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Updated January 17th, 2021, by Thomas Bowen: While plagiarism is all but unheard of on most modern day consoles, it once ran rampant throughout the gambling industry. Mod-chips and bootleg cartridges allowed criminals to sell illegal copies of games for a fraction of their retail value whilst hacks and cracks helped personal computer gamers to download the newest titles without paying a penny. Rather than relying on the long branch of the police to deal with this problem, however, many developers decided to take matters into their own hands. These are equitable some of the more creative solutions that they came up with .
15 Earthbound
The team over at HAL Laboratory went to great lengths in order to prevent players from pirating Earthbound. Some of them are fairly simple, like having the game check the area of the console table or making certain that the cartridge does n’t have more memory than it ‘s supposed to. Those who make changes to the read-only memory to get around these will encounter some far more devilish measures though .
Hacked copies of the game will greatly increase the number of enemies that the player encounters which can make the plot far more difficult and long-winded to play. even if players battle through this overplus of extra enemies, however, they even wo n’t be able to complete the game. Upon arriving at the game ‘s concluding boss, the screen will freeze forcing them to reset. Upon doing indeed, they ‘ll find that all of their spare files have been wholly deleted ; effectively eradicating about 28 hours of difficult work .
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14 Garry’s Mod
No matter how much work is put into designing anti-piracy measures, people are always going to find a way to crack them. It can sometimes take merely a matter of minutes or in other instances a copulate of months. ultimately though – much like end and taxes – it ‘s something of an inevitability. Knowing this, Garry ‘s Mod godhead Garry Newman took a slenderly different approach .
rather than trying to stop people from running commandeer copies of the crippled, he alternatively programmed in a special mistake message that reads “ unable to shade polygon normals ” and is accompanied by a unique mistake code which identifies the player ‘s Steam ID. naturally, many of those affected took to forums to inquire about the erroneousness, allowing Garry to identify their accounts and besides those who ‘d purchased the game legitimately to laugh at these dastard deviants ‘ stupidity .
13 The Witcher 2
much like its 2015 sequel, the Witcher 2 allows players to r omance many of the crippled ‘s NPCs and even treats them to some fairly vestigial ‘sex ‘ scenes for doing so. Those playing on pirate copies of the game are in for a bit of a jolt though, with romance NPCs replaced by a creepy erstwhile lady named Marietta Loredo. This was n’t the merely measure that CDPR put in place either .
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The bet on besides includes a excerpt of randomly triggered cutscenes in which Geralt is killed. sadly, however, neither the batch of Geralt getting it on with Marietta nor the terror of sporadic deaths was adequate to deter the many would be pirates out there, which ultimately led to the developer tracking some of them down and requesting fiscal compensation. As one might expect ; the very real menace of potential legal carry through proved far more effective .
12 Alan Wake
The team over at Remedy Entertainment adopted a similar tactic when designing Alan Wake, although rather than trying to out these criminals to the residential district, they rather wanted to shame them in private. Whether or not it actually worked out that way is hard to say though .
If the game caught any whiff of piracy, the game ‘s protagonist would be shown wearing an eye-patch throughout the game. It had no real bearing on how the game played nor did it prevent completion. What it did do though is constantly remind involve players precisely what they were. Dirty, stinking pirates. The lapp thing happens in pirate copies of the studio apartment ‘s 2016 title Quantum Break as well .
11 Red Alert 2
Those wanting to succeed in Red Alert 2 have to focus on two things. first, they ‘ll need to build up a hard excerpt of units with which to take on enemies and stave off attacks. second – and possibly most importantly – they ‘ll need to keep their establish standing in arrange to avoid the awful ‘game over ‘ shield. It ‘s therefor quite fitting then that EA opted to target these two areas when designing the game ‘s anti-piracy measures .
Within 30 seconds of a new game beginning, those playing on pirate copies of could lone watch as their base and units self-destruct causing the game to end immediately. In many ways, this was actually quite generous of EA, as many developers would have rather opted to allow players to sink some time into the game before initiating this self-destruct succession .
10 The Secret Of Monkey Island
In the early days of personal computer gaming piracy was rampant. It was fabulously easy to copy games – all that was needed was a lacuna harrow, and of course a personal computer. This lead to an early method of anti-piracy, or “ imitate security ” as it was known at the prison term, where the player needed a legit replicate of the game to answer a wonder. The question was typically like, “ What is the second letter of the first base word in the first paragraph on page 4 of the crippled manual ” .
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early versions of The Secret of Monkey Island included a wheel with a spinning inner bicycle, called the “ Dial-A-Pirate ”. The player would need to line up the top and lower halves of the indicate character ’ s expression to get the correct four digit code. This code-wheel system would be used by many companies in the late 1980s and 90s .
9 Crysis Warhead
Crysis Warhead was a follow-up title to the over-achieving master Crysis crippled that featured a hilarious anti-piracy proficiency. The game did have a version of SecuROM that digitally authenticated a properly acquired replicate of the game – but that ’ s not what earned Crysis Warhead a topographic point on this list. There is an anti-piracy measurement in this game that causes the actor ’ randomness weapons to shoot chickens in commandeer copies. These chickens don ’ thyroxine lawsuit any damage to enemies ( though they will stagger them ) ; this leaves only physical attacks as a means for the player to cause price. This makes Crysis Warhead a distribute more amuse to play/watch, but it besides makes it about impossible to beat .
8 Batman: Arkham Asylum
batman : Arkham Asylum launched a serial of games that many consider to be the best of all time. This bet on succeeded at something that many earlier had failed to do – make the musician feel like they were Batman. One of the best features of the series is the ability to glide through the air out. many parts of the game actually require players to use this glide ability to advance. then when the developers were deciding on anti-piracy measures they decided to focus on the glide ability – which is absent in pirate copies. rather of gracefully gliding to the next chopine, Batman drops like a rock. This effectively makes this game unbeatable .
7 Mirror’s Edge
EA is celebrated for their on-line Origin system for DRM ( digital rights management ). Though with Mirror ’ second Edge EA decided to go a bit far and added a “ feature ” that only appears in a pirate copy of the game. The supporter in Mirror ’ randomness Edge frequently utilizes parkour for getting from point A to sharpen B .
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Parkour involves a bunch of changeless motion, startle, and tumbling skills. Pirated copies of this game reverse the supporter ’ mho momentum, causing her to slow down when running rather of accelerating. This makes the plot wholly unplayable – as the first big startle players encounter is rendered uncrossable .
6 Sims 4
The Sims games have always been a bit modest in terms of pornographic content. When a character in these games does something that is normally done in private the game will pixelate the “ offending ” area. To punish those players who play the Sims 4 with a commandeer transcript, EA/Maxis decided to take this “ modesty ” to another flat. When performing one of these pixelating actions, like taking a shower or using the toilet, players of a pirated transcript will soon discover the pixelated area remains after the legal action is complete. Those who choose to ignore this effect and continue will soon find themselves playing with the entire screen pixelated .
5 Serious Sam 3
The Serious Sam games have always featured chaotic battle in large, open areas against hordes of enemies. The games are besides known for having a bit of temper in them ; so when setting a trap for commandeer copies the developers had a little fun. Players playing a pirate transcript of Serious Sam 3 will initially think nothing is amiss ; however that soon changes in hilarious ( and freighting ) fashion. The crippled will spawn a pink arachnid that is immune to damage, fabulously firm, and can attack from close and long range. Encountering this arachnoid is terrifying at first ; though watching it slide along the grind at break-neck focal ratio and shrug-off every attack is besides more than a little smile-inducing .
4 The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Nintendo is celebrated for their anti-piracy measures. In the early on days some Nintendo consoles employed physical anti-piracy techniques ; like their Famicom Disk System, which employed a mechanical detector that fit into the bible “ Nintendo ” molded into the phonograph record. The Legend of Zelda : liveliness Tracks uses a very clever and game-breaking anti-piracy method .
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normally when Link operates the aim there are controls along the side of the shield that allow the player to speed up, slow down, and stop the train. Players of pirate copies have to play without these caravan controls though – meaning the game is unplayable about from the start .
3 Skullgirls
Skullgirls is a shroud jewel among modern fighting games. The fluent gameplay, responsive controls, and colorful draw of playable characters have made it slightly of a fad classical. Knowing piracy is difficult to stop, the developers included a small change to commandeer copies of the game to trick the pirates. After finishing the game, pirated copies will display a message that reads, “ What is the square etymon of a fish ? now I ’ megabyte sad. ” This has caused message boards and sub-Reddits for the game to be peppered with questions by players asking about “ the square rout of a pisces ” – revealing to the world that they pirated Skullgirls .
2 Arma II
Arma II is a capital open-world first-person shooter. It had big, unfold battlefields, a short ton of different weapons to try, and over a hundred vehicles the player can control. The developers besides included an anti-piracy package called DEGRADE into Arma II. This causes the game to change slightly over meter until it is finally rendered unplayable. The fist change is that the accuracy of the player ’ second weapons will begin to worsen. The game then begins causing the screen to become wavy ; simulating the effect of playing while drink. ultimately, the crippled will begin filling the screen with Arma II logo .
1 Game Dev Tycoon
Game Dev Tycoon is a game where players attempt to run a successful game development studio. so when developer Greenheart Games was deciding on what anti-piracy method acting they would use, they chose the choice steeped in irony. Those playing on a commandeer copy can progress through the crippled as normal, but once they become excessively successful a nasty storm will be waiting. The player ’ south newer games will on the spur of the moment stop being arsenic successful as their previous ones ; causing their development studio apartment to have fiscal problems. An employee will finally inform the actor that their games are being pirated, and there is nothing they can do to save their company. This caused those that pirated the bet on to flood message boards with questions about how to avoid the in-game piracy .
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About The Author
Jeff Drake
( 160 Articles Published )
graduate of Sam Houston State University — class of 2011 B.A. in History, minored in Political skill I have lived in the Houston TX sphere my whole life ; love the winters … hate the summers. I have conducted scholarly research on, and written about, the use of balloon for reconnaissance purposes during the U.S. Civil War, tort reform, voter initiatives and referendums, the formation of civilization, Ancient Rome, Mesopotamia, and the major religions. I am besides an avid crippled and have researched the history of electronic entertainment extensively .
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