New ROM Anti-Piracy Software

[wchill]

It's injected several times at certain points. The location of the code will vary from game to game.

 

[gacktgacktgackt]

I love how loads of users in this thread are all "it'll work this way, it'll do this, this is what will happen" when in reality none of you have a single clue about what it will actually be.

I bet my right bollock that the very first game to come out with this "protection" (if it does ever happen, I'm doubtful it will) will be cracked within about 30 minutes, making all subsequent protected releases crackable within the same amount of time.

It's a case of yet again another company thinking they can get one-up on people who pirate material, the recording industry has been failing for years, the movie industry has been failing for years, the games industry has been failing for years and now it's time for yet another company to try and solve the problem, only to fail miserably.

This won't change ANYTHING. There won't be a big massive war, there won't be any huge problem to overcome, this won't be the end of DS piracy, it's a complete non-story.

EDIT : Just noticed this lovely quote from the man :

He claimed that Metaforic's solution is firmware patch resistant. "There is no firmware patch that they can apply that will stop our protection -- I can't tell you why that is, though."

Yeah, you can't tell us why because you've more than likely just lied through your teeth, not because you've made some magical security routine.

 

[Rayder]

I'm wondering if this "new protection" is the reason many of the more decent games are getting pushed back. As if they're banking on the fact that it will actually work to stop (or at least drastically slow down) piracy.

I also wonder if it will prevent cheat codes from working. From what the article says about how the protection works, there's a very good chance it will.

I really hope that good games will start getting released for the DS because of this protection. Of course, the term "good game" is highly subjective. It seems a vast majority of games that people call good are complete crap to me. But you know what I mean.

I hope the hackers don't let us down when this protection starts being used.....if, in fact, any of this protection talk is even real. I don't know about anyone else, but I've gotten way too comfortable with the free-ride on the DS to go back to actually buying games for it. Everyone seems to think the protection will be cracked instantly, but what if it's not? There is the very real possibility that this protection might just destroy our comfortable little piracy party.

Then there's the release list.....will the list suddenly become full of completely unplayable games? Will the method at which games are released to the scene change from the "clean ROMs" to only being cracked ones, complete with useless intros and whatnot? Or will it just become a mess of unplayable games and any cracks will be separate from the releases, ruining the release list as we know it?

Very valid questions, I think.

 

[Domination]

I'm wondering if this "new protection" is the reason many of the more decent games are getting pushed back. As if they're banking on the fact that it will actually work to stop (or at least drastically slow down) piracy.

I also wonder if it will prevent cheat codes from working. From what the article says about how the protection works, there's a very good chance it will.

I really hope that good games will start getting released for the DS because of this protection. Of course, the term "good game" is highly subjective. It seems a vast majority of games that people call good are complete crap to me. But you know what I mean.

I hope the hackers don't let us down when this protection starts being used.....if, in fact, any of this protection talk is even real. I don't know about anyone else, but I've gotten way too comfortable with the free-ride on the DS to go back to actually buying games for it. Everyone seems to think the protection will be cracked instantly, but what if it's not? There is the very real possibility that this protection might just destroy our comfortable little piracy party.

Then there's the release list.....will the list suddenly become full of completely unplayable games? Will the method at which games are released to the scene change from the "clean ROMs" to only being cracked ones, complete with useless intros and whatnot? Or will it just become a mess of unplayable games and any cracks will be separate from the releases, ruining the release list as we know it?

Very valid questions, I think.

We should test the prototype hacks on those n00bs that register just to ask "OMFG... Jesus Christ why doesn't this work on my r4?"

But im sure i will buy games if they are that good and i have spare cash....

 

[GameSoul]

Ever think one of us is working behind the scenes giving info to the enemy?

 

[iPikachu]

I love how loads of users in this thread are all "it'll work this way, it'll do this, this is what will happen" when in reality none of you have a single clue about what it will actually be.

I bet my right bollock that the very first game to come out with this "protection" (if it does ever happen, I'm doubtful it will) will be cracked within about 30 minutes, making all subsequent protected releases crackable within the same amount of time.

It's a case of yet again another company thinking they can get one-up on people who pirate material, the recording industry has been failing for years, the movie industry has been failing for years, the games industry has been failing for years and now it's time for yet another company to try and solve the problem, only to fail miserably.

This won't change ANYTHING. There won't be a big massive war, there won't be any huge problem to overcome, this won't be the end of DS piracy, it's a complete non-story.

EDIT : Just noticed this lovely quote from the man :

He claimed that Metaforic's solution is firmware patch resistant. "There is no firmware patch that they can apply that will stop our protection -- I can't tell you why that is, though."

Yeah, you can't tell us why because you've more than likely just lied through your teeth, not because you've made some magical security routine.

hahaha! well spoken

long live the ARM!

 

[Acenima]

Ever think one of us is working behind the scenes giving info to the enemy?

It's possible... Could be someone we wouldn't expect like bill gates or another world

 

[baronluigi]

One thing. The new says that the anti piracy code would be different in each retail cart.

But, as far i know, all the copies of one game wich are in the net are 1:1 copies of a original SCENE release, is not this right?

So, making a patch for THE SCENE RELEASE would correct the problem no?

 

[Rayder]

Ever think one of us is working behind the scenes giving info to the enemy?

The "enemy" doesn't need anyone feeding them info, they can come to this site and see everything without ever having registered.

Ever notice on the portal how there is almost ALWAYS 2 to 4 times as many "visitors" as there are registered members on the site? I wonder how many of those visitors are what you called the enemy.

Now, this extreme amount of visitors disturbs me on many levels (enemies gleaning info anonymously, server load, every little kid having access to the cheats without registering, etc.) and I suggested to the admin that maybe something ought to be done about it, but they didn't seem to think it's anything to worry about.

 

[Hop2089]

Ever think one of us is working behind the scenes giving info to the enemy?

The "enemy" doesn't need anyone feeding them info, they can come to this site and see everything without ever having registered.

Ever notice on the portal how there is almost ALWAYS 2 to 4 times as many "visitors" as there are registered members on the site? I wonder how many of those visitors are what you called the enemy.

Now, this extreme amount of visitors disturbs me on many levels (enemies gleaning info anonymously, server load, every little kid having access to the cheats without registering, etc.) and I suggested to the admin that maybe something ought to be done about it, but they didn't seem to think it's anything to worry about.

Yeah the portal and everything else should be for registered members. This will keep most of the so called "enemy" users at bay but there is a very small chance some small or big rep from Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft may register and leak everything to their company and make our lives even worse. Only about 1% of visitors on this site are the "enemy".

 

[BAHIM Z 360]

Sigh....................why cant they just leave us alone

 

[Dominator]

Then whats ? the protection will be cracked, the flashcard will be upgraded, like everythings else before.
That doesn't change my life, plus since i have a Macbook and an iPod touch i haven't played a any DS game exept Dragon QUest V

 

[Golin]

Doesn't this mean that only R4 users are affected?
Also, reguarly updated firmware shouldn't be affected too much...
Unless this protection changes for every game...

1. No. It's using the R4 as the gold standard to stop, but it will affect other flash cartridges too.
2. That depends.
3. That sounds like what they're getting at. It changes with every game and at that, it changes with every copy of the same game just enough to "annoy" the hackers.

Sounds like just another push/pull with the big companies and hackers. I'm not too worried.

 

[Another World]

@rayder: the piracy party could come to an end tomorrow and i would still have 3,000+ roms to play, 700+ nes games, gamegear, gameboy, gameboy color, gameboy advance, sega master system, 100+ doom wads, quake 1 and 2, snes, megadrive, wonder swan, tg-16, etc.

with that said, even if this code is injected on a per-cart basis it isn't like most people rip their own retail carts. the scene only needs 1 rom to hack and that 1 rom gets distributed. i honestly wouldn't mind intros again. some were pretty good, with fun retro music. i'm not one of those poeple that flip out when i have to hold an extra button each time. pressing "A" to skip an intro is not a big deal.

the real worry is how this will change the possible dsi scene. but then again loopy has already stated that he found the common key for the dsi security. a bit of injected patch blocking code shouldn't slow us down, not that much.

@dominator: flash linkers MUST patch certain things. be it the save, soft-reset, a dma mode. firmware upgrades can't fix this, the patching is what allows the rom to run on the msd and work properly. you have to keep that in mind.

-another world

 

[A-Z]

all i can say is what is made by man can be broken by man and was the dsi not claimed to be "unhackble"?

 

[Dominator]

@Another World, i know, i was meaning Flahscard Hardward Upgrade

 

[KazoWAR]

If it is a program that is in the rom, then it most likely does a check as soon as the rom boots but before the game begins, this means its running in the ram so an AR code can fix the without a doubt.

 

[adgloride]

This is going back years ago. On the Amiga it was either Batman the movie or Robocop that was released with this protection (Maybe both). It required a dongle to be placed in the joystick port for the game to boot. This was meant to be unhackable. The hackers just changed the code so it skipped the part were it checked for the dongle and loaded the game. The code wasn't just put on to check for the dongle at the start of the game, it did it at random times.

 

[teonintyfive]

Great job. Now I have to shell out 60 euros every time I wanna try out a new DS game. We're not shitting money, Nintendo.

 

[zeromac]

imo opinion this is stupid.. why would they annouce it to everybody? are they that confident?