I was just wondering this the other day: Why did WC1 (and its expansions) have the "Challenge question" at the beginning, while none of the subsequent WCs did? Back then, I figured it was a method of making sure someone had bought the game, or at least had to go through the trouble of finding a manual and insert cards (for the SMs) if they had copied the game from someone they knew. An early form of copyright protection. For WC3 onward, you had to have the CD in order to play, but not so for WC2, and it had no challenge question. Anyone know why?
Challenge question
- Thread starter Highball
- Start date
Mace
Vice Admiral
He means the copy protection screen, that had you look up values in claw marks.
It was a form of copy protection, lots of games around that time used a similar system(ultima 6, eye of the beholder, microcosm). It was actually quite a good protection, since you'd at least need to have access to a manual(or copy of it), just copying and spreading the discs was not an option.
Wing commander 1 spread on three high density discs I believe, and thus was easy to copy.
Wing commander 2 including only the speech pack and excluding the special operations already came to 14 High density discs. Take the price of the blank discs, the time to copy them, and you'd rather buy the original. Same with early CD games. None of those had any form of copy protection, because nearly no one would take the effort to copy them.
It was a form of copy protection, lots of games around that time used a similar system(ultima 6, eye of the beholder, microcosm). It was actually quite a good protection, since you'd at least need to have access to a manual(or copy of it), just copying and spreading the discs was not an option.
Wing commander 1 spread on three high density discs I believe, and thus was easy to copy.
Wing commander 2 including only the speech pack and excluding the special operations already came to 14 High density discs. Take the price of the blank discs, the time to copy them, and you'd rather buy the original. Same with early CD games. None of those had any form of copy protection, because nearly no one would take the effort to copy them.
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Mace
Vice Admiral
If you still have that version backed up somewhere, it accepts every value, accept the correct one, try it 
(my pirated first copy also had beefed up shields to 5000 for every terran ship, yet you could kill yourself by afterburning into an asteroid)
I think it was also removed from Kilratihi Saga.
(my pirated first copy also had beefed up shields to 5000 for every terran ship, yet you could kill yourself by afterburning into an asteroid)I think it was also removed from Kilratihi Saga.
I can remember moving house as a kid and losing my copy of Claw Marks, man that was a bad time in my life - trying to remember all the answers to the copy protection questions with the book lost.
Sure was a good way to learn stats though, some of the info is still ingrained in my mind, like Maniac being 23 years old, the Ralari weighing 18,000 tonnes and the Tiger's claw being launched in 2644
Sure was a good way to learn stats though, some of the info is still ingrained in my mind, like Maniac being 23 years old, the Ralari weighing 18,000 tonnes and the Tiger's claw being launched in 2644
Death
gh0d (Administrator)
Yes, KS removed the copyright protection question.
Personally, I thought that was neat. quite unlike more recent attempts at copyright protection.
And, please, don't get into specific examples, this isn't the thread for that, nor the right forum.
Farbourne
Rear Admiral
That's really weird. Did EVERY version of WC1 and SM1+2 for the PC have copy protection?
I played the games from original 3.5" floppies. I didn't buy it in a store, but from a friend of mine who had played through them all and wanted to move on to something else (I got WC1, SM1+2, WC2, SO1+2, and the WC2 speech pack, with all the original packaging and source materials, for $40...one of the best purchases I ever made as a kid).
Anyway, I have absolutely zero-memory of ever having to answer challenge questions to play WC1, or of seeing the screen posted above. Maybe there's just a gaping hole, but I remember having to do copy protection on many other games of the day, so I'd be surprised if I forgot it for my second favorite game of all time...
And for the record, I am NOT confusing it with KS. I later bought KS when I was in college, but I definitely played the original WC1 while still in Junior High.
I played the games from original 3.5" floppies. I didn't buy it in a store, but from a friend of mine who had played through them all and wanted to move on to something else (I got WC1, SM1+2, WC2, SO1+2, and the WC2 speech pack, with all the original packaging and source materials, for $40...one of the best purchases I ever made as a kid).
Anyway, I have absolutely zero-memory of ever having to answer challenge questions to play WC1, or of seeing the screen posted above. Maybe there's just a gaping hole, but I remember having to do copy protection on many other games of the day, so I'd be surprised if I forgot it for my second favorite game of all time...
And for the record, I am NOT confusing it with KS. I later bought KS when I was in college, but I definitely played the original WC1 while still in Junior High.
Dundradal
Frog Blast the Vent Core!
As Death said above...it was removed from the KS version.
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Yes, if there's one thing that convinces developers to remove their anti-piracy methods it's learning that their software is being pirated.
I don't know why Wing Commander II didn't have any sort of copy protection. It certainly wasn't a company-wide policy change, as Ultima VII locks you in Trinsic if you can't answer questions from the manual.
One entirely mundane reason for including copy protection that the screamier parts of the internet don't even stop to think about it is that it can be a requirement from your insurance company. A game has "DRM" largely to show due dilligence, not because developers (who are basically us with cooler jobs) somehow think it will stop stupids from being jerks.
I can't say for sure, but I bet some international and certain budget releases dropped the copy protection (for language and not-wanting-to-print-a-manual reasons, respectively).
Mace
Vice Admiral
I have three CD editions of the original WC, the CD-deluxe edition, The WC/UltimaIV edition, and one in a package that included Wing1 and Academy. The last did not have claw marks, but the had the questions printed on one page with the awnsers next to them. Those were all 1992/1993 releases.
(In the old days we used to buy a game each and let friends copy them, until CD-roms came along). And I do not think any WC game after SM2 has any form of copyprotection, except for being to big too copy. Sega and Nintendo WC did not need Copyprotection ofcourse, since home copying was impossible.
LOAF, was Wing1 ever translated then into German or French?
ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
The only other thing really is that the downloadable version of Secret Ops has registration, where a key is generated based on your callsign and difficulty level. With Wing Commander Arena, if you are either not logged into XBox Live with your purchasing account or playing on an XBox that initially purchased the game/transfered ownership of the game to, then only the demo portion are available.
cff
Kilk'dymga'qith laq Ik'vikvi
If you still have that version backed up somewhere, it accepts every value, accept the correct one, try it
I still have that version as it is the one I usually play with - call me lazy... And nope, it accepts any answer, even the correct one. The problems started when I bought SM2 as it has a new executable and therefore suddenly needed the WC1 manual which I didn't have. Of course some answers were in the SM2 manual and some could be derived from the game by playing, but it could need some time to get one of those. That was also when I noticed that on any given day only 3 different questions seem to be asked ever. So I had a list of dates that only asked questions I knew and modified the date before each playing. ~~~. Good times.
The worst copy protection however has to go to Strike Commander. Yes, you need the manual to install the game, no problem. However if you copy the intalled version to a different PC it does not work. They did a sort of activation back then...