rec.autos.simulators

by **Andi Col** » Thu, 17 Feb 2005 01:32:36

Crikey the original post must be getting near a record for responses, it's
huge. And all this from a newsgroup that's been really sleepy recently.

--
Andi.

Remove only one zero to reply

by **Juan Vizos** » Thu, 17 Feb 2005 05:47:17

I understand the gripe about starforce... Protection systems always are
a
touchy subject.. especially when .. etc .. you know the score.. Most people
have
disk imaging software installed of one sort or another .. again for various
motives..
So I just thought that back in the OLD days of copy protection they gave
you some spectacles..
and you had to press your face to the screen.. the electrons coming from the
screen .. probably making you bald..
squinting to see whatever letters or numbers are eye strainingly flickering
on the screen..
and type in the code ..get it wrong ..try again.... well maybe that was
more fun ..every time you ran it?
Maybe the *** guys could have gone retro .. Not sure if I'm Glad? jv

by **Daru** » Thu, 17 Feb 2005 05:53:55

LOL! I hadn't thought about that type of "protection" in a long time.
Forgot all about it.

by **Jon** » Thu, 17 Feb 2005 09:02:25

anyone remember I think it was the Grand Prix Unlimited game by Accolade?!
They had this weird circular disc thing compromising of 3 circles of card,
bigger diameter for each.. pin through the middle.. and little window holes
around the edges?... something like that.. and you had to line up a driver,
track and something else and type in the code that appeared through the
relevant hole.

think ive explained that roughly.. basically meant there were probably
50-200 codes(?), and maybe they rotated the codes a little so each disc
would only work with 1 in 6 copies of the game or such...

that was pretty cool, probably still got the thing somewhere!

-jon

by **Dave Er** » Thu, 17 Feb 2005 10:40:00

Hehe! I've got that one lying around in a box too somewhere in the house.
The code wheel was a pain to drag out every time I wanted to play the game .
Of course that was the days of DOS so pretty much everything I wanted to do
on the PC required some sort of involved start up. Thank heavens I don't
have to f*** around trying to free up a couple of extra kb of EMS memory so
I can play the latest and greatest flight/race/space/ship sim.

Remember the track builder in GPU? It was like snapping together slot car
track pieces and after you had the track built you could decorate it with
cheesy little signs and trees. Those were the days! :)

Dave

> anyone remember I think it was the Grand Prix Unlimited game by Accolade?!
> They had this weird circular disc thing compromising of 3 circles of card,
> bigger diameter for each.. pin through the middle.. and little window
> holes around the edges?... something like that.. and you had to line up a
> driver, track and something else and type in the code that appeared
> through the relevant hole.

> think ive explained that roughly.. basically meant there were probably
> 50-200 codes(?), and maybe they rotated the codes a little so each disc
> would only work with 1 in 6 copies of the game or such...

> that was pretty cool, probably still got the thing somewhere!

> -jon

>> LOL! I hadn't thought about that type of "protection" in a long time.
>> Forgot all about it.

by **John DiFoo** » Thu, 17 Feb 2005 10:50:49

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 20:40:00 -0500, "Dave Erb"

>Hehe! I've got that one lying around in a box too somewhere in the house.
>The code wheel was a pain to drag out every time I wanted to play the game .
>Of course that was the days of DOS so pretty much everything I wanted to do
>on the PC required some sort of involved start up. Thank heavens I don't
>have to f*** around trying to free up a couple of extra kb of EMS memory so
>I can play the latest and greatest flight/race/space/ship sim.

>Remember the track builder in GPU? It was like snapping together slot car
>track pieces and after you had the track built you could decorate it with
>cheesy little signs and trees. Those were the days! :)

>Dave

Does anyone remember dongles? Never used one for a racing game but
they were all the rage about 15 years ago...

by **Dave Henri** » Thu, 17 Feb 2005 10:56:36

dongles got lost, pins got bent...not an elegant solution.

dh

by **Plowbo** » Thu, 17 Feb 2005 23:23:11

Industry sofware stuff still uses dongles... hell my label making program
has one, the laptop to program the automated mechanisms (cant explain it) at
the plant has them for a couple different things. what really is wierd to
me, is that on one PC around here had 4 dongles for 4 softwares. of them 3
serial, and one on the parrallel port. they were plugged into each other on
the serial, I would have though this would cause problems with each others
dongle, but never did... hmmm.

John DiFool enlightened us with:

> On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 20:40:00 -0500, "Dave Erb"

>> Hehe! I've got that one lying around in a box too somewhere in the
>> house. The code wheel was a pain to drag out every time I wanted to
>> play the game . Of course that was the days of DOS so pretty much
>> everything I wanted to do on the PC required some sort of involved
>> start up. Thank heavens I don't have to f*** around trying to free
>> up a couple of extra kb of EMS memory so I can play the latest and
>> greatest flight/race/space/ship sim.

>> Remember the track builder in GPU? It was like snapping together
>> slot car track pieces and after you had the track built you could
>> decorate it with cheesy little signs and trees. Those were the days!
>> :)

>> Dave

> Does anyone remember dongles? Never used one for a racing game but
> they were all the rage about 15 years ago...

by **Alan Gauto** » Thu, 17 Feb 2005 23:45:46

says...

I've a couple in my office as well - don't use the software, and not
sure if the software works under XP, never mind the dongle.

--
AG

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Never for me the lowered banner, never the last endeavour!
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by **Pete** » Fri, 18 Feb 2005 00:08:15

> > Does anyone remember dongles? Never used one for a racing game but
> > they were all the rage about 15 years ago...

> dongles got lost, pins got bent...not an elegant solution.

> dh

Dunno! Apart from the getting lost bit, a USB dongle of somesort. Not
sure about extra cost. That's one issue. How much more cost would go
into providing such a thing and would it be over and above the cost that
goes into current copy protection schemes? Plus, how much of that cost
would then be passed onto the customer, resulting in a price that puts
some off?

Anyway, doubt it would work. Someone would still crack the need to
check the dongle anyway, or would come up with some code you can copy to
your own USB memory stick that fools the program into thinking you have
a dongle.

Forget it!! 8-)

--
Pete Ives
Remove All_stRESS before sending me an email

by **Plowbo** » Fri, 18 Feb 2005 00:35:22

I was just at the coffe machine, the guy who uses the laptop to maintain the
automated thingy, says he needed a second dongle, so that he could work on a
program hopefully at his desk, and have the laptop to do it's job of remote
usable ya know (even occasionally used off site, right now the laptop almost
has to stay in place right now with the glitched system needing reset a LOT
via laptop) but they want over 1500 for the dongle... I thought about
taking that one apart, so did he... But at the same time we're nervous
about that one not working if we did, LOL! Yeah he wasn't happy and hasnt
gotten the extra one, but at some point we will have to do it, OR get a lot
newer nicer laptop that he could use at his desk, I guess... But the last
laptop our sales guy had, only had serial port on the port replicator...
would need them sofware companys to a way to use serial to usb adapter, or
maybe a USB dongle? a USB dongle would be nice...

Anyway, depending on how creative I want to be, there is lots of other ways
to fit into the legal use of this software, like a networked PC located at
the automated machine, running Real-VNC is one. Nobody wanted the job of
running that cable that far though, LOL, and wireless wont work in there.

Alan Gauton enlightened us with:

> says...
>> Industry sofware stuff still uses dongles... hell my label making
>> program has one, the laptop to program the automated mechanisms
>> (cant explain it) at the plant has them for a couple different
>> things. what really is wierd to me, is that on one PC around here
>> had 4 dongles for 4 softwares. of them 3 serial, and one on the
>> parrallel port. they were plugged into each other on the serial, I
>> would have though this would cause problems with each others dongle,
>> but never did... hmmm.

>>> Does anyone remember dongles? Never used one for a racing game but
>>> they were all the rage about 15 years ago...

> I've a couple in my office as well - don't use the software, and not
> sure if the software works under XP, never mind the dongle.

rec.autos.simulators

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2

Damn, I won't be buying GTR afterall - 2