ScuzzBlog: Diaries February 2022
Entry 15th February 2022: Post 1: Delphine Classic Collection - Annoying copy protection.
Delphine Classic Collection - Annoying copy protection.
You recall yesterday I was going to dig out what I had on the game
Operation Stealth.. Well, my goodness I hadn't bargained for such
a frustrating day as a consequence. Here is what happened.
I searched the database and discovered I had three sets of disks
for this game. All with different labels. The third set was a little
puzzling as there were only two disks, so I had to dig deeper. In
very little time I was unearthing what was a set of Delphine disks
for the Classic Collection. The games featured were Future Wars,
Operation Stealth, Cruise for a Corpse, Another World and Flashback.
The disks were spread over a number of disk boxes and amounted to
quite a large pile. I then dug out manuals and the copy protection
booklet. Lastly I dredged out the games box from the shelves.
The box itself says clearly for the 500+, 600 and 1200, and yet I
was unable to load Operation Stealth onto the Amiga 1200. This
was becoming most perplexing. So I dug out some guides from the
very wonderful Amiga Format and CU Amiga and studied the install
notes. There were very few actual advisory comments on using the
different Amiga machines, and I sensed that the small booklet had
been, how do I put it, cobbled together, winging it.
There was nothing for it but to fire up the A500 with the GVP and
the extra memory and try out the disks. Sadly, I had forgotten
just how annoying Delphine had made copy protection checks on the
games they made. And so I struggled in the darkness as I tried to
take pics of the processes, whilst trying to interpret what they
wanted me to do.
Operation Stealth used a picture which you had to identify a colour
and click the respective colour from the list. Trouble was that the
picture in the booklet was asking for colours that did not exist
on the menu list. So violet was actually purple. Worse was that
the colours were difficult to interpret. Nothing for it, but to
dig out the original colour card and see how that looked. And so
I was back to the games shelves and sifting thro endless manuals.
Eventually I did find the original colour picture which was made
reflective by a thin coating and almost transparent. It had been
created to make it difficult to copy/reproduce. The colours were
somewhat different in hue/chroma than the book picture. The colour
requested was violet but with no violet on the list I selected
purple and now eventually was in the game. Sadly i was burning
daylight and had to move on.
Future Wars had a strange copy protection system where the booklet
had pictures with a grid superimposed on it and you had to identify
the picture from a selection from the given grid reference. Not
too tricky and not that taxing.
Next up was Cruise for a Corpse which almost defeated me. The very
small images from the print outs in the booklet were impossible to
correlate with the images on screen. You were expected to identify
very tiny changes in colour, like on the binding of a book, when
there were other similar images. It was a crap shoot and if wrong
you would have to restart the bloody game again. The thing made no
sense. I then dug out another copy of the game and used the actual
colour wheel. It did not get better and I gave up. Later as I sat
here in this room I had another go on the 1200 and eventually got
into the game. So a couple of shaky pictures in the mix. No way
would I go through that again. I sense the colours in the book are
a poor representation of the colour wheel, and the wheel has faded
over the years. In one selection there is what looks like a yellow
mouse mat with key sitting over, and yet the image on the screen
for the only image of this type was clearly green. Mattered not
cus you simply keep being advised of incorrect selection.
Onward and to Another World. So far everything has been mouse
driven and so this got confusing from the start cus there was no
mouse on screen to select the images. Again I was digging through
my games boxes to find an original colour wheel. The manual did a
very poor job of providing an alternative. I just don't know how
anyone got past the copy protection on the Classic Collection. So
on this selection you used the joystick.
Finally I got into Flashback without any copy protection. Sadly it
was now dark and I had had enough. For any of these games I would
suggest getting the original boxes, manuals and colour wheels. What
was more frustrating was that I downloaded all the games last night
to check them out and not one worked on the emulator, in 500, Plus
or 1200 mode. So frustrating.
And so I put the disks together under one roof for further reference
and hid the games box from view. I have put all the manuals back
in the box. Quite honestly I never want to see the thing again.
Maybe that is why the manual for Operation Stealth was hidden in
the Final Writer manual. [ Be afraid. Very afraid ].
Delphine Classic Collection - Annoying copy protection.
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