Last time I ended the text with “Backup copies are justified and technically needed, period!” I will always stick by this opinion although none of my Nintendo games/consoles has failed so far. But there’s more than Nintendo.
In the worst case DRM can be the cause of failure. I do own an example for this statement: Command&Conquer Red Alert 2 for Windows 98/ME/2000. It came on two CDs, protected with SafeDisc 2.x.
This disc based DRM scheme used something called “weak sectors”. Famous coping software is able to make working copies of SafeDisc 1.x which uses defective/bad sectors. But most writers are not able to reproduce the dreadful garbage used by SafeDisc 2.x and 4.x, so CD-emulation software or even No-CD cracks are necessary to back these games up.
When you try to start with a copy, the SafeDisc executable refuses to decrypt the protected application – and silently exits after the CD-check. No error message. Nothing. Now my discs are old and they are not as shiny as they should be. Some kind of beginning disc-rot or the like can be seen inside. I do not know why. All other software I own is stored in the same place and has no disc rot.
Bad pressing, bad materials, whatever. The discs are not perfect anymore despite good storage conditions. However, all the data is still readable because of the error correction in CDs. That’s the purpose of error correction: counter such flaws as good as possible. Keep the data intact as long as possible.
The game installs fine. But the discs do not contain the weak sectors anymore. They contain bad sectors (big surprise here: weak sectors get unusable first when the disc is aging). Trying to start the game results in a silent exit after the CD-check. Isn’t that lovely? My genuine discs have somehow become illegitimate copies. The tests ran on old computers with Windows 98/XP, so missing compatibility with many disc based DRM-schemes on modern Windows >= 7 is not the issue, and I tried many different drives/computers.
Yes, I did double and triple check this. I’m not making this up and I’m not writing this in a hurry while being angry. The malfunction occurred two years ago. The game does not work because of DRM. Only because of DRM! The add-on disc, Yuri's Revenge, does not have disc rot and is also protected with SafeDisc 2.x. Yuri's Revenge starts on any of my computers. If the SafeDisc protection is removed, the main game also works without any issues in more than 20 hours of playing (and it starts a lot faster without checking the disc for sooo long).
Who thought that such non-standard discs would be a good idea? A foolish modification that intentionally ruins measurements which were designed to ensure data integrity. Let’s hope that these very intelligent people do not also build brakes for cars.
Captain Falcon should someway materialize next to them… then… just press B. (Disclaimer: I do not really promote violence! Just letting off some steam with imagination. Fantasy and reality are not the same.)
Next time I’ll get to more modern problems: My computer, my rules – or… not?
In the worst case DRM can be the cause of failure. I do own an example for this statement: Command&Conquer Red Alert 2 for Windows 98/ME/2000. It came on two CDs, protected with SafeDisc 2.x.
This disc based DRM scheme used something called “weak sectors”. Famous coping software is able to make working copies of SafeDisc 1.x which uses defective/bad sectors. But most writers are not able to reproduce the dreadful garbage used by SafeDisc 2.x and 4.x, so CD-emulation software or even No-CD cracks are necessary to back these games up.
When you try to start with a copy, the SafeDisc executable refuses to decrypt the protected application – and silently exits after the CD-check. No error message. Nothing. Now my discs are old and they are not as shiny as they should be. Some kind of beginning disc-rot or the like can be seen inside. I do not know why. All other software I own is stored in the same place and has no disc rot.
Bad pressing, bad materials, whatever. The discs are not perfect anymore despite good storage conditions. However, all the data is still readable because of the error correction in CDs. That’s the purpose of error correction: counter such flaws as good as possible. Keep the data intact as long as possible.
The game installs fine. But the discs do not contain the weak sectors anymore. They contain bad sectors (big surprise here: weak sectors get unusable first when the disc is aging). Trying to start the game results in a silent exit after the CD-check. Isn’t that lovely? My genuine discs have somehow become illegitimate copies. The tests ran on old computers with Windows 98/XP, so missing compatibility with many disc based DRM-schemes on modern Windows >= 7 is not the issue, and I tried many different drives/computers.
Yes, I did double and triple check this. I’m not making this up and I’m not writing this in a hurry while being angry. The malfunction occurred two years ago. The game does not work because of DRM. Only because of DRM! The add-on disc, Yuri's Revenge, does not have disc rot and is also protected with SafeDisc 2.x. Yuri's Revenge starts on any of my computers. If the SafeDisc protection is removed, the main game also works without any issues in more than 20 hours of playing (and it starts a lot faster without checking the disc for sooo long).
Who thought that such non-standard discs would be a good idea? A foolish modification that intentionally ruins measurements which were designed to ensure data integrity. Let’s hope that these very intelligent people do not also build brakes for cars.
Captain Falcon should someway materialize next to them… then… just press B. (Disclaimer: I do not really promote violence! Just letting off some steam with imagination. Fantasy and reality are not the same.)
Next time I’ll get to more modern problems: My computer, my rules – or… not?
