4 Dec
2005
4 Dec
'05
10:50 p.m.
der Mouse wrote:
Game doesn't have to be inherently online -- it can be a completely offline
game and still require per-run authentication. Needless to say, I will most
likely not be purchasing these games unless they are completely worth it
(Half-Life 2 is one that's kept me on the fence for almost a year now).
The future of
software protection is coming, and it's not pretty.
Public-key assymetric encryption schemes are already in use; your
software phones the mothership to authenticate. Joy.
Not much good unless the game is inherently "online", 'cause it means
the game can't be played unless it can connect to the mothership. Still defeatable by use of emulators or ICE tools,
though; while they
can do things like PK-encrypt the game's code, the code must at some
time exist in executable form, and can be copied then.
Yes, but there's a time issue involved. These schemes have checks upon checks
upon more and more checks, and my time is most definitely worth enough money
nowadays that it's not worth it for me to spend 6 weeks creating a decrypted
version of the game. I still crack older games, but that's because they're
15-20 years old and in danger of being lost forever (and they only take hours
to crack).
Yes, there are others for whom it is a challenge, but modern games take up at
least 24-48 hours of download time to pirate -- again, more time I don't have
(I need my bandwidth for more productive work). One of the problems of getting
older :-)
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/