The one on Metal Gear Solid got me. "It on the back of the CD case" led to me hunting everywhere in the game for a cd without realising they meant the case the game was in
one I like is the what ship is this (shows a picture of a ship seen in game in most case a recognition siliot shart) you then have to ID it like you would do in the time period. and if they was correct. you learned something.
Fascinating! News to me! We didn't get a computer till the year 2000 we only had consoles prior to that. I do remember entering key codes but nothing so extravagant as this. Pretty cool to learn about though!
Unfortunately I couldn’t watch as I pirated my @GouldFish on Games & didn’t have the manual. I assume the episode was all about the 19th century Spanish ship building industry? The problem buying original games is A) you need to know if the game had an external copy protection & B) if the copy you’re buying has it’s book/wheel/colour card/dongle intact. The other problem is, that copy protection item often commands a premium. Copy protection dongles usually just bridge 2 (or more) pins in the socket it plugs in too. Great video, thanks. It’s an interesting subject & a demonstration of just how rampant piracy was at the time.
On the Amiga it was everywhere, and if you had a few mates with the same hardware then disks would just swap between all the time. And yeah knowing if the game had off disk protection is the first battle in buying second hand copies, I have a copy of Alien Breed 3D for the CD32 and its missing the booklet. and I bet know that would cost more then game did when I got it. I'm not sure if this dongle is just bridging two pins, on workbench I could see the mouse twitching about so I think it might be sending some pattern. But as its a big box of plastic with no way to get in with out breaking it, I might never know.
@@GouldFishOnGames I have a copy of Cricket Captain coming from eBay with it’s dongle (which is going to need an extender cable to use on my A600) so I’ll have a look in to it.
you might have some issues as I found Cricket Captain to have some display issues on the A500+. I also had to jump though a bunch of hoops to get my copy to work, but then the disk wasn't in a great shape, so getting it to display anything was a win.
Copy protection wheels and books were the very first instance of DRM. And every single case its happened has never stopped pirates. If anything, the only thing DRM does nowadays is prevent players from playing said game in the future, which is why it's now shunned upon for ruining game preservation, which has become more of a hot topic than ever thanks to the rise of digital gaming and the push for streaming.
Copy protection was never about fully stopping pirates, as they have effectively unlimited time. Copy protection was always about 2 things: 1. stopping casual piracy, so I couldn't just run off a copy for a mate if they wanted to play it they either bought it or borrowed it. 2. allowing games to sold for some time before being pirated. There were games that were pirated and up on BBS boards and the like before they were even in the shops. the longer they could stop mass piracy the more sales they would get. There will always be those who will pirate a game no matter what, they just never want to pay for it. but those who pirate if its easy or if they have the choice between free and costing. Those are the people that in the first few weeks you can get with protection.
@@GouldFishOnGames Good point. Though what I should of said was that it would eventually evolve into DRM, as each new copy protection method got more and more strict, until it became an inconvenience to the player. And that's why there are platforms like GOG that fight the system, and Steam that aims to offer a better service than what pirates provide. And then there are the indie OS platforms like GameJolt, Itch(dot)io and the now debunked Desura. Every other mainline gaming service platform on computers was pretty much a corporate trap.
I remember lending a copy of a code wheel for out of this world to someone and never got it back. Also I do remember that ledge jump in flashback, it was kinda BS
That Flashback protection with the picture is monstrous! Carrier Command on the ZX Spectrum had the type in the word from the manual approach. That was fine, but not if your keyboard was temperamental! Those Worms and Turtles (and Jet Set Willy) things would probably be illegal now, as they're not great for the colour blind. Alone in the Dark's tiny book is adorable!
Yeah the flashback one isn't fun, I keep blocking it out! I hate to think how bad some of those copy protections were for the colour blind, or even on black and white (or green screen) TV's. I did got to check my copy of jet set willy and it didn't have the code page so its either a later release or its missing!
yeah loosing or damaging them was the worst. Having a game you bought but unable to play because the code book got wet or ripped. That was not a great feeling.
The Operation Stealth one was bad for everyone, I had a budget release that had the picture printed on regular paper and it was still hard to work out what the colours were!
If you are interested in checking out the code wheels, here is the link: www.oldgames.sk/codewheel/
The one on Metal Gear Solid got me. "It on the back of the CD case" led to me hunting everywhere in the game for a cd without realising they meant the case the game was in
I've heard of the Metal Gear Solid one, it seemed quite clever.
one I like is the what ship is this (shows a picture of a ship seen in game in most case a recognition siliot shart) you then have to ID it like you would do in the time period.
and if they was correct. you learned something.
Fascinating! News to me! We didn't get a computer till the year 2000 we only had consoles prior to that. I do remember entering key codes but nothing so extravagant as this. Pretty cool to learn about though!
Unfortunately I couldn’t watch as I pirated my @GouldFish on Games & didn’t have the manual. I assume the episode was all about the 19th century Spanish ship building industry?
The problem buying original games is A) you need to know if the game had an external copy protection & B) if the copy you’re buying has it’s book/wheel/colour card/dongle intact. The other problem is, that copy protection item often commands a premium. Copy protection dongles usually just bridge 2 (or more) pins in the socket it plugs in too.
Great video, thanks. It’s an interesting subject & a demonstration of just how rampant piracy was at the time.
On the Amiga it was everywhere, and if you had a few mates with the same hardware then disks would just swap between all the time.
And yeah knowing if the game had off disk protection is the first battle in buying second hand copies, I have a copy of Alien Breed 3D for the CD32 and its missing the booklet.
and I bet know that would cost more then game did when I got it.
I'm not sure if this dongle is just bridging two pins, on workbench I could see the mouse twitching about so I think it might be sending some pattern.
But as its a big box of plastic with no way to get in with out breaking it, I might never know.
@@GouldFishOnGames I have a copy of Cricket Captain coming from eBay with it’s dongle (which is going to need an extender cable to use on my A600) so I’ll have a look in to it.
you might have some issues as I found Cricket Captain to have some display issues on the A500+.
I also had to jump though a bunch of hoops to get my copy to work, but then the disk wasn't in a great shape, so getting it to display anything was a win.
Copy protection wheels and books were the very first instance of DRM. And every single case its happened has never stopped pirates. If anything, the only thing DRM does nowadays is prevent players from playing said game in the future, which is why it's now shunned upon for ruining game preservation, which has become more of a hot topic than ever thanks to the rise of digital gaming and the push for streaming.
Copy protection was never about fully stopping pirates, as they have effectively unlimited time.
Copy protection was always about 2 things:
1. stopping casual piracy, so I couldn't just run off a copy for a mate if they wanted to play it they either bought it or borrowed it.
2. allowing games to sold for some time before being pirated. There were games that were pirated and up on BBS boards and the like before they were even in the shops. the longer they could stop mass piracy the more sales they would get.
There will always be those who will pirate a game no matter what, they just never want to pay for it.
but those who pirate if its easy or if they have the choice between free and costing. Those are the people that in the first few weeks you can get with protection.
@@GouldFishOnGames Good point. Though what I should of said was that it would eventually evolve into DRM, as each new copy protection method got more and more strict, until it became an inconvenience to the player. And that's why there are platforms like GOG that fight the system, and Steam that aims to offer a better service than what pirates provide. And then there are the indie OS platforms like GameJolt, Itch(dot)io and the now debunked Desura. Every other mainline gaming service platform on computers was pretty much a corporate trap.
I remember lending a copy of a code wheel for out of this world to someone and never got it back. Also I do remember that ledge jump in flashback, it was kinda BS
Great Video. Do you have the link for the online wheels?
doh! I forgot to add that.
I've created a pinned comment with the link.
Tempted to buy these games just for all the stuff they included. 😊I did like Zool's code wheel, I thought that worked well.
Settlers FTW!
That Flashback protection with the picture is monstrous!
Carrier Command on the ZX Spectrum had the type in the word from the manual approach. That was fine, but not if your keyboard was temperamental!
Those Worms and Turtles (and Jet Set Willy) things would probably be illegal now, as they're not great for the colour blind.
Alone in the Dark's tiny book is adorable!
Yeah the flashback one isn't fun, I keep blocking it out!
I hate to think how bad some of those copy protections were for the colour blind, or even on black and white (or green screen) TV's. I did got to check my copy of jet set willy and it didn't have the code page so its either a later release or its missing!
I never hated these as much more along the lines of I hated when you lost them
yeah loosing or damaging them was the worst.
Having a game you bought but unable to play because the code book got wet or ripped. That was not a great feeling.
They made it difficult for legitimate owners.
I hated the colour protection of Operation Stealth etc
Colour Blind --- on your bike !
The Operation Stealth one was bad for everyone, I had a budget release that had the picture printed on regular paper and it was still hard to work out what the colours were!