From : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
To : boutillon@free.fr
Subject: Questions sought for Roland Gustafsson interview
Date : Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:36:49
Salut!
Pardonez-moi pour ecrit en anglais, mais mon francais est tres mal!
J'espere ca tu comprend.
I saw a reference to Roland Gustafsson on your website and assume that
you have knowledge of some of his protection schemes that he developed for
SSI, Broderbund etc (18 sector, spiral tracking)
I am about to interview Roland for JUICED.GS magazine about his days
developing protections.
I am wondering if there are any questions that you may have for him? (Est-ce
que tu as des questions pour Roland?)
Merci,
Andrew
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 22:18:35 +0200
De: boutillon@free.fr
À: Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
Objet: Re: Questions sought for Roland Gustafsson interview
Hi Andrew,
if you think I can help, I'll do it with pleasure.
How do you want to manage this interview?
An answer is often a source for new questions, so an interactive solution is
a good idea.
JM
From : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
To : boutillon@free.fr
Subject: Re: Questions sought for Roland Gustafsson interview
Date : Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:35:53
Salut JM,
In my previous interviews, I provided questions to the interviewee and then
they responded to them in writing.
This gives them an opportunity to think about the answers and hopefully give
more content.
I am expecting to do this again with Roland.
There is an opportunity to ask more questions if necessary.
My reason for contacting you was to see if there was anything that you would
like to have answered by Roland.
Regards,
Andrew
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:47:07 +0200
De: boutillon@free.fr
À: Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
Objet: Re: Questions sought for Roland Gustafsson interview
Hi,
Yes, I've many questions about Roland's past.
I'm going to prepare a first batch of questions and I'll send it to you this
evening.
JM
De: boutillon@free.fr
À: Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
I'm not fluent (at all!) in English, so please, thank you to rectify my
sentences. (and it's 1 o'clock AM right now...)
JM
From : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
To : boutillon@free.fr
Subject: Re: Questions for Roland Gustafsson (batch #1]
Date : Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:20:03
Salut JM,
This is great material.
Merci beaucoup!
Andrew
<missing>
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:28:44 +0200
De: boutillon@free.fr
À: Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
Objet: Re: Questions for Roland Gustafsson (batch #1]
> Did you want to provide more: batch#2 etc?
Hi,
I've to collect informations first (softalk, old nibble mags, ...)
I've to check other softwares too (to see if there are other msgs from
pirates).
I know he did the protection of the famous game Prince of Persia.
I'll try to provide snapshots of cracked softwares (I don't know if you want
to add illustrations in Juiced.GS).
And I'll have other questions if you forward me his answers.
Take care,
JM
From : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
To : boutillon@free.fr
Salut JM,
I have edited your questions as attached.
I hope that I have captured your intent.
I plan to submit them to Roland tomorrow along with my own questions. I will
let you know his responses as soon as he sends a reply.
Was there a reason that you wanted to ask about Nibble magazine?
I have searched through the index
and I found nothing contributed by Roland.
Regards,
Andrew
ATTACHMENT FILE:
*** THE BEGINNING ***
It was hard to find documentation about disk protection schemes and/or low
level disk drive mechanism. So how did you get this knowledge?
What was your interest in studying such technics?
How do you became a copy-protect specialist?
How did you met the software editors?
Was it a good job (money, interest)?
*** COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE ***
Could you give us a list of all the software you wrote for the Apple II
(+companies names +protection schemes) ? I mean as programmer and as
copy-protect person.
Airheart
Toy Shop
Wings Of Fury
Where in the USA is Carmen San Diego
Where in the World is Carmen San Diego
The Printshop Companion (main programmer)
The Printshop Companion GS (main programmer)
...
Companies:
Br0derbund (1981 to end of 1985?)
SSI ( ? to ?)
Infocom? (Are you the author of the Trinity's protection scheme? How many
sectors/track on side 2??? I don't remember to have seen a functionnal
cracked version of this textual adventure game on a true Apple II!)
Others?
*** TECHNICS ***
As far as I know, you?re the inventor of the following technics (can you
please confirm, develop and tell their history):
- RDOS
Did you wrote it specially for SSI and their RPG games?
Do you know why this company used the "QWERTY file" protection for years? It
was so easy to remove it!
Crackers even wrote programs to remove it automatically from all SSI games.
- SPIRALING ("Checkerboard" / Mosaic spiral ??)
According to Steven Levy, author of the book HACKERS, Heroes of the Computer
Revolution, "Mark Duchaineau was a hacker who came up with a prevention
scheme called Spiradisk for the Apple computer. This scheme actually made
the software loading process faster by loading data in spirals instead of in
concentric circles".
Could you explain us what?s the difference between Spiradisk used for Sierra
On Line products and your own technic.
Was it always stable in every disk drive ?
- 18 SECTORS/TRACK
First software with this technic?
- OTHERS
Track number which doesn't exist at all on the disk (Airheart missing T
$1C?).
Bad track number (number x on track x+1 or duplicated track number?).
Slow drives (to write more datas on each track).
Did you also write protection schemes which were never used? (RWTS with a
.75 step, ...) Can you develop?
etc...
*** COPY-PROTECT DEPARTMENTS ***
How many persons?
Who choosed the protection? Carte blanche ?
Was it always possible to insert the protection code inside the program?
Did you always have the source code of the game?
Which technics did you use to hide the protection (pseudo code, tricks with
auto-change dynamic code, ...)
Did you play with unusual hardware (Formaster series, ...)?
Did you have to study the protection schemes of others companies (I mean to
boot trace and desassemble them)? Or had you some contacts with other
copy-protect guys working from other companies?
Did you sometimes used a part of code you extracted in another program (from
another author)?
Did sometimes Br0derbund received a cracked version of your last production
from pirates which where having fun and tried to scoff at you?
Did you accept remarks from crackers to enhance your protection?
Was the protection created only at the end of a project?
Once the protection was done, how was duplicated the master disk(s)?
Who did the copies? Br0derbund with a lot of apple II computers or other
professionals : formasters such as Dysan, Formaster Corporation, Alf Copy
Service, Logic General Corporation, ...?
Every protection scheme can be broken (some of them required lots of time).
Is it for this reason you wrote funning messages on the disks such as
"Roland was here, but he left!" (confirm rumor?)
Do you remember you?ve forgotten the source code of a write routine on 1 of
your 18 sectors locked disk ? It was a real *gift* for crackers who used it
to build a copy-program... There were elaborated programs running in France
to copy your 18 sectors software (Gogsmith from The Gog's, Brainsmith from
The Brain Trust capable of analyzing the format and reproduce it, dedicated
copy-program for 1 software, ...)
When did Br0derbund stop to copy-protect their software?
*** PIRACY AND TOOLS ***
How did you react when your softwares were cracked and illegally distributed
(teachers who were using cracked version of Printshop in schools, swapping
in computer clubs, some public domain vendors lists with cracked
commercial games, copies made in Taiwan with special drives, ...)
Did you have a contract for each protection (contract with all in price or a
% for each copy sold)?
Did you help the justice to arrest pirates (BSA, ...)
Do you have stories about that ?
Hardcore Computist was a famous Apple II magazine with articles written by
hackers/crackers (theorically for personnal backup purpose only).
What was your opinion about this mag?
There was an utility tool which was able to copy all floppy disks: the EDD 4
nibble copier with the EDD Plus card (hardware) from Utilico Software. The
EDD Plus card was an auxiliary disk drive controller. This controller was
able to intercept the data stream before it reached the drive controller and
pass the raw bitstream onto the computer (including all the sync
bits/extra zeros bits). Of course, it was necessary to have some knowledge
about the protection scheme used on the disk but this product was terrible.
With a such tool on the market, what was your state of mind?
*** RELATIONSHIP ***
- USA
It is said that the best copy-protect persons are the best crackers too.
Did you play only in one side, or... in both? (If so, what was your
nickname?)
Did you have contacts with pirates? (Meeting where pirates and copy-protect
guys spoke about their own experience?)
- European connection
In Europe, a famous cracker from Switzerland was called MR.Z (Mister Z).
He used to destroy floppy disks protection. One of these disk was the 18
sectors game ?Where in the USA is Carmen San Diego?.
He added a nice musical and graphical introduction (music from Jean-Michel
Jarre +Electric Duet and a smooth scroll with a long text as french guys
usually did).
He explained that when he came to the USA (in 1986?), he tried to meet
somebody of the Br0derbund copy-protect department to talk about protection
scheme but without success.
Following is the text message :
HI TO EVERYBODY, WELCOME TO THE CRACKED VERSION OF
"WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SAN DIEGO?"
BEHIND THIS CRACK LIES A LONG STORY : AT THE BEGINNING
THERE'S MY VACATION IN CALIFORNIA WITH MY OLD FRIEND
MERLIN. WE DIDN'T MISS THE OPPORTUNITY THAT WAS GIVEN
TO US TO VISIT THE MOST FAMOUS SOFTWARE COMPANIES.
SO ON A SUNNY DAY OF AUGUST WE ARRIVED AT SAN RAPHAEL HOME
TOWN OF BR0DERBUND SOFTWARE. AFTER AN INTERESTING TOUR OF
THE COMPANY'S OFFICES I ASKED IF IT COULD BE POSSIBLE FOR
US TO HAVE A TALK WITH THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DISK
PROTECTIONS. THE GIRL WE WERE TALKING TO ANSWERED THAT SHE
HAD TO ASK THE PEOPLE FIRST AND THAT I COULD CALL HER BACK
IN A COUPLE OF DAYS. WHEN I CALLED SHE TOLD ME THAT THE
DISK PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT WAS A MORE SECRET PLACE THAN
SHE FIRST THOUGHT AND THAT IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR US NOT
TO COME BACK. OBVIOUSLY THEY KICKED US OUT THINKING WE
WERE JUST TWO KIDS WHO WANTED TO PLAY
WELL, I MADE THIS CRACK TO SHOW THEM THAT WE COULD REALLY
HAVE HELPED PERFECTING THEIR PROTECTIONS!!!
NOW HERE'S WHAT I WANNA SAY : TO CAROL ANN : THANK YOU,
YOU PROBABLY MADE ALL WHAT WAS POSSIBLE TO lET US ENTER,
TOO BAD IT DIDN'T WORK!!!
TO ROLAND GUSTAFSSON : I'M SORRY BUT ALL WHAT YOU DO IS NOT
A "SECRET" AT LEAST NOT FOR US, YOU HAVE WRITTEN A BUNCH OF
GOOD DISK ROUTINES THAT'S ALL. YOUR PROTECTIONS ARE GREAT
BUT THEY COULD BE PERFECT IF YOU CHANGED A COUPLE OF
THINGS: FIRST OF ALL DON'T LEAVE THE WRITE ROUTINES ON
THE SOFTS, USE GOOD OLD 4&4 TO WRITE <IT TOOK ME LESS THAN
AN HOUR TO HAVE A WORKING COPIER AND TO BUST THE VERIFICATION>
YOU COULD ALSO HAVE PLAYED WITH THE TIMING AT THE BEGINNING
OF EACH TRACK TO HAVE AN UNCOPYABLE FORMAT RATHER THAN AN
UNCOPYABLE VERIFICATION. ONE LAST WORD: IT'S EASY TO WRITE
A SMALL INTERPRETER AND THEN TO USE IT TO CHECK THE R/W
ROUTINES AND WITH THIS SYSTEM YOU CAN FUCK ALMOST EVERYBODY
THINK ABOUT IT!! TO MERLIN: HI SYLVAIN WHAT'S UP? YOU
REALLY ARE COURAGEOUS TO STAY IN THE USA. HOPE YOUR SITUATION
WILL EVOLVE IN A MORE PLEASANT WAY
ANYWAY THOSE WEEKS TOGETHER WERE GREAT!!!!
SOME INFORMATIONS ON THIS CRACK: REORGANIZING A DOUBLE SIDED
DISK WRITTEN IN A 18 SECTORS FORMAT IS NOT VERY EASY, SO
EXCUSE ME FOR THE NUMEROUS DISK FLIPPINGS YOU'LL ENCOUNTER
DURING PLAY. CLASSICAL 16 SECTORS ROUTINES ALSO ARE SLOWER
THAN THE ORIGINAL FAST ONES, BUT ANYWAY, THE GAME SHOULD
WORK FINE, JUST LIKE THE ORIGINAL. WE TESTED IT DURING
MANY HOURS. ENJOY!!! MISTER Z FROM B.P.S.....
(.dsk tested with Applewin 1.12.3)
Years later, he was a member of the FTA team (Free Tools Association) and
wrote demos. Some of them are well-known by the IIGS community :
Xmas-demo, California demo, Delta demo, ...
The FTA gang went to California during summer 1991 et the guys met you.
Did you speak about protection schemes as he wanted to do when he was
younger? ;-)
*** OTHERS ***
Articles in Nibble magazine?
Do you still have floppy disks for Apple II with programs and sources?
Do you accept to put them in the public domain for history?
From : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
To : boutillon@free.fr
Subject: Re: Questions for Roland Gustafsson (batch #1]
Date : Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:43:31
FYI, I need to provide Roland with q's in the next couple of days. His reply
will probably come quickly, but we agreed that he has until 6th May.
The article needs to be complete by the 15th May -which does not leave a lot
of time for further questions.
I will ask him if he is happy to answer more q's privately.
Regards,
Andrew
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 16:16:39 +0200
De: boutillon@free.fr
À: Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
Objet: Re: Questions for Roland Gustafsson (batch #1]
ok, thanks for the planning.
I will not be at home this week-end, so I've no more question for the
moment.
I'll research other informations later. Don't wait after me.
I'm impatient to read his answers.
How many guys are asking q's?
take care,
JM
From : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
To : boutillon@free.fr
Subject: Re: Questions for Roland Gustafsson (batch #1]
Date : Sat, 21 Apr 2007 00:27:51
I have approached 3 others, however they have not provided very much at all.
De : boutillon@free.fr
A : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
Hi Andrew,
> Was there a reason that you wanted to ask about Nibble magazine?
> I have searched through the index
> http://www.nibblemagazine.com/Nibble_Program_Index.xls
> and I found nothing contributed by Roland.
Somebody gave me a false information. Sorry. (I searched without success in
my own version of the nibble dvd too).
"Do you realise that the source code of an 18 sector write routine was left
on one of the original disks?".
=> I don't know if it was a source code or only a binary routine which
was not used by the game but which was very useful for pirates to write a
copy program (write routines are always harder to program).
I haven't found the informations I'm looking for:
I've heard that Steve Wozniak organized a cracking contest in the eithies(?)
Got:
- snapshots of a "Wings Of Fury" version (illegaly cracked & patched for
cheating) by GOG'S. Did Roland know if there were hidden keys in
Br0derbund's games or eastern eggs?
- snapshots of a 18 sectors utility tool where there's a "thanks to Roland"
for the intellectual challenge!!
- an USA crack of Prince Of Persia where it is written that the software was
stolen at the Applefest! Was POP for Apple II a best seller despite of that?
This release requires 2 drives to work properly (18 sectors -> 16 sectors
: the extra datas were loaded from the 2nd disk drive). Does Roland consider
that the Br0derbund's software was damaged by a such "low quality"
crack which introduced new hardware requirements?
JM
JM:
Woz: about piracy
Did Roland share Woz' point of view?
De : boutillon@free.fr
A : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
Hi Andrew,
it wasn't Nibble mag but A+!
Last night, I've discovered 3 articles written by Roland.
I've uploaded them here:
- Was it hard to publish articles into mags (not too many guys doing the
same thing)?
- Did you publish other articles (in other mags)?
- Why articles about IIGS sound?
- You were described as a "renegade hacker". What does it mean exactly?
- "still willing to program in BASIC" -> you were an expert in assembly
programming and nothing is written about that. No other preferred language
(C, pascal, ...)?
I've found 2 hidden messages in Prince Of Persia disk (see attachment
files). Seems to be jokes! Can Roland give us more details about them?
JM
De: boutillon@free.fr
A : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
> PRINT SHOP COMPANION
I'm happy:
I just have found an hidden small game on side 2 of this tool!
Boot it and then press $9E key instead of return or esc keys.
You'll have access to the "Driver" game in text mode.
Snapshots as attachments...
With applewin, while waiting for a key, enter the debugguer and type:
R PC=1215 <return>
and quit the debugguer.
You're in :-)
JM
From : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
To : boutillon@free.fr
<reword of JM's discoveries>
How did you find out about people writing negatively about you?
You wrote three articles for A+ magazine regarding generating sound with the
IIgs Ensoniq sound chip.
- What got you interested in IIGS sound?
- Was it hard to publish articles into magazines?
- Did you publish other articles? in other mags? if so what/when?
- Can you explain why you were introduced to readers by A+ as a "renegade
hacker"? Were those words theirs or yours?
On the Prince of Persia disk there is a message from yourself and Jordan to
Robert - wishing him all the best in his college years. Who is Robert? It
ends with "meres meres meres" what does that mean?
There's also a message saying "For further information on how to copy this
product, call Broderbund's customer service line 1-415-492-3500. We
here at Broderbund thank you for your support."
Was this a 'joke' left for crackers?
From : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
To : boutillon@free.fr
Subject: Roland Gustafsson Interview - Roland's responses
Date : Tue, 8 May 2007 23:33:01
Salut JM,
I have attached the responses that I have from Roland so far. (see further
below)
I am about to ask him the following questions.
The video capture board that you mentioned - was that the AST Visionplus or
Visionary?
If so, do you still have the code you wrote for that?
The software developer for this card went AWOL and there are few owners out
there (including me) that would be interested in code that uses it.
What inspired to you write PS companion?
can you describe how much effort went into supporting different printers?
I can imagine that in those days without common drivers and protocols, that
it would have been a nightmare.
I'd like to avoid covering the same ground as
any previous interviews you may have done. Are there any that I
should try to get my hands on first? or websites (not necessarily Apple II
related)?
I was interviewed by a local paper MANY years ago but that's about it.
Could I start by getting some basic facts from you? I'm
after short answers here to give me some background to work with for
the interview questions.
What is your work situation? e.g. employed full time/part
time/retired/contracting
I'm currently doing volunteer work mainly and taking care of my family.
If you are working for a company, which one?
I'm self-employed, freelancer, always have been.
Could you give me a brief description of your
latest work project and latest hobby project?
My last project was the XBOX (original) version of Myst III Exile back in
2002 and before that the Mac/Windows version of the same program.
Also reprogrammed the original Myst for Mac, the Myst Masterpiece
edition. Before that, Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time. All these
for Presto Studios... fun group of people! They shut their doors
just after Myst III.
What companies did you work for that published Apple II
software and when?
SSI, Broderbund, Gebelli, Silicon Valley Systems, all in the early 80s.
What Apple II utilities/games (not protections) did you work
on?
TurboCharger with SVS (DOS 3.3 speed-up utility, removed format option
in favor of faster load times) Fun tidbit...
Steve Wozniak bought it and sent in his registration card stating that
he though it was very cool. :)
JM (4 oct 2014) :
1981 or so... RDOS wasn't a protection system but a tiny OS that
SSI used for their Apple II games... it had a very small memory
footprint (just under 4k, if my memory serves me correctly) and
was very fast but had a fair number of limitations. I wrote RDOS on
paper, in assembly code, of course, just after graduating from high
school in 1981 while on a family trip in the SouthWest. When I came
home and typed it all in, it worked! I was amazed! :)
In 1984 I helped out a bit with the original Print Shop, consulted
a bit on it.
In 1985 wrote the original Print Shop Companion which patched
the original Print Shop, fixing some minor bugs and adding
functionality.
This was my first commercial product. I wrote the Apple II
version first followed by the C64 and Atari versions...
because of the way I had coded the Apple II version, porting to the C64
and Atari was very easy and quick... finished them in record time.
(This was a precursor to my work in the future on Mac and Windows
programs... abstracting system level coding from application level
coding.) I didn't know any better so that's how it turned out!
Serendipitous! :)
1986 I helped on the GS version of Print Shop, worked on
low-level routines, optimizations, printer drivers and the banner
feature 1988 wrote the Mac version of Tetris for Spectrum Holobyte
1988-1990 Print Shop Companion for the GS - the program nearly did
me in! Designed and coded my own low-level routines due to
poor performance of built-in tools on the GS. Only used the GS's
cursor function, everything else was my own code!! Crazy!
JM (4 oct 2014) :
1991 and on was Mac and then Mac/Windows products
Was anything that you worked on completed but
never published? If so, what was it?
Nope, there were some false starts but nothing that was dumped
after completion.
What protections schemes did you develop (e.g. RDOS, 18
sector, spiral tracking etc)?
Yes, all those... also random sync byte protection system... each disc
produced at Broderbund had a completely different random set of sync
and data bytes... I had a small program that created the sync and
data byte lookup table every time a disk was produced. I wrote the copy
programs that they used to produce the disks as well, they took
about 9 seconds per disk.
The 18 sector routines came out of necessity for fitting the
Bank Street series on one diskette. Not Bank Street Writer but
the programs that came after. I wrote those routines on a plane
while flying to Japan with Broderbund in 1985. The 18 sector
routines worked by using the disk track more efficiently than the
standard Apple DOS 3.3. There were actually 6 larger sectors which
didn't waste any bits. The 18 sector routines also used the
random sync/data byte scheme. Eventually the copy programs figured
out how to find the one splice point on each track but wow, I never
could figure out how they did that! I looked at some of the
parameters in Locksmith, Nibbles Away and some other copy programs and
I could see the ones they added because of my methods. :)
What platforms if any did you develop protections
for other than the Apple II?
None. I got tired of the endless cycle of protection, breaking, etc...
In fact, the first game I worked on did not have protection!
That would be Tetris for the Mac. Print Shop and Print Shop
Companion had very minor copy protection. I really don't like copy
protection!!!!!! :)
Anything that I should ask you about that I
probably don't know to ask? :)
Tidbit... a young guy from Switzerland used to phone me (somehow found
my number) from a phone-booth that he had "hot wired" for free
international calls to tell me how much he enjoyed cracking my copy
protection... he said it was the best! :) Anyway, I didn't mind his calls, I
thought it was fun, eventually got to meet him here in California. He
is now a doctor in Switzerland. (Very smart guy!)
************************
*** In the beginning ***
************************
What was the first computer that you owned? Do you still
own it?
An Apple II with 32k RAM, one disk drive. I used it with a 13" TV
and an RF modulator. Later I upgraded to a monitor with composite
input.
I still own the computer and disk drive. Also still have my
first Apple //e and //GS.
If your first computer was not an Apple, when did you
get an Apple and which one did you start with?
What are you using today?
My main machine right now is the Intel based iMac, the original
20" version. And have many other Macs in use by family members.
What was your favourite Apple II game and why?
I seem to remember Lode Runner being one of my favorites. I
wasn't much of a gamer, even now. :) Although when I worked on
Tetris for the Mac I was hopelessly addicted. Probably
wasted 3/4 of the time playing the game vs coding!
Was it hard to find documentation about disk protection
schemes and the low level disk drive mechanism?
I was never aware of any documentation until the later years
when books such as "Beneath Apple DOS" explained some of it.
How did you get this knowledge?
Initially by disassembling the Apple disk I/O routines and trying
to figure out what they did. Also, quite significantly, I met
Steve Wozniak after a San Francisco Apple Core Users
Group meeting in a deli and he happened to be standing next to me
in line waiting to order a sandwich, I picked his brain on
how the disk mechanism worked. The brief 5 minutes of questioning
there was enough for me to go and get started!
What was your interest in studying such techniques?
Curiosity, it was a fun challenge.
How did you become a copy-protection specialist?
Not sure! It just happened.
What development tools did you use?
LISA assembler, Merlin, but most of the really hacky stuff was
done by hand or with the mini-assembler built in to the Apple II
integer basic roms.
Can you explain how you came to work for the software
publishers that you worked with?
SSI: I worked on Saturdays at a Computerland store in
Belmont, California. A friend of mine who was a regular customer
there asked me if I could figure out how to copy SSI's games
so he could me make backups. I used one of the very basic
backup programs (not a cracking program) that were available
back then (this predates LockSmith, etc...) and it copied no
problem. He was surprised that it was so easy and I said I could
probably figure out a way to make it harder.
We immediately phoned up SSI on the store phone and he talked to
Joel Billings (the founder of SSI) because they were friends and I
spoke with him and set up a meeting. One Sunday afternoon my
parents drove me down to SSI (I didn't have my driver's
license yet) and I met with them and came up with a better
system. Later, 1981, I wrote RDOS for them.
Broderbund: I met them in a parking lot. My friend, Jim Yarbrough
and I were attending the monthly Apple Core Users Group and as
customary we parked outside the main parking lot because
it was always full...
but this week when we walked in there it was oddly empty. We
kept walking towards the building when a Volvo station wagon
pulled up next to us and asked if this is where the Apple
Core group meets. Jim recognized them as the Carlston brothers,
Gary was driving, Doug in the passenger seat. Jim had met
them at West Coast Computer Faire (or something similar) Gary said
they were looking for programmers and Jim pointed to me, I said I
was currently working with another company (doing insurance
rating software for agents) but did do copy protection on the
side. I remember distinctly that he turned off the engine at
that point. :) Turns out they were having trouble with their
current copy protection guy who couldn't
get his level-loader system to work. They turned me loose on
it and I had it working in one weekend. From that point on, I was
Broderbund's copy protection person for all Apple II
products... until they stopped producing Apple II products.
Gebelli: Met Nasir and his group at one of Broderbund's parties.
Came up with a more generic copy protection system that was shared
by Gebelli and Broderbund. It was first used on ChopLifter.
SVS: They had an office right next to ComputerLand in Belmont
and that's how I met them.
JM (4 oct 2014) :
What were the terms under which you worked for them?
e.g. Did you have a contract for each protection (contract
with a fixed price or a % for each copy sold)?
Some were fixed price, some were % of sales.
Was it a good job (money, interest)? What was
the financial reward for your efforts? How many copies of Print
Shop companion were sold? How much did you make per copy?
Copy protection paid "OK" but after a few years I realized that
for the amount of effort required to do a good job at copy
protection you could put that effort into other products and make
a lot more money.
Print Shop Companion sold, I believe, more than 500,000 copies.
Did your Apple II work give you any
significant financial independence?
- RDOS [I intend to use what you provided in the prep
response to cover some of this]
Did you write it specifically for SSI and their RPG games? Or
did you approach them with it after you had written it?
It was solely for SSI and I wrote it after discussing the idea
with them. It was there idea to have a smaller OS.
Do you know why SSI used the "QWERTY file" protection
for 'years'? [this question, came from a source and I'm not sure
what this method is. If you developed it, please
provide some info about it]
? What is that?? It might be mine but I'm not sure what QWERTY means.
- 18 SECTOR [I intend to use what you provided in the
prep response to cover this]
- SPIRALING (did you have a name for it e.g. "Checkerboard"
/ Mosaic spiral ??)
I called it spiral tracking.
According to Steven Levy, author of the book "HACKERS,
Heroes of the Computer Revolution", "Mark Duchaineau was
a hacker who came up with a prevention scheme called
Spiradisc for the Apple computer. This scheme actually made the
software loading process faster by loading data in
spirals instead of in concentric circles". Could you
explain what is the difference between Spiradisc used for Sierra
On Line products and your own technique [Or just explain
your own technique].
In my experience that wasn't true... or at least with
my implementation of it. It wasted space and was not faster than
my 18 sector routines. The true speed-up came
with sector-latency reading... where the read routines would just
start reading whatever was under the head, I used this with the
18 sector routines so the maximum latency was 1/6 revolution
of the disk.
Was your technique stable on every disk drive? [The
Spiradisc technique is discussed in detail in Computist articles
linked from this page: http://fadden.com/techmisc/computist.htm]
That was an issue that caused me to sour on using
it extensively...
the "RANA" drives didn't like stepping no-standard amounts.
- SYNCH BYTES [I intend to use what you provided in the
prep response to cover this]
- OTHER TECHNIQUES
What was the theory behind using the
following techniques? [This came from a source so I assume
you've used them all, but haven't confirmed it
myself. Ignore any you didn't use.]
*Track number which doesn't exist at all on the disk
(Airheart missing Track $1C?).
I don't remember.....
*Bad track number (number x on track x+1 or duplicated
track number?).
don't remember.........
*Slowing drive speed (to write more data on
each track?).
I never used that technique due to compatibility problems. In fact,
I wrote a speed calibrator that was used at Broderbund to keep the
disk drives tuned up, in spec.
Did you develop protection schemes which were never
used? (e.g. RWTS with a .75 step, ...) Can you explain what they
were?
Yes, I got 3/4 tracking working and even 7/8 tracking but never
used it due to those drives out there that were unreliable with
these techniques.
It appears to me that many protections were focussed on
trying to make copying more difficult but did not try very hard
to make cracking difficult. To what lengths did you go
to try to make your protections difficult to crack? Did you try
to hide the protection? (e.g pseudo code, tricks with
auto-change dynamic code, interpreted code...)
All of the above. Obfuscation, self-modifying code, code on
the stack, code on the text page... all done by hand, essentially.
Did you receive and act on feedback from crackers to
enhance your techniques?
Just the guy in Switzerland... can't remember if his input
affected what I did, at the point he was contacting me I
was getting a bit tired of protection.
Did you study the protection schemes of other companies
(e.g. to boot trace and disassemble them)?
Initially I did to see why I couldn't copy the products. But I
didn't have that much time to spend on that kind of thing.
Did you have any interaction (e.g. to compare methods,
share code, etc) with other people (e.g. Mark Duchaineau from Sierra
On-line) who were developing protections? What can
you tell us about this?
Nope, it seems that copy protection was very secretive back then.
I didn't even know who else did copy protection, I was on my own!
Only later did I talk to others who produced copy protection,
mainly a guy by the name of Arthur Britto. If I'm not mistaken, he
was the one that gave me some ideas regarding how to
better control the stepper motor for the drive head.
Did you ever use ideas/code that you found in another
author's program? If so what?
Yes... the first copy protection I ever encountered was the
tape version of Microsoft's Flight Simulator for the Apple II. I
was intrigued by how the load happened over the
keyboard buffer ($200-2FF) and realized that it was overwriting
the load command with its own commands... I was able to crack
it fairly fast, but it was fascinating to me! The simplified
read/write 4bit nibbles was the first non-Apple 13/16 sector stuff
that I encountered and with the knowledge from talking to Woz, I
figured out how to take advantage of the disk hardware.
Was there really a copy protection "department" at any
of the publishers that you worked for? Or was this just a part
of duplication & distribution?
Nope, it was done by freelancers, as far as I know.
I freelanced for Broderbund. Only in later years did it go "in
house" and by that time I was not interested in it anymore. I
interviewed for EA way back then and decided there is no way I
wanted to do copy protection full time!! I recently interviewed
with EA again but once again determined that I didn't want to
work in a cubicle! :)
How many people were writing copy protections for the
publishers you worked with?
For Apple II, I was the only one. For other platforms, they
had varying methods... that I don't remember.
What was your level of involvement with whether or not a
package was protected and how heavily? ie were titles that were
expected to sell well given more protection than others?
I was indirectly involved in that process, the issue was more
like "how well can we protect this product given
its functionality?" A game could be heavily protected because
that was the end. Whereas with personal productivity software it
had to play nice with other software to some degree. I
therefore downplayed the need for pervasive protection on
those types of products.
Can you explain the process that was used by Broderbund
to apply copy protection to a product? e.g. Who was responsible
for determining what protection was used on each program?
I was responsible for that.
Did you apply the protection to the products yourself or
was that done by someone else?
The gamut... some I did completely on my own given a binary from
the programmer. Others I worked closely with the programmer, such
as Prince of Persia with my friend Jordan Mechner. We worked
in the same office for a while so were able to collaborate on that
type of thing. (We were freelancers but Broderbund gave us a
place to work if we wanted to be a regular office.)
Was it always possible to insert the protection code
inside the program?
No, and that made it easier to crack those programs.
Did you/they always have the source code of the game to
be able to do this?
Never did I have the source code to work with! It was always
the binary. Those times that there were source
level protections involved, they were implemented by the
game programmer.
Was the protection created/applied only at the end of a
project?
To start with it was always at the end, almost an afterthought.
It gradually became something that we implemented with the
game's development, especially in those cases
where level-loading was part of the picture. (Such as Prince of
Persia)
Once the protection was done, how were the
master disk(s) duplicated to create original disks for sale?
For many years Broderbund produced the disks in-house using
custom copy programs that I wrote. I worked closely with the
production department to assess what they needed. There were
a couple of different processes used depending on the type
of product. The single-load game such as Chop Lifter were produced
with a system that created two disks simultaneously in less than
5 seconds. They were then boot tested on another machine.
Other systems that used the entire disk would copy and verify
in about 18 seconds. Eventually this whole process was moved to
duplication houses and I had to work with them to implement
some of my more interesting systems, such as the 18 sector
routines. These duplication houses could not produce the spiral
system so that's another reason that method didn't go very far.
Did Broderbund create the original disks or was this
outsourced to other professional duplication companies?
(e.g. Dysan, Formaster Corporation, Alf Copy Service, Logic
General Corporation) If Broderbund did it, how was this done?
[an estimate of number of machines /drives used would
be v.interesting]
See previous paragraph! :)
JM (4 oct 2014) : Alf Copy System
What involvement did you have with determining
how duplication was performed? ie were there techniques that could
not be used because it was not possible to create original disks in a
timely manner?
Can you describe any unusual duplication hardware that you may have played
with (Formaster series, ...)?
When did Br0derbund stop copy-protecting their software? and what led to
this decision?
I don't remember... I believe all their Apple II software had copy
protection.
Do you have a list of all the software you were responsible
for providing the protection schemes for? And what protection was used?
Nope!
> Broderbund
> Captain Goodnight
> Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?
> Where in the USA is Carmen San Diego? (18 sector)
> Airheart (18 sector)
> Prince of Persia (18 sector)
> Toy Shop
> Wings Of Fury (18 sector)
> The Print Shop
> The Print Shop Companion
Yep, I did all those and many more...
Did you also develop protections for the Apple IIgs? If so,
what techniques did you use?
Nope, by that time I was done with it. There was a "dumb" 3.5" floppy drive
that intrigued me because I could have applied my 18-sector technique to it
and possibly stored more data but didn't bother trying because the "smart"
3.5" drive wouldn't have been able to read it. (As far as I could tell.)
What IIgs software was published with your protections?
> The Print Shop GS?
> The Print Shop Companion GS?
Those used some other system provided by the duplicator.
In your opinion, what program did you protect the best and
why?
The generic system that I came up with was pretty good, used for Lode
Runner... and many more. But it was of course cracked fairly quickly as
always happened.
Can you fill in some time frames that you worked with
specific companies?
> SSI (1981 to ?)
They used RDOS for many many years... I don't remember the last use of it.
> Silicon Valley Systems (? to ?)
Just one product, their word processor. I don't remember the dates.
JM (4 oct 2014) :
> Gebelli (? to ?)
I only provided Gebelli with that one generic protection system.
> Br0derbund (1984 to 1990)
There were games released with 18 sector protections by other
companies. e.g.:
> Last Ninja by Activision [I can confirm this one]
> Trinity by Infocom [I haven't confirmed this myself]
> Tangled Tales by Origin Systems [I haven't confirmed this myself]
> Tetris by Spectrum Holobyte [I doubt this is true - my source probably
has this confused with you writing Tetris for the Mac]
Were you working with them or were your protection schemes
licensed to these companies? [or is this the first you've heard of it and
you'll be calling a lawyer immediately ;-) ]
I didn't know that others had developed 18 sector routines. I would be
curious to look at their implementation! :)
I have noticed that your name appears in credits for
non-apple 2 versions of products that were ported from the Apple II even
though your protections were not used on those machines.
It strikes me as kind of unusual to do this when the manual is already
different (albeit subtly) for that machine and therefore your credit could
have been removed. What was the reason for this?
Was 'crediting' a part of your contract conditions?
Yeah, I noticed that some of SSI's games give me credit for RDOS when it is
a PC game. Not sure what's up with that! :) Or are you referring to some
other product??
**************
*** Piracy ***
**************
How did you and the publishers that you worked for react when
your protections were cracked and illegally distributed? Were you ever
surprised at the speed that this occurred?
It was a game. I did my best, yet a dozen crackers out there (perhaps more,
perhaps less) sole goal was to undo my efforts. The odds were stacked
against me! :) I don't remember there being hand-wringing reactions or
anything like that. They really appreciated my efforts and felt that my
protection was excellent. Of the various companies I worked with, only SVS
had hand-wringers from what I remember. :)
Do you have any insight into what was the publishing
companies experience of piracy?
Business Software Alliance (?) and Microsoft claim that every copy made is
a sale lost, do you agree with this calculation?
I'm not really qualified to have an authoritative opinion on something like
that... and I really don't like the "everyone's opinion matters" mentality
that is so prevalent today... but I digress... my gut feeling is that I
would "tend to disagree" because I believe most of those that didn't buy it
wouldn't buy it. :)
At the time did you consider the cycle of protection /
cracking/ new protection /crack /new protection a kind of game?
Absolutely!
How do you feel about it now? [I intend to use what you
provided in the prep response to cover this]
I don't like DRM at all. :)
Were any of the publishers aware of any specific individuals
or group of individuals that were cracking and pirating their products?
Did they infiltrate BBS services to see what was happening?
Not to my knowledge. I did not frequent BBS services. Didn't have time for
it.
Do you know if Br0derbund was sent cracked versions of their
latest releases?
Don't remember. I don't think so.
JM (03 oct 2014) : "The Arcade Machine" contest => they received games
written with a cracked version of their commercial product (still with a
crack info msg).
You mentioned that Broderbund used your code to create the
protected original disks with the synch byte technique. Does this imply
that every end user potentially received a 'unique' disk? If so, was
there ever an attempt to trace cracked copies back to ownership
/registration records to determine who released it?
Yes, every disk was unique... but it is possible that the same set of
nibbles were used. (I'd have to pull out my calculator and do some
statistics on that for odds) We did not keep track of these unique
signatures at all, never even considered it. But hey, that would have been a
good idea for a product that needed to be registered to function!
Were you ever involved with assisting authorities with
prosecuting pirates (BSA, ...)?
If so, do you have any stories about that?
Not at all. Was never asked.
Hardcore Computist was a famous Apple II magazine with
articles written by hackers/crackers (theoretically for personal backup
purposes only). What was your opinion about this magazine?
I've never even heard of it!!! They must have done a good job to keep me out
of the loop.
The EDD 4 nibble copier with the EDD Plus card (hardware)
from Utilico Software was an auxiliary disk drive controller that was able
to intercept the data stream before it reached the drive controller and
pass the raw bitstream onto the computer (including all the sync
bits/extra zeros bits). In theory it was able to copy any floppy disks if
the user had some knowledge about the protection scheme being used on the
disk.
What impact if any did this tool have on you/Broderbund? Did you ever use
one to try and work out how to defeat it?
Nope, didn't try it.
Do you realise that the code of an 18 sector write routine
was left on one of the original disks? It was a real gift for crackers who
used it to build copying programs. There were elaborate programs running
in France to copy software with 18 sectors (e.g. Gogsmith from The Gog's,
Brainsmith from The Brain Trust) that were capable of analysing the format
and reproducing it. They were dedicated copy programs for one product
software.
I never left anything in "by accident". This seems to be a common
misconception! The reason that the write routine was in there was because
the product requirement was that it be allowed to make one backup copy. This
was specified by Broderbund. Yes, it was a gift I made Broderbund aware of
this fact but we decided to include it anyway. :)
It is said that the best copy-protect persons are the best
crackers too. Did you play only in one side, or... in both? (If so, what
was your nickname?)
I only cracked some products in the early days. A friend of mine bought the
games, I cracked them to get a copy for myself and a backup for him. Most of
the time I had no interest in the games that I broke. (I personally called
it breaking the copy protection, not cracking) I never distributed anything,
I never had a handle, etc...
Actually my friends called me "The Wizard" but that was just a general
nickname for my Apple II knowledge. :)
There have been some claims that piracy killed software
development for the Apple II. Does that statement have any truth to it for
you?
I would strongly disagree. The Apple II had its day and then it was over. A
pretty long run for a single platform that wasn't really upgraded much. The
Apple //GS was a Mac wannabe with an underpowered CPU.
************************************************************************
*** The consequences of having your name in the credits : (aka Fame?)***
************************************************************************
Because you were specifically named in the credits, your name
and your techniques are recognised by crackers everywhere. More
significantly your protections are well regarded by crackers as being
particularly interesting to investigate, understand and crack. How do you
feel about this?
Honored! :) The ones that wrote negatively about me, I felt sorry for their
juvenile attitudes and even left some productive messages for them in effect
saying that "they could do something productive with their talent and make
good money!"
- Europe
In Europe, there was a very talented and well known cracker
from Switzerland called MR.Z (Mister Z). One of his accomplishments was to
crack the 18 sectors game "Where in the USA is Carmen San Diego". On his
crack page he explained that when he came to the USA (in 1986?), he tried
to meet somebody from the Br0derbund copy-protection department to talk
about protection schemes but he was unsuccessful. Following is the text of
the message on the crack page:
HI TO EVERYBODY, WELCOME TO THE CRACKED VERSION OF "WHERE IN THE USA IS
CARMEN SAN DIEGO?" BEHIND THIS CRACK LIES A LONG STORY : AT THE BEGINNING
THERE'S MY VACATION IN CALIFORNIA WITH MY OLD FRIEND MERLIN. WE DIDN'T
MISS THE OPPORTUNITY THAT WAS GIVEN TO US TO VISIT THE MOST FAMOUS
SOFTWARE COMPANIES. SO ON A SUNNY DAY OF AUGUST WE ARRIVED AT SAN RAPHAEL
HOME TOWN OF BR0DERBUND SOFTWARE. AFTER AN INTERESTING TOUR OF THE
COMPANY'S OFFICES I ASKED IF IT COULD BE POSSIBLE FOR US TO HAVE A TALK
WITH THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DISK PROTECTIONS. THE GIRL WE WERE
TALKING TO ANSWERED THAT SHE HAD TO ASK THE PEOPLE FIRST AND THAT I COULD
CALL HER BACK IN A COUPLE OF DAYS. WHEN I CALLED SHE TOLD ME THAT THE DISK
PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT WAS A MORE SECRET PLACE THAN SHE FIRST THOUGHT AND
THAT IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR US NOT TO COME BACK. OBVIOUSLY THEY KICKED US
OUT THINKING WE WERE JUST TWO KIDS WHO WANTED TO PLAY. WELL, I MADE THIS
CRACK TO SHOW THEM THAT WE COULD REALLY HAVE HELPED PERFECTING THEIR
PROTECTIONS!!!
NOW HERE'S WHAT I WANNA SAY : TO CAROL ANN : THANK YOU, YOU PROBABLY MADE
ALL WHAT WAS POSSIBLE TO LET US ENTER, TOO BAD IT DIDN'T WORK!!!
TO ROLAND GUSTAFSSON : I'M SORRY BUT ALL WHAT YOU DO IS NOT A "SECRET" AT
LEAST NOT FOR US, YOU HAVE WRITTEN A BUNCH OF GOOD DISK ROUTINES THAT'S
ALL. YOUR PROTECTIONS ARE GREAT BUT THEY COULD BE PERFECT IF YOU CHANGED A
COUPLE OF THINGS: FIRST OF ALL DON'T LEAVE THE WRITE ROUTINES ON THE
SOFTS, USE GOOD OLD 4&4 TO WRITE <IT TOOK ME LESS THAN AN HOUR TO
HAVE A WORKING COPIER AND TO BUST THE VERIFICATION>
YOU COULD ALSO HAVE PLAYED WITH THE TIMING AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH TRACK
TO HAVE AN UNCOPYABLE FORMAT RATHER THAN AN UNCOPYABLE VERIFICATION.
ONE LAST WORD: IT'S EASY TO WRITE A SMALL INTERPRETER AND THEN TO USE IT
TO CHECK THE R/W ROUTINES AND WITH THIS SYSTEM YOU CAN [OUTWIT] ALMOST
EVERYBODY. THINK ABOUT IT!!
SOME INFORMATIONS ON THIS CRACK: REORGANIZING A DOUBLE SIDED DISK WRITTEN
IN A 18 SECTORS FORMAT IS NOT VERY EASY, SO EXCUSE ME FOR THE NUMEROUS
DISK FLIPPINGS YOU'LL ENCOUNTER DURING PLAY. CLASSICAL 16 SECTORS ROUTINES
ALSO ARE SLOWER THAN THE ORIGINAL FAST ONES, BUT ANYWAY, THE GAME SHOULD
WORK FINE, JUST LIKE THE ORIGINAL. WE TESTED IT DURING MANY HOURS.
ENJOY!!! MISTER Z FROM B.P.S.....
[If you would like to see this, I can provide a disk image that can be
loaded into an emulator]
I believe that is my phone-booth friend whom I did indeed meet. Once again,
the mention of the 18 sector write-routines being left "accidentally" are in
error... they are there because they needed to be there and yes, what
a gift! :) The other things mentioned as ideas for future protections had
their problems as well and by that time I was getting tired of the back and
forth.
JM (3 oct 2014) :
Have you seen this before? Do you have any comments? Is this
possibly the person that you met in California some years later?
In the USA, cracking could be argued to be a legitimate
exercise to enable a backup copy to be made. In preparation for this
interview I wrote to Andy McFadden who disassembled RDOS and re-wrote it
to work with standard ProDOS volumes. He pointed out that his work would
be considered illegal today in the USA because of the Digital Millenium
Copyright Act (DMCA). Do you have any comment on this aspect of the DMCA?
[BTW, Andy wonders if you were aware of his work?]
I was aware of his work and did read up on it! I am not surprised that RDOS
was reverse engineered because my goal with RDOS was for it to be as tersely
coded as possible, not obfuscated, which increases code size. I generally
don't like the government telling me what I can and can't do, so I disagree
with the DMCA provision making it illegal to try to undo DRM. That's like
making it illegal to try to pick your own lock... is that illegal? I buy a
lock at the hardware store, bring it home, take it apart and try to figure
out how it works. How is computer code any different?
The development of emulators has led to people creating disk
images of software in order to use them with emulators and then the
gathering of these images into archives. The protected versions of
software are often unable to be preserved in such a way as to be useable
by an emulator. This is particularly the case with spiral tracking which
can not be captured in a standard disk image format. Cracked versions of
the software are therefore more easily converted into a disk image which
means that the disk images that are more likely to exist into the future
are ones that have had your protection removed. How do you feel about your
'work' not being accessible in future in its original form?
Oh well! :) I'm at a point in my life right now where I don't have much room
for misplaced sentiment!
Some day I am going to pull my Apple II down and see if it still works!
A great deal is publicly known about Atari thanks to the
documentary "Once upon Atari". Broderbund was responsible for publishing
many landmark titles for the Apple II and I imagine here must be
fascinating stories to be told about the people that worked there. Do you
have any?
How many people worked at Broderbund in your time? Temp/perm/ contractors
How many of them were in the copy protection / duplication department?
There was no copy protection department. The duplication/production
department however, had many people, I would guess 50+ ??
Can you describe the atmosphere?
Busy!
What was the size of SSI / Gebelli when you were working with
them?
SSI in 1981 was fairly small. Gebelli was very small, it was Nasir and a few
others!
Do you still keep in contact with any of your past
colleagues? Who? What are they doing now? [short response ok. web page
links fine. Possibly wont publish, but interesting to know who you know]
I keep in contact with Jordan Mechner, Robert Cook and Doug Carlston.
You mentioned flying to Japan for Broderbund. What was the
purpose of that trip? Where else did you go & why?
The two trips to Japan were just a perk for working with Broderbund, very
very little business, just a token amount so that Broderbund could write it
off. :)
Every protection scheme can be broken (some of them required
lots of time). Is it for this reason you wrote funny messages on the disks
such as "Roland was here, but he left!"? [I haven't confirmed that this
exact message exists anywhere - although I have vague memories of
something like this]
That was definitely my message. :) Any messages I left were strictly playful
and never mean or angry. :)
Are there any 'Easter eggs' that you left in your Apple II
products or protections? If so, what?
Prince of Persia had some incredible boot-time Easter Eggs... including two
that used the disk drive stepper motor as a speaker!!! You could use a
paddle input device to "rev" the stepper motor like a motorcycle engine and
the other one played a Bach tune... using the stepper motor. Also a
rudimentary "lo-res" version of the Driver game.
Does Pepper the cat have a mention in any Apple II product?
Only //GS, the Print Shop Companion... if you click on the "C" in the title
bar.
JM (4 oct 2014) :
Do you know of any Easter eggs / cheat keys left by others in
any Apple II products?
Can't remember. Actually in Prince of Persia, again, there was a short video
clip of Jordan turning towards the camera and waving. We had a video capture
prototype board at Broderbund that I hacked together some code for to
capture that video. This predates QuickTime, etc...
Do you still have your programs and source code?
Yes... although stuff related to copy protection was hand-assembled mostly,
so there isn't anything to see there.
If so, would you consider releasing this material for others
to study?
I might release the 18 sector source code just for fun.......
In recent times there has been a move towards trust and
openness in the industry instead of wielding a big stick like the old
days. How do you feel about copy protection today? [I intend to use what
you provided in the prep response to cover this] and what made you change
if anything did?
I don't like restrictive copy protection systems.
However, I do not agree that software should be pirated either!
[I was passed this statement from a source. I have no
background on it myself.]
I've heard that Steve Wozniak organised a cracking contest in the
eighties. Do you know anything about this? [I guess I should ask Woz
directly]
JM: I haven't understood who is the precursor for spiraling method:
Mark Duchaineau or Roland?
AR: I think they both came up with it independently of each other.
>Of the various companies I worked
with, only SVS had hand-wringers from what I remember. :)
JM : I don't understand.
AR :
I interpret this to mean: SVS were the only company to be upset / annoyed
/frustrated that their protected software was cracked.
Hand-wringing is something that is done by people who worry or who are
nervous.
SVS was probably a smaller company than the others.
So they had more to loose if their softwares were cracked.
> >Did your Apple II work give you any
significant financial independence?
>Yes, to this day. :)
>I'm currently doing volunteer work mainly and taking care of my
family.
JM :
Not sure to understand. Does it mean Roland won plenty of money with
the Apple II and now he doesn't really need to work to get cash?
Millionaire of the Silicon Valley?
AR : Yes, that's how I interpret it.
>> About RDOS:
> It was solely for SSI and I wrote it after discussing the idea
with them. It was their idea to have a smaller OS.
JM : Is it because most of their rpg/wargames were written in basic
language (the main program which calls asm routines)? Their
Basic pgms require HIMEM to the DOS 3.3 limitations.
AR : I think this will be the case. The basic programs needed more memory.
QUESTIONS JM (unrelated to Roland's responses - batch 1) :
- Printshop Companion pour apple II: if you enter STEVEN and <ESC>
key, the main menu on screen is flipped horizontaly.
Why to do that and who is Steven?
- Did Roland go to the US festivals?
- Did he read the last book from Steve Wozniak (iWoz)?
AR:
This will have a yes/no response and means nothing in itself. What are you
interested in finding out?
JM : Don't know exactly.
Well, just to know if he's a perfect geek as we are ;-)
Beyond the classical view (Woz as an idol, duality/complementary of the 2
steves, woz' memory, mistakes, ...), sometimes, if you ask such questions
you can get an interesting answer because the guy in front of you have
something to say and it doesn't match with your other questions... (trigger
for other informations...)
This is an opened door.
I did interviews with old french crackers few months ago.
And got additional stories like that.
If you get a "yes/no" answer, don't write it on your final version.
iWoz: pages 214 to 217 : Woz gives low level informations about the drive
and the floppy controller.
clock cycle
8 bit shift register
Logic State Sequencer
Prom content
mark bytes
stepper motor
timing track stepping
Link this with the story in the deli.
- Any story from the Apple fests and others computer faires?
- I need to know if he is the author of the Trinity's protection scheme
(game from Infocom). This adventure game had a huge number of text strings
and it wasn't possible to use a 16 sector format (not enough room to store
them on side 2). I've heard Infocom asked Roland to explain how to break the
16 sectors limit. Can he confirm that story? How many "sectors"/track
on side 2?
AR : Why is this important?
JM : because a french pirate (back in the 8ies) wrote this side contents
more datas than the classical 18 sectors games published by Br0derbund.
He said it was a "19 sectors" disk!
But as this program used a z-code interpreter, it is very hard to check if
it is true or not. Too many work to understand what is done and it was only
a txt
adventure game ;-)
The guy also said that Roland sold this scheme to Infocom, so it was not
possible to use it for Br0derbund.
Personnaly, I think it is wrong, but I'd like to have a confirmation.
- at the title screen of the US crack of Prince Of Persia, it is written
that the software was stolen at the Applefest! Was POP for Apple II a best
seller despite of that? This release requires 2 drives to work properly (18
sectors -> 16 sectors : the extra datas were loaded from the 2nd disk
drive). Does Roland consider that the Br0derbund's software was damaged by a
such "low quality" crack which introduced new hardware requirements?
AR 1 (best seller):
I think it would be better to ask "how many copies of POP were sold? Was
this considered a best seller?
Do you have any recollection as to how quickly or otherwise that
this was cracked?
There is a cracked version available that indicates that it was
obtained from an AppleFest - probably quite close to release.
Do you think the availability of a cracked version so early had any
significant impact on sales?
JM 1 : perfect.
AR 2 (2 drives crack):
This does not make sense to me to ask this. Why would Roland care how
badly a software was cracked?
JM 2 :
To speak about the interaction of the 2 ways of distribution.
The cracked software as a demo of the game or a bad advertising.
e.g.: a guy give a cracked version of a game to 1 of his friend.
Because the friend wants to test it before to buy it (you rarely have demos
of apple II games). To buy=to have the doc+garanty if bad disk.
Or because he's a collector, etc...
He plays a few with it.
The game is great but due to a bad crack, there's a problem (crash, requires
more memory than the original or 2 drives, ...)
If he thinks the problem is due to the editor (sometimes commercial programs
are bugged), he'll have a bad opinion and he'll not buy it.
On the other hand, if his plan wasn't to buy the game and if he loves it,
maybe he'll search to win $$$ to buy it.
possible link with:
>> There have been some claims that piracy killed software
development for the Apple II. Does that statement have any truth
to it for you?
> I would strongly disagree. The Apple II had its day and then it
was over. A pretty long run for a single platform that wasn't
really upgraded much.
- Hardc*re Computist/ Computist / Hardc*re Computing
I'm really surprised that he didn't know theses magazines.
There are Computist ads in almost all Apple II mags including the mags where
Br0derbund used to publish ads for their own games.
And Compustist ads were very vivid: skull and crossbones, "we are not
pirates!" and so on...
Does it mean he never read apple II mags???
Very strange...
NEW QUESTIONS (JM)
De: boutillon@free.fr
A : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
about this:
> 1988 wrote the Mac version of Tetris for Spectrum Holobyte
> I got tired of the endless cycle of protection,
> breaking, etc... In fact, the first game I worked on did not
> have protection!
> That would be Tetris for the Mac.
> > > Tetris by Spectrum Holobyte [I doubt this is true - my
source probably has this confused with you writing Tetris for the Mac]
You'll find additionnal files about that if you follow this link:
JM (3 oct 2014) : <removed> They're now included in the current page.
First, I'm the happy owner of the original version of this game for Apple II
and Apple IIGS computers.
On the Apple II doc: there is a "special thanks to Roland Gustafsson".
On the Apple IIGS doc: Roland was a member of the IIGS design crew.
I've taken of a snapshot of my genuine apple II running tetris.
If Roland has nothing to do with the apple II versions, why his name is
displayed in first on the screen?
More funny: in the original package there are a flyer and the registration
card. Both indicate that the game isn't copy protected.
But the game is protected (I've taken a snapshot of an attempt to duplicate
it with Locksmith).
I have docs about the crack done by french teams (ACS/The Gog's and THE
BRAIN TRUST/Loockheed): this game is protected with a 18 sectors scheme.
Well: 18 sectors, thanks to Roland Gustafsson written on the screen...
So what is your conclusion???
I also added snapshots of the crack's title screen. You'll see the following
names: Mister Z and ... Roland.
QUESTIONS JM ==> NOT politically correct!!!!! (Qu'il est taquin le JM...)
De: boutillon@free.fr
A : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
Hi Andrew,
You know... I'm very confused!
I don't know how to ask this.
Yes, I have few questions.
But theses questions are politically incorrect.
I'm very curious and a part of the Roland's answer has a great interest for
me.
It is politically incorrect BUT Roland seems to have a great sens of humor
(when a pirate called him to say he envoyed cracking his protection schemes,
Roland "thought it was fun") and he **really doesn't like the "everyone's
opinion matters" mentality that is so prevalent today**!!!!!
So I've decided to ask theses questions ;-)
I'm talking about this:
> SSI: I worked on Saturdays at a Computerland store in Belmont,
California. A friend of mine who was a regular customer there asked me if I
could figure out how to copy SSI's games so he could me make backups. I used
one of the very basic backup programs (not a cracking program) that were
available back then (this predates LockSmith, etc...) and it copied no
problem. He was surprised that it was so easy and I said I could probably
figure out a way to make it harder. We immediately phoned up SSI on the
store phone
If I understand correctly the situation:
Roland was in the computer store while this story was happening (he said he
IMMEDIATLY phone up ON THE STORE PHONE). This meens he used the copy program
INSIDE the computerland.
Could you please read the following article extracted from an early Softalk
issue (especially the "Piracy in the Retail Ranks" part):
My questions are:
- What was exactly the content of his job in the computerland?
- and ... why he had there a copy program???? :-))))
I'd like to add comments:
In France, it is well known that some crackers were "working" in computer
stores. I mean they were unprotecting commercial softwares in some computer
stores.
A great deal for their boss. It was easier to sell a computer (hardware)
with such kind of "free" software. It was good for business (the computer's
store business of course).
Was it the same thing in the USA?
What does he think of that?
> I only cracked some products in the early days. A friend of mine
> bought the games, I cracked them to get a copy for myself and a backup
> for him.
> I never distributed anything.
Sure!
This isn't the role of the cracker!
It isn't interesting at all to run a copy program.
A swapper is here for that. : -)))
Well... and what did you friend do with his backup copy? : -)))
> A friend of mine bought the games, I cracked them
> to get a copy for myself and a backup for him.
> I worked on Saturdays at a Computerland store in Belmont,
> California. A friend of mine who was a regular customer there asked me
> if I could figure out how to copy...
I really love this kind of coincidence!
But is it a coincidence? : -)))
In France, sometimes the cracker who was working in a computer store had no
friend for that.
He had to ?borrow? it, to crack it and to replace it in the store.
It was less good for business ; -)))
> the first copy protection I ever encountered was the tape
> version of Microsoft's Flight Simulator for the Apple II.
Was it a game bought by your friend in the Computerland store in Belmont? :
-)))
> > Did you study the protection schemes of other companies (e.g.
to boot trace and disassemble them)?
> Initially I did to see why I couldn't copy the products.
Why did you want to copy the products? (instead of buying them?) : -)))
> > How did you become a copy-protection specialist?
> Not sure! It just happened.
> Copy protection paid "OK"
> > Did your Apple II work give you any significant financial
independence?
> Yes, to this day. :)
>I was able to crack it fairly fast
There are others exemples of guys who were pirates and became security
consultants and so on just because they need a job and/or wanted to be more
respectable. This kind of knowledge was reversible (same techniques).
Can we said you became a copy-protection specialist (and became rich)
because you were a better cracker than the others and get a good
opportunity? : -)))
Did the companies you used to work for knew (or had suspicion) you were
first/previously a cracker? Was it a problem for them?
In France, we have a story about a guy who was a cracker and became a
copy-protection specialist.
His pirate's name was: The Softman. (real first name = Emile/mimile).
The first commercial program he protected was of course cracked by his old
pirate friends.
And they added HGR pages on the cracked version they distributed with
"hello" messages to him.
It was funny. [link
with French text but screen snapshots are included]
Is there such stories in USA?
> My friend, Jim Yarbrough and I were attending the monthly Apple Core
Users Group
Why did you go to these meetings?
Did you go to other computer clubs ?
In the October/1980 issue of Softalk, the author wrote about piracy in users
clubs and swapping between members.
Did you (or your friend) [I don?t know but maybe it's a good idea to remove
the family names] do that things in clubs (copies of commercial
softwares)? : -)))
Was your *talent* useful there and did the other guys appreciated "The
Wizard" and your underground activities as a cracker? : -)))
> I used one of the very basic backup programs (not a cracking
> program) that were available back then (this predates LockSmith,
> etc...)
Do you know who wrote Locksmith ?
> I really don't like copy protection!!!!!! :)
> I don't like restrictive copy protection systems.
But it was your main job!
Isn't it a strange contradiction?
How did you live with that (your mind spirit)? (something you hate for
yourself but applied to others for money)
> Any messages I left were strictly
> playful and never mean or angry. :)
> I didn't mind his calls
Is it because you were a cracker before becoming a copy protection
specialist?
(and it wasn't possible for you to hate them because you were one of them).
Did the companies (Br0derbund etc?) knew you used to write such messages?
- You spoke about Flight simulator. Do you remember other softwares you
cracked? (floppy disk or tape?)
- Do you remember other protection scheme used at that time?
- When did you stop exactly to remove copy protection?
- What could happen if a pirate was caught then (1978-82)?
- Who could arrest a pirate (sherif, FBI, ...)?
- Did you fear that?
- How many time did you spend in front of your computer (per day)?
- Did you always have success cracking software? No failure?
- Did you have to write your own tools to do sector editing, raw
track/nibble editing, etc... or did you use existing tools? If so, do you
remember theses tools (name/role)?
QUESTIONS (using answers from batch #1) :
>I looked at some of the parameters in Locksmith,
>Nibbles Away and some other copy programs and I could
>see the ones they added because of my methods. :)
JM:
- Did Roland buy these copiers (and their monthly letters filled of
parameters) to follow the progress of this kind of tools (Back it up,
Essential Data Duplicator, ...)???
>How do you feel about your 'work' not being
accessible in future in its original form?
JM:
comment: it's more funny to say that only cracked versions will be
saved/will survive :-)
Very ironical, isn't it?
We have to crack them if we want to show them to our children!
>some were % of sales
JM:
Can he give us an idea of this %?
> ? What is that?? It might be mine but I'm not sure what QWERTY means.
JM:
About qwerty file in SSI products: The "qwerty
file" reference in the KRAKOWICZ Kracking Korner.
Also in Textfiles.com
(search for "qwerty").
Computist #30 pages 21 to 23.
Secondary protection page 22
snapshots from Questron (RDOS 2.1):
Notes JPL au sujet de la protection SSI et du RDOS :
Il s'agissait d'une protection assez basique et répétitive.
Le fichier QWERTY etait un binaire qui controlait un nibble sur piste (ou
plusieurs je ne sais plus bien) mais par contre ce qui est sur c'est qu'il
suffisait de retirer la commande de l'appel a ce petit binaire QWERTY qui se
logeait en bas de la mémoire ($300 et des brouettes) pour retirer la
protection puis de demuffiniser les SSI en DOS33... tellement hyper
rapide qu'on avait honte !!!
Microtel Issy a eu de grands moments avec ces jeux : A LA PELLE !!!
Certains SSI ont une protection differente, il faudrait que j'y replonge
(pour le site entre autre) mais ce n'etait guere mieux, un nibble count au
pire.
Par contre le RDOS : Tres tres tres bien limite génial, Apple aurait pu s'en
inspirer ...
> the "RANA" drives didn't like stepping
no-standard amounts.
JM:
so customers wanted their money back?
How many requests for money back because of the protection scheme?
(unplayable games because of boot failure etc...)
Was the rana drives a best seller to justify to cancel stepping no-standard
amounts?
>> *Slowing drive speed (to write more data on
each track?).
> > I never used that technique due to compatibility
problems. In fact, I > wrote a speed calibrator that was used at
Broderbund to keep the disk > drives tuned up, in spec.
JM :
What was the speed for this calibrator? Less than 300 rpm?
> Only later did I talk to others who produced copy
protection. Mainly a guy by the name of
Arthur Britto.
JM :
Can Roland give us more informations?
Who is this guy?
He used to work for which companies?
Which protection scheme(s)?
Which software(s)?
Note JM après recherche : Arthur Britto est l'auteur du jeu vidéo
Crypt of Medea sur Apple II (avec Allan Lamb). Il fut publié par Sir-Tech en
1984.
Note de Thierry "THRY2" du 7/10/2014 : C'est aussi l'auteur du célèbre jeu
Rescue Raiders.
Note de Thierry "THRY2" et Arnaud (10/10/2014) : sur la Giant List, Arthur
Britto est aussi crédité pour la version Apple II du wargame Strategic
Conquest (DHGR mono et souris) provenant à l'origine du Mac.
Copies d'écran à partir du dsk envoyé par Arnaud:
Note d'Arnaud
rajoutée le 19/10/2014 : un autre truc fait par Arthur Britto ! C'est
sur Apple IIGS cette fois : un utilitaire bureautique : Visualizer !
Réalisé avec Greg Hale (celui avec qui Britto avait fait Rescue Raiders).
Cet outil permet de créer et d'imprimer des graphs en couleurs sur
ImageWriter II.
La version IIe de Visualizer (d'après la doc) a été programmée par une autre
personne : Lennard Feddersen.
>If I'm not mistaken, he was the one that gave
me some ideas regarding how to better control the stepper motor for
the drive head.
JM : What were these ideas?
> The simplified read/write 4bit nibbles was
the first non-Apple 13/16 sector stuff
that I encountered
JM :
Not sure to understand!
I tought 4-4 data coding/decoding method was implemented by Apple in one of
the first versions of DOS (before DOS 3.2 which used 5-3 nib/denibblizing
and before DOS 3.3 which used 6-2 nib/denib).
I have to check.
But 4-4 format is still used for coding/decoding adresses fields in DOS 3.3.
Notes JM: 4-4 coding/decoding stuff
newsgroup : comp.sys.apple2
De : "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com>
Date : Sun, 22 Apr 2007 14:47:51 -0700
Local : Dim 22 avr 2007 23:47
Objet : Re: DOS 1 & 2
AFAIK, DOS 3.1 was the first publicly available version.
Since Woz wrote RWTS in the process of developing the Disk ][ drive and
controller, it's safe to say that RWTS preceded any DOS version.
The very first RWTS may have been 4+4 coding, but Woz quickly progressed
to 5+3, then later to 6+2. The final iteration was the ProDOS-style
RWTS that decodes nibbles to data on the fly.
-michael
> Never did I have the source code to work with!
JM :
Does it mean that none of the Br0derbund softwares was developped
internally?
Was it always products/games written by freelance authors? No Br0derbund
team working on a specific game? (vs games written by a team: e.g.
Ultima III/IV/V series where the source code was the property of the
company).
>These duplication houses could not produce the
spiral system so that's another reason
that method didn't go very far.
JM : Why they couldn't produce it?
> so I disagree with the DMCA provision making it illegal to try to
undo DRM.
> I don't like DRM at all. :)
JM :
About the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish anti-iTunes triumvirate: "iTunes'
terms and conditions are illegal in all three countries".
What do you think of that? [I choosed these countries because the Gustafsson
name comes from there, isn't it]
> I generally don't like the government telling me what I can and can't
do,
> I'm self-employed, freelancer, always have been.
> I freelanced for Broderbund.
> (We were freelancers but Broderbund gave us a place to work if we
wanted to be a regular office.)
> I didn't want to work in a cubicle!
JM :
About your psychologic profile: 'Free' is a word you seems to like (and
maybe explain why you did such things as the Mackenzie River Trip (building
a raft and floating down the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories of
Canada).
Is there something you'll like to do (your next challenge)? [opened question
? answer what you want]
From : Andrew Roughan <roughana@*****.***.au>
To : boutillon@free.fr
Subject: Re: Roland Gustafsson Interview - Roland's responses
Date : Tue, 29 May 2007 10:29:52
Salut JM,
Sorry, I've been a bit busy for the last couple of weeks. I haven't
forgotten your request. I haven't finished the interview either.
Potentially going to split the interview into two parts and concentrate on
copy protection in one issue and print shop in the next.
Dans cette introduction, je vais parler un peu de la raison qui m'a amené à
faire cette page d'interview.
A la mi avril de cette année 2007, j'ai reçu un message d'un australien qui
m'annonçait qu'il était en train de préparer une interview de R*****
G********* pour une revue bien connue (éditée sur papier)
dédiée à l'Apple IIGS.
Dans son message, il me demandait si je voulais prendre part à cet
échange. L'idée était que je passe par lui pour poser toutes les
questions que je voulais.
Bien entendu, le nom de l'interviewé américain ne m'était pas inconnu suite
aux différentes articles parus sur ce site tournant autour du piratage et
des protections logicielles. Je savais par exemple que R*****
était un plombeur balaise ayant exercé pendant des années son art pour des
éditeurs connus (comme par exemple le faiseur de hits Br0derbund)
et que ses protections avait donné beaucoup de fil à retordre aux pirates.
J'avais aussi entendu dire qu'il avait lui-même un passé de
pirate, ce qui pouvait amener pas mal de questions pertinentes (s'il
confirmait) sur les interactions entre les deux mondes et son point de vue
sur le sujet. Cela m'a donc convaincu qu'il y avait là une bonne
opportunité d'avoir une vision intéressante venant d'un autre
continent à la culture différente.
J'ai donc pris le temps de préparer tout un lot de questions
(politiquement correctes) sur les protections tirées de mon expérience
de l'Underground Apple II français (et suisse) ainsi que des scans que j'ai
mis à disposition de l'intervieweur qui a semblé très content de mon
formulaire en écrivant dans son mail suivant "This is great material".
Toutes mes question étaient neutres. Je n'ai pas abordé en détail
le passé de pirate de R*****. Je me suis contenté de
quelques questions de "base" sur le sujet. Je voulais surtout voir dans
quelle direction allait aller l'interview et ce que je pouvais me permettre
ou pas. Je voulais surtout savoir s'il était possible de continuer
l'interview par d'autres questions (plus salées mais je n'ai rien dit à
ce moment là) que j'étais en train de concocter. L'australien laissa
entendre qu'il allait demander à R***** ("I
will ask him if he is happy to answer more q's privately").
Je lui ai demandé par la même occasion combien de personnes participaient à
l'interview. Sa réponse m'a laissé penser que ma participation n'allait pas
être mineure: "I have approached 3 others, however they have not provided
very much at all".
Ca faisait presque penser à un mec aux abois qui doit faire une interview
mais s'aperçoit qu'il n'a finalement pas grand chose à demander et essaie de
courir à gauche à droite pour récupérer des questions intéressantes...
Quelque temps plus tard, j'ai reçu les réponses de R*****.
Comme elles étaient ouvertes et franches, j'ai sauté le pas et ai balancé à
l'intervieweur des questions à la pelle cette fois sur le passé pirate de R*****.
Malheureusement, il s'est avéré que mon 1er lot de questions était suffisant
à l'australien pour remplir son quotat de pages et du coup, il n'avait
aucune raison d'aller solliciter R***** avec des
questions plus "génantes".
Ce fut alors la fin de notre correspondance (ma relance sur les questions en
attente resta sans réponse).
Quelque temps plus tard, j'ai reçu le numéro du magazine contenant
l'interview "finale". (Je m'étais abonné que pour cette raison!)
C'est sans surprise que j'ai constaté qu'il n'y avait rien de neuf (j'avais
déjà toutes les réponses puisque la plupart des questions et
orientations du texte sont de moi) à part des coupes au montage.
A noter aussi que je n'ai pas été cité comme source, pratique quelque peu
détestable... (ne serait-ce que pour le temps passé).
J'ai donc décidé de reprendre cette interview "incomplète" à mon compte et
de la présenter comme j'aurai voulu qu'elle soit faite, même si les
questions "underground" n'ont pas eu de réponses.
- Where in the USA is Carmen San Diego? (unverified)
Press [CTRL-V] during game play to see a secret window
- Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?
Press and hold [RESET] during game play to see a message on the bottom of
the text screen
- POP (Source
: The Ramsacker from "Byte Bastards")
While searching through memory in my kracking quest, I came across
some
strange code that turned out to be a check for a series of keys. I
discovered
that if you hold down both Apple keys (or Apple and Option on the //gs) and
press one of the following keys during boot-up, you will get a keen
treat.
Here is a summary of what each secret key does (I won't tell you exactly
what
they do so that it will be as much a pleasant surprise for you as it was for
me).
(Remember to hold down both Apple keys for each key)
DELETE - Press the arrow keys (works only on the //gs)
RETURN - Neat-o
! - Message from authors (press any key after this
one for something else)
@ - Pretty cool
^ - Move your joystick around for this one
Also, use a sector editor to view Track $00, Sector $F for a quaint
message.
Them folks at Broderbund sure know how to please. Get ready for one
kick-ass
game.
Face 2 de Karateka qui affiche le jeu à l'envers:
I asked Jordan Mechner about the "insert the Karateka disk in upside down
and the game plays upside down" trick, and found that Doug Carlston gave the
go ahead even though it caused manufacturing costs to be noticibly higher.
Br0derbund:
Il existait des astuces permettant d'autoriser un nombre infini de copies...
(cf cracking techniques 1986 pour l'exemple de Bank Street Speller)
Softkey for Printshop Companion in Computist #32 page 7
Protection doc (type mot de passe) Where In The USA is Carmen San Diego:
Articles dans Softalk, le magazine "people" de l'Apple II:
Exemples de morceaux de codes ou de sources dans des softs commercialisés.
Infos JPL:
Je me souviens de Lode Runner avec des bouts de source de jeu en asm.
Carmen pareil le source d'un nibble count me semble t-il... rançon de
l'âge la mémoire devient volatile.
Sinon tu as l'éditeur dans Archon 1 qui était resté mais en binaire (ceci
dit complet...)
Tiens au fait j'ai retrouvé une note manu que j'avais fait en regardant des
disquettes CCB soi disant déplombées !
Tu vas rire il y avait une desychronisation derriere les markers de secteur
!!! donc possible que CCB replombait ses "copyA"
Information: according to a french "cracking technique" disk, Tangled Tales
was a 18 sectors disk. In french, but there are technical informations
with 6502 listings:
Info d'Antoine "LoGo" du 5/10/2014 : Le jeu " Leather Goddesses of Phobos "
d'Infocom est en 18 secteurs sur la face 2.
"Programmed by Nasir" Gebelli
In 1981, Gebelli left Sirius to establish his own software company, Gebelli
Software, through which he released Horizon V.
However, his company didn't prove very successful, and video game crash of
1983 sounded the death knell for Gebelli Software.
His company was not one of the stronger players in the industry and the
great video game crash of 1983/84 did not help either.
Développés sur Apple II par Gebelli Software:
Candy Factory by Eric Knopp (1982)
Firebird by Nasir Gebelli (1981)
High Orbit by Alan Merrell (1982)
Horizon V by Nasir Gebelli (1981)
Lazer Silk by Eric Knopp (1982)
Neptune by Nasir Gebelli (1982)
Phaser Fire
Russki Duck by Eric Knopp & Alan Merrell (1982)
Zenith by Nasir Gebelli (1982)
Liste SSI:
50 Mission Crush by John Gray (1984)
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Curse of the Azure Bonds By Keith Brors
(1989)
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Dungeon Master's Assistant Volume I :
Encounters by Paul Murray & Victor Penman & James Ward (1988)
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Dungeon Master's Assistant Volume II (1989)
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of the Lance (1988)
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Pool of Radiance by Keith Brors (1988)
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Pool of Radiance by Keith Brors (1988)
version IIGS
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Champions of Krynn (1990)
B-24 by John R. Gray & Peter Schmitt (1987)
Baltic 1985: Corridor to Berlin by Roger Keating (1984) ?
Baltic 1985 by Phillip Bradley (1987) ?
Battalion Commander by David Hille (????)
Battle Cruiser by Gary Grigsby (1987)
Battle for Normandy by Tactical Design Group (1983)
Battle of Antietam by Check Kroegel & David Landrey (1985/1987)
Battlegroup by Gary Grigsby (????)
Battles of Napoleon by Check Kroegel & David Landrey (1988/1989)
Bomb Alley by Gary Grigsby (1981)
Breakthrough in the Ardennes by Check Kroegel & David Landrey (1983)
Broadsides by Wayne Garris (????)
Broadsides : The Second Edition (????)
Carrier Force by Gary Grigsby (????)
Carriers At War by Roger Keating & Ian Trout (1984)
Cartels & Cutthroats by Dan Bunten & Bill Bunten (1981)
Colonial Conquest by Dan Cermak (1985/1987)
Computer Air Combat by Charles Merrow & Jack T. Avery (1980)
Computer Air Combat : Planes data disk (for v1.1)
Computer Ambush by Ed Williger & Larry Strawser (1985)
Computer Ambush : Improved Edition (????)
Computer Baseball by Charles Merrow & Jack T. Avery (1981)
Computer Baseball : Terms data disks 1980
Computer Baseball : Terms data disks & statistics compiler (1981, 1982,
1983, 1984, 1985)
Computer Baseball : 305 Computer Baseball teams (????)
Computer Baseball : All Star Teams (????)
Computer Bismarck by Joel Billings (=founder of SSI) & John Lyon (1980)
Computer Conflict by Roger Keating (1980)
Computer Napoleonics by John Lyon (1980)
Computer Quarterback by Dan Bunten (1979/1981)
Computer Quarterback : The Second Edition (????)
Computer Quarterback data disks NFL (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985)
Cosmic Balance II : The Strategic Game by Paul Murray (1986)
Cytron Masters by Dan Bunten & Jim Rushing & Bill Bunten & Alan
Watson (1982)
Demon's Winter by Craig Roth & David Stark (1986)
Dragons of Flame (1989) ??????
Eagles by Keith Brors (1983) Robert Raymond?
Epidemic! by Steve Faber (1983)
Field of Fire by Roger Damon (1984)
Fighter Command by Charles Merrow & Jack T. Avery (1983)
First Over Germany by John Gray (1989)
Fortress by Patty Denbrook & Jim Templemen (1983)
Galactic Adventures by Tom Reamy (1983) =sequel to Galactic Gladiators
Galactic Gladiators by Tom Reamy (1982/1984)
Gemstone Healer by Peter Lount, Trouba Gossen & Kevin Pickell (1986)
=Sequel to Gemstone Warrior
Gemstone Warrior by Peter Lount & Trouba Gossen & Kevin Pickell
(1984)
Geopolitique 1990 by Bruce Ketchledge (1983)
Germany 1985 by Roger Keating (1982)
Germany 1985 : The Second Edition (????)
Gettysburg: The Turning Point by Check Kroegel & David Landrey
(1986/1987)
Guadalcanal Campaign by Gary Grigsby (????)
Hillsfar (1989) ??????
Imperium Galactum by Paul Murray (????)
Kampfgruppe by Gary Grigsby (1985)
Kampfgruppe : Scenario Disk #1 (????)
Knights of the Desert by Check Kroegel (1983) Tactical Design Group?
Mech Brigade by Gary Grigsby (1985)
Nam by Roger Damon & Jeff Johnson (????)
Napoleon's Campaigns : 1813 & 1815 by Paul Murray (1981)
North Atlantic '86 by Gary Brigsby (1983)
Norway 1985 by Phillip Bradley (1985/1987) ?
Norway 1985 by Roger Keating (1987) ?
Objective : Kursk by Gary Grigsby (????)
Operation Apocalypse by Roger Keating (1981)
Operation Market-Garden by Check Kroegel & David Landrey (1985)
Overrun! by Gary Grigsby (1989)
Panzer General by Keith Brors & Paul Murray (????)
Panzer Grenadier by Roger Damon (????)
Panzer strikes! by Gary Grigsby
Phantasie by Doug Wood (1985)
Phantasie II by Doug Wood (1986)
Phantasie III: The Wrath of Nikademus by Doug Wood (1987)
President Elect by Nelson G. Hernandez Sr. (1981)
President Elect: 1988 Edition by Nelson G. Hernandez Sr. (1987/1988)
Professional Tour Golf by Henry Richbourg (????)
Professional Tour Golf : Course Module #1 (????)
Pursuit of the Graf Spee by Joel Billings =founder of SSI (1982)
Queen of Hearts by John Lyon (1983)
Questron by Charles Dougherty (1984)
Questron II by John & Charles Dougherty (1988)
Questron II - IIGS specific version (????)
Rails West! by Martin Campion (????)
RDF 1985 by Roger Keating (1982/1983)
Realms of Darkness by Gary Smith & Duong Nghiem (1987)
Rebel Charge at Chickamauga by Keith Brors & David Landrey & Chuck
Kroegel (1985/1987)
Red Lightning (1989) ??????
Reforger'88 by Gary Grigsby (????)
Rings of Zilfin by Ali N. Atabek (1987)
Ringside Seat by Carl Saracini (????)
Roadwar 2000 by Jeff A. Johnson & Robert Calfree (1986)
Roadwar 2000 version IIGS
Roadwar 2000 Europa by Jeff A. Johnson (1987)
Road To Gettysburg (????)
SEUIS - Shoot Em Up in Space - by John Lyon (1982)
Shiloh: Grant's Trial In The West by Check Kroegel & David Landrey &
Brian Hermundstad (1985/1987)
Six-Gun Shootout by Jeff Johnson (1985)
Sons of Liberty by David Landrey & Chuck Kroegel (1988)
Southern Command by Roger Keating (1981)
Star Command (1988)
Stellar Crusade (1988) ???????
Storm Across Europe (1989) ???????
Sword of Aragon (1989) ???????
The Battle Of Shiloh by Tactical Design Group (????)
The Cosmic Balance by Paul Murray (1982)
The Cosmic Balance : Shipyard data disk (????)
The Eternal Dagger by Victor Penman & Paul Murray (1986/1987)
The Shard of Spring by Craig Roth & David Stark (1986/1987)
The Shattered Alliance by John Lyon (????)
The Shattered Alliance : Tool Kit (????)
The Warp Factor by Paul Murray (1982)
The Wizard's Crown by Keith Brors & Paul Murray (1985)
Tigers in the Snow by Check Kroegel & David Landrey & Skip Walker
(1981) Tactical Design Group?
Torpedo Fire by John Lyon (1981)
Typhoon of Steel by Gary Grigsby (1988)
U.S.A.A.F. by Gary Grigsby (????)
War in Russia by Gary Grigsby (????)
War in the south Pacific by Gary Grigsby (1987)
War of The Lance by David Landrey & Chuck Kroegel (1987/1989?)
Warship by Gary Grigsby (1986)
Br0derbund list of softwares
> Yep, I did all those and many more...
If date > 1990, not sure they are still protected...
A.E. by Jun Wada and Makato; arcade (1983?)
Airheart by Dan Gorlin; arcarde (1986?)
Alien Rain by Suzuki; arcade (1981?)
Alien Typhoon
Apple Inviders by David Sullivan (1981?)
Apple Panic by Ben Serki; arcade (1981?)
AppleLink Darts by David H. Schroeder (1990?)
Bannermania; graphics printing utility (1990?)
Bank Street Writer by Kusmiak & the Bank Street College of Education
(1982)
Bank Street Writer - new version (1984/1985)
Bank Street Writer Plus (????)
Bank Street Speller (1984?)
Bank Street Writer Series (other titles: filer? etc...)
Captain Goodnight and the Islands of Fear; arcade (????)
Castle of Dr. Creep by Ed Hobbs (1983?)
Centauri Alliance by Michael Cranford (????) //funny box
Choplifter by Dan Gorlin; arcade (1982?)
David's Midnight Magic by David Snider; arcade. Pinball game (1982?)
Dazzle Draw by David Snider; double hi-res graphics paint program (1984)
Drol by Ngo; arcade (1983?)
Dueling Digits by Edwin Wise (1981)
Fantavision; animation program (1986?)
Galactic Empire (1980?)
Galactic Revolution by Dave Cole and Tony Newman (1980?)
Galactic Trader (1980?)
Galaxy Wars
Galleons of Glory: The Secret Voyage of Magellan (1990) //french programmer:
Serge Hervy
Genetic Drift by Scott Schram (1981?)
Golden Mountain by S. Tomita (1980)
Gumball by Robert Cook; arcade (1983)
Jam Session; GS; music program (1990?)
Karateka by Jordan Mechner; arcade (1984)
Labyrinth by Scott Schram (1982?)
Lawkeeper (????)
Lode Runner by Doug Smith; arcade (1983?)
Lode Runner (other titles: championship, revenge of, expert, ...)
MasterWord by David H. Schroeder (1990?)
On Balance; finance (1986?)
Playroom; educational (1990?)
Puckman by Jun Wada (1981?)
Prince Of Persia by Jordan Mechner (1989?)
Red Alert by Olaf Lubeck (1981)
Seafox by Ed Hobbs (1982?)
Serpentine by David Snider; arcade (1982?)
Science Toolkit: Master Module (????)
Science Toolkit: Modules (Speed And Motion, Earthquake Lab, Body Lab)
ShowOff with the french company Crealude (????)
Sky Blazer by Tony Suzuki (1983?)
Smart Money GS; GS; home finance (1989?)
Snoggle by Wada and Ken Ida; arcade (1981?)
Space Warrior by Marc Goodman (1981)
Space Quarks by Chris Jochumson (????)
Spare Change by Dan Zeller & Mike Zeller (1983?)
Star Blazer by Suzuki; arcade (1982?)
Talon by Eric Robinson and Eric Parker (1983?)
Tank Command
Tawala's Last Redoubt (1981?)
The Arcade Machine by Chris Jochumson & Doug Carlston; arcade (1982?)
The Ancient Art Of War (1984?)
The Ancient Art Of War At Sea (1987?)
The Dark Heart of Uukrul (1989)
The Mask Of The Sun (????)
The New Print Shop; update to graphics printing utility (1990?)
The New Print Shop data disks (????)
The Print Shop; graphics printing utility (1984?)
The Print Shop GS; GS (1988?)
The Treehouse (1992?)
Toy Shop (1986?)
Track Attack (????)
Type! (????)
VCR Companion; graphics utility, processor for VCR taping (1988?)
VCR Companion Film Library Disks (????)
Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego? (1988?)
Where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego? (????)
Where in The USA Is Carmen Sandiego?; educational (1987?)
Where in The World is Carmen Sandiego? by Dane Bigham (1985)
Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? (1990?)
Wings Of Fury by Steve Waldo (1987?)
Brøderbund was purchased by The Learning Company in 1998 (TLC previously
bought by Softkey)
