Compression and Cracks for Dummies

Compression and Cracks for Dummies. By Bad Boy!
The WareZhouse BBS
(209) 772-9165

**NOTE*****NOTE******NOTE*****NOTE*****NOTE*****NOTE*****NOTE*****NOTE**
This document has been completly updated as of 05-27-95 to include
Information on the instalation of CD-Rom rips. If you have read this
document reguarding Compression and Cracks and are have some problems
with some of the CD-Rom Rips proceed to the Authers notes #2 on page 16.
**NOTE*****NOTE******NOTE*****NOTE*****NOTE*****NOTE*****NOTE*****NOTE**

January 23 1994

The following is a comprised collection of the many problems and
solutions when working with .Zip and .Arj file compression and cracks.

First you should understand that most software comes on floppy disks
stored as many files and subdirectories on each disk. Now days most of the
software is compressed on the floppies so the software manufactures don't have
to buy so many disks. There install programs usually uncompress the files as
there installed onto the hard disk. Therefore very few programs these days can
be file copied to a hard disk directory and expect the program to run.
Therefore about the only reason we use programs like Pkzip and Arj is so
that we can create one simple file per disk. This is the only way we can
effectively work with these programs when Uploading and Downloading from the
Bulletin boards.
The following is a detailed explanation of the process that takes place
from the time a cracking group buys the originals and you type the command to
play the game on your hard drive. All examples given will be using a IBM or
compatible computer running MsDos Version 6.0. If you don't have Dos 6.0
or higher installed in your computer then get with it.

Before we start make sure you have MsDos version 6.0 or higher
installed and that you have the following files in your C:\Dos Directory.

Pkzip.exe Version 2.04 or higher
Pkunzip.exe Version 2.04 or higher
Arj.exe Version 2.41 or Higher

Also note that your C:\dos directory must be in your Path statement in
your autoexec.bat file. This is done so that from any dos prompt you can type
Pkzip, Pkunzip or Arj and that program will load. You see for example If you
are in the C:\downloads Directory and you issue the Pkunzip command, Dos
looks first in the current directory which is C:\downloads for the Pkzip.exe
file and does not find it . It then looks every where your Path statement says to
look and finds it in your C:\dos directory and loads it.

OK so the originals for the game SpaceX just arrived and the program consists
of four 1.44 kb floppy disks. A quick look at the disks shows that the disks
contain disk Labels as follows.

spacex1
spacex2
spacex3
spacex4

As a quick test diskcopy was used to copy the disks to four formatted floppies
and the disk labels were removed by putting each floppy disk in the B: drive
and then from the B: prompt typing Label and then return. Then instead of
giving the disk a new name we just hit return to delete the volume label. Then
we tried to install the game from the new floppies and the install program
just kept saying please put disk 1 in drive B: , OK this proved that the
install program looks for the Volume Label so we will have to save the volume
label when we Pkzip these disks for Uploading.

After returning the volume labels to the copied disks we did a normal install
and then ran the program. After the normal boot up sequence we were asked
for some word from the documentation on Page 3 line 6 word 3 or some shit
like that. This proved to us that the protection was the basic word look up
version and a simple crack patch was written by one of our Hackers to
intercept the doc check and allow us to use the program no matter what our
answer is.

OK now that we have a good copy of the four floppies with the correct volume
labels and we have put the crack patch file spccrk.com and the Group.nfo file
on disk one we are now ready to .Zip the files and Upload them to our BBS.

Putting Disk #1 in the B: Drive, and we have the file Pkzip.exe in the Dos
directory or in any directory that is always in the Path command. from a dos
prompt we issue the following command.

c:\> Pkzip -P -R -$B c:\upload\spacex-1.zip b:\*.*

OK the first command calls the Pkzip program.
The next commands are Switches for the Pkzip Command.

-P is the Path switch. In other words if the files contained on the floppy
disk are in subdirectories then by using the -P the directory structure will
be saved in the .Zip file.


-R is recurse subdirectories. This command switch always goes with the -P
switch so that the directory structure remains intact. Note. even if the
Floppy disk contains no subdirectories it is a good habit to always use the
-P -R switches.

-$B is the Volume label switch which simply says store the volume label from
the disk in drive B in the .Zip file. Remember always use the -$(drive)
switch so that the (drive) is the drive in which the Floppy you are zipping is
in. In other words if you were to simply use the -$ switch with out a (drive)
the volume label saved to the .Zip file would be the Volume label of your
C:\ hard drive.

OK so now you have a zip file Named Spacex-1.zip in the upload directory all
you need to do now is zip up the other 3 files and your done. These commands
will do the trick.

c:\> Pkzip -P -R -$B c:\upload\spacex-2.zip b:\*.*
c:\> Pkzip -P -R -$B c:\upload\spacex-3.zip b:\*.*
c:\> Pkzip -P -R -$B c:\upload\spacex-4.zip b:\*.*

OK so now you have just Downloaded the following four zip files and cant wait
to install the damn thing and play the game. For now we will unzip to floppies
and install. Later I will explain how to install using a Subst drive.

First judging by the size of the zip files its pretty easy to tell we will
need four 1.44 floppies formatted for this game. With the first disk in
Drive B: issue the following command. Dir B: return. Hopefully you will
receive a File not found from the dos . If not delete the files on the disk
or format it, whichever you prefer. Taking into account that the four zip
files are in you Download directory change to that directory and with your
floppy in drive B: Issue the following command from dos.

C:\download > pkunzip -d -$ spacex-1 b:

OK well the following explanation will be as follows. The pkunzip command
calls the program Pkunzip located in your c:\dos directory just the same as
when you called the Pkzip program earlier. The Switches are as follows.

-D simply tells Pkunzip to put the files back onto the disk with the correct
directory structure and subdirectories as when it was created using the -r -p
switches.

-$ tells Pkunzip to label the destination disk with the Volume label stored
in the Zip file if it is . And in which in this instance it was stored.

OK now so after that floppy number 1 is done issue the following commands to
do the other 3 floppy disks and you will be ready to install.

C:\download > pkunzip -d -$ spacex-2 b:
C:\download > pkunzip -d -$ spacex-3 b:
C:\download > pkunzip -d -$ spacex-4 b:

Now remember after you Unzip all four disks you need to use some kind of
text file viewer to look for files on disk 1 for installation info or etc
before you install and try to run the program. In this example you would
find the file on disk 1 called group.nfo and in that file would be the typical
information as to when the program was cracked. Who cracked it and the most
important thing is that you need to install the program as normal then copy
the file strcrk.com into the game directory after installation and then switch
to that directory and run that crack program once before you try to play the
game so that you will be able to Bypass the protection.

Will that's about it. for the first example . Most programs will be somewhat
similar to that but below are some more detailed explanations of most of the
things you can expect to run up against.

Answers to common asked questions.

Q. Why are some Zip files larger that a 1.44 Floppy disk.

A. Will most software companies will use the entire 1.44 floppy disk before
starting another and because most companies use there own compression
method when they store the files zipping the disk does not make it any
smaller. Then with the crack patch and .Nfo files added they are larger than
the floppy. Then when the file is uploaded to some Elite BBS the BBS software
will automaticly append there BBS advertisement to the disks and over and
over. Sometimes the zip files are 1.48 or so in size.... This is no problem
and also the reason that when you are Unzipping a file to your floppy disk you
get a Disk full error... That is not usually a problem as the files are
unzipped to a floppy in the same order as they were zipped so the Program
files are always restored and its usually the BBS advertisements that get left
off. NOTE: Remember that the important crack files and .nfo files may also
be left off and even though they are not required to install the game they
will probably be required to defeat the protection. Just remember that after
you install to the floppies and you receive a disk full message then Unzip the
same file to your Hard drive in a temporary directory so that you can read the
files in case you need them. Then delete them after you are finished with
them.

Q. What do I do if the Install program wont work to install the program.

A. I find that occasionally some people install the program and in doing so
all the files from the program are copied into a directory on the hard drive.
Then that person does not have the original disks decides to Pkzip the
installed game and upload it to a BBS. The problem is that when you unzip it
and try to run the Install program it looks for what used to be on the
original floppy disks and cant find the original file structure, It either
aborts, locks up or whatever. No Problem thou. Usually you can just unzip all
the files to your hard drive and run the executable program required to run
the program. Often there is a Setup.exe or similar program that will allow
you to configure for your hardware etc..

Q. Sometimes the Install fails and wants you to keep putting in the correct
disk , Whats up.

A. Usually there are two reasons for this. (1) No or incorrect disk volume
labels. Sometimes they forget to save the volume labels using the -$ switch on
some of the disks. Check the volume labels of each disk by typing Label at the
Dos prompt. If one of the disks has a label like disk_1 then make sure you
Label the other disks Disk_2 Disk_3 etc.... If you cant find any then
sometimes the error message will give you a clue. Ie. If during the install
process it says please insert the disk gameII-1 into the B: drive then try
labeling the disks gameII-1 gameII-2 etc.... I even found a game once that
would not install if any volume labels were present. The disks I used were
old disks and even Though all the files were deleted before I unzipped to them
they still had there old volume labels and until I deleted them I could not
install the game. (2) the other reason is that you may have left out the -D
switch when you unzipped the files and the install program is looking for the
files on the floppy disk in a subdirectory that does not exist. If this is the
case just Pkunzip again using the -D switch.

Q. What do I do if there are CRC errors when Unzipping the files.

A. Will it depends on which files are affected but one things for sure . If
the file fails the CRC check then it no good. You can try to install the
program but most cases if the install program tries to install a file that
had CRC errors It will most likely fail. Sometimes only unimportant BBS
advertisements and such are affected . If you download a file using the
Zmodem protocol and it has CRC errors don't bother downloading it again it
wasn't in the transfer.

Q. Whats up with crack files and how do they work.

A. Will as you know the days of putting Errors on the floppies so that you
could not copy them is long gone as you see if they do that then the game
cannot be installed on the hard drive.If a game now days cant be installed on
a hard drive then no one will buy it period. So the ever popular doc check
which requires you to look up something in the book is there to help thwart
software piracy. Most of the cracks are small TSR Memory resident programs
that will intercept the doc check answers and issue the correct answers to the
program so that it will continue.. The best cracks are Byte cracks where the
actual program is modified so that when the answer is checked and compared to
the correct one the program will branch to the correct code. Example. If the
correct answer is input the program may Branch if equal to go run game. and if
the incorrect answer is input the program may branch not equal to go to dos.
One byte changed in the program and the program Branches to run game no
matter what answer is given. Even the most difficult programs can be cracked
even if the cracker has to code in all the correct answers in the crack file.

Q. Sometimes the programs install perfectly and they still don't run. Why.

A. Well there are many reasons that can happen. First off as I said before if
you don't have Msdos V6.0 then get it. Use memmaker to get your conventual
memory. All the hype about conventional memory is Bullshit. Sure you can get
632k with qemm7 or 386max version 7 but first off you will have problems
with a lot of programs and second you don't need that much. I use memmaker
from dos 6.0 and have about 615k conventual memory and no problems at all.
With all that said about conventual memory I believe the most problems with
new programs are incorrect sound board settings. Sometimes the auto-detect
settings of the programs will incorrectly detect your IRQ settings and other
times the software will just use the default settings and they may be wrong.
First thing to try if you have problems getting a program to run is redo the
setup for no sound or PC Speaker. If the program then runs then you know its
a sound board problem. Sometimes you have to completely re-install the
program to be able to re-configure it but most often you can just run either
setup or Install from the program directory. Sometimes there are even options
in the program itself to re-configure the sound. Most important thing to know
Is the 3 settings of your sound card. Example. Most sound Blasters and Sound
Blaster Pros default to the following settings.
IRQ = 7
Port = 220h
DMA = 1
Most Sound Blaster 16 boards default to the following.
IRQ = 5
Port = 220h
DMA = 1
The most common problem I have is with my Sound Blaster 16. Most programs
don't have a setup for the 16 so I have to choose the sound blaster Pro and
then the program just configure for IRQ 7 and I am at IRQ 5 even though My
sound blaster 16 is 100% compatible with the Sound Blaster pro. A simple
custom setup of the program for IRQ 5 and I am ready to Rock and Roll.


Q. Can I install the programs from the Hard drive without unzipping to all
Those floppy disks.

A. I thought you would never ask. I very seldom Unzip programs to Floppy
disks anymore. Especially with the new Msdos 6.0 SUBST Command. First
things First.

More hard drive space is required to do this but if you have it its the best
way to install programs.. I will walk you thru the following Installation of a game
called Mystery that is 12 1.44 Meg Files., Without touching a floppy disk. If
we take for granted that the 12 .ZIP files are located in your C:\Download
Directory, Then we need to make a temporary Directory on the hard drive in
order to install this game. I use C:\temp so go ahead and make that directory
with the following dos command.

C:\Download > MD C:\temp

Then from the Download directory where all the .Zip files are. By the way the
.Zip files are named as follows Myst_01 thru Myst_12 for our example. Issue
the following dos command.

C:\Download > Pkunzip -d Myst* c:\temp

OK now that command will start with the first file found and start Unzipping
the files to the C:\Temp directory. Most Likely at some point during the
second file one of the files will contain the same Filename as a file from the
first .Zip file. Example The File File_ID.Diz will be on every disk so when
it reaches the second on the Pkunzip program will Halt and Tell you that the
same file exists and wants to know if you want to Skip, Overwrite, ETC.
The Command I always use is 'A' For always overwrite existing files. This
way the Pkunzip program will continue to process all 12 .Zip files with out
asking for confirmation of overwrite every time. Remember 99% of the time
the software companies will always have different filename on all of the files
and it will always be the .nfo and BBS Advertisements that are overwriting. OK
after all this is done you may want to delete the .ZIP files from your Hard
drive if your running short of space. OK now we need to make Dos think that
the files are on Floppies Instead of the Hard drive so this is where the Subst
Command comes in. From any dos Prompt issue the following command.

C:\download> SUBST A: C:\Temp

We have now substituted the c:\temp directory on your hard drive to the A:
Floppy drive. You can substitute the B: Drive if you like the Install program
does not care which Floppy you install from as long as it thinks its a Floppy
and not the Hard Drive. Anyway now anytime you or any program trys to
access the A: Floppy Dos will send it to the C:\Temp directory.
Now switch to the Gigantic floppy by typing A: and return from the dos
prompt. To test the Subst drive try Dir and you will see all those files from
the Unzipping of the 12 files. OK enough fun now just type Install or setup
and you are on your way to installing the game. Most often the complete game
will install in a fraction of the time it would take from floppies. Sometimes
it will hesitate between disk 1 and disk 2 etc asking you to put disk 2 in A:
drive and press any key. Just press any key each time and your on your way.
OK now that everything is installed look in your c:\Temp directory for any
.NFO or readme files and any crack patches you may need and then once all
that is taken care of delete everything in the c:\temp directory. As I said
before most programs for Dos will install this way but there are exceptions.
If you try this and it fails then Please read on as there are many other ways
to Install programs without having to use floppies.

Q. What if the Program files are overwriting and not just the .NFO files.

A. Occasionally Software companies will have the same filename on each disk
so that when you try to Unzip to the hard drive the file from Disk2 overwrite
the file on disk 1 etc. In this case you will have to Multi-task to Install
programs such as this.

Q. I just hate to use floppies , Is there any way of avoiding this as the
hard drive is so much faster.

A. YES!!! I will address this subject right now. I have only had to unzip to
floppies about 1 in 1000 programs. Here is a set of Examples. OK Lets
assume the worst case, There are 12 files and each as a different Volume label
which is required by the install. Also the file names on each disk is the same
so that if you unzipped all 12 disks to the same directory they would
overwrite and you would be left with only one file. This is what to do!.
follow each step exactly. you can try this with any multi disk program just
for practice.

Step 1. Load Windows and Drop to a Full screen dos window by double clicking
on the Dos Prompt Icon.
Step 2. Unzip disk 1 to the Substitute B: Drive using the -D -$ . This will
only unzip the first disk and Label the Hard drive with the stored
Volume Label. The Volume Label will also be Present on the Subistuted
B: drive.
Step 3. Press "CTRL ESC" which will bring back Windows and the Task Manager.
From here select Program Manager and from the Program Manager Open
another Full screen Dos session.
Step 4. Now from the second DOS Window select B: and Type Install or Setup to
Start the installation process. The Installation will now proceed
properly as the correct volume label is present and only the correct
files from disk 1 are in the substitute drive. Now you will soon be
requested by the Install program to Please Insert disk 2.
Step 5. Press "CTRL ESC" Again and from the task manager screen select the
1st or other Dos window. From this dos window delete all the files in
B: and Unzip the second disk to B: which will also put the proper
files in the Substitute drive and re-Label the volume label as
required by the install program.
Step 6. As you should see by now just repeat this process until all the disks
have been processed and thats all there is to it.

Q. How do I get rid of a Subst drive so I can use my floppy again.

A. Will you have to choices. This command will remove the subst drive in the
above example SUBST A: /D as long as you don't try to issue that command
from the A:\> prompt. Rebooting your computer will also eliminate the Subst
Drive.
I personally never use my 1.2 Meg Floppy Drive so I always Subst that drive
for c:\temp in my Autoexec.bat file. That way it is always there when I need
it. I still have my 1.44 drive B: available for use with floppies.

Q. If the Media was originally on 1.44 floppy disks and I use My 1.2 Meg
Floppy for the Subst Drive will I have problems.

A. No! Most install programs only look to see if your installing from a floppy
drive and not the hard drive so if it finds A: Or B: It will install fine.

Q. How much space will be taken on my Hard drive using a subst Drive.

A. Will in the above example without deleting files in between the process you
could have as much as 80 Megs of space used just to install one program. OK
follow me in this example.
12 1.44 Meg .Zip files in the C:\download directory ====== 20 Megs
All those files Unzipped in to the c:\temp directory ===== 20 megs
The Game installed in the hard drive c:\game ===== 40 megs
Remember the 40 Megs installed is because the install program uncompressed
the files when it installed itself.
Anyway it took 80 Megs to install but now you can delete everything except the
installed game so your down to 40 Megs.

Q. Will the Subst command work in Windows.

A. Interesting question. If you subst a floppy Ie SUBST A: C:\DOS or
whatever and load windows, then yes file manager will treat the A: drive as a
Substituted drive. Not much here is accomplished here because all programs
will install in windows with out having to Unzip to Floppies. There are (2)
methods to install programs from the hard drive. Both will be covered in
complete detail .

Q. It seems that there are a lot of programs that have a File called
Install.dat or disk.Id on each disk and when unzipping them to the
hard drive the install.dat file always overwrite the next on so then
the installation fails after after looking for the 2nd file. How Come?

A. It is very common for the software companies to use the Install.dat
installation routine. What they do is have a text file on each disk called
Install.dat that contains a list of all files on that disk with there
respective sizes. Then the Install.exe program reads the Install.dat and
installs those files checking to see if the size is correct on the list Then
you insert the next disk and it reads the Install.dat file again and so on.
This is a very convenient way for them as when they update the program a
slight change to the install.dat and the same install program works. The
problem for us is that after Unzipping multiple files to one Directory on the
hard drive you see we only end up with one Install.dat file so when you run
the Install.exe it installs only the files from one disk and stops asking for
more disks with different Install.dat files. Some people get around this by
making there own Install.bat containing a list of all the files from every
disk so after they unzip all the files to the hard drive you copy the custom
Install.dat over the one existing one and install from the subst drive. This
reads the custom Install.dat and all the files are installed. An example of
this can be found on the Patch for 3D Studio Version 3.0 for Subst Install.
Also using windows to Multi-Task as in the example above is another effective
method to use to install programs such as this.

Q. What is the best way to install programs in windows with out using floppies

A. No Problem. I have 2 methods that seem to work for 100% of all
software I have tried. First just forget about Subst Drives when working in
windows and Unzip all files to one Directory on your hard drive just as you
would with dos programs, Overwriting all files. Next load windows and the
File Manager and select the directory that contains the unzipped files.
Example C:\temp Then from the list of files in the right most window within
file manager select Setup.exe or Install.exe just as if you were Installing
from Floppies. This will load and run the install or setup program as normal.
The exception to this is that the setup program will sometimes prompt you that
it cant find files and it is looking for them in the Disk1 directory or the
Disk2 directory. This is very common and can easily be tricked. For example
if the prompt is something like this Cant Find [ c:\disk1\FileX ] then you
know its the Disk1 Directory trick. Go to Dos and create a Disk? directory
for every .Zip File the program has. Example if there are 4 .Zip Files Named
as follows in the c:\Download Directory.
lots123-1.zip
lots123-2.zip
lots123-3.zip
lots123-4.zip
Make four directories on your hard drive as follows.

MD C:\disk1
MD C:\disk2
MD C:\disk3
MD C:\disk4
Then Unzip the four files as follows.

Pkunzip lots123-1 c:\disk1
Pkunzip lots123-2 c:\disk2
Pkunzip lots123-3 c:\disk3
Pkunzip lots123-4 c:\disk4

OK then return to windows and select c:\disk1 from the File manager and select
Setup or install. The installation will proceed as normal. Then remember to
delete all files and directories used in installation. This is an example that I
would use after the program is installed from Dos.

Deltree c:\disk1
Deltree c:\disk2
Deltree c:\disk3
Deltree c:\disk4

Ok will also if you have the same problem with files over writing then just
as before only unzip one file at a time and switch between the Windows
File Manager install program and a Full screen Dos window.

Q. What are the commands for .ARJ files and are they similar to .Zip

A. Sure. The one thing that is different is there is only one program to ARJ
and Unarj files with the .ARJ Extension where as with PkWare there is Pkzip
the Zip files and Pkunzip to Unzip files. The following examples are for ARJ.
Remember you need version 2.41 or newer version of the file ARJ.EXE in
your C:\Dos directory.
To arj all files from the B: Floppy to a file called game in the c:\wares
directory issue this command from any dos prompt.

ARJ -R -D -$B C:\wares\games B:\*.*
Remember -R === Recurse Subdirectories
-D === Store Full subdirectory Paths structure
-$B === Store the Volume Label of the B:floppy disk

To Unarj all the files from the above created .ARJ file in the Wares directory
back to a blank formatted floppy disk issue the following command

ARJ X -$ C:\wares\games b:
Remember X === Extract files using pull path and subdirectory structure
-$ === Put Volume Label on the B: disk if it exists in .ARJ file

Note: A few differences here between .ZIP and .ARJ The X switch does not
need the - before it in fact it wont work if you use it. Other than that
everything is about the same.

Q. Sometimes when I Unzip Multiple files to a disk all I end up with is Files
Like this.
PROGRAM.ARJ
PROGRAM.A01
PROGRAM.A02
PROGRAM.A03
PROGRAM.A03
ETC.....
Also there is no install or anything so what do I do with this.

A. These are ARJ Data Extension files. Most Likeley someone wanted to back up
an Installed program on the Hard drive with multiple Subdirectories. If they
were to Zip this installed program the maybe the Zip file would be lets say
20 Megabytes or so. Arj provides a way to Archive the intire Installed program
and create seperate Data Extension files no Larger than the Type of Floppy you
designate in the Command. I will not go into the proceedure to creat these
archives as all that information is in the ARJ Docs and can get somewhat
complicated. I will explain now how to Install these programs.
In the above Example the following command would Install the Entire program
in the C:\Programs Directory.
ARJ X -Y Program.* C:\Programs
Ok the X Switxh is to Extract with Subdirectory Structure
The -Y is simply Answer 'Yes' To all questions. This is not required but ARJ
will ask you every time before it created a Subdirectory. That can be a Pain
in the Butt so the -Y will take care of that.
The Astrics (*) athe the end is required so that all the extensions (.ARJ,.A01
.A02 etc are all merged together.
There is a new PKZip Utility that will create these Data Extension files but I
have yet to run across a program that was archived in this manner usink Pkzip.

Q. Can you explain a little bit about how Pkzip and Arj files are stored.

A. Sure. You see when normal Data is stored on the floppy disks there is a lot
of repetitious strings of data thru out the files on the disks. What a
compression program like Pkzip or Arj does is starting at the beginning of the
process it will create one file and start by storing information about your
floppy disk. First it stores how many files are there and how many
subdirectories and stores the names and subdirectory structure within the
.Zip file. Next it starts reading the Data and writes what it finds into the
.Zip file in a Compressed encrypted code. It can do this by looking for
strings of repetitive data, For example if it found 40 Consecutive ASCII Bytes
of the value of 20 Which would represent spaces. It would write into the .Zip
file a 40-20,. You see that it only took 4 bytes to store ( 40-20, ) In the
.Zip file where as it takes 40 Bytes on the Floppy to store 40 Spaces. As you
can see when the .Zip file is completed it is just simply a bunch of coded
data that can at some point be Pkunziped back to a floppy in its original
state. Two things are basicly accomplished by .Ziping a file and that simply
is that we have only one file to work with that can represent hundreds of
files from the floppy disk and that in most cases the Pkzip file will take
up less space than the original floppy.

Q. Why are some .Zip files actually larger than to combined size of the floppy
that was .zipped up.

A. You see when software companies finish programming a large game for
example. They then must put the Data on Floppies in order to sell them. The
less floppies it takes the More prophet for them so they will also use a
compression program like Pkzip to compress the files as they are stored to the
floppy. Now when we pkzip the floppy first the file and subdirectory structure
is saved to the .Zip file and then the data is searched and written. But
because the files are already Compressed, No repetitive sequences of data is
found so no compression take place. Wa La the file we now have is larger than
the original floppy. It is still just fine and great to work with as it is
only one file but just not smaller.

Q. Sometimes after I install a program I cant find a file in the program
directory that will run the program Why?.

A. Will one of the things some software manufactures do is put all of the
program files in a directory and then put the program that you need to run in
order to start it in the Root directory of the hard drive that way you can
type that name from any dos prompt and the program will load. The reason for
this is that the root directory is always in the path. I personally always
copy these files to the directory in which the program is installed and then
all I have to do is switch to that directory before I run the program.

Q. Could you give me some more examples of using Pkzip, Pkunzip, And arj
so that I fully understand the concept behind this compression commands.

A. OK will do it in the following format with examples using some of the
switches available. always look at the dos prompt I give so you understand
what the current directory is when I issue the command.

C:\> Pkzip -r -p D:\Cbackup c:\*.* This command backs up the entire c:
hard drive with one file in the root directory of the D: drive named
Cbackup.zip

C:\? Pkzip d:\cBackup c:\*.* This command like the one above will make a
file in the root directory of D: named Cbackup.zip the same as above but this
zip fill will only contain the files in the root directory of the C:\ drive
because we left out the -R -P switches there will be no subdirectories or
files in those subdirectories stored in the zip file.

C:\> Pkzip c:\temp\games c:\games\game1.exe game2.exe game3.exe
The above command will create a .Zip file named games.zip in the c:\temp
directory and that file will contain the 3 game?.exe files found in the
c:\games directory.

C:\> Arj X -R D:\Cbackup C:\*.* Same as the first >zip example this
command will create an entire backup of your C:\ drive and store it in the
root directory of D:\ with the filename Cbackup.arj

C:\> pkunzip -D -$ -O C:\download\game* c:\temp This, the most common
command used when installing files on your hard drive will Unzip all files in
the C:\download directory that have a file name starting with game to the temp
directory on your C:\ drive. for example if you have the following files in
your C:\download directory.

Game-1.zip
Game-2.zip
Game-3.zip

All these files will be unzipped to the C:\temp directory. The switches will
do the following.
-D Creates subdirectories on the C:\temp directories if they exist in the zip
file.
-$ rename the volume label of your C:\ hard drive with the Volume label stroed
in the Zip file.
-O Always overite existing files if they exisit.

I hope these are enough examples to get you started. If all else fails read
the documentation found on the Pkware or Arj installation disks for complete
explanation of these commands. Also typing either Pkzip /h or Pkunzip /h at a
dos prompt will give you some help templates to check out explaining the
templates etc...

Q. Is there any other ways to compress Floppy disks other than Pkzip or Arj.

A. Sure. You see because pkzip and arj can only handle normal dos file
structures and occasionally some software companies put some Non Dos data
on there installation disks Pkzip and arj are unable to duplicate these
floppies. There are several programs that will make an entire Image copy of
the floppy disk but the 2 most popular are Teledisk and DDD (Dan's disk
duplicator). Both work in the same manner. They will read each track and
sector of the floppy disk and store the data in one large file with the
extension .TD0 for teledisk and .DDD for Dan's. This works fine as long as
you use the same media to undo the files that was used to store them in the
first place. In other words if the file for example game.TD0 was created from
a 720K floppy disk you cannot Un teledisk that file to a 1.44 or 1.2 meg
floppy. Only a 720K floppy. A good example of this is found when you try to
use the Windows NT downloaded from the BBS. Because Microsoft put some
abnormal hidden files on the disk number 1 you cannot Pkzip or Arj disk one.
That is why when you Unzip the windows NT file number 1 you will see a large
file called winnt.DDD and the DDD.exe file. This is the Disk number 1 Image
file and the Dans Disk Duplicator program. All you have to do is Put a 1.44
floppy disk in your drive B: and from the directory on your hard drive that
the .TD0 and the DDD.EXE file are found Type DDD.exe winnt.td0 b: and the B:
disk will be formatted and written to so that the original disk1 of windows
with abnormal hidden file and everything are there. Then just unzip the other
21 files to floppies and install.


Authors Note: #1 July 20Th 1994

It has been a Year since I just updated this document. There are a
few comments I would like to Make to keep you up to date. As of now 7-20-94
CD'S Thank god have still not caught on and most software is still being
released on floppies. Programs have grown Larger which has caused me to Stop
the Downloading of Software and Switch to (D.A.T.) Tape Backup. The present
amount of IBM Uploads each Month is about 1.5 to 1.9 Gigabytes. The DAT
Tapes hold 2.0 Gigs of Uncompressed Data so I just purchase the Tape each
month. The IBM PC has been going thru the roof in Popularity. The Commodore
has finally Die'ed as Commodore has recently filed Bankrupcy and is going
thru liquadation at this very moment. Prices of PC Clones are dropping like
HOT Cakes as Ram, Hard Drives etc.prices are dropping every day. Pentium
processors have not been as popular as predicted but that will change as
CPU Prices drop. Many companies are producing Competitve CPU'S like Cirrix
AMD. It will be interesting to see if they can take some of the Monopoly
away from INTELL. Microsofts Windows (4) -Chicago- should be released this
Fall of 94 and the question is , Will it be more of the same or a truly
great multi tasking operating system like the Amiga has had for 10 years.
Pre Release Betas have it looking just like the Macintosh!





Authors Note: #2 January 26 1995


OK so much for CD-Roms not catching on. Starting at the end of 1994
just before Christmas most companies have decided to release all software on
CD-Rom and Floppies with more and more releasing on only CD-Rom. The following
question and answer session is done to update you on the ever changing world
of pirating software. I have eliminated the Phreaking section of this manual
as it doesn't pertain to the reason this was written. I am still getting
software on DAT Tape but its up to about 3 Gigs a month and with the most
popular software today being the CD-Rom Rips this next section will cover just
that subject.



Q. When I purchase a CD-Rom game from the store, Does that mean it will
be a monster game and can I be sure it will be better than the Floppy version.

A. NOPE! No way, Most CD Rom releases consume only 15 to 50 Megs of
information on the CD. That doesn't mean it isn't an awsome game it just means
there is no Guarantee that you will get 300 to 500 Megs on that game. In
fact there are many CD-Rom programs that take as little as 3 Megabytes. That
leaves 647 Megs free on that CD. Some companies like Apogee for example,
When you by Rise of the Triad CD-Version you get the same Version as the
Floppy but they also include the shareware version of every game they ever
made.

Q. How do I know if Im getting a good value for my Money when I purchase
A CD. I cant try it an return it. Do I just take a chance.

A. Will one way is to get the GOLD Series CD Listings from my BBS and
Look them over. They list many different CD'S on each Disk and Give the Size
of each program. This is an example of GOLD-5 for the IBM.


TITLE manufacture VERSION SIZE
-------------------------------------------------------------------
ECSTATIC PSYGNOSIS CD 29 MEGS
INFERNO US GOLD CD 97 MEGS
PGA PRO TOUR 486 GOLF EA SPORTS CD 233 MEGS
LORDS OF THE REALM IMPRESSIONS CD 101 MEGS
MICROSOFT MULTIMEDIA GOLF MICROSOFT/ACCESS CD 86 MEGS
ZORRO CAPSTONE CD 86 MEGS


You can see right off the bat what the size of the CDs are. Compare this
Gold disk with Gold-01 and you will see many CD Titles under 8 Megs.
Buy the way this is one of the Latest ways to Pirate software. I offer these
Gold disks for $40.00 each. As you can see that way you get multiple CD
Games for one around the cost of one CD game. These Gold disk also offer an
advantage over other software as they Install and work exactly like the
store bought CD'S. No .ZIP Files to fool with. No complicated installation.
Just change directory to your CD rom and type Gold. You will be presented with
an Installation menu to install any of the games on the cd. All Plug and Play.
Also the CD Games that are designed to play from the CD'S will do so just the
same so all your Hard drive space isn't robbed.

Q. What exactly does CD-Ripped Mean?

A. It means that the program has been taken directly from the Original
CD-Rom. This can mean many things. It may be 100% Exactly like the Original
or it may be only working parts of the program. I will follow this with some
examples so you will get the Idea!

(1) DARK Forces CD-Rip 50 Megs. This is the full version of Lucas arts DOOM
II Killer, Dark Forces. When you purchase this CD Title from the store
and proceed to install it, You will have 2 option's Minimal Install (5)
Megs or Full install (70 Megs). The instruction suggest that you do the
full install if you have the hard drive room because the game will play so
much better. The CD Rip is the Full 100% Installed version. The only
difference between this release on CD-Rom 17 and the Original CD Is that
you cannot do a minimal install and play off the CD-Rom drive.
(2) Disc World (Psygnosis) When this Original CD Game is purchased, It
contains about 30 Megs of Game and music, And 300 Megs of Digital Voice
files. The CD Rip from CD-Rom #17 contains everything except the 300 Meg
Voice files. When you install this CD-Rom Rip you need to set the sound
card configuration for Music but No Digital Speech sound card. That way
all Interaction is written to the screen for you to read instead of the
character actually speaking. This CD Rip is exactly like the Floppy disk
version.
(3) X-COMM II Terror from the DEEP CD-Rom Rip. This is Exactly like the
Original store bought CD Rom. No Difference. It is a Major graphic and
sounds improvement from the Floppy version although game play is the
same.

The above three examples pretty much cover CD-Romm Rips. There have
also been CD-Rom ripps released that are complete Abortions. They are so
ripped apart that they are almost impossible to play but I do not post these
on my filelists.

Q. Please explain how CD Rom Rips are packaged.

A. Will because of the vast storage capacity of CD-Roms (650 Megs) most
companies don't compress the files on the CD, And because Pirating CD-Roms
is almost un-Heard of (Hehe) they don't use much protection. At most the only
protection I have ever seen is that the program actually looks to make sure
the CD Is in the CD Rom drive. A simple CD-Rom Check Crack is all that is
needed to defeat this. The easiest way to ripp a cd would be to PkZip the
entire CD-Rom. Ie. PkZip.exe -R -P c:\game\ripoff E:\*.* example would create
a file in the games dir of C:\ named ripoff.zip . Only problem here is that
file could be huge, Like 50 Megs and most people don't have enough BBS Time
in one session to download 50 Megs. Therefore we need to split the file into
smaller chunks. The size of a 1.44 Floppy seems to be the standard. This is
not done so as to put this rip on floppies but rather give you the ability to
download a few files each time you call the BBS. Also by using a program like
ARJ.EXE we can get maximum compression as most cd's do not contain compressed
files. There is a simple command line parameter that will ARJ Any CD-Rom, File
or Groups of files into multiple .ARJ Files. As explained earlier in this
document when this is done it typical creates ARJ Data extension files as
follows.
GAME.ARJ
GAME.A01
GAME.A02
GAME.A03
ETC.......

Each file being 1.44 Kb in size. There is other ways to do the ARJ but the
bottom line is if you see files with extensions like .A01 or .001 .002 .003
etc. The its probably ARJ Files.

Q. How do I go about taking these Data extension files and making the
game install or run?

A. The answer is lots of Hard drive space. To begin thou you need to
Un Arj the files as follows.

ARJ X -v -y GAME.ARJ d:\temp

The above example would Un-Arj and create an exact image of everything
that was on the CD and do it in the Temporary directory on D Drive. You can
then Delete the .Arj, .A01 etc files to free up some hard drive space as you
are done with these. Now you will most likely need to Install the game just
as if you wer installing the game from the CD-Rom. In order to sucsesfully
do this you will most likely need to Substitute your D:\TEMP Directory for
another drive so that the Install program will seem to think its a CD-Rom
drive and not the subdirectory of your D:\ Hard disk. Do the following.

(1) Make sure that the LastDrive command in the Autoexec.bat = Z
(2) From Dos Type SUBST H: D:\TEMP Where H: does not exist on your
system and D:\TEMP Is where you Un-Arjed to.
(3) Change directory to H: and type Install or Setup. Or if Its Windows
Load windows and Run Setup from the H: drive in Filemanager.
(4) Proceed as required but make sure that if give more than one Install
method, You choose Full install so that all files are installed to the
hard drive.
(5) After this is complete you can DEL all files in D:\TEMP or
Deltree d:\temp
(6) Try to run the game. If there is an error message, Cannot find CD-Rom
or C:\Game is not a CD-Rom drive ETC... Then you will need to Patch it
with a crack or whatever it takes. Read the .NFO Files on the 1st Zip
file for all information needed to get it going.

That's basicly all there is to it. Its pretty much common sense and will worth
the effort to get these awsome releases working.

Q. I have come across some games that have .001 .002 .003 - .027 files
and when I try to un-Arj them I get a Not An ARJ File. Whats up!

A. Yup! Some Idiot group out there has decided to use Pkzip to Ripp
the CD'S and then break them down using another program like Carve or Zip
chucker pro. When done with Zip Chunker pro and that program is also on the
disk the it works pretty good. Just use Zip Chunker pro to reasemple all the
files back to one huge zip file and then Unzip that file to the temporary
directory. other than requiring more Hard drive space to get thru the install
process there is not a problem with this. The problem is with a program
called CARVE.EXE. It seems a if the person was sucsesfull in Carving the
monster zip file down into 1.44 Kbyte files but when we use Carve.exe to Put
in back together it fails.

Q. OK so I have 29 Files with .001 thru .029 and CARVE.EXE wont put them
back into one big zip file. What can I do.

A. Will its a Piece of Cake! (Hehehe) You may have to think about it for
A while but this will work. OK we are going to use the DOS Join Option within
the COPY Command. If you want more information about the Dos COPY Command
type Help Copy from any DOS Prompt.
We would like to join all of these 29 files together but DOS wont
let use type that long of a command line so we will join them 5 at a time
until we get 6 files then we will join the six into one. Confused? Just
follow along and I think you will get the Idea. The 29 files are named
GAME.001 GAME.002 ---------- thru GAME.029

(1) From the Dos prompt type exactly line exactly pressing enter after each
line also make sure your current directory is where all the files are.
Also make sure you have enough hard drive space available.

COPY /B GAME.001 + GAME.002 + GAME.003 + GAME.004 + GAME.005 NEW.001
COPY /B GAME.006 + GAME.007 + GAME.008 + GAME.009 + GAME.010 NEW.002
COPY /B GAME.011 + GAME.012 + GAME.013 + GAME.014 + GAME.015 NEW.003
COPY /B GAME.016 + GAME.017 + GAME.018 + GAME.019 + GAME.005 NEW.004
COPY /B GAME.020 + GAME.021 + GAME.022 + GAME.023 + GAME.024 NEW.005
COPY /B GAME.025 + GAME.026 + GAME.027 + GAME.028 + GAME.029 NEW.006
DEL GAME.* ;(rem) FREE UP SOME HARD DRIVE SPACE
COPY /B NEW.001 + NEW.002 + NEW.003 + NEW.004 + NEW.005 + NEW.006 FINAL.ZIP
DEL NEW.* ;(rem) FREE UP SOME MORE HARD DRIVE SPACE

At this point you will be left with one MONSTER File called Final.zip
and if you typed everything correctly you can now Unzip that file to your
temporary directory. Ie: D:\TEMP and then delete that BIG! .Zip file. Its a
little more complicated but the end result is the same. If you don't use the
DOS Command line history utility (DOSKEY) The start as it will save you a lot
of time typing commands.

(2) Now go to the temporary directly and install the game.

Q. I install the CD-Rom Rips and even crack to CD Check but the game
wont run. It keeps saying that MsCdex isn't loaded and I do not have a CD
Rom in my computer so I cant load it. Is there anything I can do?

A. Sure! You need the file CDEMU2.COM Its a small MSCDEX Cd Romm
driver for network drives. That means it wont check your system to see if
theirs a CD-Rom installed because it assumes it could be on another computer
on A network. Just put the file in your Dos Directory and from the dos
Prompt type CDEMU2 H: where H: is a Subistuted drive. You could create a
small batch file to load the game as follows.

MD C:\temp1 ;REM Make phoney dir for substitute drive
SUBST H: C:\temp1 ;REM Substitute Phony drive for H:
C:\DOS\CDEMU2.COM H: ;REM Load MSCDEX Driver for H:
cd\Games ;REM Change to the Game directory
Game.exe ;REM Load Game
SUBST /D H: ;REM Remove Subistuted drive with /D Switch
RD C:\temp1 ;REM Remove Temporary directory (House Cleaning)


NOTE: MSCDEX does not have to point to the drive with the game. Its just that
the game will check to see if MSCDEX is running.

Q. The CD Games take so much hard drive space Isn't is just better to
BUY The CD.

A. Will I always condone supporting the Software Authors but I don't
believe your argument is Valid. I just purchased A 1.3 GIG Western Digital
hard drive for $325.00. It wouldn't take purchasing very many CD Rom games
at $49.00 to buy a couple of them. Also If you buy A CD and it a piece of
shit game then your out. Getting it from me and you just delete it from your
hard drive and move on to the next one. Hell one thing is for sure. When a
CD Rom game is 100% Installed to the Hard drive it plays much better and
faster than when its loading scenes from the CD-Rom. Even Quad speed is slow
compared to a hard drive.

Q. What will we do when all of the CD Games are two big to put on the
Hard drive. when there over 100 Megs its not worth it.

A. That's why I now offer GOLD Series disks. These are disks that contain
many CD Games on One CD-Rom. with some games as big as 600 Megs. That will be
the future for a while. As the CD Programs get bigger the price of blank CD's
will come down. At some point I believe we may carry our portable CD-Rom
drives from house to house copying CD'S just as we did for years with floppy
disks. If and when they introduce CD-Rom Disc based Protection like putting
certain physical errors on the disc's then it could get interesting but for
now we change with the times and have FUN!


FINAL Comments for April 27 1994.

Commenting on past issues. Clone CPU Makers have finally caught up
with INTEL. AMD Is selling more DX/4 100 Megz CPUs in one month than INTEL
will sell is 6 Months. Cirix still hasn't caught on to much but after the
INTEL Pentium Math bug INTEL has lost some of its market share. As for PC
operating systems IBM/Warp is still the most user friendly for running DOS
and windows programs. As for Windows 95, Bill Gates held to his Promise and
removed all support for your Previous DOS Operating system. In fact when you
Install the newest Beta the install program deletes all of your Dos Commands
and replaces them with Win95 commands. This is a Bold move by Microsoft
because if they can get it to fly they would have a Monopoly on PC Computers.
If you decide to use Windows 95 then you will need to Buy or use all Windows
programs because the Dos support is worth shit anymore. Because of this there
has been a ton of BAD Press on Win95 forcing Microsoft to delay its release
until Aug 1994. Microsoft did decide to release some 400,000 copies at $29.00
each. This is just a bullshit smoke screen. Its there way of releasing the
program for sale but still calling it a late Beta. That way the press cant be
to hard on them. I personally hope the whole Product Dies!. But! Of course it
wont. Bill Gates isn't the richest man in the world because he is stupid.
Although after releasing a program like MICROSOFT BOB One would have to
wonder about him.

Bad boy!
The WarEZhouse BBS
(209) 772-9165
USR V-34 Everything 28.800
5 Gigs Hard drive
12 Gigs 100% Check software
Software available on
4MM/90M D.A.T. Tape
Qic-80 Tape
CD-Rom (Pinnacle Micro Recorder)