> Did Computist publish a deprotect for VCR Companion?


    Yes. Evidently, there were two cracks published. The one which looks
easier is from Marc Batchelor in Computist #71:

Boot your DOS 3.3 system disk.

POKE 47426,24 -- tell DOS to ignore checksun and epilog errors

RUN COPYA and copy all sides of VCR Companion disks

On the Disk 1, Side 1 copy, search for (hex) 29 0F C9 04 D0 EC AA .
   Change 29 0F C9  to 18 90 0F . (Copy II Plus's Sector Editor
   is good for this kind of search.)

In the same sector, search for F0 5C 20 DD 25 B0 57 .
   Change to A9 07 85 F1 18 90 5A .

Write the changed sector back to disk.

Copy a new version of ProDOS to this disk.