List of Games with Intrusive "Copy Protection"

[aimeeandbeatles]

For the benefit of our fellow gamers.

Unfortunately, I don't know any really except for Spore, which I don't have.

P.S. I don't consider license keys to be intrusive. I'd also be nice if you'd all say what the copy protection actually does -- limits installations, puts weird things on your computer, etc etc.

 

[Maniacal]

Every Starforce protected program.

http://groups.google.com/group/boycott-starforce/web/games-list

They used to have a much better list, don't know why it's on google lists now but still. Some games had starforce only in say the russian version or in the us version but not in the european version for example.

 

[GVBN]

Any game with limited installs

 

[salty mud]

PC versions of Mass Effect and Bioshock have some form of DRM, don't they?

 

[Maniacal]

PC versions of Mass Effect and Bioshock have some form of DRM, don't they?

Most PC games have somekind of DRM

ME has the same one as SPORE. Bioshock also has limited installs and a slightly earlier version of Securom than ME and SPORE.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Does anybody know to look on discs to see if it has SecuROM? I think a few of my games have it, but I'm not sure. I tried googling but no luck, I did remember seeing it online before, a kind of code around the center hole.

Edit: Never mind, I checked the great Wikipedia again.

The protection can also be recognized by DADC on the inside ring of the CD. DADC is a CD manufacturing plant; the more recent SecuROM protected games are also pressed in other plants. Open the main executable using a hex editor and search for the following ASCII text (it should appear twice): CMS

Another edit: There's a shortish list of SecuROM games on Wikipedia. link

Still another edit: Found SecuROM removal: link

 

[Aramazd]

Dead Space has SecuRom as well

 

[Maniacal]

I have had no problems with SecuROM until games released since last year (and even then, it was just Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms, who's SecuROM did not let me run my legaly bought game from an image file, even though I had been running my legal copy of Medieval II pre-expansion from an image. It's just stupid, it's like they assume we are all at risk of being nice law abiding customers one moment and mass pirates the next. I don't share my games (anymore) anyways, and I havn't heard of companies cracking down on people selling 2nd hand movies or sometning rediculous like limiting the number of times it can be watched.
And I've never had a problem with Starforce (which reminds me, I need to remove that). Luck of the draw I guess.

 

[GenMarshall]

Any game with limited installs

That's how I see "copy protection" on games that are restrictive as Spore. Though realy it should be called "Copy limitation".

 

[salty mud]

Most PC games have somekind of DRM

ME has the same one as SPORE. Bioshock also has limited installs and a slightly earlier version of Securom than ME and SPORE.

I meant INTRUSIVE DRM. Most PC games never affect me.

 

[Hehehe]

Far Cry 2: Securom, limits installs, internet activation required
Crysis Warhead: Securom, limits installs, activation req.
GTA4 PC: Securom, activation req.

Those are the first games I could think of. From what I hear, Securom "puts weird things" on ones computer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-uulRB1OmY I've heard rumours of extra optical drives not working and stuff like that. Also my PC was working like charm but then one day I bought and installed Crysis Warhead and Far Cry 2 and some games simply stopped working. I don't know if it's because of the securom but from now on I'm not installing securom on my computer anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-uulRB1OmY

 

[carmen510]

Well, Call of Duty: World at War wasn't working until I removed VirtualDrive, because of Securom or something.

 

[Izipo]

Hold on a sec, could this securom or starforce business be responsible for the failure of my CD and DVD writers ? They don't seem to last, I always thought it was bad engineering or something, but after reading a bit more I'm having second thoughts.

The worst thing is I'm probably one of the most law abiding computer user out there. You'd have a hard time finding an illegal MP3 or Divx file on any of my computers (except maybe the very old one, back in the napster days), I only ever use my DVD burner for backup and it's not working anymore. Is this because of these programs ?

 

[Maniacal]

Possibly, Starforce has murdered cd/dvd drives and writers.