[Coco] Coco Digest, Vol 53, Issue 28

[carl j england]

the sector that is missing (if i remember correctly and it doesn't really
matter) is sector 17.  the missing sector was replaced with sector #80
which the program MUST read.  there is no data there but the program
checks it to make sure that you aren't using a copy.  there are many ways
to create a track with the "illegal" sector number, but i would just use
"the defeater".  it is a program that i wrote in 1995 and it is availible
from many coco sites (i placed it into the public domain).  it will
assist you in making a copy of any copy-protected disk.  the operative
word is ASSIST.  at the time i wrote the program, i didn't believe that
software could analyze copy-protection and make copies without human
intervention.  the defeater is very easy to use in this case and will
easily create a copy-protected disk that you can copy sands of egypt or
shamus to.  (you will have to do a sector-by-sector copy or use a backup
program that doesn't abort on errors--i think i included backupfx with
the defeater.  backupfx is a short basic program that patches disk basic 
backup command to stop the abort on error)

> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2007 18:05:03 -0500
> From: "Rogelio Perea" <os9dude at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Coco] Shamus... copy protected?
> To: "coco at maltedmedia.com" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Message-ID:
>         <5631e580712251505u722940a4m94bdb385cc801953 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> Just unearthed this Radio Shack game for the CoCo: Shamus. Before 
> running
> the program in my CoCo 3 I tried to back up the original disk and 
> BACKUP
> bombed in the middle of the process, I heard the drives spin and the 
> head
> positioning mechanism go through its motions until the familiar 
> "multiple
> attempts to read" sound gave a warning of trouble... soon after came 
> the I/O
> Error report.
> 
> The game loads and plays with no problem so I assume copy protection 
> is at
> work here. When running the Basic loader, right after the binary 
> begins to
> LOADM there are a few repetitious reads from the drive that sound 
> almost as
> a failed load but then the game starts; final check to see if game 
> is
> pirated or not?
> 
> Just curious... my disk zapper also fails to read one sector at the
> directory track...
> 
> 
> -=[ Rogelio ]=-
>