creator dongle

[buffalouk]

I have several creator dongles, software and manuals if anyone is interested in offering me a reasonable price.

 

buffalouk@hotmail.com

[Noble Kale]

Would you mind giving us a run down as to the purpose of such devices?

[Inky]

The entry for 'Dongle' from the hacker jargon lexicon:

 

dongle /dong'gl/ n.

 

1. A security or copy protection device for commercial microcomputer programs consisting of a serialized EPROM and some drivers in a D-25 connector shell, which must be connected to an I/O port of the computer while the program is run. Programs that use a dongle query the port at startup and at programmed intervals thereafter, and terminate if it does not respond with the dongle's programmed validation code. Thus, users can make as many copies of the program as they want but must pay for each dongle. The idea was clever, but it was initially a failure, as users disliked tying up a serial port this way. Almost all dongles on the market today (1993) will pass data through the port and monitor for magic codes (and combinations of status lines) with minimal if any interference with devices further down the line -- this innovation was necessary to allow daisy-chained dongles for multiple pieces of software. The devices are still not widely used, as the industry has moved away from copy-protection schemes in general. 2. By extension, any physical electronic key or transferable ID required for a program to function. Common variations on this theme have used parallel or even joystick ports. See dongle-disk.

 

[Note: in early 1992, advertising copy from Rainbow Technologies (a manufacturer of dongles) included a claim that the word derived from "Don Gall", allegedly the inventor of the device. The company's receptionist will cheerfully tell you that the story is a myth invented for the ad copy. Nevertheless, I expect it to haunt my life as a lexicographer for at least the next ten years. :-( --ESR]

 

There was at least 1 copy program for the ST that required the use of a dongle to get around copy protection on the floppies.

 

[/i]

[Goochman]

Leader Board required a dongle as well (joystick port dongle that is)

[buffalouk]

Thanks for the quote above which is entirely correct, a dongle is a security device, however the Creator Dongle is that and a bit more.

 

The Creator software is a midi studio, in fact the original creative labs software was wrote for the atari (so I am led to believe) - there was several packages wrote all utilised the midi ports on the Atari ST, the dongle is a secrurity device, without it the program wont run, but it is also an extension of the circitry.

 

The bottom of the range was the Notator Creator software and dongle, the top of the range was Unitor Notator which also expanded your midi capabilities. this software also had a couple of 'sisters' such as the original Cubase.

 

This software was used extensively in music studios during the late 80's and during the 90's; in fact Win95 (and Apple Mac) took over with the newer product of CuBase etc and is still in use in some studio's (mine for instance) and some colleges for training (and history i guess)

 

The rrp on the full Unitor was around £700 in the Uk around 1990

I aint sure what the Creator was rrp'd at tho.

[Pekka Koivunoro]

On 8/22/2002 at 4:13 AM, buffalouk said:

I have several creator dongles, software and manuals if anyone is interested in offering me a reasonable price.

 

buffalouk@hotmail.com

I have the Creator program and the Atari from 1990 and could have use for the dongle because it would ne nice to test the program again.

[pixelmischief]

@Pekka Koivunoro You got bit by a zombie.