MAVERICK COPY Typed by SKID ROW. Edited by PARASITE. What to do? If the copier programmers couldn't write copiers to sense and copy a particular protection scheme then only one solution remained. Break the protection check code. It was early in this stage that Kracker Jax was born. Kracker Jax allowed the user to simply make a fast copy of the protected program and then run a custom parameter over that copy to produce not only a copy of that protected program, but a copy devoid of protection in most cases. The revolution had begun. Parameters proved to be the most effective way to copy a protected program. Protection schemes that no nybbler could touch could easily be archived by the press of a key. This went on for a couple of years, and again the inevitable happened. Parameter-proof protection. How, you ask? Read on. Today's protection is made up of three classes of difficulty. 1. A few programs are still released using archaic protection that most modern nybblers can duplicate. Why bother protecting?! 2. Many are still archivable using either a nybbler or fast copier in conjunction with a parameter. 3. Finally, more and more programs are showing up with data written in formats that protects every byte of data on the disk. If the data can't be written out, then a parameter is useless. The Bull's Eye was our first effort at this third level of copy protection. Soon after, the Shotgun II was developed to automate the prinicpals set forth in The Bull's Eye. These two programs have set the standard which imitators have been trying unsuccessfully to duplicate. The revolution started by Kracker Jax has paved the way for the Maverick, the next step in an evolutionary process.<> Those of you who have been supporting us over the years will recognize the above paragraphs as the introduction to Maverick for the Commodore 64. "So what" you say, "this is an Amiga product". Well, as a matter of fact, the methods used to copy protect Amiga programs are VERY SIMILAR. Remember, just as the hardware evolved from Commodore 64 to Amiga, so have the programmers and the protection schemes that they use. Rudimentary Amiga protection such as DOS Error checks and Index Sync format have given way to the familiar signature tracks, long tracks, and custom formats. Our methods to defeat these schemes will be our customary methods. Experienced computer users learned long ago that backup products that promise to be 100% effective are nothing more than false promises shrouded by ambiguous sales pitches. Nothing, not even Maverick itself, will back up everything. We will approach Amiga copy protection just as we did Commodore 64/128 copy protection - with long hours and hard work. This results in the creation of (patch) parameters and custom copiers that work and work well. These will be offered in upgrades on a timely basis. See the Upgrades section in this manual for more info. PARAMETERS? LONG TRACKS? CUSTOM COPIERS? Copy protection has come a long way from the days when a "do it all" nybbler could either copy all protection on the market -- or could be programmed to do so. Today's copy protection usually demands a tool we call a parameter. "What is a parameter?" you ask. For our purposes, a parameter is a program written by us that addresses the copy protection of a specific title. Thus, even though a parameter may work in many different ways, the results will be similar. Signature Tracks: Many times, copy protection is made up of two special routines working together. The actual physical protection placed on the diskette by the duplicator, and the routine written by the programmer to check that physical protection. In order to copy a signature track which contains only protection data and still have a WORKING backup, we must 1> duplicate the physical protection or 2> rewrite the protection check routine to allow the program to pass protection checks whether the physical protection is on the backup or not. De-programming the protection check routine is, in our opinion the most effective method and will be used whenever possible. We examine the original protection checks written by the software programmer, and disable them by creating a parameter designed to re-write the original code by writing what we call a "patch" to a backup of the original. We MUST assume that the software program you own is EXACTLY like ours. If you program is different in any way, it will be sensed and the backup attempt will fail. We will inform you during th backup attempt if this occurs. Many of our parameters have been programmed to check for and work effectively on several different protection versions of the same program, although the majority of programs today use only one protection scheme. If you have an unmodified ORIGINAL disk and encounter a "Version Failure" message during your backup attempt, you may send us that ORIGINAL disk, a blank disk, and $3.50 for S & H, and we will attempt to back it up for you. We'll try to include the parameter we create on your next upgrade. Whenever possible, our parameters will create a "broken" backup -- one that is devoid of all copy protection. Once the copy protection on a backup has been defeated or "broken", any whole disk copier will archive that backup. Custom Formats: When a program (in whole or part) has been written out to a non-standard format, and program data is drawn from that format, more than a "patch" parameter is required. We must then write a special copier to duplicate the unique format of THAT particular disk. This results in what we will refer to as a custom copier. A custom copier is created to reproduce a specific piece of software and will probably have no other purpose in life. One of the most popular custom formats is referred to as a long track. A long track is any track that exceeds (by a significant amount) the normal number of bytes written to that track at normal speed (300 RPM). Reliable duplication of a long track requires a disk drive speed control device to slow the drive during the write pass. We expect to have this option available in the very near future and will keep you informed. Documentation Protection: As our Commodore customers have learned in the past, we are a company with a conscience and a sense of responsibility. We are not only dedicated to you, our valuable customers, but also to the Amiga programming community. We are aware of your legitimate need to obtain backups of your valuable software and, to that end, have programmed Maverick to provide you with the method to do so. Benign protection (such as documentation protection) is, in our opinion, one of the few ways that programmers and publishers can fairly protect themselves from casual piracy. For this reason, we do not remove documentation protection from otherwise un-protected programs currently offered on the market. We will, however, deprotect documentation protected titles that have been discontinued by the manufacturer. We know that those of you who support the Amiga market by purchasing your software will understand and appreciate our intentions. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Maverick will operate properly on the Amiga 500 or 2000 series. Although we recommend that Maverick be used with Kickstart v1.3, it should function properly with v1.2. Maverick v1 supports two 3.5" Amiga compatible disk drives in the copy process. Although Maverick works with only 512K, we do recommend up to 1.5 megs, as RAM is used whenever applicable. PACKAGE CONTENTS Your original Maverick master (not upgrade) package should contain the following items, 1> A Maverick v1 owner's manual. 2> The Maverick 3.5" program disk. 3> The blue Maverick subscription form. 4> The Maverick REGISTRATION CARD. Take time right now to fill out the REGISTRATION CARD and send it in before you lose it. THIS IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE! All owner support services are tied into the registration card. Sending the card in immediately is your key to the ownership rights you deserve. UPGRADES & SUPPORT THANK YOU for you purchase. Let's begin by saying that Maverick itself is not copy protected. It is capable of archiving itself with its own fast data copier -- HyperCopy. By purchasing Maverick, you are supporting our efforts to support you, which has always been our highest priority. Ownership of Maverick entitles the owner to one of two levels of support. Both levels REQUIRE you to FILL OUT THE MAVERICK REGISTRATION CARD, which is the 3 x 5 postcard, and send it to Software Support International. Whoever's name (must be an individual - not a User's Group, company or school) is on the registration card when we receive it is the PERMANENT REGISTERED OWNER of that copy of Maverick. He is entitled to participate at whichever level of support he desires. The program may be sold to another individual, but the registration may not be transferred. Again, SEND US THE Maverick REGISTRATION CARD as soon as possible to avoid loss. We will notify you by mail as soon as we receive it, confirming your registration. When you send in your Registration Card, you automatically receive Level One status. This allows you to buy new program updates to Maverick (which will include new utilities and parameters) at the reduced price of $20.00 plus shipping and handling. These discounted upgrades are offered only through Software Support International, and again, ONLY to registered owners. These new releases will be available to you approximately every three months. Level one users are encouraged to exercise their right to call the customer support line if they experience a problem, have any questions, and especially suggestions. We do have a knowledgeable staff on hand that has been trained to assist you. If you've purchased Maverick and you're a Registered Owner, you're supporting us - and we'll be happy to support you! If you'd like to automatically receive the newest versions of Maverick as soon as they're available, Level Two status is for you. There is NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE for this special subscription service - just fill in and send us the blue Maverick Subscription Order Form, which you'll find in your Maverick package. We can only accept subscriptions from those REGISTERED OWNERS who allow us to bill their credit card (Master Card, Visa, and Discover only please) at the same time of shipping. Sorry, but our Subscription Service is not setup to accomodate either pre-payments or COD's. To cancel a subscription, the user need only call or write to us requesting cancellation, which will place them back into Level One status. There is no charge for this. GETTING STARTED Because of the memory requirements of Maverick, we recommend that you simply boot Maverick by inserting the disk in the Amiga internal drive and powering up. Maverick will autoboot to the main Command Screen. HARD DRIVE INSTALLATION Many of you will be happy to know that Maverick will easy install and operate from your hard drive. Installation is virtually auto-driven by a utility found in the Expansion Module called MaverickHDInstall. Refer to the Expansion Module section elsewhere in this manual for more details. COMMAND SCREEN OVERVIEW The Maverick Command Screen has been designed to allow immediate access to both novice and expert users alike. All of Maverick's auto- functions are accessible through this initial screen and require just a simple click or two of your LEFT mouse button to copy most titles. Experienced users and seasoned hackers will enjoy the power of Maverick's programmable copier which is reached through the User Control Center. From the top of the screen your choices are: List Window : This window is used to display selection lists (ALWAYS loaded from disk, not memory resident) from the HyperCopy, Parameters, OverRide, and Expansion functions. Search : This button allows the user to search the list currently displayed in the List Window for a pattern match of up to four characters. Simply click the Search button ON (turns RED) and input up to four characters from the keyboard followed by a RETURN. The match will either be displayed or the Selection Not Found message will appear at the bottom of the screen. You may use the DELETE key to clear the Search Box and start over. Up & Down Arrows : Click these to scroll up or down through the selections currently displayed in the List Window. Do : The Do button serves two functions. 1. Using the LEFT mouse button, click the Do button to activate (execute) the selection in the center of the List Window. 2. Using the RIGHT mouse button, click the Do button to send the list currently displayed in the List Window to your printer. Please note that your printer must be previously configured through the Amiga preferences program as documented in your Amiga owners manual. Attention : Using the following three options require Maverick to be configured for your particular system. See Configure Maverick documentation within the INFO button documentation located below in this section. The following three buttons work in a similar manner and may be considered list filter buttons. All three may be clicked ON or OFF individually or simultaneously. So to see a listing of all available titles, just click ON all three buttons at once. The titles listed represent programs that we KNOW Maverick will copy - however, Maverick is capable of copying many other titles not listed here. As we inspect more titles, they will be added to the appropriate button in future versions. To copy a selection, use the Up/Down buttons to center the desired title in the List Window and click Do. At this point you will be presented with a new Copy In Progress Screen (see next section). Follow on-screen prompts when using default settings. HyperCopy : This selection displays in Light Blue, those titles which we found to be non copy-protected. This means no PHYSICAL copy protection. This includes those titles using document protection that are currently sold on the market. No modifications or "patches" are written to these titles. Parameters : This selection displays in White, those copy protected titles for which we have either written "patches" which generally deprotect the title or custom copiers to copy non standard data. OverRide : This selection displays in Yellow, those copy protected titles for which we have written parameters allowing a deprotected copy that may be installed on your HARD DRIVE or run from most AmigaDOS storage devices such as RAM:, VD0 or 3.5" floppy. Due to the method by which we deprotect some of the titles contained in the OverRide List, we will have to reboot your computer at the end of the deprotection process. We will inform you with prompts when this becomes necessary. Also, some programs that refuse to operate properly from your hard drive will require some additional setup. This may take one or both of the following procedures to accomplish. 1. A file may be written to the backup named "ExecuteMe". If upon inspection of your backup directory, the ExecuteMe file is found, you will be required to edit this file using a word processor or text editor. Within this file you must change "DIRNAME" to the directory path which you plan to copy the backup. For those of you that are unsure of the copy floppy to hard drive command, the following example may help. From the CLI type COPY DRIVENAME DIRNAME ALL. Example: COPY DF0: DH0:MYDIR ALL. Where DF0: = Floppy Device Number, DH0: = Hard Drive Device Number and MYDIR = your chosen directory name which will contain the program copied from floppy. 2. If the backup insists on accessing DF0: then we suggest you use the KillDFX utility accessed through the Expansion Module Button. See the Expansion Module section elsewhere in this manual for further documentation. User Control Center : This button allows the advanced user to program Maverick's copier. See the User Control Center section elsewhere in this manual. The following three buttons activate the Maverick copier pre-configured by us to perform three different functions. Experienced users may customize the functions of each of these buttons and save them out for future use from within the User Control Center. As the buttons now stand, you may use them to try to copy a title that is not listed in the HyperCopy , Parameters, or OverRide lists. We suggest you try these three copiers in the following order. U1 : Maverick HyperCopy : Use this copier for your valuable data disks or non copy protected commercial titles. This will copy all 80 tracks with verify ON, and will correct hard errors by either formatting clean or recovering data if possible. Read errors will be displayed as they are encountered. Write errors will be reported as a function of disk integrity. Errors written probably indicate a bad target disk. In this case try making another copy using a different disk. U2 : Maverick Index Sync Nybbler : if many errors appear when trying to backup your title using U1, then re-copy using this copier. If Cylinder 0 Side 0 has errors, then a custom copier must be written as the boot track is protected. Look for this title in future Maverick Upgrades. U3 : Maverick Standard Sync Nybbler : Try this copier if the above two fail. Again if Cylinder 0 Side 0 has errors then a custom copier must be written as the boot track is protected. Look for it in future Maverick Upgrades. Expansion : This button is the gateway to current and upcoming Maverick utilities. All selections will appear in the List Window. To activate a selection, center it in the window and click the Do button. Cancel : Clear all selections and return the User Command Screen to default power up condition. Info : The Info Button serves two purposes. 1. Using the LEFT mouse button, click on the Info button to display Maverick version number, copyright and related information. 2. Using the RIGHT mouse button, click on the Info button to CONFIGURE Maverick for your system. When the following prompts appear in the Message Window, use the mouse button to toggle through your choices: Source Drive : The Source Drive is the drive which will contain your original disk for backup purposes. Defaults to 0 but may be toggled to 1, 2, or 3. Target Drive : The Target Drive is the drive which will contain your backup disk. Warning: All data currently on the Target Disk will be destroyed as it will be overwritten by the backup process. Defaults to 0 but may be toggled to 1, 2, or 3. Compression : Defaults to ON but may be toggled OFF. Using HyperCopy, Maverick will automatically compress data read in during the backup process unless sufficient memory is available for one pass copying (1.5 Meg RAM total). Otherwise, you may force if OFF if desired. Single drive users please should note that compression is used to save disk swapping but is approximately 25% slower overall. Overlay : Defaults to ON, but may be toggled to OFF. Maverick attempts to obtain as much system RAM as possible to serve as data storage. With Overlay toggled ON, Maverick will discard its own screen data (not immediately needed) and load them from disk as necessary. With Overlay toggled OFF, all Maverick screens are memory resident but buffer RAM is condsiderably diminished. In order to utilize Maverick as a memory resident program and still have one pass copying ability, you must have 1.5 meg RAM minimum. Verify : Defaults to ON but may be toggled OFF. Using HyperCopy, Maverick will automatically attempt to verify all data unless the Verify option is toggled OFF. Please note that with Verify OFF, the copy time is about 25% faster but the intergrity of the backup is suspect. Exit : Exit the Maverick. Message Window : All messages outgoing and incoming are directed through the Message Window which serves as the Maverick user's Input/Output port. COPY IN PROGRESS SCREEN Any time a copy task is selected, the Copy In Progress Screen will replace the current screen. For example, click U1 ON. The Copy In Progress Screen will automatically appear. Beginning at the top of the screen, the functions are: Track Gauge : The track gauge is a visual representation of the progress and position of the drive's read/write head as data is transferred from one disk to another. The track gauge will display the color Light Green as each cylinder (0 - 84) on each side (0 or 1) is read. When writing out the data, the color Yellow will appear, overwriting the Light Green. If an error is encountered in the read or write pass, the color Red will be displayed in the appropriate spot. Drive Speed Button : Click ON to test your drive speed. Use the Drive Speed Indicator Bar and the Speed Variation Window to determine your current drive speed. Follow the prompts in the Message Window. You will need a SCRATCH disk handy to use this feature. This is a disk that has no valuable data on it - this feature WILL destroy all data on a disk as a normal part of its testing. Drive Speed Indicator Bar : The Dark Green shaded area on the left side of the bar represents a speed that is slower than normal. The Light Green shaded area on the right side of the bar represents a speed that is higher than normal. The intersection of the two shaded areas indicates normal speed. As the speed check proceeds, a pointer will move along the bar to indicate the current speed of your drive. Speed Variation Window : Advanced users only : Our speed check works by writing data onto a scratch disk. The speed is determined by reading back the numer of bytes written to a track on that disk. The Speed Variation window will display the number of bytes written (in Hexadecimal), above or below NORMAL. Thus a positive reading indicates a slow drive. A negative reading indicates a fast drive. And a zero reading would be normal. Cancel : When a task is in progress, click the Cancel button to abort. Another click will return the user to the previous screen. Drive: 0 1 2 3 : Click ON the Drive button to circumvent the default settings and redefine the desired device numbers. OK : Begin Copy procedure. Follow prompts in Message Window. USER CONTROL CENTER IMPORTANT: The User Control Center is provided as a feature to the advanced user. A thorough understanding of Amiga disk format is necessary to effectively program this manual. Two manuals we recommend are: Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manual : Includes & Autodocs published by Addison Wesley. Amiga Disk Drives Inside & Out published by Abacus. The User Control Center is the advanced user's access to many capabilites of the poweful Maverick copier. Once a configuration is programmed, it may be saved and recalled for future use. From the Command Screen, click the User Control Center button. When the User Control Center screen appears, the functions of the following buttons are: Do Copy : Begin Copy procedure as currently configured. Drive Speed : Takes user to the Copy In Progress screen. Only the Speed Control option is functional. When done, click the Cancel button to return to the User Control Center. Return : Exit to Command Screen. The following buttons are used to program the copiers that are called up when the U1, U2, or U3 buttons are clicked on from the Command Screen. Nybble/Data : Toggle Nybble ON when attempting to duplicate a disk known to be copy protected. Toggle Data ON when duplicating a disk free of copy protection or a data disk. Source/Target : Click button ON representing desired Source and Target devices. Any combination may be used. Side : Click this button to toggle copier to Side 0, Side 1, or Both Sides. Start/End : Toggle this button to set Starting and Ending Tracks to be copied. Notice the window to the right of the Start/End Button displays the current track setup. To change, toggle the Start or End button as desired and click the window ON. You may now input the desired track as two numerical characters through the keyboard and press RETURN to lock in. If an input error is made, press the DELETE key to clear the window and try again. U1 U2 U3 : The User Control Center allows the user to program up to three different copiers that may be used immediately, or saved for future use. You may toggle any one of the copiers ON by clicking the appropriate button. The copier currently displayed and active will have it's appropriate button highlighted. Default : This will return the copier currently displayed (U1, U2, or U3) back to the original factory settings. Cancel : This will return the copier currently displayed (U1, U2, or U3) back to the settings last saved by the user. Sync : Toggle to OFF : No Sync looked for. Data is copied as encountered. Ineffective in most cases when drive speed changes are not necessary. INDEX : Waits for index signal from the drive to signal data transfer. SYNC WORD VALUE (HEX) : Defaults o $4489. You may change to desired value of Sync Word to signal data transfer. Simply click the Window ON and input the desired hex value as four hexadecimal digits through the keyboard and press RETURN to lock in. If an input error is made, press the DELETE key to clear the window and try again. Load : Load the U1, U2, and U3 copiers that were last saved. This will overwrite existing copiers currently displayed. Save : Save out the U1, U2, and U3 copiers as they are presently configured. This will ovrwrite the copiers last saved. EXPANSION MODULES All new utilities created by us in the future will be accessed through the expansion module button found on the main Control Center. From the Control Center simply click the Expansion Button and a list of available selections will appear in the List Window. Center the desired selection in the Last Window and click the Do button ON. MAVERICK HARD DRIVE INSTALLATION Place Maverick in your Amiga floppy drive and from the Expansion List select MaverickHDInstall. In a short time, a window will appear in the center of the screen and request a directory path. From the keyboard, enter the desired destination path. For example, the command DH0:DIRNAME1/DIRNAME2/DIRNAME3 will force Maverick to the DIRNAME3 directory (as a new sub directory). In this case, to boot Maverick, starting from DOS, change directories (CD DH0:DIRNAME1/DIRNAME2/DIRNAME3/MAVERICK) and start the boot process by typing MAVERICK and hit RETURN. For more information on Hard drive DOS commands consult your Amiga Owner's Manual provided with your Amiga computer. KillDFX Place Maverick in your Amiga floppy drive and from the Expansion List select KillDFX. In a short time a window will appear in the center of the screen. You will be prompted to input the hard drive directory path that contains the backup. KillDFX searches your backup for all occurances of DF0: followed by a filename and removes the reference to DF0:. This way the program should access the affected files from your hard drive (unfortunately we can offer no guarantee). CONCLUSION Let's talk straight with each other. We know the Maverick is quite easy to steal. If you've purchased this program, you're a valued customer. If you haven't, you're a thief. Also, this program was created specifically to allow legitimate purchasers of software to exercise their right to create an archival backup of that software. It was not created to be a tool to allow thieves to build up their illicit libraries. We're not going to dictate ethics to you. You know what's right and what's wrong. But we will point out a simple fact. Talent, in any field of endeavor, is rare. If the few gifted programmers out there cannot support themselves by sharing their talent with us, we all lose. Please keep this in mind, and use this tool as it was intended. The Maverick was designed to allow you to enforce your rights - not to deprive others of their fair due. We've given you the power. But please remember that with power comes responsibility. End.