Batman Arkham Asylum PC Glitch Deters Piracy

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hal

Dictator
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Anyone planning to pirate Batman Arkham Asylum will be in for a surprise, according to 1Up. A user at the Eidos Forums posted:

I've got a problem when it's time to use Batman's glide in the game. When I hold "," like it's said to jump from one platform to another, Batman tries to open his wings again and again instead of gliding. So he fels down in a poisoning gas. If somebody could tel me, what should I do there.

After being reminded by another user that the game was not yet available, forum administrator Keir offered:

The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free

It's not a bug in the game's code, it's a bug in your moral code
 

Phopojijo

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Nov 13, 2005
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Uh... sounds to me like it's not an anti-piracy defense, and that his key (on his keyboard) is registering as being fired a bunch instead of held.

Would have liked to see what the answer would have been in ~6 days...
 
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Northrawn

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Feb 21, 2009
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Uh... sounds to me like it's not an anti-piracy defense...

Things like that have been around for at least 18 years.

Remember the Jump'n'Run'n'Slay-Game Leander (1991 on the Amiga) ??

On Level 4 a platform was missing in pirated versions, which made the game impossible to complete (on most cracked versions).
 

Phopojijo

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Or Space Quest where some puzzles were impossible unless you had the manual.

I doubt this is it though.
 

JaFO

bugs are features too ...
Nov 5, 2000
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If it is an 'anti-piracy'-measure then it will hurt legit customers harder than most pirates as the latter won't let insignificant bugs like this stop them from acquiring their games by non-traditional means ...
 

Northrawn

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Feb 21, 2009
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Or Space Quest where some puzzles were impossible unless you had the manual.

Or wheels made of paper to mix some mojo-stuff for Monkey Island.

I also remember that one game (th title I do not remember though) had black codes written on red ground in the manual, so that you only got black when you copied it back then with the tech available. :)
 

Sir_Brizz

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Feb 3, 2000
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If it is an 'anti-piracy'-measure then it will hurt legit customers harder than most pirates as the latter won't let insignificant bugs like this stop them from acquiring their games by non-traditional means ...
Chances are they remove it with a day zero patch. A lot of companies do this (put in "bugs" that the patch out the first day).
 

Kronos7

New Member
Apr 1, 2008
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Yea the bugs work out great and hilariously awesome, but what about those who legitimately download the direct2drive version! I assume there in just as much hurt.

Hopefully the steam version will be patched day one or it'll already be patched before its released, but what about those who buy it from the store! Not everyone has interenet to download a patch.

It really does sound like this will hurt legit customers more then pirates as pirates seemed to have already fixed the issue themselves! I also dont see how this helps protect your game from being pirated when they have to download it in the first place to find out its bugged!

So realistically speaking I guess the game would of been pirated just as much with or without the intentional bugs in the leaked version.
 

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
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Well, in this case I'm sure it's linked to not having the SecuROM Launcher running in the background at a certain point in the game. I'm guessing the more recent no cd checks for it have already fixed the issue.
 

Yoshiro

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Jul 22, 2003
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Tech like this I've seen since at least OFP with it's FADE. If the game figures out it was pirated FADE kicks in. At that point your bullets start not hitting what you aim at, and things like helicopters start rotating like drunks are controlling the rotors.
 

elmuerte

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These triggers never work long, because it is still a challenge for the warez scene to create a proper crack. And quite often these triggers will only bite legitimate users in the ass.