StarForce > Starforce Nightmare
 

It seems like despite the much bragging in the readme for SNF, StarForce has triumphed.

Here's the readme quote:

You see, to create this program you need deep expert knowledge of hardware
architecture and as you see, we have it, else this program wouldn't exist.
All, what I want to say with, my opinion described above is not just yeasty words, it is
reality.

It's been almost two weeks and no crack or override for Splinter Cell Chao Theory's Starforce.

Although I hate them for not allowing me to backup my copy, those Starforce guys sure are pretty smart.

Not that difficult to write a VB/c++/ASM program to disable/remove specific hardware and channels.

That is basically all it is at the end of the day.

They just wants to feel l33t so that all beginners (aka n00bs) can think that those guys are sooo cool so they can be someones hero.

The fellas at Starforce should really be honored for creating such a good protection. Sure it has it drawbacks and compatibility problems, still it does what it is supposed to do. Protect the games from becoming warez.
One of the major drawbacks it peoples ability to make personal backups of their games. When I buy a game for $50 I want to be able to backup it.
Thats why I don't own any other SF3 games than Soldiers Heroes of WW2 (because it is fun!).
And the drivers getting installed with the protection ain't my thing.
Guess I'll have to live with it since SecuROM uses similar drivers now... :mad:

well it's a clever protection but it writes some files to your pc disableing some programs...

:eek: Man, all this thing is getting way to real. It's like those scifi movies with huge corparation that dominate human thoughts!

:d

Follow Chris Griffin's words!!!::::

FIGHT THE MACHINE!!!!


......."How do you know about the machine?"


this SF thing is getting kinda weird....what if all games go to it cause they know hackers n crackers cant get past it ....yet...<evil Mannoroth laugh>

....C'MON Daemon Tools v4!!!!

The whole thing almost kinda makes you wanna get off your ass and do something about it.....yupp....suuuuuuuure does.....

DTv4 will work to a degree but not 100%, then when it seems its winning, along comes a new SF protection, and so on and so forth.

Forgive my laughter.

Now, as for the CD copy protection types, well, they arent really winning. The whole bit about warez is that they pften provide a 95% gameplay ability, meaning that some bug prevents a certain level of the game from working properly in the no-cd/dvd patch. This does not go for all games, naturally, but it does go for a goodly portion of them. Game manufacturers NEED people to pirate games, as few are going to spend 50 bucks cash on something they havent even seen a commercial for.

Besides, give it a week or so. Someone will make a patch, or another program to knock out the protection system. You forget. There might be a few different protection systems, but there's millions, dare I say a couple billion people on the net who're more than happy to put something together. Just like they always have. Some of these guys have been around for around 20 years on the net, providing cracked copy protection, CD recognition, and otherwise. Even back when games required you to look on page x, line x of your manual and type in word x, these guys would go into the game code, and knock that out.

Never underestimate the power of the internet. What a company spends a few years developing, the bio-cybermass that is the net can destroy in a matter of days.

True, but Starforce has changed all that. Its takwn months, maybe even years to learn how to generically crack.

Sure, there will always be people around to hack all this new ****... For now. If the FBI actually had a strong motive to catch warez useres, well... I doubt this board would be here, and the scene as active as it is.

Sure some of the guys have been around for 20 years on the net cracking their asses off, but they gotta retire some time, dont they? And what happens then?

Also, protections are getting better and better. Hell, the starforce people are lazy, but I bet they could easily add a couple of new features to their protection to make it hell to RE... as if it already isnt.

So many uknowns... I wouldnt even start these types of discussions. We cant predict anything. Whats there is there, use it. Learn. Dont rely on other people to do everything for you. Do it on your own.

For example: look at the D-tools people. I wouldnt be surprised if a millions people used their soft. What happens if they get sued? Oh no we're ****ed? Some other guys will come along, true, but how long will it take for them to get to the same level as D-tools? Or, will they be busted and hounded from Day 1??

We have no way to know. My philosophy is to appreciate things while you have them. I appreciate D-tools, I appreciate Softice, and all the other nice little things people have cooked up for us. If I want something, I make it instead of waiting for it. Sometimes I dont have the skills to make it. I then acquire them... and so on forever. People in my opinion should do that instead of whining for the next D-tools release of Reloadeds next Starforce crack, or when Fairlight is gonna retun to the scene... If you don't have time to learn... well thats too bad. But I've never not had time for anything. And, god willing, it shall stay this way.

I'm saying this vharshyde because I totally disagree with your viewpoint. One day, the flow will stop. Then its up to you if you want to continue an upstream battle or bail out.

Enough bull****. I have math homework to finish.

-rendari

What you forget is, it was easier way back then, but now its more sophisticated, hell some "crackers" are getting younger each year and they dont have the experience like the old time ones once had. So protections will eventually win.

I wasn't going to reply to this BUT i am bored, Daemon tools can't be sued since they aren't based in the usa ( I think germany if i recall right ) and they are doing nothing wrong to be sued for d-tools has MANY legit uses.
Thats like saying rarlabs can be sued since most illegal softs are distributed in that format, OR gamecopyworld/cdmediaworld/fileforums/megagames could be sued for hosting cracked / disasembled / rev engineered exe's ..etc as long as there serves a legal and legit use there shouldn't be any sue'ing going on :).


On to the starforce protection
I don't like it but i do support it in a way since it does its job really good looking at the numbers (don't ask where) it severly cut back on pirate copys sure some people can get them to work still using really inconvenient methods but the average pc user this can turn into a catastorphy and they end up buying the game! (woohoo)..

The downside is as some people said making personal backups and drivers that get installed / compatability

so i am for it since it boosts their sales and now maybe they can start making quality games again while saving the pc gaming industry (consoles are about to completely take over pc gaming) i think the pirate scene has gotten waaaay out of hand and i think even the pirate groups realize it

people complain about the protections but in reality if people didn't steal games it wouldnt have gone this far

who knows maybe next will be something like the riaa called the spaa ( i wouldnt support anything like that since most of the time the information they collect is inaccurate and sue the wrong person)& all internet privacy gone policed and moderated, Im sure it will happen sooner or later but for now I personally would rather have starforce

Internet is free speech. Warezers use it, pedophiles use it, terrorists use it. So what?

Five hundred years ago, a guy named Gutenberg came up with a printer machine; monks, who had the monopoly of knowledge and copying books, were f*cked but pretty much the whole mankind profited from it. So what?

A few decades ago, computers penetrated the average households. People started using game and productivity software for their own purposes and fun. Then some companies came up with devices that allow you to make your own copies of software. Now software publishers are f*cked but pretty much the whole mankind profits from it. So what?

A few centuries later, someone will come up with what we call a "replicator" in Star Trek: a device that can duplicate any physical object, given an original object (or its digitized pattern) and enough energy/matter. Then originals will have no value as everyone will be able to have a perfect duplication of them. Collectors will be f*cked but pretty much the whole mankind will profit from it. So what?

I'm not sure, but in Germany if you do ANYTHING to bypass copy proctections they can sue you. Its much stricter that in the US. CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG. I AM NOT SURE.

I am unsure if they are from germany or canada or someother place in an very old email of mine SwENSkE (i think he was the original maker of d-tools) said something about germany so i wasnt 100% sure if he was talking about where he was or another company .. and im not even sure if he is the current developer or associated with the project anymore.
:)

Svenske means Swedish in Swedish I think.

Locutus is the original maker of Dtools

Cracking starforce
 

Starforce is crackable till version 3.4.71 with my games. that would be Splinter Cell 3 e.g. Kig Kong is still to be tested. As to the discussion I´d say try this!---:


Allright , here is an easy (easier) way to get Splinter Cell 3 and other games running up till Version 3.4.71 something (Splinter Cell 3): You must have Daemon Tools 4 installed! I couldn´t get it to run with Alc120% (probably my own fault Daemon´s the one I know and its free so why bother...


1. Create an MDF image with ALcohol 120 (DPM high)from original disk. Only one working so far...
Install game, from image

2. Get Sfnightmare 1.12 http://starf.bestmedia.kiev.ua

You might want to add http://rapidshare.de/files/5750600/sfcure01c.zip.html to the registry. I don´t know if you really need it. I was on my PC already .Couldn´t get rid of it to test without so it could be neccessary!? If you decide to take it,edit the reg as described in readme.txt (!) FIRST then setup.

3.Now simply mount image in Daemon tools.

4. Start SFnightmare now. Set Disable CDs+Disable Node, that´s all.

5. Start game with regular desktop icon, exe, whatever,it works...

You do not need to unplug the CD Drives as I thought before. It works with "disable Cds" as well.
If it doesn´t in your case which I think is unlikely you need to unplug the Drives manually of course.then it definetily works. I must put emphazis again on creating Alc120& images ONLY. Use sfcure01 for "safety reasons". Maybe you try without it first so we can see if it´s neccessary to do so!

Next one is King Kong, actually the only Starforce game left right now. This is no fraud it works! What you need is an MDF image, that´s basically it.I use the patched SPlinter Cell 3 version (1.05 now). Works (with any update,. any game up till now...)!
PLEASE SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES!!! (here)

have you already tried this w/ GT Legends ? Would be great to hear it works ;)
it has SF 3.6.10, dunno if its possible to get it run without unplugging drives, i just use the original as unplugging drives is no real option for me.

i actually unplugged my dvd drive, and now ufo aftershock says it doesn't recognise my serial. which is weird cos it did before. i uninstalled the game, created an image, installed it, and, as i said, the serial key no longer works.
i should say that i did a regclean and also manually removed the cenega folder with the starforce stuff etc on it. possibly this is why my serial no longer works? but i don't think so.

the starforce protection is a nightmare for me personally as it often takes 4-10 minutes to check i have a proper dvd inside my drive when i wanna play the game. this is ridiculous. the same happened with gangland. it took so long for my drive to verify that i just lost interest. i mean, waiting 10 minutes to play a game is taking 'protection' too far]. and, not only that, but sometimes after a 10 minute wait, the check would fail and i would have to start al over again.
suffice to say, i no longer play gangland anymore. would you?
now i got the same issue with ufo aftershock. i'm giving it until monday before i return it for a refund [or swap for summat else].
i have a phillips dvd drive. sadly.

oddly enough heroes of ww2 works fine. but i don't know for certain whether it is SF protected [i think it is as someone on these forums mentioned it].

das

@synchro
Yep, it is! ;)

Is it me or has someone committed a bit of thread necromancy here? (reply #9 is 4 months after #8 lol)

I have no idea either, but it seems to me you could base a reasonable defence around 1:1 copies (I think Blindwrite can currently make such disks) and to a lesser extent Emulation, because you are not 'breaking' or 'bypassing' the copy protection, it is still active, it just thinks you are using an original...

I know how Synchro feels about SF, I couldnt get X3 Reunion to run from the original when I first bought it (before I made any attempt whatsoever to back it up), In the end it trasnpired that it was caused by the *lightest* fingerprint imaginable on the disk.

To me this is just absurd. That any CP system should be that fussy about a media that is so easily scratched etc is pathetic, especially as I have NEVER known a CP system that cannot be either cracked, emulated, or 1:1 backed up, meaning that all the CP achieves is pissing of us legitimate customers.

Starforce protection was always the best around....

Actully its pretty horrible people think it does its job good but in reality all you have to do is unplug your cdroms cause of its blacklist of scsi devices (emulators). and it will work (with dt4 or/ sfcure and a 1:1 image) ..and if it doesn't then its most likely the original wont work either or some kind of conflict happening maybe even being online.

The only thing stoping it from being cracked is its encryption and files that are encrypted (it can be every file on the game or just one) and to break the encryption depending on luck (and level) can take 1 day to 4 years of trying to brute forcing and even if they somehow crack the encryption they would have to play the game a million times to find trigger points. plus starforce has many other headaches its really not worth anyones time. also if they did manage to make a crack the file would be "very" large perhaps the size if the game :)

The worst thing about starforce is future compatibility, its intrusiveness and stealth installing drivers :\

No I didn´t but I now got Splinter Cell 3 working with the latest update (1.05)actually very easy to do. I cracked all games up till 3.71 now so far. So Gt Legends should work....shouldn´t it?

What you need is a 100% Alc120 mdf image(DPM high) + Daemon tools 4+ sfnightmare. So get your original disk and make an image with alc120.Use Disable Cd´s and Disable Nodes and remove any disks from drives (you don´t need to unplug them)Forget Starfu**!

If it doesn´t work try to get sfcure01 (see link in former post) and add to reg as described in readme.txt. but it should work.

After using Sfnightmare my Drives weren´t recognized when I started windows. I had to enabloe them althuough I wasn´t runnign the program (I think) but then everythin was fine again. Maybe that has somehting to do with that serial request thing...?Now any Game I got works great,...

I don´t know exactly, but it took me less power and energy to get these games running instead of searching for nocd patches for the latest updates all over the place+ Starforce is not that big. How many games aren´t working? I only have King Kong and Knights of the temple 2 left to test of all the poupluar ones...so!?
Experinece shows that when you search a little on the web youi´ll find something. then comcine what you already got and see!

I had the same problem with Chrome Specforce. It always does that. I stopped worrying nd did this:

Only thing I did was an MDF aLC120 image (DPM high), mount in Daemon tools 4 and disable nodes+ cd´s in Starforce Nightmare and the request vanished! That was it! Maybe it has to do with adding sfcure01 to registry but I´m not sure. I first thought its STarfu** that does the trick but it runs without it . Maybe you sould try that!

Ps: I didn´t unplug any drives instead I used the disable cd button and removed any disk from the drive.

EXACTLY!! It´s not that big!Go gaming!!

I agree. They´ll have to change the moment sales go down(again) .I´m sure of this...and if they don´t its not gonna work anyhow!!!haha

One Question: does it matter for successfully running a SF-protected game if I install it before from Original or by the Alc image? I remember having read this in somewhere forums.

hello,
One question: your splinter cell 3 should be U.S version or Europian version.
Does it have any difference??

put simply, bull****.. dont believe the hype, 1 day to 4 years, where the hell did u pick that figure from cos theres quite difference, as for 'trigger' points, starforce uses virtual files and vm, securom (v5) used triggers.. get your facts right please

For my figures its just that 1day for very simple encryptions (like still life) to 4+ years for the harder ones (perhaps splinter cell ct). Lets give an example if you try to break a zip file of a 12 letter password it could take more then 1 year with a average pc 3.0 ghz 1 gig ram, now take a encryption key that could be huge 20+ chars it can take a very long time or forever if evey file is encrypted differnt.
Some not all starforce games have trigger points (most are online checks) but so far this is only seen in codemasters games.

Please prove me wrong if you can.

Well,

I havent looked a lot at starforce, but I gotta ask you this:

Have you ever heard of manual unpacking?

As for the online checks, those things are implemented by the developers I think, not by starforce... I'm not sure about that...

i think starforce is a nightmare
there are those of us who will buy games
and maybe download games that we would never buy anyway [eg, cos we are not into those types of games].
but when the protection stops me playing a game that i actually bought then it is going too far
das

depends on the method used to break the zip password (using hashing tables can sygnificantly speed things up).. 20+ chars sure, that'll take long too, all depends on your method, the time taken totally depends on the method/approach, if it took the crackers 4 years per game there'd be no gamecopyworld now would there.. and the games protections are reportedly 'very high industry standard protections' by most articles today, yet they are bypassed.. as for trigger points... codemasters are paranoid and did other things too (remember fade?.. ) so thats a particularly bad example ;)
i would prove you wrong, but im not into pissing contests and it will detract from the thread, i wouldnt say you are totally wrong, just misinformed about some things which you cite as examples

don´t know.rule is, when you don´t know do it for safety reasons. If you have some more time try both to find out. I would install from the image only because its faster and less trouble. Also, if there is anything like starforce creating a serial or wahtever I´d have better chances when using the image!?

Euro version. It doesn´t matter at all as far as I´m concerned...

i cant get the backup to work for ufo aftershock :( even with that sfnightmare? keeps saying put cd in anther drive i have deamon tool 4 to

Read the FAQ on how to make cracks work.

same here. i sent mine back. swapped it for some bloody awful game called gun.
****ehawks

Too much emphasis is being put on running games from images.
Isn't the point to run from a backup?

Well that's exactly what I did with SCCT, I'm not using DT4 as it wouldn't install on my new system, I'm not using anything except my DVD drive which BTW is a Pioneer 106 and connected vie IDE.
Yes I know that's not new but it was spare and I didn't see the point in buying a new drive for it.