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dBASE III v1.0

SystemSystem
edited May 2019 in Product Comments

imagedBASE III v1.0

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Comments

  • BigAlUKBigAlUK
    edited May 2019

    There is also this: https://archive.org/details/DBaseIIISpecialEducationalEdition1985BoydFraser, which comprises a set of working dBASE III application files and can be overlaid upon an otherwise non-working dBASE III r1.0 install - without the associated problems regarding 286+ processors, etc.

    To quote: Special educational version of (dBASE III(R)) for use with the IBM PC, XT, AT, and compatibles. Copyright 1985 (Ashton-Tate). All rights reserved.

    As I understand it, this was a special version created to go with a Boyd/Fraser book, and has no copy protection. No idea how "cut-down" this might be relative to a proper working r1.0 though :)

    I used this to get an (apparently) functioning dBASE III app running under a suitably "PIF-ed" CMD window on a VirtualBox Windows 2000 VM - so I guess that means it doesn't have an 80286/80386 problem, whereas I could not get the r1.0 copy to work - as it neither likes 80286/80386 nor emulators.

  • ibmpc5150ibmpc5150
    It is quite difficult to obtain dBase III version 1.0, even on an untouched diskette.

    I was lucky enough to get a diskette a few times, but unfortunately the contents had already been modified.
  • GloriousCowGloriousCow
    This title uses Vault Corporation's PROLOK protection. Ashton-Tate was Vault's biggest client, and at one point owned a 20% stake in the company.

    Vault committed a huge blunder in 1984 by announcing "PROLOK Plus" - a future version of their protection that would take aggressive measures against detected pirates, such as formatting hard drives and installing malware. Users and editors of PC magazines were not impressed. Ashton-Tate saw the resulting consumer backlash and dropped them almost immediately afterwards. This is why the next versions of dBase III no longer use this protection scheme. Softguard Systems picked up some of Ashton-Tate's business with their Superlok protection. "PROLOK Plus" would never see the light of day, but the damage was done.

    Vault would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1986.

    Despite the physical modification of the medium, and extensive obfuscation techniques in the software, it was ultimately possible to bypass PROLOK by hooking interrupt 13h. One such utility that could do so was Quaid Software's PROKEY, part of their CopyWrite backup software suite. This would lead to the already-bankrupt Vault Corporation suing Quaid Software, in an important court case which you can read about on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_Corp._v._Quaid_Software_Ltd.

    This title is supported with appropriate images in upcoming releases of at least two emulators, 86Box 4.3+ and MartyPC 0.3.0+
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