Current STARFORCE is great for legit buyers.
 

I've made working backups of Scrapland, Chaos Theory, SH3 and GTR Racing using the USB trick. As far as I'm concerned, it's a perfect scenario. those who buy their games legit are able to make a working backup of the game, where as those who've downloaded illegal versions can't play because of mis-matched MDS files or Serial Keys. If the current Starforce protection were to carry on like this, then I will still be buying Starforce games. However, it will be interested to see whether the newer versions deal with the USB loophole.

Suffice to say if they block the USB trick, then I won't be buying ANY more Starforce games, which will probably mean the end for me as far as PC gaming goes.

A thought just occured to me. If a new Starfoce version blocks the USB trick, will it render all your previously playable backups useless?

I think so, yes.

But I wouldn't agree with your statement, that it's great for legit buyers. Why would I want to spend 30 euros on an IDE-USB converter cable, or even more for an external USB drive, when I have two good and working IDE drives?

I've already given about 50 euros for the game, why would I have to pay more in order to get my own legitimate backup?

And the USB2 hole is not something that was left on purpose by the Starforce team for legitimate buyers, it's just something they missed. Soon, that hole will be closed, and nobody will be able to use that workaround either.

So, no backups for us, and it's getting that way pretty soon.

I can't agree either. I bought TM: Sunrise and I can't play it at my office because f*cking SF3 won't accept my Plextor drive. Now, if I plug a Sony drive, even if it is disabled, the game will work with no probs. Of course, then I have to listen to my mate shouting me to give him his drive back :rolleyes:

SF3 and Steam are the worst things that have happened to this industry. Horrid tech support, sometimes you can't even play what you paid for. How I'd love for someone to sue those bastards and get them out of business.

That might be your oppinion but its far from truth, how is a protection that prevents piracy a bad thing FOR THE INDUSTRY?

Well, what can i say. Many of u think u will buy SF titles, even if USB 2.0 trick continue working.

I don't know the knowledge u have about SF, but right now, SF is a logic bomb. I purchase a lot of SF titles, but for different purposes of u. Anyway,i NEVER run SF in my system. SF now gets ride of most internal windows function, and thats just a very bad thing.

Don't know if u know that, but SF now insert junk in IDE commands, so no quality drives with "poor" burning engine ( just link for example(...)) will neither extract a good mds ( not important) nor continue burning at good rate without danger( not so important unless u were rich) . With this i mean that a lot of DVD drives are DYING definetively, cause SF have been used regularly.

SF is to our system like Themida to user (...) Think about, that just MY OPINION

CdSTeam

I agree with Luciel. How can a protection that is designed to protect the industry etc be a bad thing ?. Yep i agree its a pain in the ass when wanting to back up your original shop bought and paid for version. The way i look @ this is simple. Ok i hate SF3 (when it comes to backing up games) but when it comes to maintaining a steady flow of new and original and console ported games to PC then thats a good thing. Many times the piracy industry has bought producers,dev's etc to a grinding halt meaning we loose out. Piracy is major and in some countries you can pick up a £40 (UK RETAIL PRICE) for as little as £1 or £2. Whilst that brings the whole issue of over pricing back up it also shows (and ive been informed from speaking to various ppl) that in some places its EASIER to get hold of pirated software than retail :confused: .
Now i dont agree with the steam "protection" (if thats what you want to call it) but as far as SF3 goes if it makes developers,produces,etc etc willing to keep the PC in their sights when producing games then that can only be a good thing cant it ?. (if we try to look @ it another way what happens if the number of games comming out on PC really drops to well bellow adverage because of piracy ? To many ppl continuly DOWNLOAD games and refuse to ever buy one. Even if they think a game is excellent they wont buy it). I would hate the number of quality titles that are released on PC to drop because of PIRACY!! Has anyone else noticed that it seems to be the "DOWNLOADERS" etc that are the biggest number of ppl complaining about not being able to play "backed up" games ? SCREAMING out for cracks . I think the majority of ppl who continualy clog up the threads with posts about needing a crack,bypass SF3 for SF3 protected games are warez users. I know there are also ppl who own the original retail versions to that want a crack,want to back up their original (im one of them) But look how many ppl have been banned recently because of breaking the rules. (due to warez, how to get a coppied game to run etc etc). I for one have had my fill of warez kiddies :mad: Fu(K OFF WAREZ KIDDIES :mad:

I can live with the fact that there are certain files copied to my hd during install, that's fine by me but as soon as the program starts whining with original disc or some of my installed soft (not active) then I'll will go ripping that bastard apart and reverse the hell outta it...

who's the dummy then? Me for not being able to play original and removing that protective crap or the industry for using protections that only makes the end user pissed off? Game dont work = back to shop--> Money back-->no money, no profit ;)

@Morglum
Ive been following the progress and your thoughts concerning Starforce for awhile now and for that reason alone I will NOT install any of the new starforce protected games into my system! I will live with the fact that I wont play a starforce game but I wont live with the fact that I cannot (maynot) be able to do a quality backup of my other protected titles if I have starforce in my system.

Including most who read the rules and kid on they have the original, only to stumble at the "Make an image of your disc" part lol Then the excuses come out "My drive wont support it" and "I tried but cant make a great image"

We arent stupid not to realise most people are warez users. lol

Hold on..Rewind ---------- :eek: ... Is it true (as in backed up fact) that having a SF3 game installed on your PC can leave program traces which can effect backing up a non SF3 game ? So lets say i install a SF3 game onto my PC. I then uninstall it. I then want to back up a non SF3 protected game but can have trouble doing this due to the fact that i once had a SF3 protected game on my PC. ? I am VERY intrested to know the answere to this.

@ DABhand So true. Problem is many ppl are to stupid to realise this . Actualy a thread should be started with all the crapy excuses ppl use and see who wins with the most original sh*ty excuse. :D

@coffin_filler:

Yes, so true. Even after uninstalling SC:CT, I'm not able to make a proper DPM measurement of ANY game, SF3 or not. Seems that the drivers remain installed, and rumour has it that even the uninstall utility from the official website doesn't do the job right.

OUCH thats naughty :mad: As of now i havent installed one SF3 game on my home PC and before i even concider it its apparent i need to do some homework. Thanks for the tips ppl. Any links anyone knows of to sites containing information about SF3 and the problems it can cause will be appreciated. Post links to them either in here or PM me if you perfer. Thanks.

I don't think that any drivers remain. As I understand, the Starforce drivers fill the IDE channel reading software with garbage, reducing your optical drives capacity to read RPMS data, even rendering cheap DVD drives useless!

This must be why using a USB drive works. Once they do the same thing to the USB channels, that's screwed as well.

There was an actual thread called "Bots" or something where Joyboy/BW (I think) would post what people said just before they got banned.
It was so much fun to read through. Only because it's too real. I sometimes want to comment on every single post I find where someone says "Hey I am a warez brat, ban me now please, U RoXXoR" not in so many words, but you get the idea.
This is why a lot of the threads I post in are closed. I don't usually break the rules, but I like saying "GOTCHA" every once in a while.