Serial number & DRM question

hamsandwitch

Hi!

I think about asking my brother to buy me the TMI package as a birthday gift.

But I hate DRM. I haaaaateeee it and will not buy games requiring any kind of online activation. Cause I want to be able to play any game that I buy today in ten, twenty, thirty etc. years.

I read on the forum that logging in is only one option, that you can use a serial number alternatively. Question is: Is the serial number working off-line or will the game verify it online so that it really isn't any better than logging in?

Thanks!

hplikelike

It works offline.

charlieboy2001

If I'm not mistaken, the serial number requires you be online. You can do an offline activation, where you get a code (after installation) that you can e-mail to Telltale who will send you an activation key unique to your hardware id. I needed some once, it only took them a day!!!!

DjNDB

charlieboy2001 wrote: »

You can do an offline activation, where you get a code (after installation) that you can e-mail to Telltale who will send you an activation key unique to your hardware id. I needed some once, it only took them a day!!!!

That is not really offline.

@hamsandwitch You can get a free DVD (only shipping cost) at the end of the Season, that only requires the DVD to be in the Drive. I think that's a fair solution, because the game is low priced already.

Cyphox

hamsandwitch wrote: »

Hi!
...

Cause I want to be able to play any game that I buy today in ten, twenty, thirty etc. years.

...
Thanks!

if telltale doesn't exist anymore in this unholy dark future, i think no one wil be against "passing over" the copy-protection.

scummvm deactivates the copy-protections for most lucas arts games, too. and lucas arts still exists and it doesn't seem they have anything against it.

hansschmucker

hamsandwitch wrote: »

Hi!

I think about asking my brother to buy me the TMI package as a birthday gift.

But I hate DRM. I haaaaateeee it and will not buy games requiring any kind of online activation. Cause I want to be able to play any game that I buy today in ten, twenty, thirty etc. years.

I read on the forum that logging in is only one option, that you can use a serial number alternatively. Question is: Is the serial number working off-line or will the game verify it online so that it really isn't any better than logging in?

Thanks!

I understand the problem. But at the end of the season you will also get a disc that has only a normal offline copyprotection, so you will always be able to play that version even if Telltale gets out of business. So the online DRM is pretty much temporary until the end of the season.

Eduardo

Cyphox wrote: »

if telltale doesn't exist anymore in this unholy dark future, i think no one wil be against "passing over" the copy-protection.

scummvm deactivates the copy-protections for most lucas arts games, too. and lucas arts still exists and it doesn't seem they have anything against it.

ScummVM threads that ground very carefully, copy protection is deactivated for versions of games that were released by Lucasarts themselves with the copy protection deactivated.

Versions of the games that weren't (for example, Secret of Monkey Island EGA version) have the protection active.

der_ketzer

Eduardo wrote: »

Versions of the games that weren't (for example, Secret of Monkey Island EGA version) have the protection active.

No. They also deactivate the protection ion those games. My MI2 still has the Screen but you can enter any number you like.

Eduardo

der_ketzer wrote: »

No. They also deactivate the protection ion those games. My MI2 still has the Screen but you can enter any number you like.

Nope, MI 2 has the copy protection deactived due to the release on cd (like Monkey Island Madness cd)

The reason you see the protection screen in MI 2 is that if you try to bypass it, you end up skipping the difficulty selection screen (a problem that the cd version of MI 2 had), so they had to left it cracked.

http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/User_Manual/Running_and_Using_ScummVM

The ScummVM team does not condone piracy. However, there are cases where the game companies (such as LucasArts) themselves bundled 'cracked' executables with their games -- in these cases the data files still contain the copy protection scripts, but the interpreter bypasses them (similar to what an illegally cracked version might do, only that here the producer of the game did it). There is no way for us to tell the difference between legitimate and pirated data files, so for the games where we know that a cracked version of the original interpreter was sold at some point, ScummVM will always have to bypass the copy protection.

In some cases ScummVM will still show the copy protection screen. Try entering any answer. Chances are that it will work.

ScummVM will skip copy protection in the following games:

* Maniac Mansion
* Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
* Loom (EGA)
* The Secret of Monkey Island (VGA)
* Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

A relevant thread:
http://forums.scummvm.org/viewtopic.php?t=7126

Basically, ScummVM bypasses the copy protection in two cases:

1) The game was re-released with the copy protection disabled and/or without the necessary information to get past the copy protection. As long as the copy protection was bypassed by the original interpreter, not the data files, ScummVM can't tell the difference between the releases, so it has to bypass it.

2) The copyright holders have said it's ok to bypass (or simply just not implement) it.

(Every time I play Future Wars, I wish there was a "3) When the copy protection is really, really, really annoying.", but there isn't.)

In some cases, you can re-enable the copy protection with the --copy-protection command-line option.

The MI:2 case:
http://forum.scummvm.org/viewtopic.php?p=13780&sid=b57f1154b5bf6947bf758980387fa9ec

I can verify that the original EGA version of MI 1 has the protection active (ScummVM usedto bypass the protection in that one, but not anymore)