Back in the pre-Internet days, software piracy was still a thing - people would make copies of floppy discs and trade games. Naturally software companies did their best to defeat these nefarious fiends, using creative copy protection devices packed into the game boxes. I don't remember ever having a pirated copy of Battle of Britain, nor do I even remember the game at all, but I found this copied copy protection wheel in one of my old high school binders while doing some cleaning yesterday. Someone was industrious, and I'm sure it wasn't me; I've never had the manual dexterity necessary to cut out those little windows.
Having a friend who worked in a photo shop made it feasible for me photograph every setting on the full-colour wheel that came with Another World. Leafing through two dozen photos wasn't much more nuisance than using the wheel itself.
ReplyDeleteI had Battle Of Britain and I recall that wheel. I really enjoyed that game. The wheel matched squadron coats or arms with RAF bases. There was an operations map that allowed you shuffle squadrons around based on intel. Then, you'd go up to duel with the enemy. There were clouds of fighters and bombers, since the game used very simple sprites to depict the aircraft in 3D space.
ReplyDeleteYour contraband wheel probably didn't come from me, that's not my handwriting... unless that's your handwriting, in which case I might have made that wheel? It seems a little ambitious for me - maybe early prototype Ungood Art, huh?