About behind story of support Copy Protection on PCE emlator
At first, sorry for my bad (poor) english.
That was about 4 years ago.
I wrote a Email to Hampa (Author of PCE emulator) on Aug 12.2010
My Message (ibmpc5150@*****.***)
> >> Is it possible to emulator Copy Protected Track/Sector if I give my dumped
> >> floppy image with hidden sector information?
> >> None of PC emulator (MESS / DOSBOX / PCE / etc) doesn't emulator Copy protected track/sector.
> >> I want to emulate copy protected track/sector if possbile.
> >> I have a lot of Copy Protected PC games, Trans Copy Option Board.
Then I received the following message from Hampa
> >With the currently released version of PCE (0.2.0), as well as with
> >current git, this is not possible, because it doesn't emulate the
> >floppy disk controller. I am currently working on that emulation and
> >will include it in the next release, but this might take some time.
> >Is it possible that I could get one (or more) of those copy protected
> >disk images for testing?
I reply simple message to Hampa
> Sure.
> Here is F-19 Stealth Fighter Version 435.04 dumped by FDA 6.1 / ANADISK 2.07.
Then Hampa answered to me too.
>OK, I've got it working.
>I've modified PCE to use the anadisk dump format directly. Together
>with the FDC emulation that I have been working on, I can now run
>your copy protected games directly off the anadisk dump image.
>It will take some time to clean up and commit the new code (weeks, probably).
>In the meantime, if you want to give it a go, I can send you a developer
>snapshot. Would a patch be OK?
>cheers,
>Hampa
PCE begin to support Copy Protected Track/Sector by FDC emulation (INT-13) and it becomes world's first emulator to support Copy Protected Disk.
I have 2ea of TCOB (TransCopy Optionboard), and dumped and contribute a lot of Copy Protected image to support on PCE.
Unfortunately I don't have Kryoflux. But thanks to Hampa's aggressive effort, now Kryoflux image can be converted to .PSI (PCE Sector Image) or .TC
(TransCopy Image).
The more interesting thing is that Teledisk / ImageDisk / Snatchit / PSI image is enable to be converted to .TC image partially.
Unfortunately, another IBM PC (PC compatible) emulator doesn't support Copy Protection.
I contacted to author of emulator, but they seems not to be interested in emulation of Copy Protected Track.
Why I requested to emulate Copy Protection on PCE?
I prefer to run original software without cracking or modification if possible.
(I don't think it is wrong to crack or modify copy protected software to run.)
Also I want to keep original software as Floppy Disk Image.
Not all the copyprotected software doesn't run on PCE.
(Copy Protection by Laser burn, H/W Port protection, early software checked FDC timing exactly, etc.)
But I'm sure most of Copy Protected software works on PCE correctly.
That was about 4 years ago.
I wrote a Email to Hampa (Author of PCE emulator) on Aug 12.2010
My Message (ibmpc5150@*****.***)
> >> Is it possible to emulator Copy Protected Track/Sector if I give my dumped
> >> floppy image with hidden sector information?
> >> None of PC emulator (MESS / DOSBOX / PCE / etc) doesn't emulator Copy protected track/sector.
> >> I want to emulate copy protected track/sector if possbile.
> >> I have a lot of Copy Protected PC games, Trans Copy Option Board.
Then I received the following message from Hampa
> >With the currently released version of PCE (0.2.0), as well as with
> >current git, this is not possible, because it doesn't emulate the
> >floppy disk controller. I am currently working on that emulation and
> >will include it in the next release, but this might take some time.
> >Is it possible that I could get one (or more) of those copy protected
> >disk images for testing?
I reply simple message to Hampa
> Sure.
> Here is F-19 Stealth Fighter Version 435.04 dumped by FDA 6.1 / ANADISK 2.07.
Then Hampa answered to me too.
>OK, I've got it working.
>I've modified PCE to use the anadisk dump format directly. Together
>with the FDC emulation that I have been working on, I can now run
>your copy protected games directly off the anadisk dump image.
>It will take some time to clean up and commit the new code (weeks, probably).
>In the meantime, if you want to give it a go, I can send you a developer
>snapshot. Would a patch be OK?
>cheers,
>Hampa
PCE begin to support Copy Protected Track/Sector by FDC emulation (INT-13) and it becomes world's first emulator to support Copy Protected Disk.
I have 2ea of TCOB (TransCopy Optionboard), and dumped and contribute a lot of Copy Protected image to support on PCE.
Unfortunately I don't have Kryoflux. But thanks to Hampa's aggressive effort, now Kryoflux image can be converted to .PSI (PCE Sector Image) or .TC
(TransCopy Image).
The more interesting thing is that Teledisk / ImageDisk / Snatchit / PSI image is enable to be converted to .TC image partially.
Unfortunately, another IBM PC (PC compatible) emulator doesn't support Copy Protection.
I contacted to author of emulator, but they seems not to be interested in emulation of Copy Protected Track.
Why I requested to emulate Copy Protection on PCE?
I prefer to run original software without cracking or modification if possible.
(I don't think it is wrong to crack or modify copy protected software to run.)
Also I want to keep original software as Floppy Disk Image.
Not all the copyprotected software doesn't run on PCE.
(Copy Protection by Laser burn, H/W Port protection, early software checked FDC timing exactly, etc.)
But I'm sure most of Copy Protected software works on PCE correctly.
Comments
This is very important for historical preservation. No one can learn from a program if it can not actually be *run*.