NEW COPY PROTECTION ANNOUNCED

[OpticFreeze]

If anyone remembers the old Commodore 64 days, there was the time bomb. Now this. Below is the article I read today on FADE - a new copy protection due out this fall:

People hoping to score a pirated CD of upcoming PC products from Codemasters had better start saving their pennies, a press release from the game publisher this morning suggested: Codemasters has introduced a new PC-based scheme called FADE that causes a pirated game to degrade over time. Created for the September 2001 launch of the tactical combat game Operation Flashpoint, Codemasters has equipped the game with embedded coding that can recognize the difference between real and counterfeit copies of the game’s CD, Codemasters said. If a pirated CD is identified, the game begins to disable important features and instigates subtle changes that hamper the otherwise smooth experience. The use of FADE will be announced during installation of the product with a special message to potential pirates.

[tonyG]

This is just like what they did with Gangsters.
gangsters had 3 main cd #####s 2 for the start of the game and one continous in the game.
however most pirates found the first 2 but not the third which looked for correct audio data.
The result in the game is that all the game characters goto jail.
pirates of course distributed the game before it was out in stores and everyone who played the faultly backup thought that this was the real game and told their friends that it was a crap game!
so in this case the sales of the game were reduced by the copy protection not increased.
The best approach in my opinion is sd1 sd2 were you know that the cd is faulty before you can play the game that way its clear that the pirates are at fault and not the game producers.