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DarkBASIC Discussion / Anti Piracy

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guru of boredom
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Posted: 4th Nov 2003 04:39
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does anyone know a good anti piracy thing that could be built into db games? if not we should try and make one. just a thought. might be to hard...

its not a bug its a ... a ... a extra feature!
P4 2.4 ghz 120 GB 256 mb GeForce4
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Jess T
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Posted: 4th Nov 2003 07:21
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just make a simple file that needs to be on the game-play cd, then make the program check to see if that file is on the cd.

It would be easy to copy that file to another cd, but you could make that file be needed to check the installation or something, and if the installation isn't legal, then produce an error...

Don't know exactly how you'd do it, but that's the basics of it i think...

Hope I Helped...


Team EOD :: Programmer/Logical Engineer/All-Round Nice Guy
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Jess T
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Posted: 4th Nov 2003 07:23
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For anti-piracy as in key generators etc, you could create an on-line database of legal keys and get the program to check the key that was entered against the ones in the database, and if it is illegal, produce an error.

The only problem with this is it limits your users to having the internet (which alot of people still don't have, or only have temporaraly)...


Team EOD :: Programmer/Logical Engineer/All-Round Nice Guy
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TheSquid
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Posted: 4th Nov 2003 19:08
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Actually, many of the serial number type of verifications use what is known as check-digits to verify the number. For example, let's use a 10 digit code.

1234557426

The first 5 numbers drive the last 5 digits. In my example, the 6th digit is the ones digit of the sum of the first 5. 1+2+3+4+5 = 15, use the 5. The 7th position is the 6th position plus the 2nd position. The 8th position is the 7th position - 3rd position. The 9th position is 7th - 6th. The 10th position is the 8th + the 9th.

This is just a very simple example of the things that can be done to prevent piracy. Using check digits, you avoid the need to have internet access validate the serial number.
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IceBird
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Posted: 4th Nov 2003 20:25
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MAke the game do a crc check and then a cd-check.. and then make some more checks in the game on diffrent location of the game.. many crackers just deletes the first checks and don't play the games and realixze there is more checks..
... or do it in a differnet kkind of way.. there's many ways.. come up with your own..thats the best

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JoelJ
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Posted: 5th Nov 2003 02:51
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the more orriginal you are, the harder it is the hack

Two words, moo.
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Jess T
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Posted: 5th Nov 2003 09:21
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@TheSquid:

Yeah, i knew that was how the codes worked, each new character in the code was reliant on ones before it, but because of that set-up, Key-Generators are relatively easy to make, once the "hacker" figures out the sequence...

And once one Key-Generator is made, many more can be too...

That is why Cd-Checks and online database checks are the best for refrencing the inputed Serial Key, because the online database is impossible to get past (unless your database isn't secure of course) Much like the War3 and DiabloII ones...

Also, encrypt things, make a string encryptor to encrypt your world data (if it's in an external file) which would decrypt it as it is read in, this would help prevent "hackers" from stealing world data etc... Although, this approach is much like the Key approach, once the "hacker" figures out the encryption sequence, it is easily reproduced (Considering that you probably won't be making anything more complex than scrambling the characters)...

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Team EOD :: Programmer/Logical Engineer/All-Round Nice Guy
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KNau
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Posted: 5th Nov 2003 20:20
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You have to understand you will never beat software pirates, you can only minimize your risk level. The general consensus in the shareware community is that the best protection is to have your demo and your full product as a seperate download.

Key generators always get cracked and very few (if any) people here will be releasing their games on CD so a cd-check is unrealistic (and, again, easily defeatable). Spend your time making the game and don't worry so much about piracy.

http://www.canceriannewmedia.com
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Jess T
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Posted: 6th Nov 2003 04:28
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Yeah, all of what KNau says is the reality of it...

And yes, the best way to make shareware is to make a "Demo" a completely different file to the real-deal... That way, it's impossible to crack! Simply because, there is nothing in there to crack... Lol...

Hope I Helped...


Team EOD :: Programmer/Logical Engineer/All-Round Nice Guy
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Compton
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Posted: 7th Nov 2003 13:31
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If you really REALLY want to make it hard have it check with a running FTP, and have only a good key/password download some more files it needs.

You catch my drift.... I've had some programs check keys online and you can also update and change it, have V1.2 , V1.3 etc etc. Impossible to crack, because it also renders previously cracks impossible to run.

You could like supply paying customers with updates. Normally you could perhaps crack a seperate DLL with such a program, but since DarkBasic has that stuff inside the code it would be a whole lot harder. I guess you could only then fool the windows host file, given that you know what url the code checks.

Then, you could also UPX encode it to finish it off and use RAR for the downloaded packages and even password protect those update files.
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