I wrote it on Master of Orion forum:

https://www.gog.com/forum/master_of_orion_series/master_of_orion_copy_protection_gog_pdf_lacks_images_drm_ruins_game

Check out the image:
http://imgur.com/azbOpif

It seems the included PDF has only 38 ships while the game DRM asks about 40 ships images. The manual does not have all the images and so the reference card. Google shows http://jonsullivan.com/misc/copy-codesb.gif

I'm sure GOG would like to hear of this issue so that they can fix it. Use this support link, set problem type "other", and describe the problem. You can also point them to your MoO forum thread.

given the whole down the drain development of gog, i doubt that gog does give a f$%& about this. the game is already like 6 years on here for sale and they didn't fix it by now

Based on DosBox, I'll assume you're referring to the original Moo and not the new Moo.

Interesting. And I thought the official games made the DRM/CopyProtection checks moot, so it wouldn't matter what you choose you'd move forward appropriately.

I hate the off-disc copy protection. Annoying as hell.


Might have to consider a cracked/pirated version...

As far as I know gog could not remove the copy protection thing but they enabled every answer as possible one. So just enter one of the names, does not matter which one.

Makes me wonder how that works with police quest. There's 2 sections of heavy copyprotection incorporated into the game. The locker combination which you would only know via the book, and of course entering the codes for the accusations against the arrested character. While done rather cleverly there.

Actually i recall a single playthrough for the first game is done for Police quest. Might watch it :)


edit: updates link, same content

C'mon at least post the original channel.

This is the correct answer. The game still asks for the ship name for copy protection reasons, but it has been modified so that any answer will pass the check. The best they could do to get around the matter.

In other words, don't worry about it. It seems like the DRM is there, but a workaround was developed that effectively removed it.

This reminds me of back in 2004... when I did some cracking of my own. The DRM in question all came down to 1 line of code. Naturally I was working with Win32 binaries, still decoding the error message location the solution really came down to jumping over the if/check, or nop it out of existance. I think the hack took an hour to investigate & implement, and replaced 8 bytes of instructions.

But really it's going to be the same thing, except with DosBox and older games, far easier than what I had to do.

Ahh dis3dnow, how I miss you...

They have done the same for several games, though I currently cannot find the release post about the original Master of Orion (if there even was one) where I assume it would be mentioned. It should probably be mentioned on the game page of any games where this is the case.

To be honest, I also think that is the "correct" way of doing it, even if it could be removed entirely. GOG is (or was) all about preserving the original gaming experience, and these copy protection schemes were often integrated into actual game content. Removing them altogether would then mean removing content from the game that was originally there, so I do feel that simply bypassing the security check, making every answer valid, is the better approach.

Yeah some copy protections were really interesting, so it is nice if they are still in and just can be easily bypassed.
Heck I still setup the original Monkey Islands with DosBox just so I can use the cardwheels :D

I'd have to agree here. I think a sanctioned crack bypass to be ok to get past the copy protection, but that it should be visibly acknowledged somewhere to the customer to know that this is the case. The last thing someone wants to have happen is to end up with copy protection that is presumed to be inactive but is actually active due to some glitch and ends up ruining the game for someone.

I like that it's still there, if only for reasons of nostalgia. Though I will admit that the first time I encountered it in the gOg version the OP mentions, I had a similar response: "I thought this was supposed to be DRM-free..." haha - oops.