From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg

On Saturday, October 13, 2018 at 7:23:35 PM UTC, het.d...@googlemail.com wrote:

As someone who's reversed loads of Starforce titles, nearly everything about what you've written is complete crap. Starforce simply doesn't work that way at all. There is no call from the game code to Starforce, or at least, it actually doesn't work that way. You should really learn how it works before talking crap. Here's a pointer for you... How do you think the encrypted SFFS files work?! Why do you think that padding file existed???!? Answer these questions and you'll be a step closer to understanding the VM coding of Starforce.

This is a bit of a long shot replying to an old ass thread, but is there a known way to bypass ActControl, a fork of SF5?
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg

On Saturday, February 4, 2006 at 6:39:13 PM UTC-6, Nostromo wrote:

Just curious...why is it so difficult for hackers to rip it out when they
are making the no-cd exes? Is it that pervasive & intrusive across the
entire software, or is there another reason...?
--
A killfile is a friend for life.
Replace 'spamfree' with the other word for 'maze' to reply via email.

There weren't any hacks because all the hackers got their stimulus checks and were able to pay for the game.
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg

On Thu, 3 Aug 2023 19:12:41 -0700 (PDT), Jakoby Lastrev
<cardhogg@outlook.com> wrote:

On Saturday, October 13, 2018 at 7:23:35?PM UTC, het.d...@googlemail.com wrote:

As someone who's reversed loads of Starforce titles, nearly everything about what you've written is complete crap. Starforce simply doesn't work that way at all. There is no call from the game code to Starforce, or at least, it actually doesn't work that way. You should really learn how it works before talking crap. Here's a pointer for you... How do you think the encrypted SFFS files work?! Why do you think that padding file existed???!? Answer these questions and you'll be a step closer to understanding the VM coding of Starforce.

This is a bit of a long shot replying to an old ass thread, but is there a known way to bypass ActControl, a fork of SF5?

Never tried myself, but a quick google search says:

] ACTControl
] Activation-based DRM.
] No longer functional as of late 2022 and unactivated games require
] a no-CD patch to bypass the activation check, or use this
] StarForce servers as a workaround.
] https://proactive.star-force.com/2.0/activate.php

That website does require a valid serial number though.

It doesn't bypass the DRM entirely, but it will let you play the games
despite the servers being shut-down.

--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114