Use a cracked Amiga version. No copy protection, and better graphics and controls.

I'm having this problem, too.

Funny, in my old Starflight folder I have a file called "starflight_starcodes.zip" which contains a program called "Starflight_codes_by_gog.exe". So obviously I used an uncracked Amiga version when I played Starflight, and that was before I registered at GOG. I don't remember from where I downloaded the files, though. But judging by the filename it sounds like the program should be included if you purchase Starflight from GOG. Are you sure there is no "additional content" to download that fits this description?

found this in another thread:

<i>I discovered this was occuring because the file STARA.COM is read-only and DOSBOX wants access. Try right clicking the shortcut to the game, selecting Properties, Then Advanced... and checking Run As Administrator.</i>

I did the above and the game started but I get a warning that I'm using a bootleg copy.

Hey, PetrusOctavianus, you got me on the right track! I got to looking and here's what I found. I went to the GoG.com listing in the start menu then went to the folders in this order: Starflight 1 and 2 - Starflight1 - Tools - and found Starflight Starcodes under that. When I clicked on the Starflight Starcodes folder it opened up the Starflight Starcode Generator which, when you select the three different words the game gives you, the correct number code pops up in the box! Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction! I don't understand why the copy protection is in place when they say that it's stripped off, but at least I can play the game now. Take care and thanks to everyone for their input. Got to go now. The ISS Lancer is fulled and ready to head into deep space.

When this game came out in the early 80's, the copy protection was what was known as a code wheel. It was a simple wheel that you turned matching up outer and inner numbers that revealed something in a window. This was hard-coded into the game. They didn't make games back then using this fancy Starforce or whatever terrors of DRM. Unless GOG has the source code from EA and the programmer time to strip the code out you are going to have to use the code generator. When I copied this for a friend in the day we actually took the code wheel apart, photocopied each part and put it together.

The wonderful thing about the copy protection on this game was it was universally liked. It's hilarious. You are out flying and all of a sudden you are surrounded by ships that when you scan them pop up as police cars essentially. It was a hoot. It was also very forgiving, you have like three chances to get the answer right. I remember purposely getting the code wrong just to see the cops come.

This isn't the only game like this. Mean Streets has something similar. You need to be mindful of the age of the games and double check the add-ons. They may not strip these kind of protections but they provide you the tools to move past them.

Yeah, you're right Stromateis, these really old DOS games didn't have software copy protection. I'm an old guy and I still remember (and may even still have) some of the old DOS games with those copy protection schemes.

I remember, for instance, that there was the code wheel like in this game and there was the look-up method where you were told to enter a particular word on a certain page on a given line in the manual. I also remember that some games tried using a sheet of numbers printed in black ink on a very dark brown paper so that there was very little contrast between the ink and the background color of the page. This was to try and foil any efforts to photocopy the code sheet. It didn't work very well as you could just lighten the copier up and could then print a useable copy.,

I don't remember the game now, but I recall that one game, using the look-up method, had a misprint or the like and the word in the location that was asked for wasn't correct. If you were asked that word you were screwed. This was way back before the internet was what it is today and you couldn't just get online and find out a quick correction or work-around. Fun times.

No I wasn't really upset about the copy protection still being active in this game so much as I was surprised that it hadn't been removed since GOG advertises that the games are DRM free. As long as they provide the tools needed to play the game I'm happy. They really should mention, however, if a game still has active copy protection and where to find the tool to use on it as, in this case, it's not obvious and I can tell by other peoples posts that they didn't know what to do about it either. Other than that, everything's peachy.

Copy protection codes are not DRM.

Copy protection codes are also really hard to remove without a lot of hacking or access to the source.

When are people going to get this?

I've already got a cracked version that's been sitting on my HDD for that last decade. I bought the GoG version assuming it would have the codes removed to, what a pain in the ass.

I agree with you on this that GOG didn't have that code wheel protection either removed or nulled so you can still answer it correctly with 0 or incorrectly with 1 so you can see both outcomes.

Where did you get the crack from? Are you talking about Starflight 1? I know Starflight 2 was cracked but not Starflight 1. LOL. I did the same thing back then. I had to hand make them myself and handwrite all the numbers because I didn't want to take apart the wheel. I had someone tell me the numbers as I wrote them down. Eventually I was able to buy a real copy now I have probably 50 copies of it of in various computer platforms.

As far as Mean Streets, I was able to manually crack that one myself. Isn't the one on GOG fixed?

Yep, back in them thar' old days, after publishers tried floppy-disk based copy protection for awhile, then abandoned it because all too often it was ruining the floppies that shipped with the game and they were having to replace them (floppies love read/write errors!), they came up with the idea of integrating the copy-protection within the game play so as to take it off the disks and make it more "entertaining," and abominations like the StarFlight code wheel were born...!...;) Bard's Tale III had a code wheel, too, as I recall. It's just something that gets in the way of playing the game and makes it less desirable to play.

I agree with the earlier comment that the best way to play this game is to play the Amiga version, which you can get cracked or uncracked, to suit yourself. The only thing about the cracked versions is that you may have to search for one that will play nice with your Amiga emulator...