This page provides a short description of protections found on Atari games/programs I have analyzed. For a detailed description of Atari protections please refer to my FD protection document.
It must be noted that:
- The presence of a protection mechanism does not imply that it is actually used. I have not analyzed games/programs to verify that they indeed use the described protections.
- There is no guaranty that I have been found all the protections used by a game during my analysis.
- Beware that diverse releases of the same game may use different protections.
- It is difficult to know for sure that the tested diskette are unmodified originals.
- The floppy diskettes tested are from the 80’s 90’s and may be damaged by time or stress from the environment.
For each game the protections are detailed. Click on the images for more detailled images.
If you want to perform the analysis by yourself used the latest version of Aufit program and download the image from one of the following source
- MEGA Atari-forum repository
- CBMSTUFF
List of Games / Programs
- Addicted to Fun - Ninja Collection
- After the War
- Air Sea Supremacy Compilation – Ubisoft 1989
- Airborne Ranger
- Albedo
- AMC
- Andes Attack
- Antago
- Archipelagos
- Artic Fox - Electronic Arts
- Armalyte - The Final Run
- Asterix Operation Getafix
- Asteroids de Luxe
- Atari Arcade Classic
- Au nom de l'Hermine
- Aventures de Moktar
- Awesome
- Back to the Future III
- Balade au Pays de Big Ben
- Barbarian
- Bismark
- Blood Money
- Bob Morane
- Cabal
- Cadaver
- Chambers of Shaolin
- Chaos Engine
- Chaos Strike Back
- Chicago 90
- Cisco Heat
- Colorado
- Computer Hit Volume 2
- Crack Down
- Crazy Cars III
- Crossbow
- Deuteros
- DM CSB Cartographer
- DM Editor
- Double Dragon
- Double Dragon III - The rosetta Stone
- Dr. Doom Revenge
- Dr.T DE50 Editor V1 - 1987
- Dr.T DE50 Editor V2 - 1988
- Dr.T Fingers V1 - 1988
- Dr.T KCS Level 2 - 1988
- Dr.T Music Mouse 1989
- Dr.T Omega II - 1984-1993
- Dr.T Tiger - 1988
- Dr.T Tunesmith 1988
- Dr.T D110 Editor 1988
- Dragonflight
- Dragon Ninja
- Dungeon Master
- Dyter 07
- ECO Ocean Software 1987
- Electronic Pool
- Eliminator Hewson 1988
- Elivira
- Epic
- ESWAT
- Explora 3
- F29 Retaliator
- Falcon - Spectrum Holobye
- FF2
- Fighter Bomber
- Fighting Soccer
- Fire and Forget
- Football Manager 2
- Forgotten World
- Foundations Waste
- Games Galore
- Gauntlet II
- Gazza SM
- Ghost Buster II
- Gods
- Golden Axe
- Guerrier Ninja
- Gunship
- Hard Drivin
- Herro Quest
- Hostages
- Hound of Shadow
- Indiana Jones - Fate of Atlantis
- Indy Graphic Adventure
- Internationll Ice Hockey
- Iron Lord
- Ishar
- Ishar III
- Jupiter Master Drive
- Karate Kid II
- Kick Off
- Kick Off 2
- Kung Fu Master
- Legend
- Lombard RAC Rally
- Loom
- Maniac Mansion
- Manoir de Mortevielle
- Maupiti Island
- Mega Traveller
- Mig 29 Soviet Fighter
- Mr Helli
- New Zeland Story
- Night Shift
- Ninja Rabbits
- Nitroboost Chalenge
- Obitous
- Orbitus
- Odd Stuff 2001 Dune Sector
- Operation Neptune
- Operation Stealth
- Operation Thunderbolt
- Outrun
- Outzone
- P47 Firebird
- Pacmania
- Phobia
- Pick'n Pile
- Populous
- Populous II
- Power Drift
- Power Play Game of the Gods
- Predator 2
- Pro Tennis Tour
- Pro Tenis Tour II
- Prohibition
- Rainbird
- Rally Cross Challenge
- Real of the Troll
- Rick Dangerous
- Ringside
- Road Blaster
- Roadwar 2000
- Robocop 2
- RType
- RType 2
- Ruff and Ready
- Run the Gauntlet
Addicted to Fun - Ninja Collection
Image from Atari forum in SCP format. Image quality seems good
Double Dragon
Protection Analysis
- T79.0 Short Track SHT for both Disk 1 and Disk 2
Dragon Ninja (revision 2)
Shadow Warriors (revision 2)
Disk 1 does not seems to have any protections.
Disk 2 Protection
- T00.0 Long sector (LGS) with Data CRC Error (DCE)
After the War
Image from Atari Forum in SCP format.
Quality does not seems bad but in fact the track 72.0 has problems. You can see in the flux display window a red dot just before the detail check mark. If you switch to the information tab you will see the following message "*** Sector not found exception T72.0 Sect count=10 *** switching to safe mode". This indicates inconsistent number of sectors detected by Aufit and thefore it automatically switches to safe mode. Indeed if you look at the sector data display you will see that on certain revolutions the sector 8 (close to the end) is sometimes detected and sometimes notIf you switch to the Data View tab and look at track content you will see that in some revolutions only 2 sync marks are detected in front of the ID field of this sector (and therefore sector is not found). In a case like this Aufit probably wont be able to create a correct Pasti stx file. The only chance you have is to select a revolution where all the sectors are detected.
Here we zoom where problem arises (at 161.5 ms).
Protections
- T79.0 contains 59 sectors! In a very strange layout
- Duplicate Sector 240 (DSN)
- several sector with Invalid Track Number 80 (IIF-ITN)
- several sector with Data CRC Error (DCE)
- several Sector Within Sector (SWS)
- several Fuzzy Sectors (FZS)
As we can see on this track some sectors are complete but reads with error, some sector are more or less truncated (SWS)
- We have some etra tracks (EXT) 80 and 81 on side 0 and one with 11 sectors. Not sure if used for protection or not
- track 82.0 and 82.1 are partially unformatted and partially contains data with sectors. Not sure if used for protection or not
Disk 2 seems to be single sided and not using any protection?
Back to the topAir Sea Supremacy Compilation – Ubisoft 1989
Image from Atari-Forum in SCP format only.
Disk1 - Gunship
The overall image quality is average but the conversion to stx seems to work.
Protection Analysis:
- Track 00.0
- Sector with no Id (SNI) : Hidden data sector that contains 00 located between sector 8 and 10
- ID field Over Index (SHT-IOI). ID is placed only a few bytes before the index.
- Track 01.0
- S1: Sector Bit-rate Variation (SBV) but not Macrodos protection
- S1: Data CRC Error (DCE)
- At end of track: sequence of 7x$A1 Sync Mark (ISS), followed by $FF IDAM (IIF-NSI), Invalid Track Number (IIF-ITN), ID CRC Error (IIF-ICE), Sector with No Data (SND)
- Other tracks
- Very tight 11 Sector Tracks format (NOS) with very very short GAP between sectors (only 2 bytes!). This can't be reproduced on Atari and therefore the tracks are considered as read-only tracks
. - Almost all tracks are shitted (SFT) with Data over/beyond index (DOI / DBI) or ID over index (IOI)
- Very tight 11 Sector Tracks format (NOS) with very very short GAP between sectors (only 2 bytes!). This can't be reproduced on Atari and therefore the tracks are considered as read-only tracks
Disk 2 - Silent Service
Overall image quality of stream file not good lots of wobulation. (00.0 36.0-43.0) but convertion to stx ok
- Track 79.0: Data Over Index (DOI)
Disk 3 - P47 Jaleco
Image quality OK, Convertion ok
- Track 01.0
- Sector Bit-rate Variation (SBV) but not Macrodos protection
- Fuzzy Sector (FZS) and Data CRC Error (DCE)
- End of track sequence of 7xA1 Sync Mark (ISS) followed by $FF IDAM (IIF-NSI) and Sector with No Data (SND). The end of this ID field is located over an unformatted area and therefore the values after the $FF are fuzzy bytes. Dont know if this is used or not.
- Track 02.0 – 38.0
- Data Track (DTT) : 3x$A1 followed by $0F (probably escape character) ...
- Some of these tracks also have bit width variation at the same angle as the Track 01.0 SBV
- Track 00.0 + 39.0-79.0 Normal
Disk 4 - F15 Strike Eagle
Quality ok, convertion stx ok
- Track 79.0: Data Over Index (DOI)
Disk 5 - Carrier Command
Image quality medium wobulation in range 47++ 52++. Convertion stx ok
- No protection detected?
Airbourne Ranger
Image from Brume in Kryoflux format only.
Disk A
Image quality is good. can't check the STX Conversion as answers from book are needed to play
- Track 00.0-04.0
- No flux Area (NFA) with Sector Within Sector (SWS).
- S11-12 contains NFA + Fuzzy sector FZS with Data CRC error DCE
- Track 80.0 Probably not used but strange (sse pict)
Disk B
- No protection found
Albedo
Images Kryoflux + SCP from Brume
The game can be converted to STX format. It works without problems on Hatari 1.8 but has problem on Steam 3.6.4 seems like 3.7 help in running the program but still not 100%. Seems to be a problem of timing and saving the STX file in Aufit with track sync header also help.
- Albedo uses an almost normal T00.0 with 6 sectors
- But at end of track T00.0 we have a lot of C2 sync mark followed by a lot of F7
- All other tracks looks like data track. We have a sequence of three sync marks followed by data. However it is different from most of data tracks because the track is divided in 5 sectors (see disk layout). Also at the end of the track we have (like in T00.0) a lot of $C2 and $F7. So if we turn on the C2 flag of Aufit we have the following view T01.0
- note that at end of all data tracks we have before the sequences already described the word MYRIAD encoded
AMC
Image from Atari-Forum in SCP format only. One bad track D2-T10.0 (cant be recovered) + one bad quality track D2-T08.0
Disk 1
- T00.0-T77.0 => 1 sector with no data + 10 x 512 sectors
- T79 => Track with 58 sectors (truncated sectors within sectors) with CRC/Fuzzy bits errors
Disk 2
- T00.0-T07.0 => 10 x 512 sectors + 1 sector with no data
- 10 x 512 sectors + 1 truncated sector
Notes
- lots of sectors have write splice (white dots at start-end sector data). This make me thing that the disk has been written on an Atari?
- Second side is not Atari track. However there are some data and sync marks (black lines on side 1). I am not knowledgeable about Amiga but might be Amiga track? These track cant be read reliably on Atari as only two sync (see here)?
Atari Arcade Classic (one disk)
Contains: Battlezone CrystalCastles MissileCommand SuperBreakout
Image from Atari-Forum SCP format only (does not seems to be original?).
- Track 79.0
- S9 Fuzzy bits (FZS) + CRC (SBD) + Partially unformatted
Au nom de l'Hermine
Image from Brume Kryoflux format only.
- Track 79.0
- Contains 70 sectors: SWS + FZS + CRC
Aventures de Moktar (Titus) 1991
Images from Brune Kryoflux + SCP. Quality medium. KF T73.1 - Can be recovered
- Track 79.0
- Invalid Sector Number (ISN) 247 + Fuzzy bits (FZS) + CRC (SBD)
- shifted track Data over Index DOI
Awesome Psygnosis 1991
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal disks.
Disk 1 + 2 + 3
- Track 79.0: Short Track (SHT) 5956 bytes
KF: Quality good except Disk 2 track 29.1 + 31.1 - can be recovered
SCP: Quality good except Disk 2 track 31.0 + 33.0 - Disk 3 T03.0 + 77.0 - can be recovered Back to the top
Back to the Future III - Imageworks 1991 (UCS 1990)
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal disks. Quality image excellent
- D1 T00.0 - S6 : Long Sector LGS 17226 µs + CRC (SBD) Rob Northen protection
- D2 no protection found
Balade au Pays de Big Ben - Coktel Vision 1989
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal disks. Quality image KF excellent, SCP D1 T02.0 bad - can be recovered
- No protection found
Barbarian - Psygnosis 1987 licensed to Klassix
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal disks. Quality image is good except D2 T72.0 (not good in KF & SCP).
Image SCP from Jim. Quality is good. Note that protection differs!
- Track 00.0 has only one sector! At end of track we have an A1 followed by 8 x $09 followed by long sequence of $00
-
Track 78.0 seems unformatted (no sync mark, no sector) but however is MFM formatted.
The program performs up to 10 times read track commands on track 78 and tests for value 0xFF or 0x00 at location 28 (0x1C).
- On SCP from Jim this value is obtained with a special track that uses a continuous sequence of 4 µs flux transitions. This results in a MFM string like this ...1010101010101010... Depending on which bit the sampling starts this result in values 0x00 or 0xFF. The switch from 0x00 to 0xFF that can be seen at the start of the track is due to the presence of few glitches at the beginning of the track.
- On my KF/SCP images use a more difficult to produce stream of flux transitions. In this version the track uses a sequence of 8µs fluxes. This results in a MFM string like this ...100010001000100010001000... Depending on which bit the sampling starts this result in MFM values: 1111 2222 4444 8888 that decodes into 0x55 0x00 0xAA 0x00 respectively
Blood Money - Psygnosis 1989
Images Kryoflux from my personal disks.
- D1 Track 79.0 Short Track (SHT) 5969 bytes
- D2 No protection found
Bob Morane Science Fiction 1 - Infogrames 1987
Images Kryoflux from my personal disks.
- Track 50.0 In this track all the normal $4F characters have been replaced by the invalid $F7 characters (IDG)
Cabal - Ocean Software 1989
Images Kryoflux from my personal disks.
- No protection found
Cadaver
Image Kryoflux from Brume
- D1 No pretection found
- D2 T00.0 - S6 : Long Sector LGS 17226 µs + CRC (SBD) Rob Northen protection
Chambers of Shaolin
Images SCP from Atari-Forum
Disk 1
First all tracks are sampled at around 1950 µs - do not know if this is on purpose or nat (could be because imaged on slow drive) and therefore all have about 6400+ bytes
- Track 00.0 has classic 9 x 512 bytes sectors all others have 5 x 1024 + 1 x 512
All tracks have a strange A1 sync at end of id and and of data fields. Zoom to see more clearly
We need to look at start of track content. Here we can see that at end of id field we have 14 0B. This is obtained by writing 00 29 A1 (hidden sync). If we look at end of Data field we have the same sequence. And another interesting sequence is that at the end of the track we have a long sequence of $F7 characters.
Disk 2
Same tricks as disk 1 used but something more. All tracks on side 1 are using a bit width 5% below normal (around 1900 µs) so they are long track with about 6550+ bytes. Here is a picture with clock diagram zoomed.
Back to the topChaos Engine - Bitnap Brothers 1993
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal disks.
- D1 T00.0 - S6 : Long Sector LGS 17226 µs + CRC (SBD) Rob Northen protection
- D2 No protection found
Chaos Strike Back - FTL Games 1989
Images Kryoflux from my personal disks. Image quality good
- D1 & D2 Track 00.0
- Invalid Sector number 247
- (D1 only) S7: Fuzzy bits (FZS) using the famous pattern described in US patent 4849836
Chicago 90 - Ubisoft 1990
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal disks. Image quality not good
- Track 00.0-79.0 Sector #11 with no Data
Cisco Heat
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal disks. Image quality KF good but T76.1 bad but can be recovered.
SCP many tracks on side 1 pretty bad
some track beyond recover :(
- T00.0 - S6 : Long Sector LGS 17226 µs + CRC (SBD) Rob Northen protection
Colorado
Discovery Cartridge Image from Ijor -> created disk and KF image. Also SCP from Jim. Quality KF good but T75.1 ba d but can be recovered.
- Track 01.0
- Sector Bit-rate Variation (SBV): Macrodos from Speedlock
- Fuzzy Sector (FZS) and Invalid Data CRC (IDC)
- End of track sequence of 7xA1 Sync Mark (ISS) followed by $FF IDAM (NSI) and Sector with No Data (SND). The end of this ID field is located over an unformatted area and therefore the values after the $FF are fuzzy bytes. Dont know if this is used or not.
Computer Hits Volume 2 - Beau-Kolly 1988
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal disks. Disk 1: TauCeti + Tetris, Disk2: Joe Blade + Tracker. Quality good
- D1: Track 79.0 Short Track (SHT) 5993 bytes (side 1 no info but strange)
- D2: All tracks are shifted and starts with ID over index in most cases - 11 sectors / track
- Track 79.0 Short Track (SHT) 5999 bytes (side 1 no info but strange)
The SCP D2 file is one of the few example of ID beyond Index (IDI). The track ends with few sync bytes immediately followed by the IDAM. When reading from start of track we do not see the ID as we are missing the sync bytes located at end of track !!!
Back to the topCrack Down
Single disk image in KF from my collection. Two disks version from Atari-Forum in SCP format
- 1-Disk: Track 79.0 Short TRack 5989 bytes
- S6 CRC error not sure on purpose
- 2-Disk: D1 & D2 T79.0 same as above
Crazy Cars III
Image SCP form Atari-Forum. Quality good
- Track 79.0 : Data over index (DOI) - Invalid sector number 247 (ISN) - CRC error + Fuzzy bits (FZS)
Crossbow
Image KF form my collection.
- D1 T79.0
- Short sectors 15620 µs
- S6: Fuzzy bits (FZS) + CRC (SBD) + Long sector 17149 µs - unformatted area
- D2 No protection found
Deuteros - Activision 1991
Images Kryoflux from my personal collection. 2 Disks
- D1 T00.0 - S6 : Long Sector LGS 17226 µs + CRC (SBD) Rob Northen protection
- D2 No protection found
DM-CSB Cartographer
Images Kryoflux from my personal collection
- No protection found
DM Editor
Images Kryoflux from my personal collection
- No protection
- Strange side 1
Double Dragon
Image SCP form Atari-Forum. 2 disks Quality good
- D1 & D2 Track 79.0 Short TRack 5963 bytes
Double Dragon III
Image KF & SCP (multiple) form Atari-Forum. 2 disks Quality good
- D1 T00.0 - S6 : Long Sector LGS 17226 µs + CRC (SBD) Rob Northen protection
- D2 No protection found
Dr. Doom Revenge
Image SCP form Atari-Forum. Quality good
- T00.0-04.0
- No Flux area (NFA) - 5ms - over index
- Data over Index (DOI)
- S11 & 12 CRC + Fuzzy bits (SBD+FZS)
- S12 SWS
No way to display information correctly from SCP file.
Back to the topDr.T DE50 Editor V1 - 1987
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection
- T79.0 Shifted track DOI (weak protection)
Dr.T DE50 Editor V2 - 1988
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection
- T00.0-79.0
- S10 Fuzzy sector (FZS) + CRC error (SBD)
- Long Secvtor 17297 µs
- Partially unformatted sector
- Strange "Fishbone Pattern" at start of sector 10. This pattern pushes bit width of the cells in the uncertain area like what is done with Dungeon Master. This is very close to brake the FTL patent (see Chaos Strike back and Dungeon Master).
Dr. T Fingers 1988
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection
- Same as Dr.T DE50 Editor V2 - 1988
Dr.T KCS Level 2 1988
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection. 5 Disks (scp aux program - recoverable error)
- D.Prog + Key Disk: Same as Dr.T DE50 Editor V2 - 1988
Dr.T Music Mouse - 1989
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection
- T00.0-T79.0 Sector 12 with no data (SND) - End of track partially unformatted?
Dr.T Omega II - 1984-1993
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection. Two disks
- No Protection found
Dr.T Tiger - 1988
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection
- T00.0-79.0
- S10 Fuzzy sector (FZS) + CRC error (SBD)
- Partially unformatted sector
Side 1 has starnge pattern. Quality SCP not good GrayDisk 49.0 pretty bad bu recoverable
Back to the topDr.T Tunesmith - 1988
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection
- Same as Dr.T DE50 Editor V2 - 1988
Dr.T D110 Editor - 1988
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection
- Same as Dr.T DE50 Editor V2 - 1988
Image bad cannot be recovered. Need cleaning?
Back to the topDragonflight
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection
- T00.0
Dragon Ninja - Imagine 1989 - Ocean 1991
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection -- + SCP from Atari - Forum
- T00.0-04.0
- No flux area NFA 6ms
- Shifted track data over index (DOI) - 12 sectors
- S11&12 CRC + Fuzzy (FZS - SBD)
- S12 SWS
Other versio seems to use Rob Northen
Back to the topDungeon Master - FTL 1988
Images Kryoflux from my personal disks. Image quality excellent
- Track 00.0
- Invalid Sector number 247
- (D1 only) S7: Fuzzy bits (FZS) using the famous pattern described in US patent 4849836
Dyter 07
Images Kryoflux from Brume.b Quality OK (bit width variation on first track but ok)
- No Protection found
Eco Ocean SW 1987
Images SCP from Atari-Forum. Only one revolution and bad quality. But convertion to STX ok
- T77.0 & T79.0 Have an NFA section followed by one Sector (#2) and the rest is unformatted. Protection checked using simple read and write calls. Checks that no sector #1 is present on track and then it tries to write on sector #2. If any of this test fails the program freezes. It does not seems that the NFA is tested.
- T03.0 Bad quality but recovered
- Many "unformatted?" tracks have strange patterns. Here is for example track T00.1
Electronic Pool - Microdeal 1986
Images Kryoflux from my personal collection. Good quality (not sure is an original?).
- No protection found. Only T00.0-T25.0 used others unformatted.
Eliminator Hewson Premier Collection 2
Version from Atari-Forum
Images Kryoflux from Atari-Forum. Good Quality convertion stx OK
- T00.0 Invalid data crc (IDC) + Fuzzy Sector (FZS) - Rob Northen
- Second side has no data but constant flux (around 4µs) ?
Version from my collection
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection - Quality not good (KF slightly better) but convert OK thanks to Aufit DPLL
This version uses a different protection on different track.
- T79.0 Invalid data crc (IDC) + Fuzzy Sector (FZS) but not Rob Northen
- Image quality of many tracks is not good with bit width dispersion beyond resonable. Still read correctly but Aufit DPLL. Here is an example of track T18.0
Elvira
Images Kryoflux from my personal collection
5 disks does not seems protected
Back to the topEpic
Images Kryoflux from my personal collection
2 disks does not seems protected?
Back to the topESWAT
Images Kryoflux from my personal collection
- T79.0 is a short track with 5981 bytes.
- Sector 6 of this track has a CRC error. The data segment is filled (as other sectors) with bytes $00 but CRC is $EA6C instead of $6EDA
Exact same protection on both disks so CRC error must be done on purpose. On disk D2 CRC is $0000
Back to the topExplora III - Ubi Français
Images Kryoflux from my personal collection. Three disks
Disks does not seems protected. Quality is bad Disk 2 and 3 have non recoverable errors.
Back to the topF29 Retaliator
Images SCP from Atari Forum
Disk 1
- T00-T04 Side 0 & 1
- Data over Index (DOI)
- No Flux Area (NFA)
- Invalid Data CRC (IDC)
- Fuzzy Sector (FZS)
- Sector Within Sector (SWS)
Disk 2
Quality is bad error beyond recovery
Back to the topFalcon
Images Kryoflux from Atari Forum
- D1 - T79.0 Short track 5973 bytes
- D2 no protection detected
x
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection
- T00.0
x
Images Kryoflux + SCP from my personal collection
- T00.0