8 replies to this topic

[malers]

Hello,

for some reason I am not able to copy the early Electronic Arts copy protections (double sector 41 and track skewing) with the super archiver. MULE and Archon I fail to load after skew check.

Happy Enhancement is able to copy those, what is quite interresting.

I use super archiver 3.12 (skew) and I tried it with 2 different super archiver 1050.
I also tried it with version 3.02 with skew parameter on.
Is there somebody, who copied EA titles with the super archiver successfully?

Could it be, that i am using a PAL 800XL ? (timing)

Thanks in advance for any hint
Michael

[Larry]

Hi Michael-

SA would not copy some EA stuff.  Did you try the Bit Writer?

Presume that the Happy copy is using the Pre-Defined Backup (PDB) files?

Perhaps someone knows what the PDB files actually did?  IIRC, Richard Adams suggested they were not "patches" as we would generally think of them.  My guess was that they "inserted" code from the drive at run time that caused the type of error or result that the original code was expecting. (?)

-Larry

[Mathy]

Hello Larry

That's what "The Impossible" would do.  I guess what the PDB does, is patch the code in the software so it skips (part of?) the copy protection.  With the emphasis on "I Guess"!

Mathy

Edited by Mathy, Sun Jun 3, 2012 4:12 PM.

[Bryan]

I believe the PDB files directed the software on what to write out to make a functioning copy without the Happy needing to do extensive analysis on the more complicated formats.

[bandit]

EA's protection was a pain back then, 99% was in the loader, so cracking the loader and writing to all those EA titles was faster than try'n to copy.

[kheller2]

I thought the PDB files were used to help the happy emulate the protection... which is why some happy copied disks will only work on a happy drive.  But it was a long time ago...

[ijor]

malers, on Sat Jun 2, 2012 2:20 AM, said:

for some reason I am not able to copy the early Electronic Arts copy protections (double sector 41 and track skewing) with the super archiver. MULE and Archon I fail to load after skew check. Happy Enhancement is able to copy those, what is quite interresting.

Electronic Arts skew align is tough. The protection check is so tight, that it is not uncommon to see original disks to fail the skew algn protection check.

It is not easy, at all, to copy this protection on 1050 enhanced drives that lack index hole detection.

Quote

Could it be, that i am using a PAL 800XL ? (timing)

I don't have much personal experience with the SA. I would expect it to be ready for adjusting to NTSC/PAL variations if neccessary, but it might be.

On the other hand, I seem to recall that EA the protection check (or at least some versions of it) has precisely a bug regarding PAL computers. The code does take in consideration the PAL flag on GTIA (which btw, it means it might break on an NTSC system with a PAL ANTIC), but IIRC, it makes the adjustment wrong. Of course, this should affect all copies (and originals) regardless if they were done with a SA or a Happy drive.

[ijor]

Larry, on Sat Jun 2, 2012 4:39 AM, said:

SA would not copy some EA stuff.  Did you try the Bit Writer?

That would be correct for the later EA protection with too many sectors per track. Michael is talking about the earlier one based on skew align.

Quote

Perhaps someone knows what the PDB files actually did?

There are different types of PDBs, with quite different behaviour.

Some PDBs just help the reading/analysis process, in some cases they don't do much more than make it faster. There is precisely one such PDB for the protection we are talking about here, the EA skew align. The PDB just avoids reading the skew align, which is slow and not that accurate. It "forces" the pre known skew align. Btw, this has the effect (don't know if by design, or not) to "fix" a bad skew algn at the source disk. In other words, it just writes with the correct skew align disregarding the one on the source.

Other PDBs are more complicated. And as you know, some, but not all, require a Happy drive to actually run the copy. In these cases, the PDB writes a small bootstrap loader to the destination copy. The bootstrap is a special code to program the Happy drive at runtime to "emulate" the protection. e.g., sectors with weak bits.

[malers]

Hello,

it is now working.
I got my third 1050 with super archiver.
Using this one with super archiver 3.12(skew) produces working copies of this protection scheme.
Important is using the same 1050 for reading and writing when you use skewing in the super archiver.

My 1050 with super archiver and bit writer supplement is now able to copy everything except spy vs spy 2 uk version and the super archiver disk.
Both use quite advanced protection schemes.

Regards
Michael