MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: ibm floppy images

> > > > For example, I've got the original "Budokan - The Martial Spirit" (the one in
> the
> >
> > > > software list is cracked).
> > >
> > > Yep. Definitely wanted instead of the cracked versions.
>
>
> > as well as
>
> > the cracked versions are part of history and should be documented too, but clearly
> marked
> > as cracked versions....and possibly making a pull request on github adding the
> original
> > image as a parent to the cracked ones (so current cracked sets become a clone of the
> newly
> > added discs)
>
>
> I agree with opinion that had someone had posted a couple years earlier on
> Bannister's site where original versions of diskettes should be the only ones
> supported on the hash file. The exception is in case the game can't run because
> floppy drive emulation isn't perfect enough to handle image that still has copy
> protection, then support the cracked image until then. Or unless the original version
> diskette hasn't been found yet.
>
> I liked playing IBM's Alley Cat. If an original version is found instead of a
> cracked version, I'd rather see only the original version supported.
>
>
> -
> Alley Cat [cr]
> 1984
> IBM
> info name="developer" value="Synapse Software"
> info name="usage" value="PC Booter"
> info name="cracked" value="demonlord"
> -
>
> The cracking credits screen stuff with cracked by isn't the same importance as
> compared with bootleg arcade games (including title screen graphics hacks) that did
> appear in arcades since some have creative methods to bootleg some game into an
> entirely different piece of pcb hardware. Those are worth supporting instead of some
> cracked IBM game that had plastered credits on the title screen with "cracked by Sam
> Brown and the Byte Bandits". The only group I applaud back then during 1980s was SPI
> (software pirates inc) because the group knew how to crack games and didn't pollute
> the game title screen with nonsense.

I disagree entirely, the cracked home computer software is incredibly interesting because the original copy protection schemes became more and more complex over time, seeing how people worked around them back in the day is fascinating.

Also in many cases the cracked software is much more usable as the copy protections got in the way of normal use, so, as long as the cracks were done properly, those are actually the preferred versions. This is especially true on systems like the Amiga where the original uncracked games often didn't work if you had expansion hardware plugged in, wanted to use 2 floppy drives, or even wanted to install to HDD, while the cracked versions often worked better and with less restrictions.

The way the copy protections were defeated could often be considered a work of art in it's own right, if you've ever read the 4am accounts of the Apple 2 protections for example some of the more complex ones involve extracting data stored in custom track formats and putting them back in normal ones, sometimes this is difficult because there are times the custom formats were used to squeeze more data out of the disk.

Also if you're working with original hardware, the cracked versions are often more useful as writing back copy protected images often requires specialist hardware, and even now there are apparently some cases where you CAN'T write back the protected disk images, making those dumps impossible to use on real hardware.

It would be irresponsible and highly destructive to not document the cracked stuff alongside the originals, they're an important part of history and have a very significant purpose, also if piracy statistics are to be believed, they were actually much more common than the legitimate versions so pretending they didn't exist is burying your head in the sand.

Even if you look at the industry today, many of the licensed re-releases of PC games actually end up being based on the cracked versions because the CD protections were one of the main things that prevented the games from running on more modern versions of Windows, and while that's not MAME, it does show the value of these things. As part of a job I did a few years back I was specifically asked by the IP owners of a game to source the latest cracked version of their game for re-release, because they no longer had a build environment to produce their own and wanted it on Steam.

While documenting the originals is absolutely essential it's nonsense to say that the cracked versions are any less important than arcade bootlegs, if anything they're more important.