F-15 Strike Eagle Unprotect   by Software Pirates Inc (SPI)

SOFTWARE PIRATES INC. presents F-15 Strike Eagle Unprotect This file will tell you how to unprotection F-15 Strike Eagle by Micro Prose. To complete this unprotection you will need the following: 1. A good copy program like BACKUP.EXE or COPYIIPC.EXE. 2. DEBUG.COM can be found on your DOS disk. 3. U-FORMAT.EXE can be found on most Bulletin Boards. BACKGROUND: The copy protection scheme used by Micro Prose on F-15 Strike Eagle is very good. I have found no commercial copy program that can make a usable backup copy of this disk. The F-15 master disk has track 10 specially made. Track 10 has 16 sector ids on it instead of the normal 8 or 9. Using COPYIIPC, track 10 will be reproduced with only 10 ids on it. When F-15 boots up it verifies, in two places, that all 16 sector ids exists. The sectors on track 10 contain no usable data. F-15 just makes sure that they exists. Knowing this we can go in and patch F-15 so that it doesn't check track 10 at all. After patching the program we can go in and re-format track 10 to normal sector size. With this done, you will have a working copy of F-15 Strike Eagle that can be copied by DISKCOPY.COM. Step 1: Make a backup copy of your master F-15 Strike Eagle disk. Your copy program must be able to handle non-DOS sector sizes. Norell BACKUP or Central Point COPYIIPC can do this. Remember to copy both sides of the disk, F-15 is double-sided. Once you have copied the master disk put it away. You will not be needing it again. NOTE: The backup copy just made will not function ... yet. When you are done with Step 2, the disk will run. When you are done with Step 3, the disk will be DISKCOPYable. Step 2: Load DEBUG into memory. Put F-15 backup copy into drive A. From the DEBUG prompt '-', enter the following: -l 0 0 36 1<CR> This command will load the 7th sector on track 3 side 0 into memory. At this point we want to patch the two locations that check track 10 for 16 sector ids. To do this type the following: -e123 E9 11 10 90<CR> -e19B E9 11 10 90<CR> Now we want to write the changes back to disk. To do this type the following: -w 0 0 36 1<CR> At this point your backup disk will now function! Step 3: Now we want to re-format track 10 to normal double-sided track. U-FORMAT.EXE will do this job quite well. You want to format track 10 with 8 sectors on 2 sides. Having completed the above 3 steps, you will have a working copy of F-15 Strike Eagle the can be copied by DISKCOPY.COM.