The main goal of this project is to archive pristine versions of original Commodore 64 software, including copy protection. A secondary goal and benefit of this will be to catalog and document all the different copy protection methods used. This information will be used to improve emulation, as well as allow remastering of the software onto new disks for you to enjoy on the real thing.

Of course, to reach these goals, we need your help. This software exists only on magnetic media from the 1980's, and as such has been disappearing into attics, yard sales, and landfills for 20-25 years. Floppy disks were also never made to last a lifetime, as I have found in purchasing them in auctions. Even disks that were stored and cared for by their owners all these years have pretty high failure rates, including some where the magnetic material actually wipes right off, making the drive heads filthy.

You can help preserve them for our own and future generations in a number of ways.

* If you have a 1541 or 1571 disk drive and a XEP, XAP, or XMP cable (serial/parallel combination), we can send you the latest mastering software. You can then send us the resulting image and statistical data for analysis and inclusion in the archive.

* We will happily pay for postage to get any original disks you have to us! We will promptly image them and send them back to you.

* If you don't have the cabling or don't wish to send us your originals, you can make us nibbled copies of the originals by whatever the best means you have and send us those. We will pay for postage, as well as return these disks to you, of course. We can sometimes reconstruct the protection onto the image by looking at what it checks for, plus they can be used to verify the original image if nothing else.

* Join the discussion forums and ask any questions or make any comments you like about the project or copy protection in general.

C64PP Disk Database Updates for Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:02:01 EDT

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Title: Solomon's Key (PAL)
Publisher: US Gold
Year: 1987
Protection: cyan v2
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - verified
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-14 12:50:51

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C64PP Disk Database Updates for Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:02:01 EDT

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Title: Shooting Stars 3 (Compilation)
Publisher: Kingsoft
Year: unknown
Protection: none
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - verified
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-13 12:36:21
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Title: Footballer of the Year II (PAL)
Publisher: Gremlin
Year: 1989
Protection: cyan loader v2
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - verified
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-13 12:37:40
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Title: Hacker II (NTSC)
Publisher: Activision
Year: 1986
Protection: fat track 35/36
Contributor: jerry
Notes: cifo
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-13 14:21:11
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Title: Rick Dangerous II (PAL)
Publisher: Mircoprose / Microplay / Kixx
Year: 1990
Protection: none - disk says para-protect and t40 protection is present, but it doesn't seem to check it during boot or start of play
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-13 14:34:00
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Title: Solomon's Key (PAL)
Publisher: US Gold
Year: 1987
Protection: cysn v2
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - verified
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-13 14:36:26

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C64PP Disk Database Updates for Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:02:01 EDT

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Title: North and South
Publisher: Infogrames
Year: 1991
Protection: none
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - verified - side 2 is completely different in alternate set, probably due to saved progression. the disk ID is different however.
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 21:24:14
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Title: Lotus Espirit Turbo Challenge (PAL)
Publisher: Gremlin
Year: 1992
Protection: none
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - new submission corrected disk errors, verifies 100%
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 20:57:52
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Title: Scrabble Deluxe
Publisher: Leisure Genius
Year: 1986
Protection: none
Contributor: pete, dc
Notes: cifo - alternate is complete different disk layout but same game. alt has unformatted track 1 that isn't checked or that track is damaged on the original
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 21:42:08
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Title: Tilt (PAL)
Publisher: Genias
Year: 1988
Protection: none - only tracks 10-18 are formatted, but it doesn't check for the others
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - verified
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 20:54:29
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Title: Hero Quest (PAL)
Publisher: Gremlin
Year: 1991
Protection: none
Contributor: sabourin, dc
Notes: cifo - verified to previous D64 images
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 21:03:16
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Title: Cybernoid (PAL)
Publisher: Hewson Consultants
Year: 1988
Protection: none
Contributor: sabourin, dc
Notes: cifo - new NIB submission did not match old D64 version, but appeared to be the same release
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 21:11:48
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Title: Quiwi (PAL) (German)
Publisher: Kingsoft
Year: 1985
Protection: none
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - verified - t1s20 is a verified mastering error or never-checked protection
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 21:35:04
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Title: Dragon's Kingdom (PAL)
Publisher: Genias
Year: 1990
Protection: none checked, but only tracks 9-18 are formatted
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - verified
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 20:52:04
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Title: Face Off
Publisher: Gamestar
Year: 1987
Protection: checks signature on t36 that should be something with a header of "0x5b 0x69 0x69..." with the number of 0x69's flipping an XOR checksum, but this is a killer track when read. could be this track is damaged or read improperly. I've tried to recreate the header it's looking for to no avail but haven't experimented with the number of 0x69 bytes.
Contributor: jerry
Notes: ifo -
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 14:47:54
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Title: Clik Clak (PAL)
Publisher: Idea
Year: 1992
Protection: fastloader only works with G64 and has a code sheet lookup
Contributor: chefboss, dc
Notes: cifo - verified
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 21:16:10
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Title: Raid Over Moscow
Publisher: Access
Year: 1984
Protection: has different disk layout and protection. either this disk is bad, or a later release with some heavy protection on track 19, because it freezes emulation and a real c64 when remastered.
Contributor: jerry
Notes: ifo
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 14:50:36
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Title: Boulder Dash Construction Kit (PAL)
Publisher: First Star
Year: 1986
Protection: checks signature on t35s0
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - disk label says 1989 (?) must be a re-release. This is from a PAL country.
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 20:20:18
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Title: Spy Vs. Spy I - Joe and Dagger (PAL)
Publisher: First Star
Year: 1984
Protection: none
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - disk label says 1989 (?) must be a re-release. This is from a PAL country.
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 20:20:27
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Title: Kangarudy (PAL)
Publisher: Haip Software
Year: 1993
Protection: looking for a signature on t36 which doesn't seem to pass on emulation or remastered
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 20:37:00
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Title: Alien World (PAL)
Publisher: Hi-Tech Expressions
Year: 1992
Protection: unknown - doesn't pass loading track 17
Contributor: dc
Notes: ifo - checksums are good, doesn't load - could be odd protection
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 20:50:46
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Title: Abyss (PAL)
Publisher: Kingsoft
Year: 1988
Protection: none
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 21:28:42
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Title: Jump Machine (PAL)
Publisher: Kingsoft
Year: 1987
Protection: none
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 21:30:21
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Title: Tip Trick (PAL)
Publisher: Magic Soft
Year: 1991
Protection: none
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 21:44:32
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Title: Think Cross (PAL) (German)
Publisher: Max Design
Year: 1991
Protection: looks to be manual or code sheet lookup
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo
Verified: 0
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 21:47:37
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Title: Beam (PAL)
Publisher: Magic Bytes
Year: 1989
Protection: rainbow arts v2
Contributor: dc
Notes: cifo - verified
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-12 21:49:22

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C64PP Disk Database Updates for Sat, 12 Jul 2008 04:02:01 EDT

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Title: Gamemaker
Published: Activision
Year: 1985
Protection: xemag 2.0
Contributor: pete, donm, jerry, daryl
Notes: cifo - verified - I was missing sides 3 and 4 which contain an example game and some more graphics, but added now from Daryl.
Verified: 2
Last Modified: 2008-07-11 21:30:21
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Title: Flight Simulator II
Published: Sublogic
Year: 1984
Protection: checks track 3 is unformatted
Contributor: pete, daryl
Notes: cifo - verified 2x+
Verified: 2
Last Modified: 2008-07-11 21:31:51
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Title: B.C. II: Grog's Revenge
Published: Sierra On-Line
Year: 1984
Protection: checks e5 on t18s18
Contributor: daryl
Notes: cifo - verified
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-11 21:24:10
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Title: It's a Kind of Magic (Compilation)
Published: Magic Bytes
Year: 1988
Protection: rainbow arts v1
Contributor: jani, rahmig
Notes: cifo - verified
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-11 21:19:48
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Title: B.C.'s Quest for Tires
Published: Sierra On-Line
Year: 1983
Protection: checks e5 on t18s18
Contributor: lyons, daryl
Notes: cifo - verified - double sided disk with this on side 1 and Grog's Revenge on side 2.
Verified: 1
Last Modified: 2008-07-11 21:23:43

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I uploaded a newer build of NIBTOOLS for testing. It includes adjustments and bugfixes from the last several months.

Also notable is the addition of ZIP support for image reading. This currently requires that 'unzip' be in your command line path to function.
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Thanks to Matt Larsen for sending in a box of disks, some of which aren't even in Gamebase yet! :)

Also, Thanks Christian Lott and Tom Bies for sending in your collections for imaging.
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Thanks very much to Gabriel Borchsenius and Joe Ricci, who recently sent in their disk collections for archiving. Thanks guys!

Also thanks to Kenneth Kill Jr. for sending a monetary donation for site upkeep and good will. Thanks Ken!
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This is a test message.
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Just sending out thanks to Dave M. who loaned me his disk collection for imaging. Dave had a couple hundred disks at least, which took me a couple months to get all the way through.

Now they just need cataloged and compared. :)

Thanks again.

-
Pete Rittwage
C64 Preservation Project
[link]
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I did some big site updates that include a rolling up of many changes from Chris to the CMS and BBS.

Also, I created a new DB stat panel and a new database query system.
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Thanks very much to Banguibob, Visualmess, and Daryl K for manually patching up some of the Rapidlok images based on Banguibob's RL guide. We have a few running that wouldn't before with the old Maverick/UU patches.
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The default behavior of the database page to show the whole database was getting out of hand, so now database page has been updated and searchable.
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I put the latest development snapshot of NIBTOOLS in the files area.

[link]
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Banguibob has a nice new page about the RAPIDLOK protection with regard to Pirates!

[link]
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Thanks to all who have been sending in disks and images over the last months. I will try to get through them all by the end of the year. :)

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