-----Main Idea for Passages Level 1---- A 4am crack 2016-04-28 --------------------------------------- Name: Quest: Primary Voice Software Reading 1-13 Main Idea for Passages Level 1 Genre: educational Year: 1986 Credits: Programmed by Daniel D. Neilson Artwork by Triska Paul Designed by Carol Weigold Publisher: Prescription Learning Media: 1 double-sided 5.25-inch disk OS: Pronto-DOS Previous cracks: none Identical cracks: #626 Quest Intro Disk #354 Comprehension #349 Subtraction #348 Addition #340 Multiplication This program requires the Ufonic speech card. Only side A is bootable, so let's start there. ~ Chapter 0 In Which Various Automated Tools Fail In Interesting Ways COPYA immediate disk read error Locksmith Fast Disk Backup reads everything except T00,S00 EDD 4 bit copy (no sync, no count) works Copy ][+ nibble editor T00,S00 uses data epilogue "ED AA EB" everything else is normal Disk Fixer ["O" -> "Input/Output Control"] set Data Epilogue to "ED AA EB" Success! T00,S00 readable! looks like DOS 3.3 bootloader T01,S07 -> startup program is "HELLO" T11 -> standard DOS 3.3 disk catalog Why didn't COPYA work? modified data epilogue on T00,S00 Why didn't Locksmith FDB work? ditto Next steps: 1. Copy T00,S00 manually with a sector editor 2. Maybe nothing? (EDD bit copy works so probably no nibble check) ~ Chapter 1 In Which We Find The Least We Can Do [S6,D1=original disk (side A)] [S6,D2=partial Locksmith FDB copy] [Disk Fixer] ["O" -> "Input/Output Control"] set "CHECKSUM ENABLED" to "NO" ["R"ead track $00, sector $00] ["C"opy sector to drive 2] [S6,D1=Locksmith FDB copy] ]PR#6 ...works... The same procedure works for side B. I love this protection scheme. They changed one epilogue byte on the one sector where it's ignored anyway (since it's read by the disk controller ROM routine, which doesn't verify epilogue bytes). This renders it uncopyable by COPYA and other sector-based copiers, and they didn't need to make any changes to the rest of the disk. It's literally the least they could do. Quod erat liberandum. --------------------------------------- A 4am crack No. 682 ------------------EOF------------------