Earthbound's copy protection was excellent.

[Ron]

Here's the article at Edge Online of the ten most annoying DRM methods.

 

I'm not familiar with Earthbound, but this is one of the most awesome things I've ever heard:

 

8. Earthbound

 

Consoles are walled gardens by nature, with the DRM built in so deeply that most gamers don?t even think about it. But that doesn?t mean tactics to prevent copying don?t exist on console?such strategies have existed forever, and some of them were actually downright brilliant. Perhaps the most prominent example of cartridge-based DRM was in the SNES classic Earthbound. Those that had Super Nintendo disc copiers would find that their illegal copy of Earthbound seemed to play fine. What they didn?t know was that the game was spawning way more enemies than normal, making the entire game an endless annoyance. And to those intrepid pirates who slogged their way through anyway, Earthbound had a special treat for them?the game would freeze in the middle of the battle with the final boss, taking the time to instead delete whatever saved games it could find.

[Union Carbine]

That's awesome. :lol

[AlbertA]

:lol:lol:lol

[jubjub75]

I hope it never got a false positive...I'd hate to be playing a legit copy when it kicked in

[OzzelsCousinFred]

brilliant DRM .. except if it got a false positive ;x

[JoeyN]

HAHA, more games should do that. Imagine playing Crysis, and 100 enemies come at you at once

[Christopher]

Imagine playing Crysis, and 100 enemies come at you at once

I already have enough problems with most games - this would be a nightmare.

[dogbert]

HAHA, more games should do that. Imagine playing Crysis, and 100 enemies come at you at once

 

There's a number of games that have tried it. What ends up happening is people who pirate it complain about the game being buggy or too hard causing a negative rep for the game online... Times were different when Mother came out

[OzzelsCousinFred]

There's a number of games that have tried it. What ends up happening is people who pirate it complain about the game being buggy or too hard causing a negative rep for the game online... Times were different when Mother came out

 

Good point... maybe a "PIRATED COPY-engaging ultra-berserk-hyper-mode!!!!" permanently flashing across the screen in giant annoying near-epileptic-flashing red letters while the game behaved that way might help?

 

Rep does work both ways though, a few games nobody would've even heard of before the net got lots of sales through online buzz so making it clear it's because of piracy would help (somewhat?)