Lenslock

[+orpheuswaking]

I'm missing the lenslock for my cassette version of Fighter Pilot, anyone have one spare?

 

(If you are not sure what I'm talking about it was a plastic device that was used to decode a 3 letter code to make the program run, fairly interesting protection)

[jfalcon]

I'm missing the lenslock for my cassette version of Fighter Pilot, anyone have one spare?

 

(If you are not sure what I'm talking about it was a plastic device that was used to decode a 3 letter code to make the program run, fairly interesting protection)

 

They were used on the C-64 version of "Elite"....

[+orpheuswaking]

I'm missing the lenslock for my cassette version of Fighter Pilot, anyone have one spare?

 

(If you are not sure what I'm talking about it was a plastic device that was used to decode a 3 letter code to make the program run, fairly interesting protection)

 

They were used on the C-64 version of "Elite"....

 

As well as some of the Rainbird Adventure games, I just found one Although If someone has a spare I would still like to have another.

 

Thanks

[Urchlay]

Is this something similar to a decoder ring?

[TMR]

Is this something similar to a decoder ring?

 

Sort of, the Lenslok (no "c") is a plastic device that looks a bit like one of those reading magnifiers and is held over the screen; using prisms in the plastic lens, it converts what looks like a block of corrupt graphics into a code that has to be entered correctly to continue. Problem is, it's not particularly efficient and, even with a calibration feature that allows it to be "tuned" to different sizes of screen and so forth, a lot of time was usually spent getting the code horribly wrong and watching the machine reset.

 

The prism arrangement varied between games so the one used for OCP Art Studio on the Spectrum probably won't work with Figher Pilot or indeed anything else. Firebird were one of the users of the system for their full price and Rainbird ranges, there's a piece about Lenslok on the Bird Sanctuary site here that's worth a read.

[+orpheuswaking]

Is this something similar to a decoder ring?

 

Sort of, the Lenslok (no "c") is a plastic device that looks a bit like one of those reading magnifiers and is held over the screen; using prisms in the plastic lens, it converts what looks like a block of corrupt graphics into a code that has to be entered correctly to continue. Problem is, it's not particularly efficient and, even with a calibration feature that allows it to be "tuned" to different sizes of screen and so forth, a lot of time was usually spent getting the code horribly wrong and watching the machine reset.

 

The prism arrangement varied between games so the one used for OCP Art Studio on the Spectrum probably won't work with Figher Pilot or indeed anything else. Firebird were one of the users of the system for their full price and Rainbird ranges, there's a piece about Lenslok on the Bird Sanctuary site here that's worth a read.

 

Ruh roh, guess I'm SOL

[TMR]

Ruh roh, guess I'm SOL

 

Very likely if the Lenslok doesn't come from another copy of Figher Pilot, yeah - might be worth trying a few (transfer it over and ask people to test it) though.

[Urchlay]

Wow... that's horrible. If I bought a game that used this, I'd feel completely justified in getting a cracked copy of it. Treating your customers like crap is no way to run a business...

[TMR]

Wow... that's horrible. If I bought a game that used this, I'd feel completely justified in getting a cracked copy of it. Treating your customers like crap is no way to run a business...

 

i s'pose it's a trade off between upsetting customers and losing sales to piracy to be honest, mistakes were made like the issues with getting Lenslok to work, novella-based word protections that had mistakes in their wordlists or super-protected fastloading schemes that would bottle out and die on tape decks that weren't aligned correctly or, even worse, certain models of hardware (not such an issue for the Atari, that's more a C64 and Spectrum thing). But considering how much was being lost to piracy, anything that slowed down piracy (as opposed to stop, because lets be honest here, nothing can stop piracy) simply made sense to the companies. Yes, it's somewhat like treating us all as criminals-to-be but... well, a lot of us were! =-)

[+orpheuswaking]

I found that there is a software version to use on emulators so that's good

 

I'm just going to go back and make sure Fighter Pilot really needs the Lenslock, after reading about it it seems Fighter Pilot doesn't need it, that it's Tomahawk that does (Another Digital Integration game), I used to have a copy on Tape but I can't find it anymore

[ijor]

i s'pose it's a trade off between upsetting customers and losing sales to piracy to be honest

 

Possibly, but some protections are much more annoying than other ones. And from all I've seen, Lenslok must be one of the worse, if not the very worst one. The only "contender" that comes to mind is the color scheme used in some 16-bit Delphine games, where you must sometimes distinguish between blue, light blue, dark blue, etc. Argh, and they advertized it as a very innovative protection.

 

I'm just going to go back and make sure Fighter Pilot really needs the Lenslock, after reading about it it seems Fighter Pilot doesn't need it

 

It definitely needs it. The original disk version of course, cracks are available that do not.

Edited April 9, 2007 by ijor

[+orpheuswaking]

i s'pose it's a trade off between upsetting customers and losing sales to piracy to be honest

 

Possibly, but some protections are much more annoying than other ones. And from all I've seen, Lenslok must be one of the worse, if not the very worst one. The only "contender" that comes to mind is the color scheme used in some 16-bit Delphine games, where you must sometimes distinguish between blue, light blue, dark blue, etc. Argh, and they advertized it as a very innovative protection.

 

I'm just going to go back and make sure Fighter Pilot really needs the Lenslock, after reading about it it seems Fighter Pilot doesn't need it

 

It definitely needs it. The original disk version of course, cracks are available that do not.

 

 

I have a cassette version, I'll dig it out when i get a few minutes

[marquisor]

any success here?

 

i'm looking for a crack for jewels of darkness. i have the original tapes, but not the lenslock device anymore. :-(

[Fox-1 / mnx]

http://atari.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=4546

[marquisor]

can't get it to run on real 1050... what's wrong? every other game runs so far.

it hangs at: "Welcome to Collossal Adventure, the first of" <snip> that's it. a pixel of starting gfx is sometimes there, sometimes not. and then it hangs. :-(

btw. same problem with "non-cracked"... maybe it's not the lenslock stuff?

[marquisor]

http://atari.fandal....p?files_id=4546

if i want to restore my saved game the lenslok copy protection shows up and i have to enter the right code. so this might not be a cracked version. any other version around?

[+rdemming]

if i want to restore my saved game the lenslok copy protection shows up and i have to enter the right code. so this might not be a cracked version. any other version around?

 

Maybe you can use the LensLok emulator to decode the code. I think it lists only the spectrum games but maybe one of those use the same LensLok as an Atari game.

 

Robert

[+therealbountybob]

Atarionline.pl have a bunch of Colossal Adventures (part of Level 9's Jewels of Darkness Trilogy). Hey it's one that I've got the boxed disk for I have a multiboot disk with an old copy on that runs on a 1050 so let me know if you need it uploading? [No good as it only saves to tape!] Edited November 28, 2012 by therealbountybob

[marquisor]

hi trrb,

 

thx, but i want the graphics version of JOD, cracked! disk saving would be appreciated.

[devwebcl]

I didn't find any game with lenslok protection working.

someone has anyone with that protection active ?

[+orpheuswaking]

Only the original software

[marquisor]

which means?

[+orpheuswaking]

None of the internet archives have a copy with lenslock intact as the majority of them were released later without the protection... no reason to put up lenslok protected versions as they would be unable to be used.

 

the only items I have with lenslock are the original media I have in my collection.

[devwebcl]

the only items I have with lenslock are the original media I have in my collection.

is it possible to dump a copy ?

it would be interesting to see that protection in an emulator

[devwebcl]

Ok. after these years, I gave more time to Lenslok: http://manillismo.blogspot.com/2014/11/lenslok-atari.html

 

Finally, the "emulator" works great for both Atari text adventure versions:

 

Jewels of Darkness and Price of Magik.

 

The version of JoD from Atarimania always gave me "XR" as code when trying to load at the beginning, maybe this is a cracked version with that static code.

That version saves to disk as well.