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.