Registration codes (again!)

[James S]

[Dave]

[Dave]

[Michael Y]

[Hosed]

Which is a crime that's a little more "punishable" and a bit easier to trace then cracking by it's self.

[Hosed]

The only "secure" code key system is one that's verified via an online server and that's why Rayman had it's funky system.

That way you can disable previous keys that had been hacked. Unfortunately that's not a real option for PPCs, though one could use the RAPI and develop a system that verified on sync or something. Still, without an online verification the reg-key becomes the whole in the system.

[slumpy]

there was a game that took 3 months to crack. It did it by fooling the crackers themselves. Its unique approaches like this that work well. This is basically what they did (I think):

The game creators made the registration stuff an integral part of the game. Meaning its not just checked on start up or anything. Then, if a cracker cracked it at the opening screen, they thought they defeated it and released the patch. Little did they know that since it was cracked at the beginning, it modified the story line so as you played the game you would come to a dead end. The crackers thought they had cracked it because it bypassed the reg stuff. But they hadnt't played thru the game to find out it changed the story line! So they kept releasing patched and patches and finally 3 months later there was a working patch(es) that kept the story line intact and bypassed the registration.

3 months is a LONG time for this kind of stuff!

[Hosed]

Yeah, the game was Spyro 2 and it's check was centered around CD verification checks and some other bios checks. Unfortunately you don't have a piece of media like a CD to verify against on the PPC or PC so as long as the crackers can just release someone's valid key then the weak point is the key it's self and thus all the rest will be pointless.