Let's talk about the old copy-protection shenanigans...

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Throughout my entire gaming life, I only ever owned one game with the copy protection still active: Loom (1990).

I thought having to match images to unlock this game about casting spells was kinda neat, but the novelty wore off rather fast once I found myself doing it like fifteen times during the entire adventure... But that also worked as sort of a weird motivator, making me play the game longer than I normally would have every time I fired it up just to avoid having to punch in the code again. It was a weird thing indeed.

NOW, I know for a fact that some games weren't nearly as charitable with their copy-protection, making you match boring rows and columns on impossible shades of magenta, aggressive red or baby blue just so you wouldn't be able to photocopy them -- that was hell and I don't think it has gotten any more defensible since.

I even remember getting properly paranoid of ever losing my manual, for that would lock me out of my damn game, which I'm sure many kids suffered from back then.

Do you remember any copy-protection that was either neat to the point of easing the pain or that unforgettable kind of hellish that actively discouraged you from playing your damn games?

 

[Heinzu]

I remember this back in the day.

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

Throughout my entire gaming life, I only ever owned one game with the copy protection still active: Loom (1990).

I thought having to match images to unlock this game about casting spells was kinda neat, but the novelty wore off rather fast once I found myself doing it like fifteen times during the entire adventure... But that also worked as sort of a weird motivator, making me play the game longer than I normally would have every time I fired it up just to avoid having to punch in the code again. It was a weird thing indeed.

NOW, I know for a fact that some games weren't nearly as charitable with their copy-protection, making you match boring rows and columns on impossible shades of magenta, aggressive red or baby blue just so you wouldn't be able to photocopy them -- that was hell and I don't think it has gotten any more defensible since.

I even remember getting properly paranoid of ever losing my manual, for that would lock me out of my damn game, which I'm sure many kids suffered from back then.

Do you remember any copy-protection that was either neat to the point of easing the pain or that unforgettable kind of hellish that actively discouraged you from playing your damn games?

NGL I am (obvs) a fan of Loom but I totally spaced on the copy protection lmao dunno if I'm just forgetting it or if all my copies where cracked.

I was gonna bring up the famous Pirate Wheel from Monkey Island which is a classic.

There was also that infamous copy protection on Spyro 3 that let you play most of the game, but it delets your save when you hit the end. It also randomly deleted Dragon Eggs and Gems while you're playing.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

Ok, so it's not 90s but Denuvo is the worst copy-protection,
it cramps my pirate lifestyle

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Ok, so it's not 90s but Denuvo is the worst copy-protection,
it cramps my pirate lifestyle

View attachment 129739
View attachment 129740

I heard they are properly aggressive towards the user, too.

 

[Neb Lleb]

Yeah, remember those old scary anti-piracy ads that were just made to scare the pants off of people into staying clear from pirated video tapes and discs? The one that unironically said, dead-faced, that "piracy funds terrorism"?

"THE PIRATES ARE OUT TO GET YOU! DON'T LET THEM BRAND YOU WITH THEIR MARK!!!111"

 

[EcchiL0verMan]

I remember this back in the day.
View attachment 129730

I'd NEVER saw anti-copy protection measures on VHS's before, this is a first

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

Yeah, remember those old scary anti-piracy ads that were just made to scare the pants off of people into staying clear from pirated video tapes and discs? The one that unironically said, dead-faced, that "piracy funds terrorism"?

"THE PIRATES ARE OUT TO GET YOU! DON'T LET THEM BRAND YOU WITH THEIR MARK!!!111"

We walking about this absolute banger from FACT? Burned into my brain for life.

 

[Neb Lleb]

We walking about this absolute banger from FACT? Burned into my brain for life.

I remember reuploads of old VHS openings from 2002 - 2004, and they often put funny spins on this wretched PSA in many of their descriptions (I.E. "The pirates have nothing to lose, and they have nothing to prove, so now they're dancing with themselves" or "What the fuck did you just fucking say about the pirates, you little bitch? I'll have you know that I'm part of Piracy NAVY seals[...]").

However, my favourite spoof is from Back to the Past, a VHS review channel which, in his video on The Powerpuff Girls Movie, summed up the PSA thusly:
"AAH! AAH! AAH! AAH!"

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

I remember reuploads of old VHS openings from 2002 - 2004, and they often put funny spins on this wretched PSA in many of their descriptions (I.E. "The pirates have nothing to lose, and they have nothing to prove, so now they're dancing with themselves" or "What the fuck did you just fucking say about the pirates, you little bitch? I'll have you know that I'm part of Piracy NAVY seals[...]").

However, my favourite spoof is from Back to the Past, a VHS review channel which, in his video on The Powerpuff Girls Movie, summed up the PSA thusly:
"AAH! AAH! AAH! AAH!"

Underrated post. I just learned about a new film I hadn't seen (for real, they didn't advertise this film in the UK), and a new YouTuber in one go.

Kudos my guy.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

I remember that the Donkey Kong Country anti-piracy screens would occasionally pop up on legitimate copies as a false positive, and it startling kid me a fair bit when it happened randomly one night.

 

[EmuCarnival]

StarForce infested DVDs.

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

Pirate face jumpscare

 

[ShinnAsukaYESTaylorSwiftNO]

Underrated post. I just learned about a new film I hadn't seen (for real, they didn't advertise this film in the UK), and a new YouTuber in one go.

Kudos my guy.

My family used to have a copy of The Powerpuff Girls Movie on DVD. However, I don't recall ever seeing that film proper though.
Us Americans did have the infamous "You Wouldn't Steal a Car" PSA before certain DVDs for a bit (circa 2004-2007) though.

Oddly enough, the only DVD I own that has it (at least, to my knowledge) is a Fullscreen copy of the 2006 Nickelodeon animated comedy Barnyard.

 

[PacGuy]

Throughout my entire gaming life, I only ever owned one game with the copy protection still active: Loom (1990).

I thought having to match images to unlock this game about casting spells was kinda neat, but the novelty wore off rather fast once I found myself doing it like fifteen times during the entire adventure... But that also worked as sort of a weird motivator, making me play the game longer than I normally would have every time I fired it up just to avoid having to punch in the code again. It was a weird thing indeed.

NOW, I know for a fact that some games weren't nearly as charitable with their copy-protection, making you match boring rows and columns on impossible shades of magenta, aggressive red or baby blue just so you wouldn't be able to photocopy them -- that was hell and I don't think it has gotten any more defensible since.

I even remember getting properly paranoid of ever losing my manual, for that would lock me out of my damn game, which I'm sure many kids suffered from back then.

Do you remember any copy-protection that was either neat to the point of easing the pain or that unforgettable kind of hellish that actively discouraged you from playing your damn games?

To continue to my reply please turn to page 13 of the instruction manual. What is the third word in the first sentence?

Spoiler

Now take out the color coded wheel that came with this reply and spin it to A2

 

[secreto7]

When I was little all my DOS PC games where cracked, and some came with cool looking hacked intros with music from pirate groups and sometimes even with cheats, and my PS1 games where cheap copies that game stores sold with modchipped consoles.
Where I live it was like that until the PS3 generation I think.

 

[Vardalis]

I haven't really ran into much copy protection myself. I think the main one I've fallen victim to was Theme Park World for PS1 when I downloaded it from here or Vimm where it didn't let me do the campaign mode among some other things, which made me scratch my head and look until i found it had LibCrypt.

 

[petran79]

Star Tropics had an included letter that you had to get wet in order to show a frequency.
Though I stuck at the parrot later on as I my English was not sufficient to grasp that I had to play a correct tune

 

[ShinnAsukaYESTaylorSwiftNO]

speaking of the "You Wouldn't Steal a Car" PSA, I just watched this video that a French YouTuber by the name Nico Delage recently put out detailing his quest to find out who made it:

he will put out a part two sometime soon

 

[EcchiL0verMan]

When I was little all my DOS PC games where cracked, and some came with cool looking hacked intros with music from pirate groups and sometimes even with cheats, and my PS1 games where cheap copies that game stores sold with modchipped consoles.
Where I live it was like that until the PS3 generation I think.

and then the Xbox 360 would continue that tradition