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PC Floppy Disk Games Copy Protection

I'd be wary of the obvious copyright issues involved. Game publishers can be very litigious.....

IME, operating system discs tend to fall into the "fair game" category. In the few cases where the manufacturers of some old machine are still around, it's rare to see any form of copyright enforcement or the issuing of Cease and Desist or DMCA notices.

What I'd really like to do is create an archive of operating system boot discs, indexed and ideally verified (at least to the point of "you can use this image to make a disc and it will boot the machine"). Don Maslin's archive was astonishing in many ways, and it's a shame that it has (to my knowledge) effectively been lost to the sands of time. What the likes of CAPS/SPS are doing is good, but still isn't what I'd like... (which is fair enough, and more power to them)

If anyone wants to collaborate on something like this... well, feel free to PM me :)
 
Ideally, someone should set up an archive of CopyIIPC Option Board images. Everybody with an Option Board could dump their game disk, upload the images and we would soon have a fine collection of games that are properly preserved.
Click to expand...

The best source for floppy images used to be:
http://retrograde.trustno1.org/index.html

Run by a friend of mine in sweden, and most of the zips contained straight IMG files of the data as well as teledisk and option board images.

The site is now gone, but there are others who are hopefully taking up the slack to put this archive back online at some point, then we can continue to do exactly what you're referring to.
 
hargle said:
The best source for floppy images used to be:
http://retrograde.trustno1.org/index.html

Run by a friend of mine in sweden, and most of the zips contained straight IMG files of the data as well as teledisk and option board images.

The site is now gone, but there are others who are hopefully taking up the slack to put this archive back online at some point, then we can continue to do exactly what you're referring to.
Click to expand...

The website is well conserved by the wayback-machine, however, it had it's limitations.

As most images were presented as binary images and not TC images, most images had been cracked in order to work. The problem was that the site never stated which files were cracked or not. Some of the cracked images even contained the siteowners signature ("diskcopy does da deed", etc.), which is something I strongly dislike.
 
Agreed. THe focus of the site originally was to store images to be used in flopper [floppy disk emulator] which did not support copy protection schemes. It was not an archive of pristine disk images.

All of the transcopy and teledisk images that were posted should have all the original copy protection in place; there would be no point in transcopying an already cracked disk image when a regular .IMG file would have sufficed. All .IMG files should be cracked/modified, if such modifications were needed to make them run, either in flopper or on original hardware.
 
That site was very useful for its time, even if it suffered from the "get it working" mentality of the emulation scene. It also made no effort to include DOS copy protected games in it.

There are copy protection schemes, like those of Sierra On-Line's AGI adventure games, that would likely be impervious to CopyIIPC or Teledisk or any other software-based scheme. Although CopyIIPC contains noguard and nokey utilities that work with these games, these utilities require the original disks. I have regular IMG images of several of these games that others dumped that will never work unless cracked by hand.

I really like the idea of a combined System Disk and Game archive. System disks are necessary for DOS games to work. For PC-DOS, I have a few holes in my collection, namely the 3.x versions.
 
PC Floppy Disk Games Copy Protection

neither worked ....is there any program to use to copy everything?
 
>neither worked ....is there any program to use to copy everything?

To copy copy-protected disks

1)Transcopy 5.4 with copy II PC Optionboard -- Most of all are copied well.
2)Copy II PC / Copy Write -- A few of copy protected disks are copied except weak beat method.

To dump copy-protected disks as copy-protected disk images to run PCE (IBM PC 5150) emulator

1)Teledisk 2.1X
2)IMAGEDISK 2.17
3)Anadisk 2.0X
4)FDA 6.1 (run with 2EA BIOS supports only)
 
I was just wondering, as i have an old Seirra game, Colonels Bequest. I havent used it it ages, but was hopeing to make a backup copy. I have a program called RAREAD (RAWRITE's cousin) that ive run in dos. Wouldn't a raw image of the disk suffice?

Great Hierophant said:
There are copy protection schemes, like those of Sierra On-Line's AGI adventure games, that would likely be impervious to CopyIIPC or Teledisk or any other software-based scheme.
Click to expand...
 
IIRC, Colonel's Bequest relied upon key manuals for protection, and the actual floppies were unprotected (hence the "magnifying glass" red-plastic viewer with the "fingerprints" dealie). I believe my copy even has the "how to make a backup copy" paper included, i.e. use diskcopy A: B:

Just use WinImage, Rawwrite, or even diskcopy to make your images, then try to install it. Should work.
 
3.5" version of Lemmings can be dumped as td0 disk image to run PCE (IBM PC Emulator).
I use teledisk 2.15 to dump on real DOS (6.22 or under)
Lemmings can't be copied to other disk without Trans Copy Option Board.
But it can be run on PCE emulator with TD0 format.
PCE supports copy protected track / sector via INT-13 emulaton.
If Lemmings can't be dumped by Teledisk 2.15 on Real DOS (Under 6.22), your PC or drive must be checked.


I have over 100 kinds of Copy Protected PC games.
Except 15 games, most of Copy Protected PC games can be dumped as TD0 format.
It runs on PCE emulator without Crack.
 
I tried and failed to backup certain 3.5" 720K disks with my non-Deluxe Option Board. I believe the games were using some version of SuperLok, so I was anxious that the OB's Transcopy software versions 4.5 and 4.7 would not work with the protection (as there is documented evidence that Central Point Software caved into pressure from Softguard, which marketed the SuperLok protection, and removed the ability to copy this protection in their software). Here are some things I learned during the process :

Transcopy (TC.EXE, TCS.EXE and TCMANUAL.EXE) 4.x and below will only read up to track 29h/41 on any floppy disk, regardless of whether it is a 3.5" or 5.25" drive, double or high density. I tested this on both a Tandy 1000 SX with a 3.5" 720K drive and drivparm with MS-DOS 5.00 and an IBM PC/XT with 3rd BIOS. If you try to put 4Fh/79 as the last track, the software will only read up to track 27h/39.
Transcopy 2.x may not allow you to store an disk image to a hard drive on C:, D:, etc. I do not have Transcopy 3.2.
Transcopy 5.x does not work with an OB, it requires a Deluxe Option Board.
A Deluxe Option Board does not like Transcopy versions below 5.

I was unable to make even a complete backup of these games, and they failed to pass the key disk check anyway. I eventually gave up and used CopyWrite to crack the games in question. It produced EXE from COM which worked without any fuss like "brought to you by ..."

Another thing I observed when testing several Teledisk game images made by another in a real machine versus Hampa's PC Emulator. Half the images I tried failed to produce a working floppy backup in my Tandy 1000 SX and failed at the key disk protection. But those images worked just fine in the emulator. This indicates that either the Floppy Disk Controller is lacking in accuracy or that Teledisk cannot write certain things it can read.
 
1)Converting Transcopy Disk Image to other image.

Transcopy Disk Image (*.IMG) is now converted to .pfdc or teledisk (.td0) to run PCE IBM PC 5150 emulator.
To convert it, TC image must be *.TC (Not *.IMG --> Rename .IMG as .TC)

2)About Electronic Art's copy protection :

Most of early Electronic Art's has copy protection. It is so called Electronic Art's IBM Interlock.
A few of copy protected EA's games includes the following message on Track 40-0 Sector 1 as hidden Track.
(Not all the games are included its information.)

"508-040L3 ELECTRONIC ARTS IBM INTERLOCK"

This protection is on Track 15-0 Sector 1-96

EA copy protected games can be copied with Trans Copy Option Board.
But it can't be dumped by Teledisk to run on PCE emulator.
ImageDisk 1.17 can't dump EA's Interlock correctly.
(Dump is better than Teledisk. But it can't recognize CRC-ID.)

http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img/index.htm

I've dumped any EA games and converted .TC (Rename .IMG --> .TC first) by pfdc tool.
This is Track information of EA interlock on Track 15-0

15 0 0 15 0 1 512 MFM 250000
15 0 1 15 0 49 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 2 15 0 2 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 3 15 0 50 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 4 15 0 3 512 MFM 250000
15 0 5 15 0 51 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 6 15 0 4 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 7 15 0 52 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 8 15 0 5 512 MFM 250000
15 0 9 15 0 53 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 10 15 0 6 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 11 15 0 54 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 12 15 0 7 512 MFM 250000
15 0 13 15 0 55 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 14 15 0 8 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 15 15 0 56 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 16 15 0 9 512 MFM 250000
15 0 17 15 0 57 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 18 15 0 10 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 19 15 0 58 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 20 15 0 11 512 MFM 250000
15 0 21 15 0 59 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 22 15 0 12 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 23 15 0 60 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 24 15 0 13 512 MFM 250000
15 0 25 15 0 61 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 26 15 0 14 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 27 15 0 62 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 28 15 0 15 512 MFM 250000
15 0 29 15 0 63 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 30 15 0 16 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 31 15 0 64 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 32 15 0 17 512 MFM 250000
15 0 33 15 0 65 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 34 15 0 18 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 35 15 0 66 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 36 15 0 19 512 MFM 250000
15 0 37 15 0 67 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 38 15 0 20 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 39 15 0 68 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 40 15 0 21 512 MFM 250000
15 0 41 15 0 69 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 42 15 0 22 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 43 15 0 70 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 44 15 0 23 512 MFM 250000
15 0 45 15 0 71 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 46 15 0 24 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 47 15 0 72 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 48 15 0 25 512 MFM 250000
15 0 49 15 0 73 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 50 15 0 26 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 51 15 0 74 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 52 15 0 27 512 MFM 250000
15 0 53 15 0 75 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 54 15 0 28 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 55 15 0 76 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 56 15 0 29 512 MFM 250000
15 0 57 15 0 77 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 58 15 0 30 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 59 15 0 78 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 60 15 0 31 512 MFM 250000
15 0 61 15 0 79 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 62 15 0 32 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 63 15 0 80 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 64 15 0 33 512 MFM 250000
15 0 65 15 0 81 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 66 15 0 34 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 67 15 0 82 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 68 15 0 35 512 MFM 250000
15 0 69 15 0 83 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 70 15 0 36 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 71 15 0 84 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 72 15 0 37 512 MFM 250000
15 0 73 15 0 85 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 74 15 0 38 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 75 15 0 86 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 76 15 0 39 512 MFM 250000
15 0 77 15 0 87 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 78 15 0 40 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 79 15 0 88 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 80 15 0 41 512 MFM 250000
15 0 81 15 0 89 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 82 15 0 42 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 83 15 0 90 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 84 15 0 43 512 MFM 250000
15 0 85 15 0 91 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 86 15 0 44 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 87 15 0 92 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 88 15 0 45 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 89 15 0 93 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 90 15 0 46 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 91 15 0 94 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 92 15 0 47 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 93 15 0 95 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA
15 0 94 15 0 48 512 MFM 250000 CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
15 0 95 15 0 96 512 MFM 250000 CRC-ID CRC-DATA DEL-DAM
 
Great Hierophant said:
Another thing I observed when testing several Teledisk game images made by another in a real machine versus Hampa's PC Emulator. Half the images I tried failed to produce a working floppy backup in my Tandy 1000 SX and failed at the key disk protection. But those images worked just fine in the emulator. This indicates that either the Floppy Disk Controller is lacking in accuracy or that Teledisk cannot write certain things it can read.
Click to expand...

I believe that it is the latter, and is a limitation of the FDC and even the Transcopy board to completely emulate certain kinds of protection. The person to direct this to would be Chuck(G) - he wrote Teledisk and Anadisk. I believe that it was in this thread that he made mention of how the Copy II PC software achieves "copying" of certain protections by actually cracking them.
 
I have Duke Nukem with a bonus Plutonium pack add on but I can't unlock it without calling in and paying 25 bucks. Any way around this?
 
That's not a copy protection analysis/discussion, that's a crack/keygen :) I'm assuming that you've tried Google and some of the usual warez search engines? (which I won't make public, as I'm sure that Erik doesn't approve of such discussions). Either way, it shouldn't be too hard to find either a crack, or heck, even the whole shebang for download.
 
This is Copy Protected IBM PC, PC/XT compatible DOS/booter games.


(DOS)

007: Licence to Kill
4th & Inches
4x4 Off-Road Racing
Ace of Aces
After Burner
Airborne Ranger
Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America in Dr. Doom's Revenge!, The
Ancient Art of War at Sea, The
Arcticfox
Arkanoid
Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh
Bad Dudes
Batman: The Caped Crusader
Bionic Commando
Blockbuster
Blues Brothers, The
Bop'N Wrestle
Boulder Dash Construction Kit
Bruce Lee Lives
Bubble Bobble
California Games
Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess
Championship Baseball
Championship Golf: The Great Courses of the World - Volume I: Pebble Beach
Chessmaster 2000, The
Chip's Challenge
Contra
Crime Does Not Pay
Dark Castle
Dark Century
Death Sword
Deep Space: Operation Copernicus
Defender of the Crown
Dive Bomber
Duel: Test Drive II, The
F-15 Strike Eagle II version 451.01
F-15 Strike Eagle II version 451.02
F-19 Stealth Fighter version 435.01
F-19 Stealth Fighter version 435.02
F-19 Stealth Fighter version 435.04
Fast Break
Final Assault
Frightmare
Games: Winter Edition, The
Gauntlet / 1st rivision / Weak bit Copy Protection on Track 0-0
Gauntlet / 2nd rivision / H.L.S DUPLICATION Protection on Track 39-0 / 39-1
GBA Championship Basketball: Two-on-Two No
GFL Championship Football
Ghosts 'N Goblins
Grand Prix Circuit
Gunship version 429.01
Gunship version 429.03
Gunship version 429.04
Gunship version 429.05
HardBall!
Heavy Barrel
Highway Patrol II
Horror Zombies from the Crypt
Infiltrator
Infiltrator II
Jr. Pac-Man
Karateka
King's Quest III: To Heir is Human
King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne
King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown
Knight Force
Last Ninja, The
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
Lemmings / 1st rivision / Weak bit Copy Protection on Track 0-0
Lemmings / 2nd rivision / Weak bit Copy Protection on Track 0-0
Lemmings / 3rd rivision / Weak bit Copy Protection on Track 0-0
Lombard RAC Rally
M1 Tank Platoon
Master Ninja: Shadow Warrior of Death
Math Rabbit
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing!
Mean 18
Mental Blocks
Mind-Roll
Mini-Putt
Nobunaga's Ambition
Omnicron Conspiracy
Operation: Cleanstreets
Operation Wolf
OutRun
Paperboy
Pinball Wizard
Platoon
Pole Position
Puzznic
QIX
Rad Warrior
Rambo III
Rampage
Rastan
Reader Rabbit / version 3.0
Red Storm Rising
Renegade
Revenge of Defender
Rick Dangerous 2
RoboCop No
Robot Odyssey
Rush'n Attack
Sarge
Sargon III
Savage
S.D.I.
Serve & Volley
Shadowgate
Sierra's 3-D Helicopter Simulator
Sky Shark
Space Station Oblivion
Star Wars
Street Sports Basketball
Street Sports Soccer
Stunt Track Racer
Sub Battle Simulator
Superbike Challenge
Super Hang-On
Super Pac-Man
Sword of the Samurai
Test Drive
Test Drive II Car Disk: Muscle Cars
Test Drive II Car Disk: The Supercars
Test Drive II Scenery Disk: California Challenge
Test Drive II Scenery Disk: European Challenge
Thexder
Think Quick! / version 1.0
Three Stooges, The
ThunderBlade
Times of Lore
Top Gun
Train: Escape to Normandy, The
Uridium
Wild Streets
Willow
Winter Challenge: World Class Competition
Wizball
World Tour Golf
X-Men


(booter)

Archon: The Light and the Dark
Battlezone
Below the Root
BurgerTime
Centipede
Commando
Conflict in Vietnam
Defender
Dig Dug
F-15 Strike Eagle
Galaxian / Tengen version (by Thunder Mountain)
Galaxian / Atari version
Gremlins
Guerrilla War
Harrier Combat Simulator
Ikari Warriors
Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road
Jungle Hunt
Karnov
King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne
Lock On
Lode Runner
Marble Madness
Microsoft Flight Simulator (v2.10)
Moon Patrol
Ms. Pac-Man / Namco version (by Thunder Mountain)
One-on-One
Pac-Man / Namco version (by Thunder Mountain)
Pinball Construction Set
Robotron: 2084
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Silent Service
Solo Flight
Spiderbot
Stargate
Summer Games II
Super Boulder Dash
Touchdown Football
Trivia 101
TV and Cinema 101: Trivia from Talkies to Trekkies
Will Harvey's Music Construction Set
Winter Games
World Games


Most of them are dumped by Teledisk to run PCE emulator supports Copy Protected Track/Sector.
But a few of game can't be dumped by Teledisk.
It must be dumped by Trans Copy Optionboard or KryoFlux.
To run these copy protected games on PCE emulator without crack, each files must be converted to .pfdc by pfdc.exe

If anyone have question about dumping copy protected games to run PCE emulator, I can help for you.
 
Dear fs5500

I own a Copy II PC Deluxe Option Board on my Amstrad PC 1640
Did you have original disk games that I could make copy ?

Thanks in advance.
Best regards.
 
WinImage For Windows does a sector-by-sector image and can be used to both image, and re-create copy protected floppies of any size.
 
kithylin said:
WinImage For Windows does a sector-by-sector image and can be used to both image, and re-create copy protected floppies of any size.
Click to expand...

Wrong. I mean no offense by that :) We try our best to point out inaccurate statements and procedures so that anyone sourcing this information in the future will be able to correctly utilize the information given here to keep their machines up and running.

WinImage can image and recreate PC/Compatible 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disks of type SS/DD/HD, varying in size from 180kb up to 2.88mb, but it cannot handle "any size" nor can it handle the vast majority of copy-protections out there. Chuck(G) would probably be best suited to hazard guesses as to which copy protections that it can handle.

For unprotected disks, WinImage is probably the best imaging program out there as it will run perfectly fine on modern hardware. For DOS-based systems, try Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk, and also our own Mike Brutman's DskImage will serve you better. For copy-protected disks, Teledisk or Anadisk is probably the best way to go. Note that these require a pure DOS environment in order to function properly.
 
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