Leaderboard for Atari 8-bit

[+wood_jl]

Hey, thanks for showing what the Paperclip one looks like.

 

Not only is it different, IT'S HUGE!! <that's what she said>

 

 

Ok, now everybody can quit playing with their dongles.

[qix_maniac]

Hey, thanks for showing what the Paperclip one looks like.

 

Not only is it different, IT'S HUGE!! <that's what she said>

 

 

Ok, now everybody can quit playing with their dongles.

 

yw. actually the second side of the disk has a green lable that says "ATARI XE"

[+orpheuswaking]

for some reason I only have atari 130XE disks in my Paperclip package.

 

 

[russg]

Heh heh. I'm not sure my dongle, like so many things, still works.

But I did open it up many years ago. Here's some pics.

Paperclip probably been cracked. But I don't think it would be easy to make a fake dongle, it is a printed circuit board and a chip.

[+wood_jl]

Thanks, russg.

 

Indeed, that's a pretty involved dongle. Cracked program likely the answer, then.

 

Wow. Did any other software use dongles? This must have made Paperclip and Leaderboard some expensive programs, eh?

[+orpheuswaking]

CD4031BCN is a 64-Stage Static Shift Register, Whatever that is LOL

[AtariGeezer]

Heh heh. I'm not sure my dongle, like so many things, still works.

But I did open it up many years ago. Here's some pics.

Paperclip probably been cracked. But I don't think it would be easy to make a fake dongle, it is a printed circuit board and a chip.

 

I have one of these too, it was a freebie in an ebay auction. Seller thought it was a port tester?

[russg]

 

I have one of these too, it was a freebie in an ebay auction. Seller thought it was a port tester?

I can't find my original disk and instructions. I used it a lot, wrote a 64 page syllabus with it. I remember using ANALOG spell checker along with it, you made your own dictionary. The disk wasn't copy protected, so you could use a backup copy. Paperclip was much better than Atariwriter Plus.

OH.... update. I do still have the instruction book, along with BGRAPH book.

Edited March 23, 2011 by russg

[Keatah]

Heh heh. I'm not sure my dongle, like so many things, still works.

But I did open it up many years ago. Here's some pics.

Paperclip probably been cracked. But I don't think it would be easy to make a fake dongle, it is a printed circuit board and a chip.

 

Today (and back then) this would cost $5 in parts more or less and there is nothing custom about it. Duplicating the dongle by visual inspection is simple. The 4031 is standard stuff and not a rom or pla. Nothing crypto about it. The only "customization" here would be changing the resistor values or trace configuration, how its wired together - and then matching the program to expect different values. Like a key code.

 

For emulation, sure you could just have the emulator return the expected values to the program. But that sets a precedent and requires more work on the emulator author for minimal niche return. Then requests for other programs flood the guy's inbox. Then if the emulator doesn't support this this and that it gets labeled as sucky.

 

Patching/cracking the program in question is the traditional way to go with something like this.

[Mark Wright]

Ahh, the dongle that nearly got me a beating from a schoolfriend's older brother!

 

I'd managed to lose this tiny device while borrowing the US Gold UK cassette version of Leaderboard from a mate. Obviously the game was useless without the dongle, so when the time came to return the loaned tape... well... Perhaps it was naive of the teenaged me to expect a simple, "sorry, I don't know what happened to it" to suffice. Within hours, a surly thug came knocking, asking for me, threatening violence if the tiny bit of plastic wasn't replaced - and fast. It cost me several weeks pocket money/allowance, but after pleading with my parents I was hurriedly taken into town to buy a replacement copy complete with dongle. As far as I remember, the original lost device never turned up.

 

Worst of all, I had no interest in golf and had only played the game once, but starved of Atari software I readily accepted his offer to loan me the tape. Needless to say, my friendship with one of only a thimbleful of local Atari owners was immediately and irretrievably "consciously uncoupled". So thanks for that Bill Carver, or whoever was responsible. Had it been the chunky matchbox-sized type of screw-in dongle that was becoming common with pro applications, no problem, but something the same size and colour of a liquorice allsort? Not kid friendly!

[gozar]

If you plug a Colecovision controller in, then holding down 0 on the keypad would pass as the dongle.

[El Destructo]

My Paper Clip .ATR reports "COMPU-RICK Cracked For The Lima, Oh. Gang". Paper Clip 130XE .ATR boots up with its original title screen.

 

The 130XE version was very easy to crack. I dimly remember doing it by disassembling the sectors until I found references to the second joystick port address, replaced them with NOPs, and tacking "Cracked by The Code Crusher" or some such nonsense onto the title screen. That particular floppy has been lost to time, apparently.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Afaik,

 

the european versions of Leaderboard were only available with a dongle, whereas the US versions of Leaderboard were available with and without dongle - at least there is a dongle-free combo of Leaderboard and Leaderboard Tournement on one disk (named Leaderboard Dual Pack, Leaderboard on side A, Tournement on side B) available, but that version was only sold in the US. Luckily I have that dongle-free version in my collection (bought/imported it from Bravo Sierra Computers)... http://www.atarimani...-pack_6761.html

[devwebcl]

anybody has the dongle version dumped ?

[Farb]

Yes, it is in the latest Atari Software Preservation torrent:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/234684-atari-8-bit-software-preservation-initiative/?p=3319802

[devwebcl]

Yes, it is in the latest Atari Software Preservation torrent:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/234684-atari-8-bit-software-preservation-initiative/?p=3319802

 

Thanks a lot !

I missed that torrent... I wasn't aware of it.

[Fred_M]

The European versions plus Fighter Pilot with the "Lenslock".

[devwebcl]

The European versions plus Fighter Pilot with the "Lenslock".

 

Cool. Do you have a dump from Fighter Pilot ?

I have found only cracked versions.

[Fred_M]

Sorry, no. At the moment I don't have the necessary equipment to make dumps.

[+orpheuswaking]

The European versions plus Fighter Pilot with the "Lenslock".

 

I've been looking for a LENSLOCK for my Fighter Pilot tape for years, I had the cassette version and it went missing in one of my moves. There was a later version that came out on one of the budget labels that had the Lenslock removed.

[_The Doctor__]

Looking more closely it appears to be prisms in the lens... so get out your cereal box bees eye decoder toy!

 

here is a spectrum emulator lenslock decoder...

 

http://simonowen.com/spectrum/lenskey/

 

similar to what could be done for any emulator really

Edited September 16, 2015 by _The Doctor__

[devwebcl]

I have some done some testing with it:

http://manillismo.blogspot.cl/2014/11/lenslok-atari.html

 

It works for almost every game, but not for Fighter Pilot:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/105083-lenslock/