Posted: 12/20/2016 12:51 PM
Post subject: Operation Wolf - Cracked?
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c-square
Active player (378)
Joined: 9/25/2011
Posts: 652
Speedy TAS of 2015
Hi all, I have a TAS that I've been working off and on for a while, and I just realized that there's a screen at the front that may prevent it from being accepted. Unfortunately, I'm not able to find an uncracked version of the game. If I finish this TAS, will this be acceptable on TASvideos?
Posted: 12/20/2016 1:16 PM
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Spikestuff
They/Them
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I don't know how to use JPC-RR for the life of me I was trying to find a clean version, but I can give an example on a possibility of acception. It was a Cracked version of Apple II's Tapper. I did find a non-cracked version and it synced with my Cracked one. But that matters on a fact. It didn't have a screen prior (crack intro) to it, it was integrated to the game's title screen. If the game has a crack intro, or a screen that shouldn't be there before the game screen. You have a high chance of being rejected for it. But, if it doesn't. And someone is able find a non-cracked version your TAS does have a chance of staying. What you brought up, seems similar to what happened to me. We've rejected TASes that have had Crack intros. So dig deep and try to find a clean version.
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Posted: 12/21/2016 2:40 AM
Post subject: No Luck
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c-square
Active player (378)
Joined: 9/25/2011
Posts: 652
Speedy TAS of 2015
I've searched and searched, but haven't found any without a 'cracked' screen. Even archive.org has got it. I read that it had to be cracked in order to copy it off the original floppy, so I don't think it's possible to get an original copy now. However, the last thing I want to do is put any more time into the TAS if it's just going to be rejected.
Posted: 12/21/2016 8:30 AM
Post subject: Re: Operation Wolf - Cracked?
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MUGG
Editor, Expert player (2329)
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Gameboy TASer of 2015 NES TAS of 2013 Gameboy TASer of 2011 Gameboy TASer of 2010
c-square wrote:
The text 
 F.B.I. presents Operation Wolf      Intro by Blood      Grafix by Bitfreak
is located at $708d in WOLF.EXE. Maybe it is possible to remove the intro somehow...
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Posted: 12/21/2016 9:27 AM
Post subject: Re: No Luck
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Radiant
Player (26)
Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
Speaking for myself, I wouldn't object to a run of a cracked version iff no other versions are available. Numerous DOS games had hardware-based copy protection, so as you say a cracked version would be the only way to run it in an emulator. I would not recommend hex-editing the executable to remove the intro.
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Posted: 12/22/2016 2:05 AM
Post subject: Re: No Luck
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c-square
Active player (378)
Joined: 9/25/2011
Posts: 652
Speedy TAS of 2015
Radiant wrote:
Speaking for myself, I wouldn't object to a run of a cracked version iff no other versions are available. Numerous DOS games had hardware-based copy protection, so as you say a cracked version would be the only way to run it in an emulator. I would not recommend hex-editing the executable to remove the intro.
I agree that hex-editing it wouldn't work, as there would be no way for anyone to get the exact same executable unless they hex-edited it themselves too. From what I can tell, the copy protection was on the disk. They sent the disk out with specific bad sectors, and unless the game detected those bad sectors, it wouldn't run. Although we have the technology now to replicate that, at the time there was no reason for anyone to keep a copy of a game that was unplayable, thus the only retained copies are the cracked versions.