Over time, software publishers (especially in the case of
video games) became creative about crippling the software in case it was duplicated. These games would initially show that the copy was successful, but eventually render themselves unplayable via subtle methods. Many games use the "code checksumming" technique to prevent alteration of code to bypass other copy protection. Important constants for the gamesuch as the accuracy of the player's firing, the speed of their movement, etc.are not included in the game but calculated from the numbers making up the
machine code of other parts of the game. If the code is changed, the calculation yields a result which no longer matches the original design of the game and the game plays improperly. •
Superior Soccer had no outward signs of copy protection, but if it decided it was not a legitimate copy, it made the
soccer ball in the game invisible, making it impossible to play the game. • In ''
Sid Meier's Pirates!'', if the player entered in the wrong information, they could still play the game, but with substantially increased difficulty. •
The Games: Winter Challenge has multiple checks for its code wheel protection. If not all are bypassed various events are
unwinnable, without notifying the player.
GOG.com did not fully remove the checks from its legally sold version of the game and
The Games: Summer Challenge, causing customer complaints. • As a more satirical nod to the issue, if the thriller-action game
Alan Wake detects that the game is cracked or a pirated copy, it will replace tips in loading screens with messages telling the player to buy the game. If a new game is created on the copied game, an additional effect will take place. As a more humorous nod to "piracy", Alan Wake will gain a black
eyepatch over his right eye, complete with a miniature
Jolly Roger. • While the copy protection in
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders was not hidden as such, the repercussions of missing the codes was unusual: the player ended up in jail (permanently), and the police officer gave a lengthy and condescending speech about software copying. • In case of copied versions of
The Settlers III, the iron smelters only produced pigs (a play on
pig iron); weaponsmiths require iron to produce weapons, so players could not amass arms. •
Bohemia Interactive developed a unique and very subtle protection system for its game
Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. Dubbed FADE, if it detects an unauthorized copy, it does not inform the player immediately but instead progressively corrupts aspects of the game (such as reducing the weapon accuracy to zero) to the point that it eventually becomes unplayable. The message "Original discs don't FADE" will eventually appear if the game is detected as being an unauthorized copy. • FADE is also used in
ArmA II, and will similarly diminish the accuracy of the player's weapons, as well as induce a "drunken vision" effect, where the screen becomes wavy, should the player be playing on an unauthorized copy. • This system was also used in
Take On Helicopters, where the screen blurred and distorted when playing a counterfeit copy, making it hard to safely pilot a helicopter. • The
IndyCar Series also utilizes FADE technology to safeguard against piracy by making races very difficult to win on a pirated version. The penultimate section of the game's manual states: •
Batman: Arkham Asylum contained a code that disabled Batman's glider cape, making some areas of the game very difficult to complete and a certain achievement/trophy impossible to unlock (gliding continuously for over 100m). • The PC version of
Grand Theft Auto IV has a copy protection that swings the camera as though the player was drunk. If the player enters a car and motorcycle or boat it will automatically throttle, making it difficult to steer. It also damages the vehicle, making it vulnerable to collisions and bullets. An update to the game prevented unauthorised copies from accessing the in-game
web browser, making it impossible to finish the game as some missions involve browsing the
web for objectives. •
EarthBound is well-documented for its extensive use of
checksums to ensure that the game is being played on legitimate hardware. If the game detects that it is being played on a European
SNES, it refuses to boot, as the first of several checksums has failed. A second checksum will weed out most unauthorized copies of the game, but hacking the data to get past this checksum will trigger a third checksum that makes enemy encounters appear much more often than in an authorized copy, and if the player progresses through the game without giving up (or cracks this protection), a final checksum code will activate before the final boss battle, freezing the game and deleting all the save files. A similar copy protection system was used in
Spyro: Year of the Dragon, although it only uses one copy protection check at the beginning of the game (see below). • In an unauthorized version of the PC edition of
Mass Effect, the game save mechanism did not work and the in-game galactic map caused the game to crash. As the galactic map is needed to travel to different sections of the game, the player became stuck in the first section of the game. • If an unauthorized version of
The Sims 2 was used, the Build Mode would not work properly. Walls could not be built on the player's property, which prevented the player from building any custom houses. Some furniture and clothing selections would not be available either. • A March 2009 update to the BeeJive IM iPhone app included special functionality for users of the unauthorized version: the screen would read "
PC LOAD LETTER" whenever the user tried to establish a connection to any IM service, then quickly switch to a YouTube clip from the movie
Office Space. •
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and have a copy protection system that completely wipes out the player's forces briefly after a battle begins on an unlicensed copy. However, some who purchased the latter have encountered a
bug that caused this copy protection scheme to
trigger when it was not supposed to. • If a player pirated the
Nintendo DS version of
Michael Jackson: The Experience,
vuvuzela noises will play over the notes during a song, which then become invisible. The game will also freeze if the player tries to pause it. • Older versions of
Autodesk 3ds Max use a
dongle for copy protection; if it is missing, the program will randomly corrupt the points of the user's model during usage, destroying their work. • Older versions of
CDRWIN used a serial number for initial copy protection. However, if this check was bypassed, a second hidden check would activate causing a random factor to be introduced into the CD burning process, producing corrupted "coaster" disks. •
Terminate, a BBS terminal package, would appear to operate normally if cracked but would insert a warning that a pirated copy was in use into the IEMSI login packet it transmitted, where the
sysop of any BBS the user called could clearly read it. • ''Ubik's Musik
, a music creation tool for the Commodore 64, would transform into a Space Invaders'' game if it detected that a cartridge-based copying device had attempted to interrupt it. This copy protection system also doubles as an
Easter egg, as the message that appears when it occurs is not hostile ("Plug joystick in port 1, press fire, and no more resetting/experting!"). • The Amiga version of
Bomberman featured a
multitap peripheral that also acted as a
dongle. Data from the multitap was used to calculate the time limit of each level. If the multitap was missing, the time limit would be calculated as 0, causing the level to end immediately. •
Nevermind, a puzzle game for the Amiga, contained code that caused an unlicensed version of the game to behave as a demo. The game would play three levels sampled from throughout the game, and then give the message "You have completed three levels; however there are 100 levels to complete on the original disc." • In
Spyro: Year of the Dragon, the game performs regular checksums over its own code to detect tampering. If a modification is identified, the game will slowly employ a litany of measures intended to slow the player down, including randomly removing gems from the world and reversing the player’s egg collection progress. The final boss also becomes unbeatable, as the game returns the player to the beginning of the game (and wipes their save file at the same time) around half a minute into the battle. • The
Atari Jaguar console would freeze at startup and play the sound of an enraged jaguar snarling if the inserted cartridge failed the initial security check. • The
Lenslok copy protection system gave an obvious message if the lens-coded letters were entered incorrectly, but if the user soft-reset the machine, the areas of memory occupied by the game would be flooded with the message "THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN OUR PRODUCT. NICE TRY. LOVE BJ/NJ" to prevent the user examining leftover code to crack the protection. • An update to the sandbox game ''
Garry's Mod enabled a copy protection mechanism that outputs the error "Unable to shade polygon normals"'' if the game detects that it has been copied. The error also includes the user's
Steam ID as an error ID, meaning that users can be identified by their Steam account when asking for help about the error over the
Internet. • The Atari version of
Alternate Reality: The Dungeon would have the player's character attacked by two unbeatable "FBI Agents" if it detected a cracked version. The FBI agents would also appear when restoring a save which was created by such a version, even if the version restoring the save was legal. •
VGA Planets, a play-by-BBS strategy game, contained code in its server which would check all clients' submitted turns for suspect registration codes. Any player deemed to be using a cracked copy, or cheating in the game, would have random forces destroyed throughout the game by an unbeatable enemy called "The Tim Continuum" (after the game's author, Tim Wissemann). A similar commercial game,
Stars!, would issue empty turn updates for players with invalid registration codes, meaning that none of their orders would ever be carried out. • On a copied version of the original PC version of
Postal, as soon as the game was started, the player character would immediately shoot himself in the head. • In
Serious Sam 3: BFE, if the game code detects what it believes to be an unauthorized copy, an invincible scorpion-like monster is spawned in the beginning of the game with high speeds, melee attacks, and attacks from a range with twin chainguns making the game extremely difficult and preventing the player from progressing further. Also in the level "Under the Iron Cloud", the player's character will spin out-of-control looking up in the air. • An unauthorized copy of
Pokémon Black and White and their sequels will run as if it were normal, but the Pokémon will not gain any experience points after a battle. This has since been solved by patching the game's files. • If ''
Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit'' detects an illegitimate or downloaded copy of the game, it will convert the entire game's text into the game's symbol based foreign language, Borginian, which cannot be translated in any way. • The unlicensed version of indie game
Game Dev Tycoon, in which the player runs a game development company, will dramatically increase the piracy rate of the games the player releases to the point where no money can be made at all, and disable the player's ability to take any action against it. • In the
stand-alone expansion to Crytek's
Crysis,
Crysis Warhead, players who pirated the game will have their ammunition replaced with chickens that inflict no damage and have very little knockback, rendering ranged combat impossible. • In Crytek's
Crysis 3, if a player used an unlicensed copy of the game, he is not able to defeat the last boss (The Alpha Ceph), thus making it impossible to beat the game. • In ''
Mirror's Edge'', copy protection will prevent its player character, Faith, from sprinting, making it impossible for players to jump over long gaps and progress further on a pirated copy. • In
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks if the player is playing a pirated copy of the game it will remove the train control UI if it detects that it has been pirated, which effectively stonewalls the player at the train's tutorial section very early on and thus making the game unbeatable. The usage of copy protection payloads which lower playability of a game without making it clear that this is a result of copy protection is now generally considered unwise, due to the potential for it to result in unaware players with unlicensed copies spreading word-of-mouth that a game is of low quality. The authors of FADE explicitly acknowledged this as a reason for including the explicit warning message. == Anti-piracy ==