In the EU you're entitled to make a backup copy and keep it in case the original breaks. I don't think law is much different in the US and Canada.
So as far as I understand it, it's not "legally" making a backup copy, but legally making a backup copy. I don't accuse someone who buys an assurance for his car of purposefully cheating the assurance agency.
What I wanted to discuss was the reason why Sir Tech would do such a stupid thing like making a CD copy protection. It annoys those who have bought the game and want to buy an assurance, too, and it doesn't keep many from pirating the game, since there are numberless tools and cracks to be found anyway.
If Sir Tech had wanted to implant an effective copy protection, there would be a password screen at the beginning of the game similar to Wizardry 7. 100 paper copies are much more expensive than 3 CDs. And more people would actually read the manual this way.
As sad as it is, I don't even know one person in real life who'd care to play the game, even if it were for free.

Is Sir Tech discriminating those who bought the game online, that is mostly residents outside North America? I feel cheated at least. If they made another game, I wouldn't buy it.

• RE: Locked thread,Ravashack, 11:06 AM, Jan-18-02
  • Chapter closed,ShadowCrust, 02:45 AM, Jan-19-02
    • Don't blame it on Sir-tech,Marukusu, 12:35 PM, Jan-19-02
      • This is nothing new,Llevram, 04:20 PM, Jan-19-02
        • RE: This is nothing new,ShadowCrust, 04:31 AM, Jan-21-02

ROFL.

100 paper copies might be, but not an online manual.

Hehe, but what prize-winning cracker would care to scan or type a 100 pages? That's not a very rewarding job
Making a brief search on the net, I found two sources for downloading Wizardry 8 (but no manual), cracked versions of course. Isn't it most cynical I have to rely on the "help" of evil crackers to make a backup copy?
Anyway, I'm probably overreacting. But still it annoys me and it's surely one of the things I'll remember vividly and associate with Wizardry 8 years from now.

LAST EDITED ON Jan-19-02 AT 01:08 PM (Pacific)

Blame it on the gaming industry. Recent games I've bought all came with copy-protection. This was -very- frustrating when I wanted to make a copy of gta2 so I could play it on a local net...
Not that you can't get around copy protection, but it's often very frustrating.
Also : remember those copy-protected audio discs that failed to be readable in many players?

\- Gondolkodom, pedig vagyok!
/- I think, even though I am. Hail Eris!

Back when I played Wizardry I on my Apple IIc, it had copy protection. The only difference is the media.

Tools for Wizardry(r) 7

The last time I encountered hardware-copyprotected software was on the C64, the only PC game I can remember is The Lost Vikings which checked if the harddisk ID was still the same. I haven't played much in the last years and if, only older games, so I haven't noticed history repeats itself again. I thought that the C64 had proven that there's no protection clever enough not to be cracked some days later and let's face it, back then almost no one bought a game since the crackers were so well known. Fact is, if my disk breaks, I won't contact Sir Tech to replace it half a year later, but will search on the net for a cracked version (if I haven't succeeded in copying it with another program, that is). The result is I'll tell some people that this site or that had rescued me in my emergency, and the word will spread.