Skyviper 1,101 Posted January 31, 2015 So at work I come across some cool stuff (I work for a charity that help builds home for low income famlies Habitat for Humanity) from time some cool things come in that range from Tom Clancy book, Naval nick knacks, action movies, books, old items you'll never see again, etc. I don't skim off the top but this time I did. A computer game caught my attention Age of Pirates I read the game and it reminded me of a little rainy day game i played called Tradewinds. (a very simple no brainer game that is fun to play if you don't mind 2d graphics and reading what people say). To me the game looks like Tradewinds but with swords and guns and a feelt of ships (Tradewinds 1 you could have a freaking armada if you wished Trandwinds 2 you didn't) On top of that I got a store credit of $50 so I'm thinking why not. Get home and install it. I only three hours of sleep the previous morning yes 3 hours and only 3 hours. So this little box with Star Force asked about verifying the game. My tired mind remebered hearing something about Star Force but couldn't recall. So I clicked yes. oops. Windows and Norton Anti Virus went bat shit crazy. Windows was saying drivers that were not registered was trying to get loaded, Nortan was screaming Trojan, and I was shitting myself (metaphorically speaking of course) I was looking forward to getting a nice night of rest. I was watching my old gal undergo some heavy stuff. Windows wouldn't fire up, I couldn't get into the set up menu to fix the problem. I thought I lost my old system. Finally I was able to do a restore and got things working right. I checked on how to get rid of Star Force and then later found out that windows has never allowed it to install. Norton on the other hand was trying to fight something that wasn't there. It was calling in airstrikes, tank assaults, and sending thousands of rounds down range. By the time I got norton lined out there millions of steaming craters and a mountain of cassings. All systems are green. and I'm A Dumbass. Moral of story don't mess around with your computer when you're half awake and stay away from Star Force related items! I'm taking my butt to bed now. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Dave 2,322 Posted January 31, 2015 Ah Starforce......fuck the creators of that shit. (Pardon my French) 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Skyviper 1,101 Posted January 31, 2015 Ah Starforce......fuck the creators of that shit. (Pardon my French) Well said. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Emp_Palpatine 501 Posted January 31, 2015 What's that? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Skyviper 1,101 Posted February 1, 2015 What's that? Star Force is a program that software publishers back in the day used. It was to verify that someone has bought the game. Back then before the days of steam you had to enter long freaking key codes (that were published on youtube) or you had to call a number and get the code to enter, or get an email. So Star Force comes along and publishers used it like crazy. But Star Force in addition to making sure your copy is legal installs drivers without the user knowing it. These drivers do not I say again DO NOT work very well with the other programs on your computer. Because of this many, many users find that their systems DO NOT work correctly. Star Force jacks up software, hardware, everything. It will shut a computer down and will make you go buy another one. If it doesn't shut your system down it will render some of your hardware useless. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lexx_Luthor 57 Posted February 1, 2015 It was Russian software wasn't it? But, I put the blame on the cowardly game companies that used the thing. Worse, didn't the starforce help forum had a serial moderator that asked souls to pirate StarDock games, because StarDock was getting good press for not using DRM software like starforce? Man, the old days of The IL~2 and The FB. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gr.Viper 131 Posted February 1, 2015 The classic Staforce installed its drivers on the level no software should be even allowed to touch in Windows. They made the OS provide additional data about the disk structure by making the system think it was a hard drive. Guess what, read errors common for optical media make Windows go crazy if they come from what it thinks is an HDD. It starts reducing the read speed and eventually shuts off DMA completely, switching your drive into PIO mode i.e. all data coming from the disk has to go through your CPU. It was a magical experience. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Emp_Palpatine 501 Posted February 1, 2015 Never used that. I've came accross codes in the box or no DRM at all, before the age of non-physical gaming. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
