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    What is your favorite anti-piracy message?

    Chary
    By Krista Noren (Chary)
    Chief Editor
    hqdefault (1).jpg ​

    For as long as video games have existed, so too have pirates. No matter the personal reasoning behind their choices, there's always gamers out there eagerly waiting for the second a game launches, not to buy it, but rather so that the scene teams can get their hands on it and undo the DRM protecting the game's files, or so that it can be played on an emulator.

    Sometimes, these quick DRM-removal uploads miss something, and the game KNOWS that you're playing an illegal copy. Depending on what tricks the developers left in the game, it could mean a secret hidden message that calls you out on your actions, or it's a simple way of messing with the player. One of the most notable "anti-piracy" messages comes from Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green, which famously has a message that triggers when playing a copy on an early version of a GBA emulator, or so the story goes. While talking to the ferryman who checks your ticket to board the S.S. Anne, he'll let you through, but not before giving you a passing message of, "By the way: if you like this game, buy it or die".

    buyordie.png ​

    The legitimacy of the text has been debated for years, and interested dataminers have tried their best to find this mysterious message in the ROM's files. Present in only a single incredibly early ROM dump and nowhere else, the most sensible explanation is that the original hacker who backed up their game left the text in a place where it wouldn't immediately be found, but would be seen by just enough people to make waves across the internet.

    And it did, for years. Both startling and funny, the message's legendary status likely inspired developers to include such references in their data. A legitimate occurrence of a game's developers having their last laugh at pirates can be found in Game Dev Tycoon, a game about making games. As you build upon your career as a video game maker, your company will grow and prosper...at least until you're given a report within the first hour of the game. If you're playing a "cracked" copy--which was uploaded specifically by creators themselves, they left a sneaky surprise. Your studio has tons of fans, and your games are well-liked, but it seems that...gamers keep pirating your games! Game Dev Tycoon goes meta, claiming that if the players don't support the official release and rely on piracy, then the company you've spent a while managing will go bankrupt! Well played.

    game-dev-tycoon-100412669-orig.jpg ​

    Recently, fake anti-piracy messages have been flooding YouTube, attempting to make realistic-looking or creepy-pasta level AP text, proving that players are still amused by hidden messages from developers still to this day. Whether it's Pokemon Black and White trolling the player by not giving you any EXP at all, Earthbound upping the encounter rate to an unbearable degree to punish you, or Mirror's Edge taking away the ability to run, what's your favorite anti-piracy message or effect?
     
    tfocosta, Vorde, Red771 and 26 others like this.

    2. Discussion (159 replies)

  2. Bladexdsl

    Bladexdsl ZOMG my posts...it's over 9000!!!
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    by the way...I hope you saved your game!
     
    Last edited by Bladexdsl, Jan 15, 2021
    phreaksho, peteruk, MeAndHax and 2 others like this.
  3. Scott_pilgrim

    Scott_pilgrim Nyan-binary
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    Probably the just shapes and beats piracy screen(does this count as anti piracy?)
     
    smallissue, yoyoyo69, Codemastershock and 26 others like this.
  4. Deathwing Zero

    Deathwing Zero GBAtemp Regular
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    I'm not sure if this counts, but this: (NOTE: Graphic imagery. If you're easily butthurt, I don't care. Don't blame me if you watch.)



    Croteam is not the first to do something like that, but I think it's utterly hilarious.
     
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  5. Noctosphere

    Noctosphere Adoptive father of Zelda
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    The biggest and most spreaded lie in the world is :
    "I read and agree to the terms of use"
     
    ds34, MxAnthropocene, paltasex and 15 others like this.
  6. Scott_pilgrim

    Scott_pilgrim Nyan-binary
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    Wrong thread my guy
     
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  7. FAST6191

    FAST6191 Techromancer
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    Many space games will have some kind of play on space piracy vs software piracy (first saw one with one of the later entries in the Elite series).

    They usually amuse me.
    Can't find the elite one right now but
    https://tcrf.net/Star_Trek:_The_Kobayashi_Alternative
     
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  8. Noctosphere

    Noctosphere Adoptive father of Zelda
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    well, when you turn on a modern console for the very first time
    You have to agree to stuffs, including not modding it
    And yet, you agree, right? :)
     
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  9. Scott_pilgrim

    Scott_pilgrim Nyan-binary
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    What does that have to do with anti piracy?
     
    Last edited by Scott_pilgrim, Jan 15, 2021
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  10. Noctosphere

    Noctosphere Adoptive father of Zelda
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    lol, you agree not modding your console, to use only legit games, etc etc
    so yea... it has to do with piracy
     
    Scott_pilgrim likes this.
  11. Tom Bombadildo

    Tom Bombadildo Dick, With Balls
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    Not a message, but my favorite is probably Mirror's Edge's anti piracy measure, where instead of speeding up when you go to make the first jump you'd just sort of slow down and stop, not able to do anything but fall to your death :lol:

    The Zak McKracken anti piracy thing was also pretty good, if you answered the copy protection question wrong you'd be teleported to a jail cell and a guard would give you a little lecture about piracy and such.

     
    phreaksho, ciaomao, tyrantnyx and 8 others like this.
  12. Scott_pilgrim

    Scott_pilgrim Nyan-binary
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    Mama Looigi, paltasex, gamesquest1 and 2 others like this.
  13. Bladexdsl

    Bladexdsl ZOMG my posts...it's over 9000!!!
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    mario and luigi bowsers inside story when it first was ripped had a nasty drm. the first time you fought bowser at the beginning you did 0 damage making it impossible to play. i figured out what was happening right away and remember thinking you sneaky SOB's. of course it was cracked a day later :lol:
     
    Lucifer666, Subtle Demise, Daniiw0lf and 4 others like this.
  14. godreborn

    godreborn GBAtemp Legend
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    don't copy that floppy is the first that comes to mind. :D
     
    ds34, darky2003, CanIHazWarez and 7 others like this.
  15. Bladexdsl

    Bladexdsl ZOMG my posts...it's over 9000!!!
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    kings quest VI had a puzzle you had to figure out on the cliffs. only problem is the puzzle wasn't in the game it was in a codebook you only got if you bought the game. nowdays you can just print it off the internet :lol:
     
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  16. Scott_pilgrim

    Scott_pilgrim Nyan-binary
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    Modern version: don’t torrent, that’s abhorrent
     
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  17. eyeliner

    eyeliner Has an itch needing to be scratched.
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    And this one, as well:
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by eyeliner, Jan 15, 2021
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  18. godreborn

    godreborn GBAtemp Legend
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    I was just about to mention that one. from mega man x3. capcom was very ap in the psx days. dino crisis has antimodchip protection, so the game freezes up with a message if you don't patch the game. it took me 12 burns to figure that out.
     
    Seriel, Scott_pilgrim and Chary like this.
  19. Bladexdsl

    Bladexdsl ZOMG my posts...it's over 9000!!!
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    ah yes the good ol patching isoz pain in the ass ps1 days...
     
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  20. godreborn

    godreborn GBAtemp Legend
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    you can't even read the message in dino crisis, because for some reason it comes up garbled. I had to use the European version of the game to get the patch to work, because the ntsc version did nothing.
     
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