Copy protection in late Datasoft and Access titles

[+DjayBee]

I am currently trying to finish up the publishers Datasoft and Access but am uncertain about some titles.

 

It seems that late titles do not have any copy protection in place and I hope somebody can confirm or deny this.

All disk images I could find on the net have no modifications in comparison to Farb's ATX dumps.

 

Datasoft:

221b Baker Street

Bismarck - The North Sea Chase

Gunslinger

Saracen

Tomahawk

Video Title Shop

 

These disks seem plain standard 720 sector disks with no modifications at all.

 

Access:

Beach Head II

Raid over Moscow

 

These disks are missing sector 38 and have a duplicate sector 54 (similar to Beach Head I) but these sectors are not accessed during game load.

[ijor]

I can't say I checked all the titles you mention, but I can confirm that some of the later Datasoft titles don't have disk copy protection.

 

Regarding the two Access titles. That's interesting. There are traces from a protection check at the boot code that was removed or patched. I guess you noted that already. It is possible that they removed the protection at the last moment for a variety of reasons. That wouldn't be the first time. I've seen this already. May be they check it later or you verified the whole code?

 

Whatever, I don't know for sure why the protection is not checked. What I can tell you is that those two images are confirmed are verified. They both match multiple copies from different origin.

[+DjayBee]

The whole reading of sector 48 does not make sense. This hints to removed protection.

Comparing the first byte of the sector could have been a removed check for the duplicate sector 54.

But then only Raid over Moscow has NOPed out code behind this, whereas Beach Head II just goes ahead.

 

I compared the images to what I found in other archives.

Beach Head II has no real differences besides some cracker's names replacing the copyright.

Raid over Moscow has one byte different in sector 686. But this sector is not loaded.

 

The copy protection of Beach Head I is also weird. The disk has a duplicate and a missing sector. The code verifies the missing one which is much easier to generate.

 

I will leave it for now as "no protection found" and move on.

Thanks for answering.