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[akidnamededdy]

Inspired by this thread here with the pirated version of Game Dev Tycoon crippling players' development studios due to piracy. What are some other unique anti-piracy methods that have been used?

I know Earthbound had quite a few stumbling blocks throughout the game that were triggered if it was on a pirated cartridge, the last one causing the game to freeze and erase all the saved games in the very last dungeon.

EDIT: explanations would be nice, too

 

[Ken]

Batman Arkham Asylum.

To combat software piracy in the Windows version of the game, developers implemented an anti-piracy measure that disables Batman's glide ability and causes other bugs, thus preventing a player using a pirated game from progressing beyond a certain point. Although not the first game to implement such countermeasures, Arkham Asylum received media coverage, as it was seen as a novel method of copy protection.[64][65]

 

[Raide]

The Dark Souls one. Developers Invade them with uber characters and murder them. They should still do that now.

 

[timetokill]

Batman Arkham Asylum.

...... explanations please people.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Michael Jackson DS game plays the music with a vuvuzuela if is pirated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZwFxAi76iI

 

[rrs]

FADE system in ArmA series

 

[Drago]

Vuvuzelas in Michael Jackson DS

edit: beaten

 

[FYC]

Serious Sam 3

Basically they put an invincible enemy in to stop your progress.

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

Serious Sam 3 and the pink scorpion is tbe best.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

I think Earthbound crashed and erased your savefile before you reached the final boss. Also enemy encounter rate was increased as well and maybe some other things I forgot about.

 

[JNT]

...... explanations please people.

Something about not being able to glide...

[EDIT] More at link.

 

[PedroPanache]

Sim City had a good one. It basically crippled the game for anyone who played it. Even those who payed.

 

[Raptomex]

Ultima VII.

EDIT: You have to use the map or something to answer the questions in the first town. Pretty clever for it's day I guess.

 

[Goldenroad]

Online Pass. No code? No online functionality. Maybe not "clever" in the sense you are looking for, but from a business standpoint it's pretty clever.

 

[FlyinJ]

FADE system in ArmA series

The FADE system was introduced with Operation Flashpoint. It also was easy to get a false-positive on certain CD ROM drives (which happened to me), and completely ruined the game.

 

[LevityNYC]

Batman Arkham Asylum.

putting the code in gave the game a completely new opening with catwoman.

also.

 

[Baleoce]

Command and Conquer: Generals.

Would let you start building your base for the first 5 minutes, and then just blow it all up with no notice.

 

[Labrys]

In Devil Survivor 2, Dubhe is unbeatable if you have a pirated copy.

In Mirror's Edge, Faith will not excellerate fast enough to parkour, IIRC.

Oh, and a particularly bad one, in Spyro: Year of the Dragon, if the game detects you have a pirated copy (Or you have a badly scratched disc), the fairy will pop up on screen and basically say you're screwed. The game is unbeatable from then on.

 

[Soviet]

I remember in one of the Football Managers two bottom team from each Euro qualifiers groups were promoted to final phase, instead of top ones.

Yeah, I bet you all know what I'm talking about .

 

[SJRB]

Crysis - weapons firing chickens instead of bullets.

 

[MGrant]

Crysis 3 had two instances I remember seeing people out themselves with on forums. On the second level, you get a sniper rifle, only in the pirated version, it has no ammo and you cannot normally proceed. If you managed to get around that somehow, the final boss was unkillable.

 

[LakeEarth]

The forgettable Fight Club game. The first stage would run normally. In the second stage, the AI would kill you in one hit.

 

[Foxy Fox 39]

It's really annoying that pirates get exclusive content.

 

[shaowebb]

• Batman Arkham Asylum-your cape glide doesn't work and you plummet like a stone
  
• Serious Sam 3- Immortal super fast pink scorpion that stalks you the entire game.
  
• Pokemon HeartGold and Soul Silver-20 something steps and then game freeze
  
• Earthbound- Game Freezes in the final part of the Giygas battle and deletes ALL your saves.
  
• Alpha Protocol- Replaces sounds with grunts and loads you back to main menu instead of loading the game.
• Command and Conquer Red Alert 2- in 30 seconds your base and all your troops blow up
  
• Operation Flashpoint:Cold War Crisis- as you play all your weapons slowly degrade in power and accuracy till they are useless
  
• Cross Days (ero visual novel)- at the start of the game you fill out a personal survey about yourself. It asks for a LOT of personal info. If you are playing a pirated version it sneaks and screenshots your desktop to show what you are browsing and doing and not only posts your activity online for folks to view, but ALL your personal info including phone number and name if you filled it out honestly (many did lol)

 

[QMontague]

I belive in Chrono Trigger DS the game would play to the point when Crono jumped in the time machine, then just loop forever in the warping animation.

 

[Syril]

...... explanations please people.

Gliding wouldn't work on early pirated versions. Although I heard that one backfired on them when it was in some legitimate copies as a bug, so it resulted in cases of actual customers bringing it up and getting insulted by them.

 

[jabuseika]

That was the source of so many days of desperate rage. I rented MGS the first time around.

 

[Toki767]

They took out Batman's glide ability in Arkham Asylum for the people who pirated it on PC.

 

[Woorloog]

Command and Conquer: Generals.

Would let you start building your base for the first 5 minutes, and then just blow it all up with no notice.

Didn't Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 have this as well?

IIRC, some Civilization series games have the player start without any units if playing pirated version.

 

[CharmingCharlie]

GTA 4 had the character permanently drunk anti piracy measure. If the DRM kicked in your character would be drunk and it would be next to impossible to drive. Sounds cool except for the fact that the PC version was so badly produced that the DRM would kick in for those that had legitimate copies of the game.

Naturally it was next to impossible to get any help from people with regards to the DRM kicking in when it shouldn't because they were all called out as "pirates".

 

[NameGenerated]

I never understood how these things worked. Do the devs just put up a broken copy? Why wouldn't the pirates just seek out a fixed version to download?

 

[LuchaShaq]

I had no interest in game dev tycoon.

Now I might just buy it since they took this route instead of some horse shit customer hurting drm.

 

[Levyne]

I never understood how these things worked. Do the devs just put up a broken copy? Why wouldn't the pirates just seek out a fixed version to download?

Same, once it is know that there's a pirate unfriendly one wouldn't people just make sure to search for a correct copy? I guess it could make for some fun laughs in the first weeks

No, rather cracked exe triggers code that breaks the game in some way. At least that's how i understood it.
Though i think pirates can work around those issues eventually.

I see...

 

[Woorloog]

I never understood how these things worked. Do the devs just put up a broken copy? Why wouldn't the pirates just seek out a fixed version to download?

No, rather cracked exe triggers code that breaks the game in some way. At least that's how i understood it.
Though i think pirates can work around those issues eventually.

 

[GulAtiCa]

A lot of these are hilarious.

I'm always curious how developers are able to program these to detect if it's been pirated/etc.

 

[Eidan]

also.

I felt bad for anyone renting it.

 

[Chronoja]

GTA 4 had the character permanently drunk anti piracy measure. If the DRM kicked in your character would be drunk and it would be next to impossible to drive. Sounds cool except for the fact that the PC version was so badly produced that the DRM would kick in for those that had legitimate copies of the game.

Naturally it was next to impossible to get any help from people with regards to the DRM kicking in when it shouldn't because they were all called out as "pirates".

Yeah, I learned this trying to mod a few options outside the game and it thought I was playing on a pirated copy. It was pretty amusing to have every vehicle catch fire and speed up uncontrollably the moment I entered it.

 

[Jarmel]

There was an eroge game that took a picture of your desktop and uploaded it online publicly. People got caught with some weird shit such as plant porn. In order it to be taken down, they had to pay a fee and sign a waver or something.

 

[faridmon]

I remember in one of the Football Managers two bottom team from each Euro qualifiers groups were promoted to final phase, instead of top ones.

Yeah, I bet you all know what I'm talking about .

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOl

So QPR and Reading to CL..........

 

[RumblingRosco]

GTA 4 had the character permanently drunk anti piracy measure. If the DRM kicked in your character would be drunk and it would be next to impossible to drive. Sounds cool except for the fact that the PC version was so badly produced that the DRM would kick in for those that had legitimate copies of the game.

Naturally it was next to impossible to get any help from people with regards to the DRM kicking in when it shouldn't because they were all called out as "pirates".

This shit plagued me for a while due to some mod I installed some how triggering the DRM thing. Figured it out eventually.

 

[badcrumble]

The example of Deus Ex not letting you leave Liberty Island at the beginning of the game is a pretty famous one even if it's not necessarily "clever."

 

[The Smoking Bun]

I felt bad for anyone renting it.

For the PSN version, I just cycled through all the possible codes until I got the right one...
Take that Kojima... you insane genius!

 

[YouEnjoyMySelf]

I totally rented MGS and needed that damn case. No internet at the time and had to call the video store.

 

[CrazedProfessional]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUJP0-3Nt1I Earthbound makes enemies spawn at an impossible rate and if you survive, it deletes your save at the final boss.

 

[Labrys]

There was an eroge game that took a picture of your desktop and uploaded it online publicly. People got caught with some weird shit such as plant porn. In order it to be taken down, they had to pay a fee and sign a waver or something.

I remember that! I think School Days also had one where if you pirated it, you were asked to fill a survey that included stuff like your fetishes and where you lived in order to play it, and those answers were posted on a website for everyone to see.

Same game, sorry. I also found the name, it's Cross Days. Found an example of what was taken here (semi-NSFW)

 

[Syril]

For the PSN version, I just cycled through all the possible codes until I got the right one...
Take that Kojima... you insane genius!

Meryl's frequency is in the manual, you know.

 

[Rebel Leader]

serious sam 3

 

[The Smoking Bun]

Meryl's frequency is in the manual, you know.

I forgot how to Metal Gear?!

I found out the manual thing using the PS button later... Thanks regardless.

 

[danmaku]

• Cross Days (ero visual novel)- at the start of the game you fill out a personal survey about yourself. It asks for a LOT of personal info. If you are playing a pirated version it sneaks and screenshots your desktop to show what you are browsing and doing and not only posts your activity online for folks to view, but ALL your personal info including phone number and name if you filled it out honestly (many did lol)

This is probably illegal, but also fucking hilarious, considering it's a porn game.

 

[shaowebb]

This is probably illegal, but also fucking hilarious, considering it's a porn game.

Their is an image of a dude's desktop caught reading erotic plant fiction due to this lol.