| Posted By
Thomas
on 2003-02-02
|  How to bypass or copy Kingsoft copy protection?
Hi,
meanwhile I've found almost all games I've got on tape or disc on the internet (and many of them here!  ). Only one is missing: "Das Rätsel der 7. Kolonie" (Yeah, right, that's German.  )
It's a Kingsoft game, and obviously copy-protected. I've got the disc version, and I've tried to copy it to the PC (with an XEP1541 cable and a 1541-II). Of course, it doesn't run on the emulators, and it doesn't even run on the real Plussy when copied back to disc.
Sooo does anybody have experiences with bypassing copy protections in general - or even better - the Kingsoft copy protection? Or with cracking games (=removing the copy protection)? I'd really like to keep that game.
Many thanx in advance.
Greetz,
Lord Voldemort
P.S.: Sorry, I didn't know where to post this, I think "General" should be ok...
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2003-02-02
| Copy Protection -->
You have an advantage in that you have an original to work with. It's easier to detect the original protection, and recreate it, than it is to work backward (put the protection on when you don't know where it was to start with) like I am doing with GEOS +4.
There are a few copy protection cracking programs on funet.fi for the Plus/4. Also if you have a good understanding of English (as you seem to do when you write here) you might check out the "Inside Commodore DOS" .pdf that is available on the 'net. It's a huge .pdf but it has program listings for detecting protections on diskette, and how to duplicate them.
If the disk is for 1551 only (see the documentation) then you'll have a slightly harder time recreating it. If the disk works with a 1541 (or 1541-II or 1571) then you can use the .pdf without any further headaches.
The "Inside Commodore DOS" .pdf can be found on sta.c64.org (Star Commander homepage), or I've posted links in this forum before (search for "Inside Commodore DOS" in the searchbox above).
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Posted By
Thomas
on 2003-02-02
| Thank you!
Thank you very much, I'll give it a try.
- My English should be good enough to understand stuff like that (I can understand written English way better than write myself... ).
The original game runs on a 1541. The only other drive I've got is a 1541-II which should be the same (?).
Ok, I'll read that PDF... unfortunately I don't know too much about programming the Plus/4... And I'd of course like to use that disc as seldom as possible to avoid destroying it. Original discs are quite old nowadays...
- Hm. That copy protection should be well-known, by the way! I think many Kingsoft products used it (?).
Well, IF I should manage to copy that game, I'll have something very very rare for the collection on this site. Cross your fingers...
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Posted By
Thomas
on 2003-02-02
| One more question...
You wrote: "There are a few copy protection cracking programs on funet.fi for the Plus/4."
Could you give me a hint where I should look and for what I should look? I wouldn't recognize the program I need even if I found it... 
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2003-02-03
| You're Welcome!
- The 1541 and 1541-II are 99.99999% compatiable. There are only a rare few programs that will not load on the 1541-II, most of those programs were subsequently modified to allow loading from a 1541-II (C64 GEOS 2.0 comes to mind). Commodore had the right to change the ROMs occasionally, and programs that won't work between 1541 and 1541-II are using direct ROM calls rather than the control programs that Commodore offered.
However for your use the 1541-II is the same as a 1541, only prettier.
- The programs are on rulez.org, sorry. Look here and try anything that has 'nibbler', 'copy', 'duplicate', or 'tool' in the filename. I myself have not tried any of these; some may require dual 1541's to work, some may require 1551's.
Another option is to use Star Commander with the 'record error info' option. This will give you the .d64 with error information attached, so that Star Commander can then regenerate the disk with error information. If nothing else it will give you a .d64 that you can scan with an emulator and the programs in the "Inside Commodore DOS" .pdf without excessive use of your original diskette.
- Kingsoft copy protect is not known well here (in the US). Maybe some of the others in this group, from Hungary, Italy, etc. are more familiar with it. Norbert is in Germany also, have you tried to email him about this?
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Posted By
Thomas
on 2003-02-05
| managed to copy it onto another disc
"- The programs are on rulez.org, sorry. Look here and try anything that has 'nibbler', 'copy', 'duplicate', or 'tool' in the filename."
"Nibbler" was a great hint! I found a tool that was able to copy the game onto another disc!
Ok, I still can't transfer it to the PC, but at least I won't loose the game because of the disc ageing.
I don't have much time at the moment, but I think I'll try to hack the game someday. That'll be funny since I've never done anything like that...
- No, I've not emailed Norbert yet. I don't know most of the people here since I haven't the time to visit this board regularly.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2003-02-05
| Great!
Does the new copy have copy protection, or is it freely copyable?
If it has protection, I would suggest making (3) total copies, then put the original disk away for safekeeping. Copy (1) will be the 'control' disk, use this to compare against any changes you make to disk (2). Disk (3) will be a backup in case one of the first two copies fails.
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Posted By
Thomas
on 2003-02-06
| Re: Great!
Hmmm.... I think the copy still is copy-protected, since I can't transfer the copy to the PC either. I've tried all possible options in Star Commander, including the one you mentioned. I think a GCR-coded disk image might help, but unfortunately neither Star Commander nor the emulators support GCR images (yet).
- You're right, I should make something around three backups.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2003-02-07
| GCR Images
GCR is "Group Code Recording", and is what the 1541, 1551, and 1571 use. This is opposed by MFM, the IBM standard. Star Commander has no problem with GCR, and Yape, Minus4, etc all support a GCR-encoded .d64 image.
If you are thinking of .g64 images, those are for C64 emulators that run GEOS. I believe Star Commander handles those also.
Sounds to me like some personal email is in order here. Drop me a line and I'll shoot some other suggestions your way.
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Posted By
Thomas
on 2003-02-07
| Re: GCR Images
Star Commander has no problem with GCR, and Yape, Minus4, etc all support a GCR-encoded .d64 image.
I don't think so. The Star Commander Homepage says:
Major new features, planned for Version 0.83, are the following:
[...]
Support for GCR-coded disk images.
And if I remember correctly, it is not yet possible to create a GCR-image with Star Commander, even with the beta version.
- But if I'm wrong, I'd be glad!
If you'd like to mail me, no problem: click here.
Thank you for your help!
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2003-02-07
| Re: GCR Images
As I understand from Markus Brenner's page (http://markus.brenner.de/), a GCR image is a .g64 image.
My apologies, as I had stated that emulators can support .g64. C64 emulators do for the most part, but Plus/4 emulators do not support .g64.
Check out a program called "mnib" on Markus' site for a nibbler that will create a .d64.
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Posted By
Thomas
on 2003-02-07
| no need to apologize...
I've just tried mnib, but it doesn't work, it can't talk to the 1541-II, I get only error messages. Perhaps because I've configured the 1541-II as device 9 instead of 8, but I don't have the time to try it again as device 8. Maybe tomorrow.
Good night.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2003-02-15
| Voldemort -->
What did you end up using to make the image?
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Posted By
Thomas
on 2003-02-15
| mnib, n2g and VICE
Hi James,
I used mnib to create a NIB file, converted it to G64 with n2g, and loaded the G64 image into VICE. Works perfectly.
I have to try that with other games. Unfortunately, all my other games are at my parents' home. It'll take 4-6 weeks until I can get them.
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Posted By
Gaia
on 2003-09-30
| Re: How to bypass or copy Kingsoft copy protection?
Now this is an old topic, isn't it? I thought I'd resurrect it as I have just added G64 support to Yape. I used the G64 image dumped by Thomas for testing and it works perfectly. Well, I guess it's still not "full" support yet as the G64 image format is extremely flexible so I'll have to think about it some more.
I checked that copy protection in that Kingsoft game (Das Rätsel der 7. Kolonie) and it seemed as if it is using different header ID-s and sector error info around the lower tracks. I still can't seem to understand why The Star Commander failed to create a working D64 out of it
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