Disabling protection violation on cassette games in xb

[MrGonker]

I read on here somewhere that someone had this problem on Mazeman and got it disabled in order to save and list the code, but I never did see how they did this. I know the manual says it can't be undone but then I read about a call load statement but I could never get this to work. Does anyone know how to do this with extended basic cart and a tape game that was saved with protected ?

[+Ksarul]

Try CALL INIT :: CALL LOAD(-31931,0)

 

You have to do this once the program is in memory.

[Opry99er]

^^This....^^

 

You can look up MazeMan on the search forum here.. Dont remember if I had to un-protect it or not, but it should be documented in the thread. If I did, I would have used the CALL LOAD Jim mentioned.

[MrGonker]

When I try the call load I get syntax error message shown. Do I have to have memory expansion? If so I don't have one., it's just a bog standard Ti99/4a with extended basic cartridge.

[+Ksarul]

You do need memory expansion for this, as when you type CALL INIT, it loads the Assembly support routines into low memory. CALL LOAD is one of the routines put into that space. Since you don't have the expansion, neither command can execute.

[Opry99er]

There are a few guys here who could do the conversion for you... Anyone with a CF7 and a tape player could unlock it, transfer it and save it in disk format.

 

What game is it? There may be a disk version already available...

[MrGonker]

The game is Shuttle Attak by intrigue. I will eventually get it copied as a wav file and scan the box covers so Ciro can put it up on his site.

[senior_falcon]

Were you able to unprotect the game or get an unprotected copy of it? I believe there are some tricks that would let you unprotect it with a standard console and no memory expansion, but would prefer not to spend the time if you have already done what you wanted.

[+acadiel]

There was a save image program by Maple Leaf Software that I used eons ago to transfer cassette software (in fact, any PROGRAM image, including ToD games) over to disk. It even transferred the protected XB programs. I don't remember what it was called.

 

XB programs, per Ksarul, are easy to unprotect with the CALL INIT, CALL LOAD (-31931,0). However, some sneaky coders actually embedded assembly, or some sneaky protection routine in their code that if you unprotected it and tried to list it, it would hose up VDP RAM and make you have to hard reset. I forget some of the software that did that (wasn't it ToD editor or something else?) See "Disk Fixer - Hidden Powers" by Bill Gronos. He did a great job describing how to do this.