A $10 Quake CD contained every single id Software game and was cracked in less than two months [original news source in comment]

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/the-quake-shareware-cd-rom-contained-encrypted-copies-of-every-id-software-game-and-yes-it-was-cracked-39-days-after-release/

Original source

110 points · 12 comments · view on lemmy.world

12 Comments

Ashiette@lemmy.world · 46 pts · 8d (2 replies)

The writer of this site learning about keygens and trying to explain it ❤️‍🔥

ComradePenguin@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 7d

I forgot all about keygens, those were the times ❤️

MurrayL@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 7d

To be fair, it’s a little more complex than a regular CD key. Not a lot, but a little.

zarathustrad@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 8d (3 replies)

Wait till they find out how the original Doom was distributed.

certified_expert@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 7d (2 replies)

How?

wyldrstallyns@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 4d

Painstakingly daisy-chained systems, from the sub-optimal to the bizarre, all dutifully proliferated DOOM along the line. Some say it originated in a Casio watch, others a coffeepot, and a rare few believe it was a tamagotchi. Whatever that system-zero was, it changed video gaming forever.

RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip · 2 pts · 7d

Portals through hell.

rozodru@piefed.world · 13 pts · 8d (1 reply)

uh yeah. id games were notoriously easy to crack. Hell for Q3A all you needed was the demo and for someone to give you the missing pak file. that was it.

rabidhamster@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 8d

Original Starcraft: just mash your keyboard. Usually by the 10th try, you'd land on a valid license key.

Same with mid-90s Photoshop.

Fishnoodle@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 8d

I remember having my dad drive me a half hour to the 'local' media play store and picking it up for 9.99, mainly because of the NiN song on the demo, and then a few months later I found the qrack and it was fucking amazing. I loaned that cd and a floppy disk to other kids for games, porno mags(even better a vhs I could make a copy of), movies, CD's, cash, etc.

Gerudo@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 8d

I don't even remember a keygen for the shareware cd. I remember a console command that unlocked the full game.

I don't remember the cd having the other games though.

kmartburrito@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 7d

I used to have this, I wish I remembered where it was. I remember there was a companion 3.5" floppy the cracking utility was on.