Stumped on a Cartridge Repair

[dilwyn]

I guess you could write it up as how to restore a damaged copy-protected cartridge rather than breaking the copy-protection as such if you're unsure whether the program is still not free to distribute (afraid I don't know).

[XorA]

I guess you could write it up as how to restore a damaged copy-protected cartridge rather than breaking the copy-protection as such if you're unsure whether the program is still not free to distribute (afraid I don't know).

The wiki lists 3D slime as still commercial!

I thought it was one of RWAPs so there were genuine copies easily available but it seems I was wrong!

[RalfR]

It is always interesting to see how the different methods were used.

With the old Sinclair branded programs protected with the SPK (see Wiki), it was the random number, and with some newer programs too. With "Tankbusters" it was a specific sector that was read.

Jochen Merz's first games on floppy disks were single sided formatted on the QL but formatted on the second side on the Spectrum which was read during start-up.

Apparently the copy protection on "Cartridge Doctor" by Talent is particularly "tasty" (says Rich). I don't know of anyone who has cracked it yet.

"The Pawn" is also pretty bad, it was cracked by an Italian, but unfortunately his loading program is supercharged.

The first version of QLiberator also has a mechanism for just making five or so working copies and was not able to run from the master cartridge.

[t0nyt]

It is always interesting to see how the different methods were used.

With the old Sinclair branded programs protected with the SPK (see Wiki), it was the random number, and with some newer programs too. With "Tankbusters" it was a specific sector that was read.

Jochen Merz's first games on floppy disks were single sided formatted on the QL but formatted on the second side on the Spectrum which was read during start-up.

Apparently the copy protection on "Cartridge Doctor" by Talent is particularly "tasty" (says Rich). I don't know of anyone who has cracked it yet.

"The Pawn" is also pretty bad, it was cracked by an Italian, but unfortunately his loading program is supercharged.

The first version of QLiberator also has a mechanism for just making five or so working copies and was not able to run from the master cartridge.

I read somewhere that one method of protection was to store a 4 byte value in the date field (offset $34 was for date but unused) of the first directory entry of the mdv and compare that to a value stored in the code. Not sure where I read that though.