Manual Protection
Look it up to play
Manual protection required players to consult physical documentation to play games, deterring piracy through information unavailable on copied disks.
Overview
Manual protection asked questions only the legitimate manual could answer: “What is the third word on page 12?” Copied disks worked fine, but without the manual, players couldn’t proceed past protection checks. This leveraged the difficulty of photocopying entire manuals when games sold for pocket money. Code wheels and feeling-based lookups added complexity.
Fast facts
- Method: require information from physical documentation.
- Common forms: word lookups, code wheels, symbol tables.
- Era: mid-1980s through 1990s.
- Weakness: manuals could be photocopied or transcribed.
- Modern irrelevance: documentation available online.
Protection methods
How manual checks worked:
- Word lookup: specific word from specific page.
- Code wheels: rotating decoder devices.
- Symbol matching: identify characters from manual.
- Paragraph lookup: find specific story text.
Famous implementations
Notable manual protection:
- Pool of Radiance: translation wheel.
- Monkey Island: dial-a-pirate wheel.
- Leisure Suit Larry: “age verification” questions.
- Wing Commander: ship recognition.