sometimes feel that the scene is 'lame'. I'm not going to get into that argument all over again.
\o/ !!!!!
Btw: Catch'em was "cracked" ;-) by Depredators in the past ..... (Just for info) |
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Mason
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 461 |
Quote: No that is Vioris.
There were two Virus' on the c64.
Mine was a small shoot 'em up, pretty simple code.
I guess once it made its way overseas a few Euro's felt it was okay to pretend it was protected and "crack" it. Take EPIC for example, they said they cracked AND trained it. All they did was remove my trainer screen and make their own. If it was a real release it might have worked and nobody would have noticed. But as I coded the trainer right into the game, and know for fact it was not protected, I have to say Mendrake of Epic is not too cool.
As for Unicess, this is the second time they've "cracked" an unprotected freeware program of mine.
Sad sad sad. Anyway thanks for the shoulder to cry on. I'm over it now :)
Oh we have to continue on this one?
And I really wonder... epsecially when I did the release for Unicess of Jailbreak you were very happy that I did it. Im not sure you can remember, but its many years ago we talked on the conferences about it. |
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