Copy Protection - Notable Payloads

Notable Payloads

Over time, software publishers (especially in the case of video games) became creative about crippling the software in case it was illegally copied. These games would initially show that the copy was successful, but eventually render themselves unplayable via subtle methods.

• Superior Soccer had no outward signs of copy protection, but if it decided it was illegally copied, it would make the soccer ball in the game invisible, making it impossible to play the game.
• In Sid Meier's Pirates, if you entered in the wrong information, you could still play the game, but at a level that would be very hard to make it far in the game.
• While the copy protection in Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders was not hidden as such, the repercussions of missing the codes was unusual: the player would end up in jail (permanently), and the police officer would give a lengthy and condescending speech about software copying.
• In case of copied versions of Settlers 3, the iron smelters - who are essential to create weapons - would only produce pig irons, making the players inevitably lose weapons because of the lack of armour.
• Bohemia Interactive Studio developed a unique and very subtle protection system for its game Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. Dubbed FADE, if it detects an unauthorized copy, it does not inform the player immediately but instead progressively corrupts aspects of the game (such as reducing the weapon accuracy to 0) to the point that it eventually becomes unplayable. The message "Original discs don't FADE" will eventually appear if the game is detected as being an unauthorized copy. FADE is also used in ArmA II. They continued these methods in Take On Helicopters, where the screen would blur and distort when playing a pirated copy.
• More recently, Batman: Arkham Asylum implemented a copy protection system where the game disables Batman's glide system and various other features, rendering the players to be unable to continue beyond a certain point.
• Many games use the "code checksumming" technique to prevent alteration of code to bypass other copy protection. Important constants for the game - such as the accuracy of the player's firing, the speed of their movement, etc. - are not included in the game but calculated from the numbers making up the machine code of other parts of the game. If the code is changed, the calculation yields a result which no longer matches the original design of the game and the game plays improperly. Exile is known to have used this technique but it is a common technique in general usage.
• The PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV has a copy protection that swings the camera as though the player was drunk. If the player entered a vehicle it will automatically throttle, making it difficult to steer. It also damages the vehicle, making it vulnerable to collisions and bullets. An update to the game prevented unauthorised copies from accessing the in-game Internet browser, making it impossible to finish the game as some missions involve browsing the web for objectives.
• In Earthbound, unauthorized copies of the game will trigger a checksum that makes random encounters appear much more often than in an authorized copy, and if the player progresses through the game without giving up (or cracks this protection), a second checksum code will activate before the final boss battle, freezing the game and deleting all the save files.
• In an unauthorized version of the PC edition of Mass Effect, the game save mechanism would not work and the in-game galactic map would cause the game to crash. As the galactic map is needed to travel to different sections of the game, the player would be stuck in the first section of the game.
• If an unauthorized version of The Sims 2 was used, the Build Mode would not work properly. Walls would not be able to be built on the player's property, which prevents the player from building any custom houses. Some furniture and clothing selections would not be available too.
• A March 2009 update to the BeeJive IM iPhone app included special functionality for users of the pirated version: the screen would read "PC LOAD LETTER" whenever the user tried to establish a connection to any IM service, then quickly switch to a YouTube clip from the movie Office Space.
• Red Alert 2 has a copy protection, where if an illegal version of it is detected, the player's entire base would be destroyed within 30 seconds of the player joining a match.
• The DS version of Michael Jackson: The Experience has a copy protection system where vuvuzela noises are heard as the music is playing, no visible notes, making the game impossible to play, & the game freezing upon the player pausing it.
• Older versions of Autodesk 3ds Max use a dongle for copy protection; if it is missing, the program will randomly corrupt the points of the user's model during usage, destroying their work.
• Older versions of CDRWIN used a serial number for initial copy protection. However, if this check was bypassed, a second hidden check would activate causing a random factor to be introduced into the CD burning process, producing corrupted "coaster" disks.
• Terminate, a BBS terminal package, would appear to operate normally if cracked but would insert a warning that a pirated copy was in use into the IEMSI login packet it transmitted, where the sysop of any BBS the user called could clearly read it.
• Ubik's Musik, a music creation tool for the Commodore 64, would transform into a Space Invaders game if it detected that a cartridge-based copying device had attempted to interrupt it. This combined copy protection and an easter egg, as the message that appears when it occurs is not hostile ("Plug joystick in port 1, press fire, and no more resetting/experting!")
• The Amiga version of Bomberman featured a multitap peripheral that also acted as a dongle. Data from the multitap was used to calculate the time limit of each level. If the multitap was missing, the time limit would be calculated as 0, causing the level to end immediately.
• Never Mind, a puzzle game for the Amiga, contained code that caused any pirated version of the game to behave as a demo. The game would play three levels sampled from throughout the game, and then give the message "You have completed three levels; however there are 100 levels to complete on the original disc."

• In Spyro: Year of the Dragon a character named Zoe will tell the player outside the room containing the balloon to Midday Garden Home and several other areas that they are using a pirated copy. This conversation purposely corrupts a file on game disc called LEGAL.TMP. If corrupted, the game would not only delete certain portions of itself (such as stray gems or the ability to progress in certain areas) it also makes the final boss unbeatable, actually returning to the beginning of the game (the game removes your save file too) after about 8 seconds into the battle.
• The Atari Jaguar console would freeze at startup and play the sound of an enraged jaguar snarling if the inserted cartridge failed the initial security check.
• The Lenslok copy protection system gave an obvious message if the lens-coded letters were entered incorrectly, but if the user soft-reset the machine, the areas of memory occupied by the game would be flooded with the message "THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN OUR PRODUCT. NICE TRY. LOVE BJ/NJ" to prevent the user examining leftover code to crack the protection.
• An update to the sandbox game Garry's Mod enabled a copy protection mechanism that outputs the error "Unable to shade polygon normals" if the game detects that it is pirated. The error also includes the user's Steam ID as an error ID, meaning that pirates can be identified by their Steam account when asking for help about the error on the Internet.
• The Atari version of Alternate Reality: The Dungeon would have the player's character attacked by two unbeatable "FBI Agents" if it detected a pirated version. The FBI agents would also appear when restoring a save which was created by a pirated version, even if the version restoring the save was legal.
• VGA Planets, a play-by-BBS strategy game, contained code in its server which would check all clients' submitted turns for pirated registration codes. Any player deemed to be using an illegal copy, or cheating in the game, would have random forces destroyed throughout the game by an unbeatable enemy called "The Tim Continuum" (after the game's author, Tim Wissemann). A similar commercial game, Stars!, would issue empty turn updates for players with invalid registration codes, meaning that none of their orders would ever be carried out.
• On a copied version of the original PC version of Postal, as soon as the game was started the player character would immediately shoot himself in the head.
• The pirated version of Serious Sam 3: BFE spawns in a large immortal monster early on in the game.
• A pirated copy of Pokémon Black or White runs as it was normal, but the Pokémon will not gain any experience points after a battle.
• If Gyakuten Kenji 2 detects a pirated or downloaded copy of the game, it will convert the entire game's text into the game's symbol based foreign language, Borginian, which cannot be translated in any way.

The usage of copy protection payloads which lower playability of a game without making it clear that this is a result of copy protection is now generally considered unwise, due to the potential for it to result in unaware players with pirated copies spreading word-of-mouth that a game is of low quality. The authors of FADE explicitly acknowledged this as a reason for including the explicit warning message.