corrections and comments: > the code on the keep talking and nobody explodes manual is for syncing versions/language, not for anti-piracy. for example, the english code is 241, but the japanese code is 122. still, it shows how easy codes can be worked around if they were for anti-piracy > sorry for being WAY too close to my mic in this video. i did not realize that my mic was practically peaking when recording, and i just had to work with in the editing process. i'll be sure to sit further away from my mic in future videos > the line at the end (“don’t pirate, or else you’ll end up like me”) doesn’t represent my actual stance on piracy. if it was, you wouldn’t have gotten a well-made video. the point of this video is just to showcase various types of anti-piracy measures & fake anti-piracy screens, not be a talking point for how “capitalism bad.” the line was meant to be a joke to tie up the setup in the beginning. nothing more, nothing less

@cyberpxl

Жыл бұрын

Really glad that you clarified this, was just about to comment this myself.

@bh4vvy33t

Жыл бұрын

Nice

@sirpapps

Жыл бұрын

"dont pirate" the nr2003 community: *intense sweating*

@mxrakami7598

Жыл бұрын

"that sounds WAY too scary to be in a NINTENDO game. " Meanwhile, Earthbound's Final boss:

@KopperNeoman

10 ай бұрын

Ironically, circumventing draconian corporate protectionism is EXTREMELY capitalist behaviour.

Remember when everyone made fake piracy screens that went like "Piracy is a crime!" or "Piracy is not [blank]"? Anyway, My favorite piracy screen is the Just Shapes and Beats one, where the creator talks to you

@nimk

Жыл бұрын

the just shapes and beats one is iconic cuz he’s like “i don’t care lol ur cool”

@ninethetwotailedfox

Жыл бұрын

Same here. Looks cool ngl.

@krakentoast

Жыл бұрын

Yes

@uh3610

Жыл бұрын

"Piracy is not Mario Kart DS. You are going to die" *hyperealistic mario with bloody eyes appears in the background*

@h0p3XD

Жыл бұрын

the game i always wanted is just shapes and beats. i'd rather want it from the nintendo website

It’s no doubt that the “scary” piracy screens were inspired by Sonic.exe, which is the bare minimum of creepy media and the bottom of the barrel of quality in todays standards.

@notamobilesprout4175

10 ай бұрын

Agreed.

@iwakeupandboomimarat

8 ай бұрын

honestly i love the unsettling feeling that some fake anti piracy fakes can capture but it just turned into hyperrealistic blood and black eyes WAY too quickly

@KhangVoHoangDuy

5 ай бұрын

ye and they like, mario or sth became creature like exe and then 'oohhhhhhh, you a are theif'

@ArbitraryOutcome

3 ай бұрын

Honestly I'd prefer if the anti-piracy mock-ups were more detached "the game ran into an error" type screens instead of aping off the worst thing to happen to modern creepypasta.

@Midoriisgay

2 ай бұрын

... r u slow. do u know when sonic exe came out lmao

Fun fact, the "Piracy is no party" jailbar screen, that image on the bottom screen is actually in the real game of Mario Party DS. just without the flashing "POWER OFF NOW" message overlaying it. That jailbar screen is used in the beginning of the story mode of that game's story mode, as part of something Bowser did at the beginning of the story against the playable cast of characters

@theoneandonly-qs1uw

5 ай бұрын

he just turned them small lol

@NebulatheZorua

4 ай бұрын

if I had to guess, re-using that asset was probably inspired by a donkey kong game (I forget which) which does a similar thing with reusing I think a game over screen? and it was pretty fuckin creepy

@theoneandonly-qs1uw

4 ай бұрын

@NebulatheZorua Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3, I'm pretty sure. In some countries I think DKC2 has a bland anti-piracy screen. Maybe it's also in the third game, idk I forgor

@Danland777

16 күн бұрын

@@theoneandonly-qs1uw OSC I LIKE OSC lol

The pirated version of Earthbound makes the game extremely difficult, only to crash if the player is hard-core enough to go through to the end.

@azurite6421

Жыл бұрын

wipes all your saves too Btw

@reinbew794

Жыл бұрын

I love it when piracy screens just mock you and annoy you. The fake piracy screens are trying real hard to be a creepypasta.

@aquakun3869

Жыл бұрын

These fake anti-piracy screens really are unique in their ways and leaves questions to theorize like what would happen if u refused to connect a headset in the screen shown at 15:49

@elliot_rat

11 ай бұрын

@@aquakun3869 found the guy who makes bad fake anti piracy screens

@notamobilesprout4175

10 ай бұрын

⁠@@aquakun3869 Let me guess, video game character with hyper-realistic bleeding eyes?

I can’t decide if the funniest part of this is that they thought the switch had a chance to have the potential ability to call the police, but also that even if it worked, that you’d actually be arrested. I think police officers have bigger things to worry about than some games downloaded off of the internet. (the Spyro one is hysterical though)

@aquakun3869

Жыл бұрын

These fake anti-piracy screens really are unique in their ways and leaves questions to theorize like what would happen if u refused to connect a headset in the screen shown at 15:49

@StarSkies-

10 ай бұрын

"Yeah timmy! Youre getting locked up for a LOOONNG time!! Maybe dont pirate next time!!"

@GrumpyIan

10 ай бұрын

Cops would have probably said something like "Stop wasting our time." Or "That's a civil issue."

@hanthonyc

7 ай бұрын

the actual video edit alongside the "headset calling the cops" was surprisingly high quality in execution imo, i almost think the absurdity of the idea was written slightly tongue-in-cheek

@plumjet0930

5 ай бұрын

911 Dispatcher: “Damn, that’s crazy.”

Another reason interesting anti-piracy methods died out was because game developers realized how many people would see them as a sort of easter egg and pirate games just to experience them. Modern day anti-piracy method is boring but much more effective at discouraging pirates

@MeepChangeling

9 ай бұрын

RELOADED and SKIDROW's continued releaces of cracked copies of every AAA title indicate you're wrong there, bud.

@Noxedwin

9 ай бұрын

_Serious Sam 3's_ immortal pink DRM Scorpion heard you. He is 150 meters from your location and approaching _rapidly._ *Start running.*

@shia8938

8 ай бұрын

​@@MeepChangeling Still far more effective than anti-piracy methods of the past.

@windblownleaf6450

7 ай бұрын

not rly

@matt-ve8uq

7 ай бұрын

not really, fitgirl repacks never stop producing pirated games, and its not really hard to pirate games, i certainly am not ever discouraged lol

i saw this one anti piracy screen for tomodachi life (i forgot who made it unfortunatley) and it started off with your miis on the beach and then pirates show up and a war erupts which ends in the pirates claiming victory and taking everyone hostage, so you're island is empty. it was funny and totally played into the nature of tomodachi life lol

@RedFriction

11 ай бұрын

I watched dthat

@DreamyyArt

10 ай бұрын

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

@spiffiniffi

10 ай бұрын

oh neat i saw that one too and conveniently had made my own on my old account before the whole antipiracy trend happened and then got bombarded by 5 year old children who thought that one was real and were all like "HEYYYY THERE'S NO PIRATES TAKING YOUR MIIS HERE >:(((((( STUPID KZreadR" in the comments of my video despite mine being months older than that one good times!

@asra-5180

9 ай бұрын

Aw yeah! fake anti piracy which is shit or unbelievable! I love me some terrible fake anti piracy.

@KiiBon

9 ай бұрын

@@asra-5180 anything that includes tomodachi life is peak

Two of my absolute favorite modern anti-piracy measures are for skullgirls and enter the gungeon. In the former, you could play every characters arcade ladder, but when it came time to see their ending, all you would get was a simple screen that said “what is the square root of a fish? Now I’m sad.“ When pirates went on Twitter to start asking what that meant, the developers straight up told them that it meant that they should buy the game properly. For enter the gungeon there’s a very popular mod that you could install for the steam version, and if it noticed that you were running a pirated copy of the game, it would automatically open up two windows on your computer. One would be a KZread video of the Lazy Town song you are a pirate, while the other Was the steam page for the legal version of the game. If you went and tried to play the game regardless, it would immediately drop you into a ridiculously hard Boss fight that was nigh unwinnable.

@ghoulchan7525

Жыл бұрын

This is way better than what denuvo or whatever that is called does

@ghost.8836

Жыл бұрын

@@ghoulchan7525 And, unlike Denuvo, it doesn't end up affecting actual buyers!

@ghoulchan7525

Жыл бұрын

@@ghost.8836 exactly why

@ghost.8836

Жыл бұрын

@@ghoulchan7525 Denuvo affects performance and just gives players a worse experience than piracy

@murphmariotwopointoh7714

Жыл бұрын

@@ghoulchan7525 I still remember the PC version of Sonic Mania being delayed for a month just so Sega could add Denuvo. And the only compensation we got was an emulated port of Sonic 1, which in my case I already owned. They removed it later on in an update thankfully, but apparently for the non-Steam versions that were released later on they added it back in. Why even?

7:08 This made me fucking realize that the reason why I might’ve never progressed in Year of the Dragon as a kid was because I was playing a pirated version. I remember the cd with the title in sharpie and everything. My mind is fucking blown right now, I raged at that game so hard I broke our giant CRT TV. Either that or I was really shit at the game. Good times. Great video as always lol

@Light_Dies_07

Жыл бұрын

i feel so bad for u but also that is insanely funny omfg ToT i could never :3

@insertcreativehandlehere

Жыл бұрын

How did you break the CRT? Last time I checked they're hella strong, so you must've thrown a controller or something.

@brandnewmob

Жыл бұрын

@@insertcreativehandlehere I just remember standing up and angrily hitting the screen over and over and over again. I can’t remember if the screen itself broke, but something definitely did because when my grandparents got home they got mad at me because the tv stopped working lol.

@Sin_Alder

Жыл бұрын

@@insertcreativehandlehere I was a bit shocked myself. I remember having a particularly chunky large CRT TV growing up, and my N64 about 3 feet below on the floor in front of it. Once the CRT fell forward, face first onto the N64 with a cartridge in the slot. Somehow neither sustained even a bit of damage. That same N64 still works to this day (can't speak for the CRT, though, since it's been gone for a long time). I figured that if you did anything short of smashing it with a sledgehammer, a CRT was like the Nokia of televisions.

@NovaBoi7

Жыл бұрын

@@insertcreativehandlehere not all of them

fake anti piracy screens always remind me of that “qubo’s last minutes” video where they ask for $2500 and then start shooting kid’s show characters

@nimk

Жыл бұрын

i’m pretty sure when looking up videos while editing this one, that video popped up more than once lol

@novameowww

Жыл бұрын

they gave robert the tomato the Skull.

@itryen7632

Жыл бұрын

Same lmao I never understood the appeal, it's just childish.

@novameowww

Жыл бұрын

@@itryen7632 the funniest part IMO was how the creator behind the video thought that a $2500 donation could somehow save the entire channel. like Girl that is not how it works

@itryen7632

Жыл бұрын

@@novameowww IKR

My favourite one is for Ace attorney investigations 2, where all the text is turned into a fictional language if the game is pirated. It completely destroys the point of the game, which is text based.

@plumjet0930

5 ай бұрын

Want somebody to beat that game or at least try to translate the conlang

@jovankabroz6858

5 ай бұрын

@@plumjet0930 there is a twitch streamer that did, i think.

@nosh62

4 ай бұрын

Couldn't you technically beat it w/o issues if you took the time to learn the language?

@Algebruh2407

4 ай бұрын

@@nosh62 No, because the language is made up of pseudo hieroglyphics with no indication of how they are meant to be used when translated. The only real way to beat the game is to use walkthrough guides or to watch other people's gameplay of it, which defeats the point of the game as both being text based and a puzzle game.

@nosh62

4 ай бұрын

@@Algebruh2407 ah, I see. Would be interesting if you could beat it that way, though; it would be one heck of a challenge

I really like the fake Cardiac Arrest warning for Ring Fit Adventure. It's a bit too ominous to seem real (The rather frightening sound design would likely exacerbate the situation) but it left me with chills all the same.

@gl1tchygreml1n

6 ай бұрын

I know the one you're talking about! Personally I thought the creepy ambience wasn't part of the screen but rather it was in the player's head, representing the fear that their body was doing something they had no idea it was doing

@rosykindbunny1313

5 ай бұрын

Me too! That one stuck with me more than the others!

@mackback319

Ай бұрын

i like the wii fit overexertion warning one

I'm pretty sure the Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes code isn't for anti-piracy but instead to make sure you are using the correct version of the manual so that there are no communication problems since this game is so dependant on communication. Edit: I think this makes even more sense when you consider the game asks you this every time you switch languages since the manuals and puzzles are slightly different in different languages so the code makes sure you aren't using the manual from a different language thinking it'll work with the game.

Lets not forget about the pixelation spreads sims had where they took the nudity filter that's spread to everything. Which is hilarious.

One really obscure anti piracy measure is in Rhythm Heaven for the DS, but only the Korean version. If the game detects that it was pirated the icon for the second minigame will be completely missing. You have to play the minigames in order, so you're totally blocked from progressing. Also even if you managed to circumvent this issue by using a cheating device or iniecting a save file with that minigame completed, the game will erase your save data anyway. It's just so odd how only the Korean version has this anti piracy measure when none of the other versions of the game do.

@alphaofficial6466

9 ай бұрын

im like a real big fan of rhythm heaven and somehow i didn't know this! neat!

@synthetic_creature

8 ай бұрын

i guess if you really like built to scale it's still okay?

I love the idea of long cons. It's so beautifully petty and sneaky. My favourite one is actually something I personally experienced as a kid and had no idea what the reason was for it. If you have a burnt copy of Sonic Adventure 2 for the Dreamcast, during one of the stages of the last level you just... fall to your death immediately at the start of it. Nothing you can do about it. I always thought the game was fucked up, and that's why it never worked right. Learning the actual reason was like an infuriating moment of clarity, lol.

@slowbro7944

10 ай бұрын

there was an issue where sega released bad copies of the game which would activate this anti-piracy measure even if it was a legit copy

@Manavine

Ай бұрын

nah, the actual reason was the game was fucked up, sorry you had to relive your infuriating moment of clarity again, just from the fact the anti-piracy got flipped from your bad copy.

@Manavine

19 күн бұрын

also how is this anti-piracy on second thought? Anti-piracy is meant to prevent you from playing the game. This would allow you to play two full stories, which is straight up questionable at best.

The worst thing about lenslock is that the lense was different for each game that used it and you'd often receive the wrong lense for the game you bought! And even if you had the right one, if your TV was too big or small it just wouldn't work. Luckily it wasn't too hard to learn how to read the codes without a lense.

There was this one time when I was maybe 12 or 13 where I couldn't read the product key on a box (I think it was a MYST game maybe) and called the number in the manual sobbing about how the numbers were moving (I have Dyslexia and Discalculia) and the poor person on the phone was kind enough to listen to me for what felt like an hour and then issue me on over the phone.

7:38 imagine complaining online about people pirating your work in game, not knowing that you were basically self reporting

Oh God, I remember the Spyro 3 anti-piracy measures. Little me had no idea why the game would warp me back to Sunrise Spring with no gems or eggs when I tried to do the first fight with the Sorceress. This was back when we'd get our games from a guy my dad knew who'd burn them to disc for us, and I'd play them on my modchipped PS1 (which I still have! Dunno if it still works though, the thing's about as old as I am)... ah, those were the days lol

@JerseyDevils21

Жыл бұрын

That's pretty cool, I still have my play station , got the fearful harmony bios error because of a pirated disc, scared the crap out of me

My dad was an early video game pirate back in the 80s. There was a store that we were able to actually rent old sierra games from. He worked at a paper mill and would just take the game manual to work and photo copy the entire manual for each game. We had each game on floppies with hand written labels and a stack of stapled copies of black and white manuals that we would have to reference to bypass the piracy checks. Such a great time to grow up in! Sierra easily caught on to the fact that their games were being pirated because they would sell more hint books to each game than games themselves.

product keys were the most absurd “anti-piracy” measure every thought up that never actually hindered any pirates but only inconvenienced legitimate purchasers of software. all you had to do to circumvent this antipiracy measure was to write the code down on the the copied cd or for files distributed online there was just a text file distributed with the software. i think some software distributors were just hoping you would lose the key so you would have to buy another copy.

@hedgehog3180

3 ай бұрын

In some situations it was absolutely just a way to force you to buy multiple copies because for a while EA would only let you reinstall the same game three times using any one code. Spore is probably the most famous game to have this “feature”.

imagine if the switch could just call the police at any time tho

@bitchassmoththing

Жыл бұрын

sounds weaponizable enough

@derpboxstudios

10 ай бұрын

imagine ordering pizza from your switch instead of your wii

@haceisaperson

10 ай бұрын

@@derpboxstudios real

@spiffiniffi

10 ай бұрын

imagine if it could do that and modders figure out how to remote start a police call on other people's switches ☠️

@kodachromic

4 ай бұрын

@@spiffiniffi super mario odyssey is gonna get a lot more challenging when you're actively being swatted

A personal favorite I've stumbled across is the fake Harvest Moon DS piracy screen in which the mayor straight-up murders you in the intro. And it's not even that off-brand for HMDS either, in the actual intro you can get a game over by letting your dog maul him--

I liked when the "Piracy is no Party!" thing was a single video. felt like it didn't need to be strung out to like 5+ videos. there, i said it

@iwakeupandboomimarat

8 ай бұрын

honestly the fact it has actual lore is fucking insane lmao

One of the best anti-piracy methods I've ever heard was in older versions of Garry's Mod before the Steam Workshop was in place, where it would randomly crash the game and give the pirated game's owner an error message (specifically "Unable to shade polygon normals", complete nonsense in source-engine graphics but sounds believable if you don't know that) and a unique error code. Thing is, the 'error code' was actually their Steam ID, and by people asking online for help with the 'error', they'd not only be openly-admitting that they're pirating the game without knowing it, but they'd also out their steam account which they were pirating with.

@ravenID429

3 ай бұрын

Lol that’s so cool

I remember when I was a little kid, my family and I played Mario Kart Wii together. My mom often accidentally hit the power button during gameplay, which made our TV show just a... blue screen with some text telling us to power on the source again. I also remember that, whenever that happened, I hid under a blanket and refused to look at the TV. It scared me. Any sort of screen like that scared me. The TV needed to be off, or it needed tobe displaying actual content. Same went for consoles and computers. If I had ever run into a piracy screen (which. i wouldn't have. because i don't pirate.), i would've died right then and there. I think the screens are interesting, though. But the ones that try to actively be "spooky" completely miss the point. They're already spooky. The fact that the game breaks the 4th wall and calls you out is scary enough. And when it's for a kid-friendly developer like Nintendo? Nintendo would never try that for their popular, kid-friendly IPs. They'd never risk scaring an actual child and getting bad press for trying to traumatize children, piracy or not.

@epicthecandydragon6079

2 ай бұрын

I get most of what you’re saying, but if it’s over piracy Nintendo wouldn’t care how many children they traumatize

A few other techniques were also used : - Code word pages printed with black ink on a dark red colored paper which made it nigh to impossible to photocopy. - Disquettes and then CDs with special error tracks which would give a predictable error when reading a certain block - but because of the error the CD could not really be copied except with very specialized hardware and software - The "dongle" - a piece of hardware that you could put on the paralel port - and later USB port, that would not let you start the software.. although that was more oriented towards professional like accounting or very specialized apps oriented for a niche market.

@karisasani7006

8 ай бұрын

The first one eventually got bypassed once printers got good enough

@hedgehog3180

3 ай бұрын

Toys to Life games did effectively use the later, though they also often easy to spoof and frankly spoofing them is way more fun than doing it legitimately. I guess that's the fundamental issue with anti-piracy, to some people you've just created a fun puzzle.

@xXxmlg_vacxXx

27 күн бұрын

The dongle is also used in arcade machines except for certain ones which have a custom board that is the hardware that’s needed for the game and the security system because a lot of them are really just off the shelf PCs that probably are either windows based (example a terminator arcade cabinet with the guns with the grenade launcher or the Sega alls [Insert model here]) or Linux based (another example: nearly every single play mechanix box including MotoGP excluding anything to do with VR because that requires steam VR which won’t work with wine yes, including the rabbits VR ride)

The keygens and cracks aren't naively ignored by the developers, but they know it will take some time for the pirates to develop them, so it helps protect against the initial rush of sales, where most of the money is made.

Great video! This is very well-made, with some good comedy/research! The fake anti-piracy era was honestly quite an ordeal, some of them were very good, and could be genuinely unsettling, but a lot of them just had zero effort and honestly felt awkward to watch. Same with kill screens, where every video was a clone of the other lol

@aquakun3869

Жыл бұрын

These fake anti-piracy screens really are unique in their ways and leaves questions to theorize like what would happen if u refused to connect a headset in the screen shown at 15:49

I saw a fake anti-piracy screen for Conker’s Bad Fur Day around 3 years ago, and I swear, it haunted me for the rest of the day(I was like 10). It had Conker looking at you from the darkness and a message over top basically saying that he found your family and was going to brutally unalive you all. Absolute chills.

@pabblo1

Жыл бұрын

So you're 13?

@mizukittyakinyama

Жыл бұрын

@@pabblo1 well done you know math

@lcruick

Жыл бұрын

i found the video here it is: kzread.info/dash/bejne/m6Voxcuag9OeqM4.html

@Jose-Campos.

Жыл бұрын

@@mizukittyakinyama are you young you can do that in .1 picosecond

@mizukittyakinyama

Жыл бұрын

@@Jose-Campos. i know, that's why i was saying that and being sarcastic. anyone would be able to figure that out.

The Dial-A-Pirate that came with Secret of Monkey Island is my personal favorite, simply because of the irony of a game about pirates having anti-piracy measures. The first line Guybrush ever utters is "I'm Guybrush Threepwood and I wanna be a pirate!" lmao (My as-of-last-summer obsession with the Monkey Island series may also have something to do with placing that one as my favorite lol) Oh, and Monkey Island 2 LeChuck's Revenge had its own Dial-A-Pirate, and this one is interesting because it also was tied to the difficulty selection for the game. Which means that in later editions, including the Special Edition remake from 2010, you cannot pick easy mode. Normal mode ONLY. Well, without hacking. Extra fun is that the game actually has unique assets for easy mode, all of which are still in Special Edition, and have the upgraded artwork done for them just like everything else. There's also a couple unique lines of dialogue for Easy Mode, which were fully voiced for Special Edition. Makes me wonder why they didn't implement any sort of difficulty selection to Special Edition.

at 12:18 the line of code if (game_is_pirated = true) would always run the code inside the if statement because a single = operator means to assign a value to a variable.

@nimk

Жыл бұрын

in my defense i haven’t coded in java in a hot minute

@jackssrt

Жыл бұрын

@@nimk you literally used the correct syntax right below it in the if (in_the_air == true) line...

@nimk

Жыл бұрын

@@jackssrt in my defense it was also like midnight LOL

i really like the idea of piracy screens just for funsies. jsab is my favorite because its pretty calm about it. and then theres year of the dragon, which i like because of the chaos of it, even though it does kinda let you get too far into the game in my opinion.

@Manavine

Ай бұрын

the idea is rep ruin or time waste. Wasting time cuts less into that 1 month period that's so important. Rep Ruining makes the pirate less reputable with other games, which in turn makes them less viable as a source. It does let a photocopying kid get too far yeah, but it works wonders for the other two, being hard to crack and hard to test.

One of my favorite details about the game dev tycoon anti piracy is that it was added to the base game as a toggle to give yourself a challenge

@nimk

10 ай бұрын

damn, must’ve missed that! i don’t play the game much anymore but that would’ve saved me some time finding footage on YT of it lol

i like how the project zomboid devs' stance on piracy is: "you can't afford it right now? ok sure go ask the community they have a link to download a cracked version safely, and if you like it, please buy it once you can afford it"

Honestly, if there's anything that I am glad is a lost art, it's this. There are so many games I couldn't play due to the StarForce copy protection being broken post Windows 7 due to how invasive it was in some versions (such as kernel-level drivers) until some people managed to crack it on a game by game basis. And now it's happening again with Denuvo, which is less invasive but probably just as future-proof. I enjoy the fake ones since they remind me of old creepypasta videos and they are harmless rather than harming preservation and being an annoyance even for those who legitimately bought the games.

Super inspiring, you have a lot of potential! Plus video game stuff like this always goes viral. Stay strong

When it comes to fake anti piracy screen stuff, the only one that I really remember (yes, it’s fairly memorable) is an ace attorney one where the client is on trial for piracy and it’s rather creative

I would love to not pirate! But unfortunately, done developers, studios, etc completely ditch or remove perfectly good games, which become known as abandonware. One prone example being: I wanted to play telltale's guardians of the galaxy on my new pc, but alas, it had to be removed because they went bust. With the new owners of ttg's ip and content not wanting to publish it again (probably due to licensing), the only choice is abandonware piracy.

After getting so fascinated in actual anti-piracy measures, I feel like I wished they had more attention but I wished it on a monkey paw. Now it's mostly just used as a new platform for cheap 2000s-era creepypasta, when it was the more subtle details that made the real anti-piracy systems truly unsettling.

9:17 it's funny because gta 4 is the one game in the series that flips all of this around and has a message about how dark and horrible the life of crime is lol

It’s crazy that they will go through all of this hard work creating a fake anti piracy message, just to ruin it with a cheap/stock VHS overlay. For less than $30, you could get an HDMI to AV and a VCR to get the authentic look, but then you would have to digitize the tape, if you already spent so much time making the video, take the extra few minutes to at least make it authentic

@nimk

Жыл бұрын

i’d always assumed the people who made those type of screens were young and influenced by local 58/mandela catalogue/etc. analogue horror and they didn’t have the money to really get a good overlay i definitely should invest in a vcr so i can make legit-looking vhs stuff if i ever need it, but i have no clue how to really digitize a tape or make any of that work lol. i guess i’ll have to go researching

@nickhuber8023

Жыл бұрын

@@nimk I’m not good with digitizing but I put movies onto VHS, it’s super easy and you can use any tape even if it has a movie on it, all you have to do is take a piece of scotch tape and cover the security slot. Goodwill usually has VCRs for like $10-$15, the most expensive thing is the HDMI to AV adapter, which is like $15.

Honestly, you are the reason I don't want to quit youtube! Great video.

8:56 more then likely the drm was messed up, once you get into the 90s thats soinds like messed up drm.

i love how the gold rush one’s anti-piracy screen is literally the player being hung at the gallows.

@Manavine

Ай бұрын

my favorite is La Abadia Del Crimen which goes PIRATA, P I R A T A, P I R A T A, P I R A T A

The pirated copy of hacknet will progress normally to the end then in the credits say "I know you have a pirated copy, that's okay" not much of a anti piracy but still memorable

Well, the main reason for the die off is that a lot of us current generation of programmers... Kinda were pirates at some point. Or just other kinds of under dwellers. And when that's the case, the idea of torturing little Jimmy who's parents just plain said no to everything just doesn't appeal as much. So it's gotten more professional and more focused on more involved DRM. It's not about playing with pirates anymore, just making it difficult to do for awhile. The people who can afford it will just give up and buy it. Little Jimmy is just going to have to wait a few months. TL;DR, we're not assholes anymore. We get it. We were it.

@hunterchichester5720

14 күн бұрын

Yeah, I love emulating games. Nintendo console cost a lot.

When I was 12-13 years old, I discovered, "Wow! I can play video games for free and not have to watch let's-plays on KZread?!", and started pirating games. Then it actually turned into a habit. I'm definitely getting better, but since I'm only 15, it wasn't really that long ago since I started. I started by refusing to pirate certain games based on how much MB's it would take to download the pirated version, now I'm also refusing to pirate indie games. I do feel pretty ashamed about it, and the only reason I started pirating games was because I'm very socially awkward and I was taught the value of money at an early age (which is a pretty good parenting tactic so that your kid doesn't put you in debt from being like, "buy me this!" or "buy me that!"), so whenever I wanted to buy a game I had to awkwardly go downstairs and ask my dad if I could use my allowance to buy a game I wanted. (Most of the time I was too anxious to actually go down and ask so I never ended up getting some games) Sorry if this comment is overly ramble-y, I tend to talk (or in this case, type) a lot.

@xajaga5308

Жыл бұрын

This is exactly the kind of situation where I don't disagree with piracy. Not everyone has the luxury of spending money on things like games. However, that shouldn't mean that you have to give up entertainment you like, which is an important part of being human. You can always choose to support the developers by purchasing the game if you wish, or you can share the game with friends and perhaps they would purchase it. If I was a small indie developer, as much as I'd prefer to be paid, the reality is that not everyone can or is willing to. It's understandable.

@weegie3343

Жыл бұрын

I pirated stuff because I didn’t have a bank account to pay for the games, even if i wanted to. I did buy a couple games second hand (Using banknotes obviously), but still, no money goes to the developer if i buy a used game. It’s just that i didn’t and still don’t have £50-£70 to buy a new game

@catfluff85

Жыл бұрын

@@weegie3343 I don't have a bank account either, so I understand lol

@kingdededelicious

10 ай бұрын

I just exclusively play old games nobody sells anymore, can't lose profits that aren't being made in the first place

@-themightymittens-

10 ай бұрын

I only pirate games if it's no longer available to purchase new. They're not making money off it anyway so what's the point of paying $80 secondhand for a $20 game. The only exception is The Sims 4 packs bc EA's not getting $900+ from me for some things for digital people.

I love how Mirror's Edge 2008 just decides to fuck with your ego if you try to pirate it In the tuto, when you try to move, you move very very slow until to the point you cant do anything, and when you try to jump, you get into terms with your death

Some copy protection manual/paper thingie came in horrible colors with horrible contrast so that copies made with a photocopy machine or fax, which was all that was available back in the day, would be illegible. It's not a problem anymore with digital copies, but it worked reasonably well in the 80s and early 90s. I guess you could still copy the whole thing by hand, but I guess at that point you kinda earned your pirated copy.

Underrated channel

first time im genuinely shocked at how underated a youtuber is!! Amazing video dude.

I like the Immortal killer scorpion one and the pirate jail one. The Michael Jackson one was funny too with vuvuzuelas playing over the songs. There’s also the Batman and parkour ones that take away the abilities you need to play the game

@aquakun3869

Жыл бұрын

Well did u know that people managed to kill the inmortal killer scorpion?

7:27 game dev tycoon is such a creative way to stop pirates from making progress! Too bad it went over most pirates heads :(

I'm gonna straight up say it, I'm a pirate, and I pirate every day... with tv shows and movies anyway. The main reason why I pirate, is because I can't get them legally, all because I'm a minor and can't pay for stuff online. I've stopped pirating disney and netflix stuff because my family now has the streaming setvices, but I still pirate other stuff, like nickelodeon, cartoon network, universal studios, and those kind of stuff, all because I can't legally buy them. I only pirate old video games (usually only nintendo), and sometimes switch games that I own (mainly just so I can dump assets from them). Of course, I do also pirate where's my water... to some extent. I'll explain. I've bought the game legally on the apple app store, but not on google play, but I found an apk of it online, and I use it to mod the game. If I could, I would buy the game on google play, then use the official apk downloaded from the play store, and mod that instead. Oh, and the only times I pirate disney / netflix stuff, is when I'm watching trash, and don't want to support the creators, or I'm watching something that I don't want my family to see that I'm watching (it's just little kid stuff that I'm just watching because I'm curious), or it's just so I can watch the Australian version of bluey, and not have to pay for a vpn.

I know the perfect piracy kill screen! It’s for a pirated Windows XP and it immediately loads the Blue Screen of Death every time you power on the PC and you can’t shut it down or close the BSOD. Your only choices are to keep the annoying sound going or to destroy the PC. It also is modified to suggest calling the cops

@jdh9419

10 ай бұрын

Another idea: A pirated copy of an iPhone12, except the second you turn it on, it immediately calls the police on you XD

How the hell is your channel this underrated? How does a content creator this good not even have 7k subs?

There was an Animal Crossing : New Horizons piracy screen I saw a few years ago in 2020, and it actually gave off it's vibe for it. It was the Residence Service building of Isabelle doing the normal announcements then saying she just got news of a criminal on the island, and states your character's name, then showing an ACNH pop-up saying to return the game to where you bought it or destroy the copy and note legal services about the piracy.

The windows 95 startup has been my ringtone for almost a year now and i cant hear it normally anymore without me getting jumpscared lmfao

@nimk

Жыл бұрын

i... wish you the best if you watch my previous videos LOL that used to be my intro

@slimetb

Жыл бұрын

@@nimk Ohh shoot now hold on I was doing my college algebra stuff and binging your vids for ‘very enjoyable background noise’ shall I say and genuinely thought you used it for every vid and of course I comment on the one without it

@nimk

Жыл бұрын

@@slimetb tbf i changed it VERY recently, but yeah that's unlucky haha

so I just happened upon this channel and I just have to say that the video topics, editing/pacing and humour are bang on what hits the neuron activation button for me. Keep it up, hopefully there’s other people in my same demographic

11:47 relatable. I too find it hard to exist for more than 8 hours. Every day is a struggle, or else the void threatens to consume me I must remain vigilant

8:17 OH GOD, THIS IS VERY BAD...

The MPDS picture is actually from the story mode, where Bowser shrinks the cast.

Imagine being some kid playing gold rush and you know the answer to the question from your history classes but you misspell the word and see that happen to your character

Arcade racing games when you drive into a store/building/etc: 0:32 (I don't know why most of these games do that, also there are some exceptions, like asphalt 9)

That Game Dev Tycoon section is priceless.

12:39 that “Salam, Bowser!” caught me

When i first saw your videos, i was like "holy fuck Scott the Woz" And i fucking like this type of content!

I think my personal more favorite Anti-Piracy system I have ever seen was in Dragonbal GT transformation in the GBA were if you Pirate the game will it allow you to play the first 2 stages only to then when you try to play stage 3 instead give you a screen telling you that if you liked that you played so far you might just wanna actually buy the game. I love it because it turns a Pirated copy into basically a old Shareware/Demo version of the game. Tho one thing not mentioned here is how many old Anti-Piracy systems on PC just kind of died as Windows updated which these days forced people to use Pirated patches to get some of there old games running again.

I remember watching a Super Mario Odissey anti piracy screen that it ended up being a jumpscare with the first image that pops up when you google "scary mario"

@gwenboudreaux6080

3 ай бұрын

The jumpscare is called “Super Horror Mario” and it’s on DeviantArt

yo, this is amazing! underrated channel fr

One of my favorite anti piracy is the Coronel bequest fingerprint identifier - the game since it was a murder mystery had the finger prints of all the characters with the physical game and if you pick the wrong one the curtain falls and the game closes

i'm pretty sure there was an anti piracy measure in pokemon black and white which disabled the ability to gain exp and level up any of your pokemon

i've just discovered your channel and i absolutely love your content. keep it up!

Thanks for a great video :) I was always scared of the anti-piracy screen from Frontier - if you had got the code wrong when asked, then at a random point later the screen would cut to black with a frowning police officer face and a message about them finding out you were flying a stolen ship and hauling you off to jail. It was really a lot like those awful fake anti-piracy screens you listed!

my favorite one is when people pirate gmod, they get a unique error code saying "unable to shade polygon normals." when they go to forums to ask for help everyone just says "maybe try buying the game.".

"you wouldn't download a car!" I absolutely would if it were possible.

9:33 NIKO? NIKO ARE YOU OKAY? NIKO, ITS ROMAN. NIKO? LETS GO BOWLING

0:27 We should publicly shame that store for kicking you out

6:50 ha ha that scared me

@bluey-next777

25 күн бұрын

Made me laugh a little when you read the text...

The only games I do pirate are old games that are no longer available for purchase (bc they're not making money off of resales anyway) and The Sims 4 packs because ain't no way EA of all companies is getting $900+ for some items for digital people (I got the base game legitimately though so there's that ig)

i absolutely love your content man. keep it up. your editing and scripts are so funny, let it be known i've been here since 8.15k subs lol

I have a story on the first time I ran into an anti-pirate measure actually, it happened about like 2 years ago? I love Pokémon and I have a lot of Pokémon games, physically and digitally. However, I often emulate the 2D games on my tablet either to get cheats or because I was bored. One game I emulated was Pokémon Black (I don't know why, I have the physical copy). Usually, I would use the DS emulator I was familiar with, however, the one I usually used was playing up, so I downloaded a different one. I went to train in the grass after getting my Tepig because I knew I struggled with N's Purrloin near the start. That's when I noticed my Tepig didn't gain any EXP from the Lillipup it just killed. "Strange," I thought, "Must've been my imagination." And then then same thing happened the next battle So it turns out the gen 5 Pokémon game have an anti piracy measure where your Pokémon is unable to gain EXP, which will make your life hell. I think the DS emulator I usually use has some sort of built in anti piracy workaround which was why I didn't run into it on that emulator, but I did eventually find a cheat code that bypassed the measure so uh yeah. Didn't matter tho cuz I stopped playing like 2 days later-

these fake anti piracy screens creep me out i really dont know why.

@nimk

Жыл бұрын

i mean, they are made specifically to be scary most of the time. at least, the ones with that "standard fake anti-piracy screen formula" i mention in the video

@GhostlyOrSomething

Жыл бұрын

@@nimk yes but they arent like actually creepy just strange

Kill screens are certainly the strangest out of all the fake stuff. As if I thought that their formulaicness was weird enough, I went down a little rabbit hole one night and stumbled across a variety of game console kill screens based off of TV shows for infants. That's just so incredibly niche, I haven't seen such absurd forms of crossover since the GoAnimate videos back around 2015-16☠

2:56 Oh boy, I have the Nascar Racing 2003 product key burned into my mind, I can still remember it whenever I reinstall the game.

I dont really believe Keep Talkings code was meant to be anti-piracy, its meant to prove you're aware this is 2 parts: the defuser, and the experts. Its also to verify you're using the right version of said manual (which isnt really a deal, there was no updates iirc)

You need more attention dude. Your video quality is amazing, good job man

13:24 “eerie track that is way too scary to ever be in a Nintendo game” Clearly you haven’t heard River Twygz Bed from Super Paper Mario…

yo this is fire, I didn't know you made cool video essays like this. I just associated your channel with funny meme video and windows video that you got like a million views on. this is really good and I look forward to watching both what I haven't seen and what you put out in the future!

@nimk

Жыл бұрын

no way famed musician nona gon!!! also i pretty much started making video essays like this right before i went off to college so,,, lol. but yeah, i’m happy that my youtube lineage will no longer be “the guy that made a windows startup sounds video on windows movie maker in 2015”

3:35 What I do remember about keygen is that they often had cool 8-bit sounding music. Keygens were pretty much my first introduction to chiptune/Amiga tracker module music.

@nimk

Жыл бұрын

they always had banger tracks but my god they could’ve made them not blow my ears out i swear they always made the songs be at a solid 200db

@TrizziEhgan

Жыл бұрын

this is one of these things that got me into tracker music

yoo dude thank you for makin subtitles!

0:43 the Simpson movie

I just found you and I have to say: You remind me of Scott the Woz's video style while still having your own unique style. I just subbed today right before you got to 8k and I hope you keep it up, I love the videos!

If someone pirates my game, I’m putting the 1st episode of one piece in

Gyakuten Kenji 2 detects if you're running an original cart by detecting more ROM space than the actual cart can handle. If it does, then it will change from Japanese(game's JP only) to Borginian, a language from the Ace Attorney series. ROM pathes for this are available, so it was beaten long ago. Speaking of long ago, Konami games on the Famicom(NES) had an anti-piracy measure in which checksum was validated. If it's not valid, it will start with the hardest difficulty of the game. For example, Bucky O'Hare had this where you'll be one-shoted for everything. Another game is TMNT 3, in which battle with Shredder will be broken, as he will have regeneration all the time.

16:19 Basically every anti piracy screen ever

I love ur vids fr