Starforce is kicking ass

[Chonks]

Ok. Before you bomb me on my first post about that subject line, this is what I mean:

Out of all the protection systems out there for games and such, Starforce seems to be the one that gives crackers the hardest time of all.

I am no cracker and I don't know the first thing about it.
I am however eternally thankful for them guys that work out the NO-CDs, Patches and other cracks. (Ye Be Blessed!).

The first time I saw the Starforce protection was with "Trackmania Sunrise".
That was MANY months ago. And from what I've seen so far. There was no crack ever released for it. I never played that one.

Nowadays, it seems more and More games are using this system, simply because "it works" (up to a certain degree).

The way I see it is that if a game is considered "HOT" and everyone wants a piece of it, there will be a crack ready before it even comes out (take F.E.A.R). Many heads will be put to work together day and night until they get the job done (thanks!). However, if other GREAT games (not considered as 'hot') come out there might not be a crack or it might take a long time since only a few dare to take the task alone (as of now: Suffering TTB, Worms Mayhem, to name a few).

I consider that ALL games are great and deserve equal treatment.
Surely enough, Starforce will probably be cracked for good in the eventual future, and another system will take its place. But for now it seems to be the 'King of the Hill' and it's the headache of many.

What do u guys think?

[machikaiser]

actually, u are right... but it also just depend on the settings for the SF of each game... depends really... not every game has same setting for SF... so u cant really blame the crack Ers... they do the best they can~ i just thank em for their existence

[Hyakki]

Starforce has been beaten or fought at the same level (ie sfcure (also a background driver like starforce) it takes a driver to beat a driver ..

but really starforce is horrible protection system the sheer incompatibility is very bad, 64bit bugs , ide driver / other system driver conflicts / cd / dvd driver replacement overrides also effects cd recording (can change packets sent to your cd/dvd drive if it thinks its trying to copy the protection)

not to mention starforce keeps its driver loaded regardless if the game is started or uninstalled (loaded from startup to shutdown) many users are unaware of this and how unstable this can make their computer, starforce also uses this to their advantage cause they can put the blame elsewhere

sure it works but at what cost? is it worth it? lets say you buy a game with starforce and 1 year or 2 you decide to replay it and find out your new s-ata cdrom doesn't work with starforce it thinks its a virtual drive and fails to validate or maybe the driver wont load in windows vista (if your using it) the list is endless


and for some info about cracking starforce is simple


first they need to find the encryption for the files (this can range from 1 file to every file on the cd/dvd (more files = bigger crack )
second they need to decrypt the encryption ..decrypting something can take a few hours to a few years depending on the level
third they need to strip all the files of starforce after its been decrypted
then they need to play the game a few million times for "trips" that can do cd checks or some other validation

the best way to bypass this at the moment for the complex games with starforce (ie scct , tms) is to emulate it or intercept the calls to the driver like sfcure does the bad part is you still have starforce installed , another driver installed conflicting with starforce, + the need for a full image and a good cdrom / dvdrom to make the image then to disable all your internal cd / dvd / zip / optical / scsi drives) and mess up your system more is more trouble then its worth.

so in the end if the game is starforce and no crack is out within a month its been out i will not buy it since i know its going to be problems (for both validation hardware use and future playability).


personally i dont like virus's in my pc and by buying and playing such games will make them use it more.

[Chonks]

I've checked out 4 great games.
Some new others not so new, but I see that there aren't any cracks for these games.

I've seen people fill their screens with tutorials on how to make these games work by downloading this, installing that, hiding something, unplugging another.

Most instructions are lenghty and confusing... even incomplete, and in my experience, they seldom ever work.
Plus, I feel like I'm filling my OS with more garbage than that already left by Starforce... Making it even more unstable.

Is that the direction where this whole thing is headed?
Will we stop seeing the simple "NO-CD" method replaced by these new cumbersome, complex and ugly methods? Malware, Spyware, etc.etc...?
Have all the good crackers been beat at their game leaving us simple folk in the dark?

[Hyakki]

Looks like thats the way its going but i don't really blame the game company's if people would actually buy their games they wouldn't need such protections so in the end its all these little kids stealing that will put a end to pc gaming.

Hell if i was a gaming company and spent millions on a game i would want it to be only playable for people who paid for it. or just make games for consoles and leave out pc completely..


its really a shame it came down to this, because of a budget cuts and lack of funding games cant even be created good anymore, what ever happened to games like unreal? good story runs good , gfx are good even in software mode and the game still works today now that is quality. Flight sims are almost extinct simply most company's don't have the funds to build a quality one, pirating has gotten out of hand and its forcing these methods onto these companys if they don't do it the company will go under (like most already have)

and all this screws over the users who do pay for their games since they get a bad and buggy product and drivers into thier systems also unable to make a backup.

personally i wont buy or play a starforce game ..i would rather the company go out of buissness then install that crap into my pc, I don't care how good a game is.