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[OT] Run genuine XTreeGold 3.01 in the browser!   [OT]

By: Paul Laufer       
Date: Feb 11,2019 at 18:49
In Response to: [OT] Run genuine XTreeGold 3.01 in the browser! (Peter Shute)

> I do recall that the movement of files between computers was a problem
> before PCs as the computers were often of different types (CP/M, Amiga,
> Amstrad, etc). Do you remember PC Alien for reading non DOS floppy disks?

I don't recall PC Alien.

I had a program called Copy2PC, which allowed one to make backup copies of floppy disks that purposely had a non-standard formatting section designed to prevent users from making copies. I was told it could also be used to make copies of non-IBM-PC floppies, though I don't recall trying any Apple/Amiga/etc disks with it.

http://www.applefool.com/se30/files/OBManual_1988.pdf

A program using such protection would insist that you inserted the original purchased floppy into the machine or it wouldn't run. It would recognize its own floppy because it had some sector that was not "normal". And since the formatting of the floppy was not "normal" it appeared corrupted to DOS and so you couldn't make a copy.

Copy2PC got around that by not being concerned with how the floppy was formatted. It just made a straight copy, screwy formatting and all.

Not that I ever used pirated copies of games that my friends had or anything like that. :)

The hardest protection to beat was one where the software came with some sort of crude dongle that needed to be plugged into a serial or parallel port while you were using the software.

I got my first PC in around 1989 and all I cared about was playing games. I had zero money to use to buy games... so my friends and I learned ways to get around copy protection.

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