Spiradisc (often misspelled as "Spiradisk") was a copy protection scheme used by Sierra On-Line on their floppy disk releases for the Apple II. The technique, developed by Mark Duchaineau, involved writing the data on spiralling paths on the disk rather than in concentric circles. Initially, no commercial copying software or bit nibbler could successfully copy the disks it was applied to.[1][2][3]
Games which used Spiradisc copy protection include Lunar Leepers,[4] Frogger,[3] some very early versions of Ultima II,[1] Jawbreaker,[5] Maze Craze Construction Set, and Pest Patrol.
Eventually, Copy II Plus version 5 was able to successfully defeat this copy protection.
References
edit- ^ a b Levy, Steven (2010). "Chapter 19: Applefest". Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (25th Anniversary ed.). O'Reilly Media. pp. 326–332. ISBN 978-1449388393.
- ^ McFadden, M. M. (1987). "Antique Softkey for Frogger". Computist (41). SoftKey Publishing: 28–29.
- ^ a b Jones, Bruce W. (1985). "Spiradisk Info". Hardcore Computist (25). SoftKey Publishing: 4.
- ^ Etarip, Rich (1990). "Softkey for Lunar Leepers". Computist (83). SoftKey Publishing: 10–11.
- ^ Etarip, Rich (1990). "Softkey for Jawbreaker". Computist (82). SoftKey Publishing: 16.
External links
edit- COMPUTIST Magazine Articles by Andy McFadden
- Reverse Engineering of Spiradisc Format by Matthew D'Asaro