The Sinclair QL Forum

Interesting, as 3D-Slime is a supercharged SuperBASIC program (as far as I know). Would be interesting to see, how the author has managed a protection scheme.

RalfR wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2025 6:16 pm Interesting, as 3D-Slime is a supercharged SuperBASIC program (as far as I know). Would be interesting to see, how the author has managed a protection scheme.

It’s made up of several files and I suspect only the main game file is supercharged. This snippet isn’t from the main game file. I don’t even know for sure it relates to the protection but it is a starting point as it seems odd

I’m not looking to break the protection, just to understand how to repair my original cart

Actually I guess the simplest way to see what it reads will be to assemble the code snippet and look at what’s read in

Will give it a go tomorrow

Your code simply reads the first 80bytes of the mdv1_ directory (what's a bit weird is that it's reading 1 1/3 file headers from there, so only the first 64 bytes are really useful.)

tofro wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2025 7:08 pm Your code simply reads the first 80bytes of the mdv1_ directory (what's a bit weird is that it's reading 1 1/3 file headers from there, so only the first 64 bytes are really useful.)

I wondered if it was reading the 16 bytes sector header then the 64 bytes of the first entry to make 80 (so 16+64 rather than 64+16)

I haven’t worked out what it does with whatever it reads yet, I guess that’s my next bit of disassembly to look at then

t0nyt wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2025 7:16 pm

tofro wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2025 7:08 pm Your code simply reads the first 80bytes of the mdv1_ directory (what's a bit weird is that it's reading 1 1/3 file headers from there, so only the first 64 bytes are really useful.)

I wondered if it was reading the 16 bytes sector header then the 64 bytes of the first entry to make 80 (so 16+64 rather than 64+16)

I haven’t worked out what it does with whatever it reads yet, I guess that’s my next bit of disassembly to look at then

Nope. FS.LOAD doesn't touch any low-level structures like headers. What you get ist the contents of the file or directory.

Ok, many thanks tofro. Much appreciated

3D slime copy protection is based purely on the funny characters in filename!

XorA wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2025 9:17 pm3D slime copy protection is based purely on the funny characters in filename!

Not the cartridge from Chr$: https://qxl.win/3d_slime.htm

But there seem to be a file with no name, which was/is possible with Microdrives. Save "mdv1_" works. Even if it is a long SB file. Was used earlier in the early version of TT's Software Production Kit (see Wiki) (later changed to "mdv1_ ").

The filenames on the copy I have! (encoded for Q-Emulator)