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The game will detect for any piracy activity during most screen transitions in three different ways: by saving, by writing to read-only memory, and by checking if the game is played on a PAL-region console. Should the game detect itself as a pirated copy, the game will display a black screen with the Japanese katakana word "ビデオ" ("Video") on the top right corner of the screen, imitating the video input channel display on common television sets at the time. The text then proceeds to behave erratically, as if the TV had glitched. Presumably, this screen was designed to taunt pirates for playing an unauthorized copy of the game.

A variant of this screen exists in the game's sequel, From TV Animation Slam Dunk 2: IH Yosen Kanzenhan!, serving as the screen saver for that game's debug mode as well.

In early 2021, a man from Nagoya, Japan was arrested after hacking and modifying Pokémon in his copy of the game and selling them to people. The Japanese police and The Pokémon Company felt this was in violation of the country's "Unfair Competition Prevention Act (UCPA)" and therefore illegal. The man was first brought to the police's attention after selling a modified Sobble for ¥4,400 (US$42), but he was eventually able to make ¥1.15 million (US$11,000) from various transactions before being arrested. It's suspected that the reason for trading these hacked Pokémon was due to the potential ability changes that hacking allowed which could provide easy advantages in the competitive scene without going through the time to catch them in-game.

To detect if the Steam version of the game is a pirated copy, the game registers a fake DLC ID with SteamAPI. If a Steam emulator unlocks all DLC, the game won't progress past the first chapter and will open browser windows to the Steam page of the game every frame, potentially freezing your computer for having too many tabs on your browser.

pack/database/stat.rbrb also contains this text about a popular Steam emulator. It's referenced in the exe so it's not completely unused, but if it actually triggers anything is unknown.

"steam_api.dll.ali123
ALI123.INI
- STEAM NOT DETECTED! RESTART GAME TO ENABLE STEAM FUNC! -"

As of 2.00 the game also checks the integrity of steam_api.dll and will softlock after defeating a boss in Chapter 2 by disabling your controls.

Although the PlayStation has extraordinary copy protection, many hackers, home-brewers, and pirates worked around it via the infamous "Disc Swap" trick which is possible as the console uses a lid in a similar fashion to a portable CD player. This trick involves swapping a regular PlayStation disc with a back-up or rewritable CD during the startup.

Likely because of this exploit, Sony created future numbered PlayStation consoles that use disc trays rather than lids.

If the game detects the copy you are playing is pirated, all dialogue text will be replaced with the Borginian "language" font from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, making all the dialogue in the game unreadable, as the characters are swapped randomly. The game is still playable, but playing a visual novel without being able to understand the majority of the text is not intended for the genre. Various button labels, character names and evidence you collect have their text values intact, but the Organizer descriptions on the Touch Screen are replaced with several X's.

If the game detects that its cartridge is a pirated copy, Zelda's hair will turn into a giant pentagon in cutscenes, fishing will always result in a hooked fish escaping after 51 frames of animation, and Spoiler:the exit to Ganon's Castle during the escape sequence will be blocked off to Link, as Zelda will run right through the bars, leaving Link behind and making the game impossible to finish.

Before Sword and Shield's release, nearly the entire game was leaked onto a Discord server by four users. The Pokémon Company decided to take action almost a week after the games officially released by filing a lawsuit against those four users. Perkins Coie LLP, the international law firm hired to represent The Pokémon Company during this case, believed that the company was “[harmed and disrupted in] its ability to market Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield” and issued subpoenas to Discord as well as the website 4chan where the leaks were also posted in an effort to try and identify the perpetrators.

In the PC version, if the game detects that the player is using a pirated copy, checkpoints will activate within the game. These checkpoints will start to affect Faith's running. She will gradually start to slow down once she reaches a ledge, making it impossible for her complete a jump. Because the first few sections of the game require Faith to parkour through the level, it is impossible for the player to advance any further thus making the game unbeatable.

If the game detects that the game is pirated, a pitch-shifted and reversed version of the main theme song will play on the title screen. When this song is plugged into a spectrogram, the end of the song will form The Devil in the 3 forms of his boss fight - Regular, skeletal and giant face.

There is anti-piracy protection within the Dreamcast version of the game. If the console detects that the game is running from a copied disc and not an official GD-ROM, Eggman will be locked in death cycle at the start of his section in Cannon's Core. He'll immediately start falling through the floor, dying and respawning in the same position repeatedly. It's still possible to reach the end of the level, but visual glitches and a fixed improper camera angle will hinder the player's attempts to navigate the level.

The ROM for the game contains hidden credits. At the end of the credits is a very brief, but firm message about people who plan to pirate the game: Pirates leave no footprints.

If the game detects that you are playing an illegal copy after a Sim finishes any action that uses the mosaic censor, instead of it disappearing as normal the mosaic will not only remain there but will grow until the entire screen is nothing but pixels.

If The New Challengers release of the game detects that the cartridge ROM is too large or not mirrored correctly, which is usually caused by use of a cartridge copier, the game will completely black out the screen some time after starting a match.

When the player presses Start at the title screen, the game checks for the string "© konami" in VRAM. If the check fails, a flag is set, making the game's final boss, Shredder, much more difficult to beat. If the player manages to defeat this harder version of Shredder, the game will restart at the beginning of the fight.

If the game detects a pirated copy, this message will appear upon booting up:

ALERT!!!

Pirated Copy!

But you're in luck. For
just $32.50 you can get
your own, unpirated copy
of 3-K Trivia!

As an anti-piracy measure, if the game is not an authentic copy it sets in a series of measures. The player's damage dealt will be decreased, enemies will deal double damage, and the Shredder will be immortal making the game impossible to beat.

There is some rather vulgar anti-piracy text left in the game's files that states:

"Yo buddy! I don't know and I don't care how and why are you here,
I just want to give you a few advises in case if you're here to CRACK
this stuff.Well,in every 80 seconds a man is murdered,and in every 10
seconds another one of our PROTECTION-STAGES starts. In other words,
you can be sure that you will NEVER have a WORKING CRACK of PERIHELION.
(WANNA BET?) Of course you're proud and you'll try (I too would try)
but you will fail because you won't even realize where did ya fail,
what's the problem,what is PROTECTION and what is not.Phew,that's life!
Will you play it over a dozen times? IT WON'T WORK! Will you release
a fuckin' dying half-crack? WHAT A SHAME! Relax honey,you're gonna
suck up not because you're SOOO LAME,but because WE ARE SOOO GOOD!
Right? Well,that's all for today,now go back to your childish toys
and let's see how our computerized insecticide works on parasites like
you. By the way,did ya know that PIRACY IS THEFT? Oh,surely not,sorry...
Now at least you cannot say we didn't warn you... SIGNED: MORBID VISIONS"

In the game's files is a rather nasty message to pirates:

Well, well, well. What can I write in this sector ?
I could tell you nosy sods to bugger off.
Hmmm, OK then ... BUGGER OFF YOU NOSY SODS !!!!!!!!

Copy this disk and your knob will fall off.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Don't come running to me with your meat and two veg !

I was only joking - honest ....
BYE BYE. See you on the next game"

In the Amiga version of the game's files contains a message for people who attempt to pirate the game:

"Line Of Fire was written by Richard Aplin for Creative Materials &
U.S. Gold from July-November 1990.

;Dear Cracker,
;To save you time, simply fill in the appropriate lines below..

type "Line Of Fire!
type " Cracked by the utterly amazing and fab _________ of _______!"
type "Hot greets to _____ and _____!!"
type "Lamings and slaggings to _____ of _____ and _____!!!"
type "Call our BBSs on ____-______ and ____-______ for the latest warez!"
type ""
type "I am a sad and immature spotty little twat because _______________."
type "I crack games for free as I have no friends"
type "and am physically repulsive to females because of my chronic _______."
type "I hate my parents because they _____ and make me tidy me room even"
type "when I have been at kindergarten the whole day."
type ""
type "I have played with myself ____ times in the past 24 hours"
type "and have wet dreams about ________ from Neighbours."
type ""
type "The last Kylie Minogue record I brought was ________ and I think"
type "she's lush and fab and ace and wicked because she's _________ and I fancy her."
type ""
type "Press right button for trainer, left for normal. Probably."
Crap_Demo_That_Crashes_Half_The_Time_And_Has_A_Sprite_Starfield_Oooh_How_Original
run Corrupt_loads_of_memory_all_over_the_place
Game







*****************************************************************************
*If you are under 14 or have a Datel Action Replay, you may not read further*
*****************************************************************************






Right that's that over with.





Firstly....
For those who might possibly be interested, rather than those who just want
to hack the program to bits....

Sega wouldn't let us have ANY credits on the game, so I thought we might
as well put some here.

I (Richard Aplin) wrote the Amiga and ST versions (though at the time of writing
- 12th Nov.1990 - I haven't started the ST conversion yet!)
I much prefer the Amiga (doesn't anyone?) so I have done that version
first, using all the extra hardware, then i'm going to bang out the
ST version when necessary.


"Uncle Art" (actually a limited company!) did the (not very good) music.
- Oh yeah.. Apologies and sympathy to Uncle Tom (the person!) for the
fuck up with his amazing Double Dragon II music!


The bitmap graphics were grabbed from the arcade PCB video output by Andy Heike
and Nick Vincent with the colour frame grabber, and the sprites were read,
decoded and converted from the arcade machine's Eproms by me. (Not a bit
of bloody help from Sega either!) They were remapped from 21 million to 16
colours by Andy Heike, Nick Vincent, and some students in Manchester.

I sampled the sound effects from the PCB's sound chip (not very hard at all!)

Tiertex wrote the protection check code (which is utter shit - well on form
for Tiertex!)

Steve Fitton and Tony Porter from U.S. Gold provided all the nagging and
hassle which was most unwelcome, but kind of expected anyway.




During the writing of this, I used:

Work
====
3 Commodore A500s
21Mb A590 Hard Disk + 2.5Mb ram
Commodore A1000 + 2Mb ram
Tandon 20Mhz 80386 PC + 40Mb Hard Disk
Souped-up JCL Colourpic video frame-grabber
PerfectSound sampler
Some custom EPROM-reading hardware I built to read the arcade board's roms.
Atari 1040ST (yuk)
+Various extra drives, disks, etc,etc
Lots of coffee

Fun (Notice how the two are divided?!?)
===
Nintendo GameBoy (+Tetris & others)
Sega MegaDrive (+Ghouls'n'ghosts, etc)
Mr.Do! arcade board
Hundreds of records, tapes & CDs and a {} stereo
Sony Video Walkman (+Blackadder 1-4, Comic Strip, Young Ones, and others)
Roland D110 multi-timbral LA synth (rackmount)
Cheetah MS6 multi-timbral analogue synth (rackmount)
Yamaha TX7 FM synth (stupidly-shaped black box)
Casio FZ1 16-bit sampler + loads of disks
Alesis Quadraverb 16-bit digital fx processor (rackmount)
Fender Strat guitar (well, a cheap clone)
A couple of guitar fx pedals
DeskTech 6:2 mixer
MicroIllusions Music-X sequencer (Amazing program)
Virtually no musical talent/ability whatsoever
US Robotics Courier HST modem (for P.D. BBSs of course)
Many gallons of beer, Black Bush whisky, Potheen (when available - cheers Mark!)
Various people's floors/sofas/etc in London when at computer shows
(most time spent at the bar)"

Inside the game's files is a vulgar message to pirates:
STOP IT =NOW=, OK! You will gain *NOTHING* from breaking this protection,
but I guess you're too fucking ignorant, narrow-minded or maybe even too
stupid to understand that. Yeah, so you and your 'leaders' and 'spreaders'
(that's what they like to call themselves, but they're nothing but LEECHES
gaining some kind of fame from the work you do) will have something to
spread around on BBS', ok... But what the hell do they, or you, REALLY get
for all that, huh? Ok credits... So they can download some shit games or
other software, but in a wider perspective? I'll tell you =NOTHING=. It's
pointless. If you don't realize that now, I assure you that in a few years
you will look back at this time and wonder why you did it. I know that
from experience. Go and do something constructive, like studying,
socializing, programming or whatever! Cracking is not constructive. To
you it might seem like a challenge or something you do to get famous, well
OK it is a challenge to crack, and you do get famous if you're good at it.
Famous for a while, a short while. But nobody will care about that five
years from now. You will benefit much more from getting a job, education
or a girlfriend, I'm telling you because I KNOW. I was a cracker once, one
of the best. In a time when you could actually send the originals by mail,
work for a day or two, and then send the cracked version back, and still
have a world-first release. Then the scene consisted by computer freaks
who made it for the fun of it. The scene today is perverted and lead by
ignorant computer-illiterate idiots, only in for the fame and money. They
think they're famous and legendary, but nobody likes or admires them for
sure. I HATE IT! Now I've realized the stupidity of my actions, and I
wish I could undo them. You'll also do just that in a few years too if you
have a conscience, and wish you had done something else. SO DON'T CRACK
IT!"

Another one is written by Stefan Boberg, the game's creator, who may have also written the message above:

================ DIVINE PROTECTION BY =THE MIGHTY GOD=
WRITE TO ME: boberg@lysator.liu.se
FINALLY YOU HAVETHE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK TO A REAL COMPUTER ===== GOD! =====
CURRENTLY STUDYING APPLIED PHYSICS AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AT LINKOPING INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY!! =====SWEDEN=====
Don't even think about it. Cracking is both illegal and immoral and will get you NOWHERE in this world.
We have spent a lot of time doing this game, and we will not hesitate to take legal actions against
those who duplicate this game illegally.
We have complete overview over the cracking scene, and know your name and whereabouts, no doubt.
We have prepared a nice surprise for you.
You may think it is challenging, exciting or even glorious to crack, but from our point of view it is nothing but theft and sabotage.
You may have read or heard all this before, but this time it's different and REAL. We mean it.
Think about it.
If you continue doing what you're doing right now, the game programmers will have to leave the Amiga
programming in favour for Nintendo, Sega etc.
It is up to you and the rest of the Amiga users.
If you still insist on being an ignorant egocentric lowlife and go ahead cracking this, go ahead, try me.
It won't be easy.
It will be hard, damn close to impossible, destructive, and it will be SO DAMN POINTLESS.
Go and do something else instead, something positive and constructive, do that homework of yours,
read a book, learn something, call some friend, date a girl, or whatever.
Or if you can't get away from the computer, do something yourself, something useful or fun.
This protection is the toughest ever. Unbreachable.
That's what all I have to say, now it's up to you to decide whether you should crack this or not.
We hope you won't.
It'll be so much easier and less painful for all of us, especially for you.
Signed, the creator of this and plenty to come protections, Stefan Boberg"