Category : Unprotects for Games and Such
Archive   : UNPROT2.ZIP
Filename : SYMPH11.UNP
for Symphony 1.1
NOTE: THE METHODS DESCRIBED BELOW APPLY ONLY TO THE VERSION OF SYMPHONY
1.1 PRODUCED BY THE "COPYIIPC" ARCHIVAL BACKUP PROGRAM. DO NOT ATTEMPT
THE FOLLOWING STEPS IF YOU HAVE NOT BACKED-UP UP YOUR SYMPHONY 1.1
PROGRAM DISK WITH COPYIIPC.
A number of people are under the impression that Symphony 1.1 must
still search for the serial number of the key disk even after having
used COPYIIPC to make a backup copy that will run from a hard disk.
This is not necessarily true, and it proves that it pays to read the
documentation that programs come with. COPYIIPC includes a program
called NOKEY which, if executed prior to running Symphony 1.1, will
prevent the serial number search to drive A:. If fact, NOKEY even
supplies a serial number of 0's for Symphony to display on the opening
screen.
But even if you use NOKEY, you may still encounter problems. There
is a situation in which NOKEY will not work properly. If you use
Sidekick, the "ACCESS" program to start Symphony 1.1 together with NOKEY
you will get a message "cannot find file COMMAND.COM". You have to stop
using either NOKEY or ACCESS to run Symphony 1.1 successfully from a
hard disk.
Luckily there is a way to get aroung this problem. As a minor side
benefit, you will no longer need to use NOKEY to stop the serial number
search. You will be making a slight modification to the file
"SYMPHONY.EXE". Note that this file is created by COPYIIPC. Do not
modify any other file!
Follow the DEBUG instructions below. After you finish, Symphony 1.1
will not go to drive A:. Since Copyiipc has already removed the
Softguard protection, this means Symphony 1.1 is usable from a hard disk
without any dependence on your floppy drive.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
C>copy symphony.exe symphony.bak (make a backup, just in case)
C>ren symphony.exe symphony.xyz
C>debug symphony.xyz
-d 0af4 0af5 ;display locations 0af4-0af5
XXXX:0AF4 CD 13 ;if you don't see exactly this, don't continue
-e 0af4 90 90 ;NOP out the disk read instruction
-e 0afb 90 90 ;cause "serial # not found" msg. to be printed
-w ;write the modified file
Writing 1AD1 bytes
-q
C>ren symphony.xyz symphony.exe
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Be sure to stop using NOKEY, since it is no longer required with the
above modification.
Very nice! Thank you for this wonderful archive. I wonder why I found it only now. Long live the BBS file archives!
This is so awesome! 😀 I’d be cool if you could download an entire archive of this at once, though.
But one thing that puzzles me is the “mtswslnkmcjklsdlsbdmMICROSOFT” string. There is an article about it here. It is definitely worth a read: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/mtswslnk/