Re: 'People like to hate EA, I don't know why'

On Mon, 24 Mar 2025 09:29:22 -0400, Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com>
wrote:

On Mon, 24 Mar 2025 09:03:51 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
>

I came from Spectrum land and there, as I presume trying to stop people
copying tapes was hard, they went down the route of physical things you
have to have. Some examples are just typing in certain words from the
manual, colour charts (colour photo copiers, not that common) and the
most dreaded of all - Lenslock. The was a piece of plastic with a
special lens in it that you placed over the screen and then hoped, with
as many fingers crossed as you could manage, you could see what you
needed to type in to start the game. It was a right PITA as if you
actually bought the game then you used this awful method, get a pirate
copy and it was likely to be patched out.

>
I  watched videos of Lenslock. I personally could not  read the
numbers on the screen. What an awful copy protection scheme.
Fortunately, I  never had to deal with it back  in the day.

Lenslock depended on your screen's size and resolution matching the
expectations of the publisher. But if the image on screen was bigger
or smaller than expected, it wouldn't work. So if you plugged your
SpectrumZX into the family's massive 22" TV, you wouldn't be able to
play the game.

That said, Lenslok's footprint in gaming history is exagerated. It was
only used in 12 games. This was partly because of the aforementioned
problems, but also because the cost of manufacturing the lenses added
too much to the cost of the games.

[And keeping track of which lens went with which game was a problem.
There are reports of people getting lens designed for game_X shipped
in boxes for game_y.]

Still, when one of those games was Elite, it deserved its reputation
;-)