Hi, just doing a nostalgic search on 'Parallax' got me into this old thread. Funny.

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ARC was cracked by Dynamic Duo, IIRC.

I'v been hearing this rumour for several years now, but I have never seen this. Worth commenting on though. I'd love to see a cracked version, but as I have never seen it in the wild, I honestly think it was only a partial crack. ARC had a layered protection mechanism.

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The dongle contained the music replayer, which CAS released earlier on disk for a promo.. So Erik (Dynamic Duo) was clever enough to rip that replayer and insert it into the original. or atleast he told me

The music player is indeed on the cartridge, but that isn't the protection at all. It is just used to preserve ram, making use of the cartridge rom as it was there anyway.

After all these years I don't mind talking about it. The cartridge contained some very specific logic, which means that writing to some out ports initiated a computation mechanism, which could be tested by reading it. This was detected at various levels in the game code: a random crasher in the interrupt code, an 'after level' check, and one or two (I forgot) in the level 5/level 8 transition code.

Each of these tests was coded completely differently, and involved self-modifying code.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but I am saying getting it out would be a horrific job, and would be error prone because of the repeated checks, and checks at later points in the game.

So again, I'd love to see a cracked version played through to the end

Regards,

Cas Cremers

Let me reveal my copy protection than, although I think some copies already exists, so the code must be broken.

This protection was used for:
- ZHM (text-to-speech tool with dutch grammar for Turbo R)
- PSG Sampler (Sample tool for all devices)

What i'd done, was:
- First format a regular double sided disc
- Then on some tracks (e.g. track 100-120) I reformatted the track by using a different interleave value, instead of default 1-3-5-7-9-2-4-6-8, which is standard (2), I used an interleave of 4, so the sector order became 1-5-9-4-8-3-7-2-6
- As a result, reading those specific tracks became very inefficient (The disc needs to spin 7 times to read all sectors of a track, instead of just 2 times)
- My software check routine initiated a timer before loading data
- When the data was read to quick, it tried reading it again

- Now, if you copy this disc onto a blank (unformatted or "normal" formatted) disc, the interleave values of track 100-120 will not be copied over (but the data will)
- As a result, the disc will keep on reading data during boot and never end.

- Offcourse all routines were coded using self-modifying code and filled up with random data.

- Because there is no (reliable?) way of reading the interleave values, the disc can never (never say never...) be duplicated exactly. : Let me know if someone can copy it using Amiga, just for my curiousity....
- Off course you can try to patch the copy, by changing the checkroutine
- Disadvantage: I had to prepare every copy manually using a Philips Diagnostic utility which was able to format a track with user defined interleave values, using Philips Drive Controller.

Man, nobody has that utility! Do you still have it? Can you make a disk image from it?

There's a utility on PC that can read raw diskdata, so including gaps etc... It would read your protected disks fine.

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Cas Cremers

Hey Cas! Welcome to this forum!

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Man, nobody has that utility! Do you still have it? Can you make a disk image from it?

Do you mean ZHM ? Does nobody have this ???

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There's a utility on PC that can read raw diskdata, so including gaps etc... It would read your protected disks fine.

A diskimage would not capture the interleave, so that doesn't work.

And reading raw discdata doesn't capture the interleave, because that is not a gap, but just the order the sector data is written.

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Do you mean ZHM ? Does nobody have this ???

I have it somewhere, it was in the pile of disks I got from Kasper Souren
The label said "Zeg het maar", which made me think he had no clue what was on the disk...

Zeg Het Maar rulez! I don't have it though.. Perhaps it's something for our Downloads database? (or if preferred: webshop ).

I am willing to donate it, if you tell me how to upload it ? I am sure I have an unprotected version somewhere (my master disc). And I think copyright does expire after 10 years, doesn't it ?

Copyright doesn't expire after 10 years.. not if you don't want it to . But you can send it (and all other interesting creations -hint, hint - ) to downloads@msx.org (if you'd rather FTP it, mail to that adress and I'll give ya a temporary login)

I think I have some other interesting prototype utilities. Like once I made a voice recognition system which could control a standard HiFi CD player by sending RC5 codes via the remote-in connector (most players have this connection to connect through the amplifier). It would allow you to say "stop", "play", "Forward", "1","2", etc. to control your cd-player. I think it only worked on turbo-r to record the voice, but I am not sure anymore. I will submit the sources anyway.

You need a modified SIMPL (from MCM) to connect your CD player (replace one of the audio-plugs by a remote-in plug).

I only tested it on a Sony CD-player, but with a simple adaption, you can record any RC5 code by connecting your remote-out to your line-input and record the RC5 code when you press your remote.

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>>Man, nobody has that utility! Do you still have it? Can you make a disk image from it? << Do you mean ZHM ? Does nobody have this ???

No, I mean the Philips Diagnostics Tool!

Voice recognition on turboR??? AWESOME!!!! Whoa!

Ah, the Philips tool, yes I must have it somewhere, it got it from an ex-Philips employee. It's only available on cartridge originally, but I copied it on an eprom and I also made a loader for it, so you can run it from disc.

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Hi, just doing a nostalgic search on 'Parallax' got me into this old thread. Funny.

Hey there Mr. Illusive... Stop by from time to time! Would be nice to see some of you 'oldtimers' on the forums once in a while. Hey, you by any chance know if 'Patje' is still alive? Would be phun to know what that lazy sob is up to aswell... Last time I heard he was on his way to becoming a rock star. Dreadlock Pussy, or something? Anyways, good to see you on a forum...

Pat is of course very much alive. www.dreadlockpussy.com. Don't expect too much of me though, I'll hang around for a few days maybe, but I'm not doing anything MSX-related at the moment, as I haven't done for some time now.

Cas