Russian firm improves game copy protection

STARFORCE TECHNOLOGIES said it will introduce a version of its protection system at the ECTS games show in London at the end of this month.

The firm told the INQUIRER that version 3.0 of Starforce Professional, a CD authentication system, will introduce a whole range of additional features to protect games from being cracked or illegally copied.

It said that the new version will allow games developers to control the physical parameters of CDs, and can so tell not only the licensed disks from illegally replicated copies, but also disks with the same title made from different glass masters.

The firm will also introduce a File Protection feature, intended to safeguard data files used games and other software developers, which lets some of the files be hidden.

A survey conducted by the firm of games developers claims that 97 per cent of them don't want to modify their code for copy protection in case new bugs are created, because of the learning curve in implementing high levels of security, and because they lack the source code. µ

Star Force L'INQ
ECTS 2002 L'INQ