Thoughts of a Dork Stormy Knight

#101

People who say 'lol' and 'btw' in real life..

If you're actually interested in the subject of DRM or copy protection issues, Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com) currently have a guest blogger talking on the subject past and present in much more detail and knowledge than I ever could, so check it out.
And a belated congratulations to Advance Wars on becoming the latest game somehow linked to a death, I'll likely have more to say on this later

Still rather tired so only did my contracted hours today and am now listening to the free practice for sundays grand prix. Anyhoo I'm a fan of many webcomics , and being a video game enthusiast Penny Arcade is one of them. They're currently doing a mini series on cd copy protection which I've been finding more amusing than perhaps I normally would after blogging on the subject recently. Todays, part 2 of this series, did remind me of something. Something long forgotten, a bastardised idea of early copy protection - that many crackers found easy ways around mind you. And this was the disk wheel (first window http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/ ). Now obviously this is a comic so is prone to comic exaggeration, though trust me the amount of stress and annoyance on the face depicited is pretty dang genuine. I only ever had to deal with this method the one time for Nigel Mansell's World Championship (or well whatever his f1 game was called) on the amiga. The idea was , to verify the games legit it would give you 2 symbols which you'd have to match up on a code wheel, and input the third as the answer. In the case of this game, it was all different driver helmets. The trouble was, especially considering the fact that in these days (damn I feel old) games often retailed in the sub £15 region, so the code wheel was often supremely cheaply and rubbishly manufactured, little more than very thin card. After a few uses, especially by an 11 year old boy, the card was quite bent and certainly approaching sub useless conditions, not to mention the helmets you were supposed to match up were to my recollection black and white and incredibly similar (not that this is a major shock, it is copy protection afterall) which caused great frustration to my limited patience. This almost ruined what was a rather enjoyable game - looking back it wasn't great, certainly Formula 1 Grand Prix 1-4 were streets ahead and I still enjoy the odd blast on the original - but I loved it nonetheless and this annoying contraption, due to the fact this was not among the less than legitimate games I'd inherited from the previous owner, which wouldn't've been there if i'd obtained it through naughty means, almost ruined my enjoyment of something. Still, its a good comic and I'm rambling again.

I'm trying my hand at a review which'll be posted once I've completed the game on a second format, actual effort rather than the usual brain leakage that ends up on here. ttfn