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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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Scout
Registered: Dec 2002
Posts: 1570 |
I was also wondering.
Why is this posted in the Coding sub and not in the General Discussion sub?
Anyway, don't make a hassle of it.
Better a lame scene than a home-brewing scene (yuk!).
R.
---
-= Silicon Ltd. =-
http://www.deco-design.com/scl
(^^^Down again...for the mo') |
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The Overkiller
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 342 |
Quote: 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.
Mason, I have also a crack done by Crossfire, your team mate when you was in Motiv8. +2 +HS +PALfix. I think you talk about the same game. |
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The Overkiller
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 342 |
Quote: I was also wondering.
Why is this posted in the Coding sub and not in the General Discussion sub?
Anyway, don't make a hassle of it.
Better a lame scene than a home-brewing scene (yuk!).
R.
---
-= Silicon Ltd. =-
http://www.deco-design.com/scl
(^^^Down again...for the mo')
Hehehe ..... Nice one :) |
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T.M.R
Account closed
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 749 |
Well, since it's in the coding sub... Virus was written at the same time i was finishing Co-Axis, i suddenly feel loads better about my code. =-) |
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Mason
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 461 |
Quote: Mason, I have also a crack done by Crossfire, your team mate when you was in Motiv8. +2 +HS +PALfix. I think you talk about the same game.
I cant remember I have seen that release, but Wanderer (Sic!) referred to my release of Jailbreak in Unicess.
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T.M.R
Account closed
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 749 |
Wanderer:
"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."
Just a thought... didn't these cracks happen around the time you left the scene? S'a bit unfair to tar the current scene with actions by people from, what, fifteen years ago.
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Nightlord
Account closed
Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 131 |
how can a "scene" be lame?
i think even labeling a person "lamer" is generalization
it is "actions" that are lame or not. generalizing actions into a person's label is bad enough. generalizing them to a complete society's label is "weak and comfortable thinking". and that (being an action) is lame. |
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Scout
Registered: Dec 2002
Posts: 1570 |
Quote: how can a "scene" be lame?
i think even labeling a person "lamer" is generalization
it is "actions" that are lame or not. generalizing actions into a person's label is bad enough. generalizing them to a complete society's label is "weak and comfortable thinking". and that (being an action) is lame.
Try to convince your (lame ;-) visions to the sceners who started to use this word back in 1987(?).
R.
---
-= Silicon Ltd. =-
http://www.deco-design.com/scl |
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Nightlord
Account closed
Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 131 |
i am not trying to convince anyone. i consider myself a part of today's demoscene. i voice my oppinion in defence against an argument that i find fundamentally flawed. plus i believe scene is an evolving entity whose terminology can have evolving meanings to. it is only natural that meanings of words can change in the mouths of 13 year olds and 30 year olds. |
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V-12
Registered: Nov 2003
Posts: 206 |
poor Wanderer, the Victim of the self blinded "crackers". Nothing more to say... |
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Wanderer
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 478 |
Oh my... so much to address here.
As a cracker, I'm not in a position to consider myself a victim. I don't consider myself a victim anyways.
As a person who wrote three games for immediate release to the scene, complete with intro and with absolutely no protection, I do think I am in a position to complain.
TMR: I'm glad you feel better about your code. The game was meant for a magazine and had to be short in size. I've seen a lot worse in commercial releases.
Mason: We already spoke about Jailbreak, I didn't forget. But then I saw the Unicess "crack" of Catch 'Em.
Now I can fully understand groups taking ORIGINALS from the store and releasing them. However taking a SCENER'S GAME, without any protection and saying "hey I cracked this" is just wrong and pathetic. Someone had to have taken it from a BBS because it was never in any store, and slap their intro on it. Who knows how these groups cracked a 17 block file with no protection. Scroll text in the game indicates it was originally taken from a demo)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against people cracking and releasing things. But don't take other people's games (which were really more like demos to me) and pretend to have cracked them. The game was already released to the boards, it was already out in the 'scene'.
Put yourself in my shoes. You write a game and release it to the public. Years later you find that some guy named Mendrake from EPIC claims to have cracked and trained it. He simply sector edits the original trainer that YOU the programmer made. You also see that another group claims to have "cracked" this game and re-released it under their own label.
Is it a big deal 13 years after the fact? No it is not.
Do you want to give a verbal bitch slap to those who released it? You know you do.
Finally to the guy who said that it was unfair to say the current scene was "lame" based on what happened in 1992 (13 years ago). Two thoughts come to mind. I despise the word "lame". Sometimes I will it because no other pronoun will do. The second thought is, you're right that it is unfair. The first line of my original post does say, " I SOMETIMES feel that the scene is 'lame'."
I'm sure any programmer on here will see where I'm coming from and can relate. If you can't relate, life does go on. Again, thanks for hearing me out :) |
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The Overkiller
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 342 |
Wanderer:
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against people cracking and releasing things.
Hmmmm I'll cut and paste these words and keep them safe in my HDD, just in case :) |
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cadaver
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1160 |
Well, the way I see it, doesn't matter if you're a scener / cracker and make a game, for that moment of time you become a gamedeveloper and therefore your work eligible for taking. Especially nowadays you've got to have understanding ... there's not terribly much usable material apart from gold-releases.
Though I find it funny to already embed a trainer-screen in the original, of course it's not terribly different from embedding cheatstrings to be typed in the titlescreen or hiscorelist, but still, to me it feels like "cracking your own game"
Btw. whenever scene feels lame, it's time to release more stuff yourself :) |
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Steppe
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 1510 |
That's really nothing fundamentally new, they do it with Richard's games all the time. ;-)
Not that I appreciate these so called "cracks" nowadays, they're absolutely pointless. But each to their own. |
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TDJ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1879 |
Paco/Bros was really lame.
And those of you who don't get that, are lame too ;) |
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Slartibartfast
Account closed
Registered: Jul 2002
Posts: 230 |
Poor hungry troll. Feed the troll. |
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Wanderer
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 478 |
Quote: Well, the way I see it, doesn't matter if you're a scener / cracker and make a game, for that moment of time you become a gamedeveloper and therefore your work eligible for taking. Especially nowadays you've got to have understanding ... there's not terribly much usable material apart from gold-releases.
Though I find it funny to already embed a trainer-screen in the original, of course it's not terribly different from embedding cheatstrings to be typed in the titlescreen or hiscorelist, but still, to me it feels like "cracking your own game"
Btw. whenever scene feels lame, it's time to release more stuff yourself :)
Time to put this puppy to rest.
Slarti: A troll is one who instigates and provokes others. In this case, it was someone else's actions. I suggest perhaps laying off the Javex tequila shooters and massive doses of hash. Say no to drugs!!!
Responding to the person above, yes yes yes. I fully agree that once you release something you open your work up for the taking. I believe in this concept.
In the case of Unicess I told them they were more than welcome to level pack it and train Jailbreak. It puzzles me why it was released as a 'crack' though. Then I found their 'crack' of a tiny 17 block game demo. Nothing to crack there. It baffles me why any group would take my intro off a 17 block crap game only to re-release it and say they cracked it. Must have been a slow month for Unicess.
As for EPIC, absolutely pathetic. Stripped my intro, changed the sprites, added different music and called it "Virus 2" which they "cracked and trained". And they used my own trainer as their own.
I don't mind if you want to look at the code, change stuff. But when you put it out under your own groups label, after I've already done the same (and I'm the author of it) and you claim to have cracked that you didn't, you can expect some reactions.
Depredators also released one of my games as a "crack".
Maybe when I start protecting my games you can re-release them as a crack in your own country but until then, get a life.
Okay that is all I wish to say. And as you respond keep this in mind. Say you wrote a game and someone came along, stripped your intro and put it out as their own crack when you know it wasn't... wouldn't you be a little pissed? It's not like they grabbed it from off of a software store's shelf. You already did the job of releasing it to the scene and the group that re-released it did nothing to the end product.
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Derision
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 69 |
Unfortunately, this is the way the scene goes these days. The crackers are desperate for anything to come out. Personally, I don't see a need to crack SEUCK games -- or even to play them most of the time -- but that's the way things go.
Incidentally, NTSC-fixing an NTSC release is one of the most hillarious things I've ever heard.
I don't pretend to be any kind of a cracker (except perhaps of the ethnic variety), but I understand both sides of this argument. The crackers need something to crack, but seriously... even just ten years ago releasing PD games was "below" a lot of groups, and I recall a lot of bitching on the boards when stuff like that was put out. And to take a trainer that's already there and just... futz with it a tad and say you did it... well, I don't think that's indicitive of the entire scene, but simply of the individual that did it, and yeah, I agree that it's a load of shite. I'd probably unleash a verbal smackdown, too.
Just my bit. I'll go and eat now. Carry on, Gents.
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T.M.R
Account closed
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 749 |
Derision: "Unfortunately, this is the way the scene goes these days. The crackers are desperate for anything to come out. [...] The crackers need something to crack, but seriously... even just ten years ago releasing PD games was "below" a lot of groups, and I recall a lot of bitching on the boards when stuff like that was put out."
Only problem with saying that is that we're not talking about these days - the cracks in question were done in the late 1980s and early 1990s, so this did indeed happen over ten years ago and we're talking groups like Epic who weren't nobodies in the scene. That said, Mayhem used to churn out SEUCK "cracks" like there was no tomorrow, people like Avantgarde and so forth did Commodore Format covermount games and getting a nearly complete preview from the programmer or the software house still got called a crack by the likes of Ikari or RTI despite the ori turning up unprotected most of the time. |
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V-12
Registered: Nov 2003
Posts: 206 |
"However taking a SCENER'S GAME, without any protection and saying "hey I cracked this" is just wrong and pathetic."
Absolutely right, but you Wanderer just can't do nothing. I experienced the same with my own game so I know how you feel. Some people growing up from that, some not. |
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Mason
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 461 |
...and Murdock did a nice opinion without knowing a dime what hes talking about.
Go do some research first and then write something useful instead of bla bla. And oh it seems other could need to do that. |
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V-12
Registered: Nov 2003
Posts: 206 |
I know what I'm talking about. I don;t understand your post. What you want from me ? I'm free to place here my own opinon about some problems and I know how it is stupid to release "cracks" where are only linked intro to the unprotected games released by a scener just to increase amount of the releases from the group. Like Onslaught does, like Axelerate did in the past and some others..... quality, not the quantity for me.... |
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Jazzcat
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1044 |
Murdock: no offence, but it seems you don't understand the first release cracking scene. To narrow it down, Onslaught's role in the first release cracking scene. Onslaught releases games not to bump-up the amount of releases, otherwise we would release Bayliss games all the time or other such crap like Wood Shot, a full one-side game we spread in it's original form for anyone to crack with an issue of Vandalism News. We release games for the fun of it, in most cases these games are things that are unfinished and laying around in a disk box not doing anything. To some people it is a pleasure to see these projects for the first time. As far as "cracking" is concerned, we have done that in the past too. If the game is protected then we "crack" it. If it is a game that has no protection (like most) then we release it.
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V-12
Registered: Nov 2003
Posts: 206 |
Jazzcat: I know what you mean, you are right by releasing missed games,fixed etc. But for me it's quite odd to release unprotected games from Protovision as a cracks. |
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Jazzcat
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1044 |
Who has claimed to crack a Protovision game? It is not our fault that CSDB categories only give us "C64 crack" not "C64 release" and when I have tried to change it just to "C64 game" I get a message from the administration saying change it.
Releasing Protovision games, trained, level packed etc is fine. Nothing wrong with this. As far as crackers are concerned, we're the ones looking at how lame the game coders are, who cannot even write a decent protection like in the old days to protect their software that they complain about be intro-linked (e.g. V-Max). |
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Slartibartfast
Account closed
Registered: Jul 2002
Posts: 230 |
Quote: Who has claimed to crack a Protovision game? It is not our fault that CSDB categories only give us "C64 crack" not "C64 release" and when I have tried to change it just to "C64 game" I get a message from the administration saying change it.
Releasing Protovision games, trained, level packed etc is fine. Nothing wrong with this. As far as crackers are concerned, we're the ones looking at how lame the game coders are, who cannot even write a decent protection like in the old days to protect their software that they complain about be intro-linked (e.g. V-Max).
You're a cracker? No mention of that in your CSDb entry...
Functions :
Co-Sysop, Cover Designer, Diskmag Editor, FTP Administrator, Graphician, Hacker, Importer, Mega Swapper, Modem Trader, Organizer, Original Supplier, Phreaker, Public Relations Manager, Swapper, Webmaster
Possibly it's out of date. |
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Jazzcat
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1044 |
Slarti: I'm an original supplier who is part of the cracking scene. |
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cadaver
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1160 |
Well I sure hope any nowadays game makers spend more effort on the game itself than the protection, even with the terrible possibility of crackers regarding them "lame" then :) |
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Jazzcat
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1044 |
Well its not that crackers regard them as lame for not writing protections for their games. It is if game producers bitch and moan about games being released or cracked, yet they do nothing to deter it, I like what AEG did with Turrican 3, he released the source code to the public and made the game buggy, this certainly has disabled the possibility of anyone releasing it. ;)
Check out the early USA crack/copy protections, awesome stuff that would stop most of the people releasing these days. |
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cadaver
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1160 |
Yeah, that's one hell of a way to do it :)
I'm personally interested in fiendish & cunning methods of introlink-protection, but unfortunately the means to do that, excepting any disk-based and thus nonportable protections, are fairly limited.. |
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Jazzcat
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1044 |
I remember with Blitz 3000, Jon Wells had inserted over 12 ingame protections to stop us from training it. L'trimm had to remove most of them to get our trainers working properly. Makes it even more fun!
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Style
Account closed
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 17 |
Most good crack deterents are based on funky disk formats, which requires specialised hardware to produce.
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Jazzcat
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1044 |
Some clever ingame protection is headache enough. But it seems no one cares for it these days. A pity, as it could redefine the "regular" jobs of some people from "releasers" to "crackers". Either way its all good, the games come our way, we release them. In 2005 who would have thought this would still be happening.
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Courage
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 16 |
Try to remove the restriction in the Tanks 3000-Preview. Nothing special but maybe headache enough! ;) |
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Courage
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 16 |
Oh, and try to remove the $d016-mistake in your Tanks 3000-Intro! Too much headache for you i'm afraid! :P |
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Jazzcat
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1044 |
Yes indeed. Only a "release" that one. But previews have never been much, often they are not level-packed, trained, translated or anything.
I liked the policy of Legend which was not to release previews hardly at all and just give them to other groups. Of course in 2005 this policy would be difficult to follow, as the majority of releases are previews only (sadly).
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Wanderer
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 478 |
Quote: Yeah, that's one hell of a way to do it :)
I'm personally interested in fiendish & cunning methods of introlink-protection, but unfortunately the means to do that, excepting any disk-based and thus nonportable protections, are fairly limited..
I once wrote a clever utility which would compare the end load address of a program (I think it's $2d and $2e but I forget... it's been years and years). Protected it with undocumented opcodes and encrypted it. It was called Lamer Killer.
The idea was that people could use it to prevent that dreaded 'third' intro from lamer groups.
Turns out within days some loser Euro group, needing something to release, 'cracked' this. Now I'm not going to bitch and moan about that fact, but I will say why would you do this when it was meant to help sceners?
Anyway if you want to do intro protection (if I get your intent properly) thats one way, another is to EOR the code, wipe out the IRQ and other pre-setup data (eg. LDA #$00: STA $d020) with zero's once it's been executed...
But there's never going to be any real way to stop someone from kicking into a monitor and just looking for the point where you check for spacebar and execute the actual game.
You can only shrug and hope the world knows YOU released something first and any others are mock and shame... if that's your intention... again I'm not sure what it is you want to do :)
p.s. one of my favourite things to do was to check $0100 to about $01d0 for ECA linker code. It will always contain a JMP $xxxx right after setting $01 to 37. This will tell you where the intro/game execution begins and allows you to change that jump to, $FCE2 or something... and save the code.
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