Anytime I mention copy protection or DRM in my videos, it's a given that someone will email me asking what the big deal is.
Or, if they already know what DRM is, they're curious about old-school copy protection methods.
If you fall into either camp, or are simply bored as balls and want something to watch while you're eating lunch, then this is the video for you!
Yes, in this LGR special we're taking a look at DRM and copy protection as it pertains to computer gaming.
And yes, I say computer gaming because I have to limit myself *somewhere*, or else this would go on forever.
I'm not really going to be focusing on copy protection on:
Consoles, arcade machines, applications, video, music, region locking etcetera.
Also, this isn't all-encompassing, I'm not going to be covering every single protection scheme ever,
just the ones that I find most notable or fascinating.
And I know DRM can be a touchy subject for some of you,
so I'm not here to condone or condemn any particular method
I'm just here talk about crap. Now what exactly is copy protection?
Well, nowadays it's usually called DRM or Digital Rights Management.
This is a technological method of controlling access to copyrighted digital material.
A system that's put in place by a company that restricts what you, the end user, can do with digital items you've purchased.
This is something you're forced to live with, unless you forcibly modify your software to remove it.
And these practices are nothing new.
Oh no. You've gotta go back to the mid 1970s to the Altair 8800, the first major personal computer success story.
A small start-up company called Microsoft had developed an operating environment for the system called "Altair BASIC".
This was before the days of common floppy disk usage, or even cassette tape usage.
Nope, you had paper tapes for the Altair, a long strand of paper with a bunch of holes permanently cut into it like a punch card on a spool.
But what happened was that someone with access to both Altair BASIC and a high speed paper punching machine made fifty copies of the program,
and started freely distributing it at the Homebrew Computer Club.
So while Altair was making money on computer hardware, Microsoft wasn't receiving any royalties for the unsold software.
This resulted in the famous open letter to hobbyists,
penned by none other than Bill Gates, in which he said:
Of course, what can anyone do to prevent paper tape being copied?
Well, not really much. Or even cassette tapes, which could pretty easily be copied with any high-quality tape duplicator.
It was not until the widespread use of floppy disks in the late seventies and early eighties that a truly effective copy protection scheme came about:
On-disk copy protection, also known as key disks.
You see, floppy disks work by attaching magnetic values to a spinning piece of metal coated plastic inside of a plastic sleeve with more plastic.
During the manufacturing process, certain techniques can be applied to let the software know if it's an original disc being used,
Things like intentionally bad sectors, odd address marks, different track layouts, file encryption, etc.
On computers like the Apple II and IBM PC, it was largely popular with software like VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3,
though it also made its way onto its fair share of games.
In fact, the very first PC game at retail,
Microsoft Adventure, had on-disk copy protection, so yep,
PC users have been dealing with this crap since the very beginning.
It was possibly even more common to see this kind of protection with games on the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST computers.
This was a huge pain because not only could you not install a game completely to the hard drive if you had one.
But it meant you couldn't make your own Personal backups.
Floppy disks were fragile things,
They easily get bent out of shape they're susceptible to magnetic fields and heat and dirt and they sometimes just go bad if you hurt their feelings or insult their mother whatever,
This meant that copy protected software was actually of less value to consumers,
than non copy protected software, because they'd have to buy the program again if something happened to it.
and this wasn't just some issue they're random hackers got annoyed with in their
basements it was a real problem that was often addressed in contemporary software reviews.
PAUL SCHINDLER: This is the rarest of birds, a game you can load on your hard disk,
because it's *not* copy protected.
LGR: Eventually people had enough, which leads to the next method,
The manual lookup or passphrase also known as:
Off-disk copy protection.
This was probably the most common method of copy protection amongst games of the mid to late 80's and was often touted on the box as a selling point.
Usually this method involve the game telling you to look up something in the manual at some point,
Like Disney's Aladdin here which required you to type in a word from a precise line from a precise paragraph at a precise place in the manual.
Kind of aggravating.
Sometimes it was something relating to a feature of the games,
you can actually can learn something like in LHX, where it asks for military specifications,
Or Tongue of the Fat man where you need to enter information about the fighters
from either the manual or the collectible trading card.
Silpheed used a much easier method, where you simply had to identify the name and shape of a ship,
printed out in the middle of the manual.
So you won't have to look throughout the entire friggin thing for some tiny detail.
Then you has games like Alone in the Dark, which had a tiny book with a crap ton of pages.
You see, these guys didn't want you just copying the copy protection page
they made it so that you had to copy a ton of pages which back then meant a lot of
time and money spent on copy machine usage:
when this wasn't enough another very common method was used
The code wheel: one of the most famous is The Secret of Monkey Island's Dial-A-Pirate
Where you had to identify a pirate by using some random information the game told you
and then spinning the wheel to reveal certain information about them.
Test Drive III was kinda of similar, where you have to match up cars with their keys and other junk.
Of course these wheels could also be copied if you didn't mind separating the wheel into its individual parts,
copying each piece and then cutting your own holes.
Desperate times man.
Another code method was The Code Sheet, and while these were simpler than code wheels they were also printed in such a way that prevented copying by a copy machine.
Games like SimCity and the humans had these red sheets with dark-colored codes,
Which you could pretty much see in the right light, but a copy machine sure could not.
Then you had games like Dragons Lair, which had a code sheet nobody could see.
Not to mention you had to decipher code by deciphering a table to get to the deciphered game entry code which just sucks.
And you had games like Jet Set Willy which didn't use codes at all but colors,
Which would really suck if you're colorblind I suppose.
One method that was kinda cool but kinda not is the puzzle solving method.
Games like King's Quest 6: came with a guidebook to the land of the Green Isles.
This was separate from the game manual and not only contained game lore,
but also contained clues to a puzzle within the game.
Without this book you wouldn't be able to finish the game.
Space Quest 6 had a data corder puzzle in the game, where you needed information from the
included popular Janatronix magazine to solve it.
These so-called feelies were nice and all but like the previous manual and
code methods if you happen to lose these items your game is left unplayable.
Plus it was a pain to have to dig out a manual or code wheel every time you wanted to play the game from your hard drive.
Still all of these methods could be copied if you were ingenius or patient enough,
and dark red code sheets were obsolete once better color copiers and scanners came around.
Which leads us to physical locks: uncopyable tangible items which
shipped with the game the Colonel's bequest was one of these,
Which came with a unique red lens magnifying glass that was used
to search the game map for hidden fingerprints.
Then there was Lenslok, a legendarily hated system used in the UK
predominately for cassette based games.
This was a weird little fold-out thing that had a special lens made up of rows of prisms
when you loaded a game a two-letter code was displayed on screen
but it was split into corrupted vertical bands.
what you had to do was put the lenslok up to the screen and move your head into
just the right position to see the code deciphered through the prisms.
The problem with this was that if you had a TV that was too big or too small,
You couldn't see the code through the lenslok since it only sees one size.
also each game title came with a different set of prisms and sometimes
the wrong lenslok was shipped with the wrong game.
What a pile of dick. and lastly you also had dongles
These have an awesome name but they weren't nearly as common as the other methods.
thankfully but you did see them as early as the Commodore PET
This was a device that plugged into some communications port on the computer and
refused to allow the software to run unless it was detected properly.
Mainly they were used for higher end software but a few games have used them over the years.
A notable one is DJMax Trilogy, which required a special uncopyable USB thumb stick to be plugged in to even open the game.
Once the CD-ROM came around there were large deterrent for copying was inherent in the medium itself.
Most hard drives couldn't hold 600 or more megabytes,
and CD burners were insanely expensive and the media was even more so.
as a result many early CD-ROM games had no copy protection like Paganitzu here.
Other games like 21st century's pinball arcade had a simple CD check when it loaded.
but of course if you burn your own it would still work just fine.
It wasn't long before other methods were used to verify CD-ROM games like Serial numbers and Alphanumeric keys.
These are simple and largely painless you got a unique key code somewhere in the package usually on the back from a manual or a jewel case,
and entered it when installing.
honestly, it doesn't prevent much copying, unless the key is also used to play online or something.
So, of course more protection was deemed necessary,
like dummy files over sized CD's and fake tables of contents.
These were often placed on the root of the CD-ROM where you'd have absurdly large fake files that normal CD burning software couldn't handle.
or fake TOC (Tables of content) which told the computer that the disk was well over one gigabyte or something.
Tough it wasn't long before CD burning software could see right past this,
and manufactures moved on to what is most tought out today as DRM.
Third-party systems like SafeDisc, SecuROM and StarForce.
Systems like this attempt to prevent copying by applying digital signatures
or electronic fingerprints to a disk during mastering,
and assigns a unique number to the disk.
SafeDisc is generally the more basic measure and is not terribly intrusive or tough to bypass,
but then you have freakin' SecuROM.
also known fondly as "Suck you ROM'' this has been found to sometimes conflict
with drive emulation and CD burning software on the same computer,
doesn't always detect the legitimate disc and also has certain optical drive hardware incompatibilities.
but Protection Technologies' StarForce is probably the most infamous.
There were claims that it works just like malware in that it degrades optical drive performance with continued use,
The software and device drivers it underhandedly installs is hard to remove and acts as somewhat of a rootkit,
and causes all manner of system instability.
It was also pretty tough to crack at first,
with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory as one of the most notable at 422 days before the DRM was removed by saltine crackers.
err... software crackers.
There are a few examples of slightly more creative DRM methods,
like FADE and gameplay altering silliness.
FADE is a system used in FPS games like Operation Flashpoint and Arma II,
where the gameplay will gradually get worse and worse if a pirated copy is detected.
Eventually getting to the point where you can't even aim your gun or walk straight.
Settlers 3 is another notable one, where the iron smelters will only produce pigs if you're not playing legit.
Then there's the most famous one recently, Serious Sam 3,
which gives pirates an immortal fast-moving scorpion that follows them endlessly no matter what.
Another very common way of providing DRM service is online distribution
like Steam, Games for Windows Live, Origin and Uplay
These are retail services among other things that are combined with DRM
Games are sold via the client verified via servers,
and the client's usually run in the background during gameplay.
Steam is generally liked,
but others especially Games for Windows Live are generally regarded as sub-par,
due to an awful interface, instability, crappy patching and DLC systems, login issues etc.
Steam is an interesting one in this respect. as many people who are against
DRM will still buy stuff on Steam.
Valve and Gabe being godly among gamers probably has something to do with it
but so do the constant sales, great community features, overall stability,
easy patching and having tons of great games in one place
but all the services steam included have issues.
Steam's offline game mode has to be activated before you go offline,
you can't resell any of your games, you can't download games if the servers ever go down,
and the games often still have third-party DRM slapped on top of the client's DRM
This means that even if you're okay with Steam you may still have to deal with
one of the more common types of DRM in the past several years,
online activation accomplished by serial number.
an account with the publisher, limited installs based on hardware or all of the above
Limited installs seem to be pretty universally hated like the ones used
in the TAGES system this ties your game to your hardware configuration usually your
motherboard or processor once it installs and ties this config to
a company server somewhere.
Bioshock got a lot of flak when it launched
for only allowing 2 installations ever. and if you wanted more installs you had
to call the phone number in the manual that didn't connect to anyone,
since the wrong phone number was printed. Mass Effect required reactivation of your installation via
EA servers every 10 days no matter what. and their game Spore
allowed only 3 activations ever which required a log in to EA's servers each time.
all of this on top of the regular SecuROM shenanigans.
Anno 2070 is a recent example of this stuff going horribly wrong since it only allowed 3 activations.
but it was so picky that even if you changed your freakin graphics card,
it treated your PC like an entire new computer using up one of your 3 installations
and lastly we have what is probably the least liked of
all DRM systems thus far constant internet-connected DRM.
This is DRM that is always online, always connected, always watching, always planning.
you'd better have a reliable broadband connection and an outstanding router,
not to mention hoping that the company's authentication servers are online,
because if anything goes wrong,
then you cannot play your game you paid good money for.
Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II was notorious for this when it first launched,
it wasn't uncommon to find the servers down for several days at a time meaning
no one could log in to play the single player game at all.
and if you lost the connection while you're playing you'd lose the progress of
your game back to the last checkpoint,
and save games were stored on the server. not your PC.
Not only that but sometimes the connection just isn't that great and you end up with lag.
Diablo 3 had this issue even in single player. you have to be connected
to Activision Blizzard at all times not only for authentication and the auction house stuff.
but also to download data since it syncs every action online.
so, you can end up with lag in a single player game.
Yes, this is what you pay for. the next kerfuffle in the making appears to be
SimCity from EA coming in early 2013.
Word is that the game is set to have always online DRM.
which like Diablo 3 is there under the guise of increased multiplayer capabilities.
Of course you got to deal with it even if you just wanna play single player
so screw you for having preferences.
and that's DRM in a nutshell.
Well, a nutshell that lasts almost 18 minutes.
Hopefully that answers the questions that you may have had about copy protection
in DRM both in the past and in the present day.
it's really not hard to see why it's so controversial and so derided by critics,
but when it works without issue it's also easy to ignore and become complacent.
I'd encourage you not to let that happen just be a smart consumer,
and investigate what types have DRM you like or don't like,
and what may already be in your games. Because you never know.
Someday you may have a library full of unplayable bits and bytes.