[Coco] SoftLaw's VIP series

[Bob Devries]

I found some interesting facts about the copy protection that Softlaw used 
for their VIP suite of programmes.

1. There are at least three different protection schemes, two of which are 
really quite trivial to circumvent (changing a $27 [BEQ] to $21 [BRN]).

2. The VIP Database disk that I have, although an original (purchased from 
the Australian distributors) was *already* hacked to circumvent the 
protection. I have now no idea what the protection code was, since  the code 
was replaced by a series of NOP ($12) bytes.

My question is this: Does anyone still have the original copy protected 
disks, and if so would they be willing to divulge the contents of track 16 
sector 3 of the VIP database disk? BTW, that's at offset $12200 if you 
already have that as a JV/MESS disk image.

I just need this for my own education; just interested how it was originally 
done.

--
Regards, Bob Devries, Dalby, Queensland, Australia

Isaiah 50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me
the capacity to be his spokesman,
so that I know how to help the weary.

website: http://www.home.gil.com.au/~bdevasl
my blog: http://bdevries.invigorated.org/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Devries" <devries.bob at gmail.com>
To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 6:18 PM
Subject: SoftLaw's VIP series


> In an effort to preserve my disk collection, I found that the SoftLaw VIP 
> series of programmes are copy protected. It seems that one (or more) 
> tracks are unformatted, and the programme looks for that when it loads.
>
> I'd like to be able to store working copies, and of course, also make them 
> workable under MESS. Since MESS cannot emulate faulty/unformatted tracks, 
> all I can do is patch the software to by-pass the check for those tracks.
>
> Does anyone have the information about how that was done, before I start 
> digging into the code?
>
> See the next CocoNutz Newsletter for "The Colour Computer Software 
> Preservation Project" (shameless plug).
>
>
> --
> Regards, Bob Devries, Dalby, Queensland, Australia
>
> Isaiah 50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me
> the capacity to be his spokesman,
> so that I know how to help the weary.
>
> website: http://www.home.gil.com.au/~bdevasl
> my blog: http://bdevries.invigorated.org/
>