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Hackproof Arcade

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XCVG:

Forget about it. Pretty much anything can be hacked. Although not really in this case, DRM usually just pisses people off and does nothing to stop piracy. Unless your game is really good and gets extremely popular, there probably won't be a lot of interest in pirating it anyway.

Maybe use a physical method of keeping people from transferring the games off? Put the computer in a case secured with odd screws that are impossible to find drivers for. And use a nonstandard connector for the HDD, too. Maybe if you wanted to go excessive, put some chip smashers in.

Not trying to come off as a jerk, just saying it the way I see it. I can totally understand where you are coming from.

Gorotsuki:

Personally I'm more interested in this game
that needs protection.
Give us a taste.

Gatt:


--- Quote from: XCVG on April 05, 2010, 11:58:40 pm ---Forget about it. Pretty much anything can be hacked. Although not really in this case, DRM usually just pisses people off and does nothing to stop piracy. Unless your game is really good and gets extremely popular, there probably won't be a lot of interest in pirating it anyway.

Maybe use a physical method of keeping people from transferring the games off? Put the computer in a case secured with odd screws that are impossible to find drivers for. And use a nonstandard connector for the HDD, too. Maybe if you wanted to go excessive, put some chip smashers in.

Not trying to come off as a jerk, just saying it the way I see it. I can totally understand where you are coming from.

--- End quote ---

Sadly...

The case with odd screws wouldn't slow anything down,  doesn't matter if the case is intact,  hacksaw it and pull the HDD.  A nonstandard HDD Cable would be exorboriant,  you'd have to contract with one of the drive manufacturers,  and they'd require a significant order.  Chip smashers wouldn't make any difference either,  what you want is the drive,  the chips are irrelevant as they'd be fairly standard x86,  so no mysteries there.

About the only option is something that'd trigger a thermite reaction on the HDD if the case were opened.  Even that would only slow things down,  as they'd either find a way to hack the OS or hack through the networking ports.  Of course,  if the thermite reaction gets out of control,  could lead to some interesting lawsuits too...

SavannahLion:

Why bother? The only things I've seen that are even remotely effective either A: ---fudgesicle--- up the computer in question and piss people off enough to make them want to hack it or not buy the game at all. eg Starforce. I generally refuse to buy any game that employs something like Starforce, even if it's meant to run on dedicated hardware. The other reasonably effective technique is a game that requires some online component to be activated or function, even if the game itself doesn't actually use any online component for gameplay.


--- Quote from: Ophelius on April 05, 2010, 09:34:47 pm ---I think a good way to make it more difficult to crack is by making the software not give out clues that it's doing a security check. If the software detects that it's not running on a valid system, then just make the software give out a false error message and exit, like "Video Segment Error! Exiting Program". Then how can someone suspect there really is no error, but it really failed at a security check? If you make the program give out a "Invalid Authentication Code!" message, then it would be obvious where to look to break it.

--- End quote ---

Doesn't work and actually serves to drive the cracker even more. False messages is an old trick and one of the first things crackers learn about.

Ophelius:

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Cryptology has always fascinated me and I've learned that even the most thought out ways to get someone to stay out will always have a weakness(Troy). I'll most likely distribute the software freely and if someone really likes the game and wants a collectors item for their collection, they can buy my arcade. The game should be finished soon, so I'll post it when it's released.

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