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1989-02-23
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P I R A T E P L U S
B Y :
C O M P U T E R P I R A T E
Public Domain Software
PURPOSE:
This program is the next generation in PIRATE programs
from the Computer Pirate. PIRATE PLUS is an evolution
in the never ending battle to make copy protection a
total waste of time and money. You may use this program in
any way you might see fit. You alone are held responsible
for what you do with this program. (And we all know
what that will be...)
I also wrote this program as a follow up to my original
PIRATE program. PIRATE version 1 seemed to be real hit,
so I hope this version will be an even greater one. PIRATE
PLUS supports all features of the original version, plus
additional features discussed in this manual. This program
is public domain software and may be copied freely with
whomever you like. You may also distribute copies
of this program to your friends.
FEATURES:
This program utilizes a number of special features to
allow you to copy other programs. Many types of protection
methods are used to prohibit you from doing what you
are undoubtedly trying to do. This program will attempt
to assist you in what I believe to be a very worth while
venture. The name of the program should tell you of your
capabilities by having this program.
Some of the ways a disk can be protected include:
formatting certain sectors differently than others. This
method causes reading problems for your drive.
Another popular method is to skip tracks in an illogical
order with "skip" commands in the way. The "skip" commands
do not copy along with the rest of the disk. When you try
to use the copy, the drive reads the tracks in order,
because the "skip" commands are not there. Naturally,
your copy will not work.
An easy method to break is the counter method. "D-Base"
is a good example of this one. You are alloted a certain
number of copies, and after that... no more. This program
will keep your counter at the same level... no matter
how many copies you make.
This program also finds differently formatted tracks,
and fixes them. This program will also ignore "skip"
markers on the source disk, and copy them right along
with the normal data. This is nice because your copy
is as protected as your original was. Other methods
not covered in PIRATE include the placing of data on
a 41st track. Yes, I have found some programs to be
that way. A standard disc copy will not catch that
last track and this can cause you some headache.
Some other methods are used that imploy simpler tech-
niques or combinations of the above methods.
Despite these obsticles, I beleive you will find that
this program can be used on about 99% of the disks you
may want to "Pirate". I do, however, make no claims as
to the ability, if any, of this program; and can in no
way be held liable for damage to any hardware or soft-
ware you use it on. I can also not be held responsible
for any violations of any copywrite laws or patent
infringements through the use of this program.
In Short: YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN BUD!!
Happy Pirating!!
UPDATES:
Updates found in PIRATE PLUS include the use of all
types of drives. PIRATE supported only 5.25" drives
and would only use the "A" drive. You had to swap
disks and it was fairly inconvenient. PIRATE PLUS
will allow you to use any 5.25" drive in any config-
uration. Support is also provided for 1.2M 5.25"
drives. Another big plus is the support for 3.50"
drives. You can now PIRATE those little disks as
easy as the bigger ones. Naturally, you can only
PIRATE like drives; ie. you can not PIRATE a 5.25"
to a 3.50" or vice versa. Now you can PIRATE 5.25",
3.50" and high density versions of both with one
easy to use program.
I also made the program as easy to use as your standard
DOS DISCCOPY command. Read further to see how this is
done.
INSTALL:
If you have a hard drive, I salute you. Hard drives
are the only way to go for programs such as PIRATE PLUS.
I have supplied an INSTALL.BAT routine to install
PIRATE PLUS on your hard drive. It will create a
subdirectory called "PIRATE" and install the system
files in that directory. It will also update the
ACCESS.DAT file to accomodate the copying process.
SETUP:
PIRATE PLUS includes a setup program called CONFIG.EXE
to be used when first using the program. The setup
program is used to tell PIRATE PLUS information about
your particular system and its configuration. There
are default settings which cover about all normal
applications on XT's, AT's, TANDY's, and other clones.
You may, however have some abnormal configurations
that could affect the operation of PIRATE PLUS. I
would, therefore, suggest running the CONFIG.EXE program
the first time you use PIRATE PLUS. Your setups are
saved for the next time you use it.
USAGE:
To use this program, simply boot your system with
a DOS system disk of version 3.0 or later. At the
prompt, type "PIRATE [SOURCE DRIVE] [TARGET DRIVE]".
([SOURCE DRIVE] is the drive for the source disk and [TARGET
DRIVE] is the drive for the target disk) and wait for your
instructions. You will be instructed to insert your source
and target disks into the appropriate drives. Your target
disk must already be formatted. After the the disks are in
place, press any key to begin. You can press CTRL-C to
abort the copy process. The computer will read the
source disk and will then write to the target disk. This is
much easier than the original PIRATE for you dual floppy
owners. As each sector of data is read from the source disk,
it is allocated to a memory location with a marker as to the
sector and track it was read from. This way, the data is
returned to the target disk in the exact same order it was
read from the source disk. During the course of copying, if
you receive an error message, that means that a protected
place in the program was found. You will be asked if you want
it changed to what the "Pirate" thinks it should be. This
error could also come from a bad spot on the disk. Be sure to
check your source disk first. You may have to try copying
twice if you select to correct an error when you should-
n't have, or vice-versa.
TROUBLE:
If you have trouble using this program or running a copy
you have made, check to see if all steps were followed
properly. Please ensure that you followed the setup
routine correctly. If you have some abnormal system
configurations, you may need to change your setup
parameters in the CONFIG.EXE program supplied with
PIRATE PLUS. I do not guarantee 100% success with
this program. Copy protection is becoming very big
business and changes to types and methods are very
quickly coming in to play. We must all do our part
to show programmers that we've had enough and that
they can't stop us.
NOTES:
This program was written for my own pleasure and as a
challenge. I certainly hope that you enjoy using
it, and come across some great programs through its
use. You are reminded that I do not promise you
anything by using this program. I have used it
and found it beneficial. I hope that you will too.
This is public domain software and may be distributed
freely. Let's support the free enterprise system.
ENJOY!!!
*** COMPUTER PIRATE ***