Mattel007 used our newssubmit to tell us:
Codemasters developed a new copy protection which takes the fun out of a game when the cd is identified as an illegal copy. This method was performed earlier an very old games like "pirates" and was successful for a while. Will this work out the same way?
While it is becoming practically impossible to prevent a PlayStation game CD being physically copied and illegally duplicated, Codemasters has placed a piece of encrypted code within the LMA Manager 2001 game software that can identify if the game is being run from a pirated CD. |
If this encrypted code is triggered it automatically instigates a number of subtle changes that adversely effect gameplay.
Thanks to this self-modifying software, the pirated game looks and plays like the real thing - to start with. However, over period of time, elements of the gameplay start going seriously wrong such as the player's chosen football team's performance becoming worse and worse.
The changes that take place when playing a pirated copy become so serious that it renders the game little more than a demo.
I'm wondering whether the new protection uses another way of verifying the cd's. If not, this will just be a side effect of wrongfully copying a copy-protected cd. The cd won't be completely useless like with other copy protections, but will be playable for a while. If it does use another way of verifying the cd's, modifying the game won't be nessisary because the game already knows it's an illegal copy. So why is this any better then other protections?
Source: Codemasters
