Copyrant
My son is 3 1/2 years old, and seems to be a clever little guy to his beaming and none-too-objective daddy. Anyway, he started playing on his own "keyboard" (what he calls a computer) when he was about 2, and by the time he was 3, was already browsing the web with surprising fluidity (Chuck'E'Cheese is his favorite site).
Of course, games are the biggest attraction and we had a few of them installed for a while, but he's grown out of them so I went out and got some more - most recently, a Dora 3-pack and Tonka games from Atari. And it reminded me of something that already pissed me off greatly a year and a half ago, but before I had a blog. Namely, copy protection on kids game CD's.
I mean, what the hell? Do you really think that a 3-to-6 year old will hack your stupid game, copy and distribute to all their friends? Because I am certain you don't think the parents would be the ones doing that... I mean, think about your target market will you?
Who the hell makes these decisions anyway? Which stupid jerk - excuse my language but I am really mad right now - got to work one morning and said "hey, let's put copy protection on our Dora CD's so that we won't get ripped off in the marketplace!"?
Why am I so mad, you ask? Well, if you're asking you don't have kids. I'll explain this very simply. See, when you put computers in front of 3-year olds, you DO NOT, EVER, leave the CD in the drive. EVER. Otherwise, said CD will last less than 24 hours. This is a fact of life. Unless you plan to sit there throughout the whole experience - an even more idiotic assumption than the one attributing game stealing motives to overworked, overstressed parents - then the plan is install the game, take CD out, and keep it in a fireproof safe in another state. Or at least in some place that REALLY SMART, NIMBLE, CRAFTY small children have no chance of finding.
And when you're dealing with kids, you add another step - you copy the CD first in a safe location before even attempting to install the game from the copy. The original should not even get within 10 feet of said computer. Trust me, when you've had a CD scratched irrevocably by a loose paper clip stuck artfully inside of a CD drive you learn this lesson. No originals near kids or kids computers.
Instead, these morons, nincompoops, bloody frigging idiots at Atari decided to make the CD's copy-protected AND added a CD check for added measure. So not only can't I copy the CD, I can't run the game WITHOUT THE CD IN THE DRIVE. What the fuck? I mean, WHAT... THE... FUCK? Did you guys even stop to take a breath and, oh, THINK before signing off on this idiocy?
So I spent an afternoon trying to figure out how to rip these games, got a crash course on the Internet, and have successfully ripped two of the three Dora's as well as the Tonka thus far. Oh, look. Atari actually incentivized me to learn how to rip games! How's that for ironic, huh?!
Oh, if you want some tips, let me help you, too: find some tool that allows you to create an ISO image from the CD (such as the Undisker), then use a virtual CD emulator (such as Daemon Tools) to "emulate" the CD as if it was in the drive. Install the game normally, mount the ISO image in the CD emulator, and let the kids have their fun.
Me, I'm going to find out why I can't apply the same treatment to the 3rd Dora game. Seems like Undisker isn't able to deal with some sectors on that CD for some reason when creating the ISO image. But no worries; I now have the motivation, I am determined, and I WILL figure this out, just like those 15 year olds who do this with Doom. These bastards at Atari and Scholastic (a Clifford CD we have with the same issue) and other publishers who behave this way deserve nothing less. I think that from now on, just out of spite, I will personally make sure that I never, EVER buy a single game from publishers that do this for kids games, and rip them instead. You know, they went into so much trouble to give me the motivation to learn how to do it, it would be a shame to waste all this newfound knowledge.
And to end on a good note, one company DOES seem to get this right - Knowledge Adventure, who provides excellent kids software, with none of this nonsense of copy protection. My son loves their products, and my daughter (who is now 20 months of age) has picked their "duck at grandma's house" game out of the advanced toddler series as the one she fires up every time we let her play. Kudos.
Of course, games are the biggest attraction and we had a few of them installed for a while, but he's grown out of them so I went out and got some more - most recently, a Dora 3-pack and Tonka games from Atari. And it reminded me of something that already pissed me off greatly a year and a half ago, but before I had a blog. Namely, copy protection on kids game CD's.
I mean, what the hell? Do you really think that a 3-to-6 year old will hack your stupid game, copy and distribute to all their friends? Because I am certain you don't think the parents would be the ones doing that... I mean, think about your target market will you?
Who the hell makes these decisions anyway? Which stupid jerk - excuse my language but I am really mad right now - got to work one morning and said "hey, let's put copy protection on our Dora CD's so that we won't get ripped off in the marketplace!"?
Why am I so mad, you ask? Well, if you're asking you don't have kids. I'll explain this very simply. See, when you put computers in front of 3-year olds, you DO NOT, EVER, leave the CD in the drive. EVER. Otherwise, said CD will last less than 24 hours. This is a fact of life. Unless you plan to sit there throughout the whole experience - an even more idiotic assumption than the one attributing game stealing motives to overworked, overstressed parents - then the plan is install the game, take CD out, and keep it in a fireproof safe in another state. Or at least in some place that REALLY SMART, NIMBLE, CRAFTY small children have no chance of finding.
And when you're dealing with kids, you add another step - you copy the CD first in a safe location before even attempting to install the game from the copy. The original should not even get within 10 feet of said computer. Trust me, when you've had a CD scratched irrevocably by a loose paper clip stuck artfully inside of a CD drive you learn this lesson. No originals near kids or kids computers.
Instead, these morons, nincompoops, bloody frigging idiots at Atari decided to make the CD's copy-protected AND added a CD check for added measure. So not only can't I copy the CD, I can't run the game WITHOUT THE CD IN THE DRIVE. What the fuck? I mean, WHAT... THE... FUCK? Did you guys even stop to take a breath and, oh, THINK before signing off on this idiocy?
So I spent an afternoon trying to figure out how to rip these games, got a crash course on the Internet, and have successfully ripped two of the three Dora's as well as the Tonka thus far. Oh, look. Atari actually incentivized me to learn how to rip games! How's that for ironic, huh?!
Oh, if you want some tips, let me help you, too: find some tool that allows you to create an ISO image from the CD (such as the Undisker), then use a virtual CD emulator (such as Daemon Tools) to "emulate" the CD as if it was in the drive. Install the game normally, mount the ISO image in the CD emulator, and let the kids have their fun.
Me, I'm going to find out why I can't apply the same treatment to the 3rd Dora game. Seems like Undisker isn't able to deal with some sectors on that CD for some reason when creating the ISO image. But no worries; I now have the motivation, I am determined, and I WILL figure this out, just like those 15 year olds who do this with Doom. These bastards at Atari and Scholastic (a Clifford CD we have with the same issue) and other publishers who behave this way deserve nothing less. I think that from now on, just out of spite, I will personally make sure that I never, EVER buy a single game from publishers that do this for kids games, and rip them instead. You know, they went into so much trouble to give me the motivation to learn how to do it, it would be a shame to waste all this newfound knowledge.
And to end on a good note, one company DOES seem to get this right - Knowledge Adventure, who provides excellent kids software, with none of this nonsense of copy protection. My son loves their products, and my daughter (who is now 20 months of age) has picked their "duck at grandma's house" game out of the advanced toddler series as the one she fires up every time we let her play. Kudos.
posted by Blinkered at 4:30 PM
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