StarForce

Post by **FatherJack** » May 30th, 2006, 9:38

One of last week's releases, Dreamfall: Longest Journey came with StarForce copy protection.

I thought I'd got rid of it when I removed TrackMania, but I had a quite few versions installed, probably from Restaurant Empire, Pariah and X3. I've been having crashes, resets and USB drive loss for a while, and haven't had any since it's removal - but it's still early days. TrackMania was quite open about it being installed, but I don't remember any warning for the other three games.

Here's some info on potential crashes it's caused as well as how to detect and remove it: http://www.glop.org/starforce/
Here's an updated list of games using it: http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php
Some info on the removal tool: http://www.onlinesecurity-on.com/protect.phtml?c=55
A link to the removal tool: http://www.glop.org/files/sfdrvrem.zip

Removing it makes protected games unplayable, although here's a piece of code which (I think) attempts to emulate it: http://www.glop.org/files/rld-sfrt.rar

I'll be trying that tonight.

Post by **Dog Pants** » May 30th, 2006, 10:06

Something's just occurred to me: Starforce is a copy protection thing, right? So why is it installed with Trackmania Nations, which is downloadable for free?

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » May 30th, 2006, 10:14

Last night I installed the Dreamfall's StarForce protection despite previous refusal just so I could have a look at the game, if I notice any problems I will be removing it and returning the game. So far so good and it doesn't seem to care about Daemon Tools running. But I will try the workaround you linked as well. How did you find it? I can't find any discussion on it.

Also I emailed Empire Interactive complaining about this, not that it will do any good but it made me feel a bit better.

Post by **FatherJack** » May 30th, 2006, 10:31

Dog Pants wrote:Something's just occurred to me: Starforce is a copy protection thing, right? So why is it installed with Trackmania Nations, which is downloadable for free?

Just left in so they didn't have to recode the installer probably.

spoodie wrote:Last night I installed the Dreamfall's StarForce protection despite previous refusal just so I could have a look at the game, if I notice any problems I will be removing it and returning the game. So far so good and it doesn't seem to care about Daemon Tools running. But I will try the workaround you linked as well. How did you find it? I can't find any discussion on it.

I found it via a forum discussion of Dreamfall. Seems the US version, and possibly the Euro CD (non-DVD) version (which I think I've ordered) might be free of it.

Post by **TezzRexx** » May 30th, 2006, 12:16

I've noticed that my DVD driver fucks up a lot now since installing starforce with Trackmania.

It won't burn as quick (I can only get 600kb write speed) and it'll often stop reading a CD, or try to read one when theres nothing in there. Oh, it'll randomly pop open as well.

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » May 30th, 2006, 12:29

TezzRexx wrote:Oh, it'll randomly pop open as well.

Your PC is haunted AICMFE*

*(AICM Free Exorcism)

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » May 30th, 2006, 12:42

spoodie wrote:Also I emailed Empire Interactive complaining about this, not that it will do any good but it made me feel a bit better.

I got a response suggesting I return my game, as I threatened to if they didn't give me a workaround. A hollow threat really as I can't be bothered to post it back, but I'm tempted to reply telling them I will return the game and then download it instead.

cashy · Post by **cashy** » May 30th, 2006, 13:18

sign their email address up to porn

Post by **FatherJack** » May 30th, 2006, 13:24

spoodie wrote:I got a response suggesting I return my game, as I threatened to if they didn't give me a workaround. A hollow threat really as I can't be bothered to post it back, but I'm tempted to reply telling them I will return the game and then download it instead.

Perhaps you could suggest you will be purchasing a US copy, or a DirectDownload copy, rather than flooring it.

Edit: In other news, where the fuck is my copy? Probably in our postroom being ignored.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » May 30th, 2006, 13:56

FatherJack wrote:Perhaps you could suggest you will be purchasing a US copy, or a DirectDownload copy, rather than flooring it.

Edit: In other news, where the fuck is my copy? Probably in our postroom being ignored.

I wasn't actually going to send the game back or pick it up from the floor as I can't be bothered, I was just going to tell the publisher that I was.

Anyway from what I saw last night it looks quite pretty and runs well at highest settings on my PC. Also it has a nice joypad config system.

Post by **FatherJack** » May 30th, 2006, 14:01

spoodie wrote:I wasn't actually going to send the game back or pick it up from the floor as I can't be bothered, I was just going to tell the publisher that I was.

I guessed that - I just meant telling the publisher you were going to source a legitimate non-StarForced copy would carry more weight than saying you would nick one.