Alien Breed (Amiga)

Alien Breed
Developer: Team17 Publisher: Team17 Platform: Amiga Released in EU: November 1991 This game has a hidden developer message.

All characters appearing in Alien Breed are entirely original. Any resemblance to Ridley Scott films, called Aliens or otherwise, is purely coincidental.

Developer Messages

Trivia Message

Loaded into the game's main menu at 0x100000:

ZALIEN BREED V1.3, =SB= 14-Oct-91
Main program code by Andreas Tadic and Peter Tuleby,
Graphics and game design by Rico Holmes,
music and sound effects by Allister Brimble,
additional programming, bug fixing, copyprotection,
data compression routines and algorithms, and fastmem sample players 
by Stefan Boberg

== "Funny facts" about this game...

1) Source code is unreadable and extremely sensitive to changes 
(banana-code at the highest level).

2) My first protection had to be removed due to the fact that those 
f***ing duplicators couldn't copy it reliably , so this is really not 
the protection I wanted to put in (this one was threwn together in
great haste in two days, completely from scratch) . For a REAL
protection, look forward to PROJECT X from Team 17 software,
released Jan-92.. It will be tough!

3) A dozen or so MAJOR bugs were fixed within three days..
we worked 72 hours without sleep! I worked even longer after that...
I hate the sight of this bloody game, sure hope it'll sell well,
so I can get some serious cash and buy some goodies for me...
like a Fusion Forty for my little A3000

4) The game's gotten rave reviews in all major mags, YAHOO!
(six-page review in ACE, three pages in CU AMIGA etc..)
Good job we payed them all that money! (not really...:)

5) After this sentence is finished, this game is 100% finished,
and you cannot possibly imagine how bloody RELIEVED I am....
phew... Over and out... bibi

>w

FILENAME> abfinal.s

>!

Exit, are you sure? Y bzzzt....

EOT

(Source: jotd on EAB)

Anti-Piracy Messages

The first game disk contains a plaintext anti-cracking message:

STOP IT =NOW=, OK! You will gain *NOTHING* from breaking this protection,
but I guess you're too fucking ignorant, narrow-minded or maybe even too
stupid to understand that. Yeah, so you and your 'leaders' and 'spreaders'
(that's what they like to call themselves, but they're nothing but LEECHES
gaining some kind of fame from the work you do) will have something to
spread around on BBS', ok...  But what the hell do they, or you, REALLY get
for all that, huh?  Ok credits...  So they can download some shit games or
other software, but in a wider perspective?  I'll tell you =NOTHING=.  It's
pointless.  If you don't realize that now, I assure you that in a few years
you will look back at this time and wonder why you did it.  I know that
from experience.  Go and do something constructive, like studying,
socializing, programming or whatever!  Cracking is not constructive.  To
you it might seem like a challenge or something you do to get famous, well
OK it is a challenge to crack, and you do get famous if you're good at it.
Famous for a while, a short while.  But nobody will care about that five
years from now.  You will benefit much more from getting a job, education
or a girlfriend, I'm telling you because I KNOW.  I was a cracker once, one
of the best.  In a time when you could actually send the originals by mail,
work for a day or two, and then send the cracked version back, and still
have a world-first release.  Then the scene consisted by computer freaks
who made it for the fun of it.  The scene today is perverted and lead by
ignorant computer-illiterate idiots, only in for the fame and money.  They
think they're famous and legendary, but nobody likes or admires them for
sure.  I HATE IT!  Now I've realized the stupidity of my actions, and I
wish I could undo them.  You'll also do just that in a few years too if you
have a conscience, and wish you had done something else.  SO DON'T CRACK
IT!

Encrypted within the game code is a message by game creator Stefan Boberg, who likely wrote the above message as well.

================ DIVINE PROTECTION BY =THE MIGHTY GOD= 
WRITE TO ME: boberg@lysator.liu.se 
FINALLY YOU HAVETHE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK TO A REAL COMPUTER ===== GOD! =====
CURRENTLY STUDYING APPLIED PHYSICS AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AT LINKOPING INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY!! =====SWEDEN=====
Don't even think about it. Cracking is both illegal and immoral and will get you NOWHERE in this world.
We have spent a lot of time doing this game, and we will not hesitate to take legal actions against
those who duplicate this game illegally.
We have complete overview over the cracking scene, and know your name and whereabouts, no doubt.
We have prepared a nice surprise for you.
You may think it is challenging, exciting or even glorious to crack, but from our point of view it is nothing but theft and sabotage.
You may have read or heard all this before, but this time it's different and REAL. We mean it.
Think about it.
If you continue doing what you're doing right now, the game programmers will have to leave the Amiga
programming in favour for Nintendo, Sega etc.
It is up to you and the rest of the Amiga users.
If you still insist on being an ignorant egocentric lowlife and go ahead cracking this, go ahead, try me.
It won't be easy.
It will be hard, damn close to impossible, destructive, and it will be SO DAMN POINTLESS.
Go and do something else instead, something positive and constructive, do that homework of yours,
read a book, learn something, call some friend, date a girl, or whatever.
Or if you can't get away from the computer, do something yourself, something useful or fun.
This protection is the toughest ever. Unbreachable.
That's what all I have to say, now it's up to you to decide whether you should crack this or not.
We hope you won't.
It'll be so much easier and less painful for all of us, especially for you.
Signed, the creator of this and plenty to come protections, Stefan Boberg 

(Source: Stingray on EAB)