[Coco] Backup Magic (Was: Good Memories with Mr. Bjork)

[brian palmer]

On Jul. 29, 2010, at 6:15 PM, Darren A wrote:
> Carl England has a newer product called BACKUP MAGIC which is much
> easier to use than the DEFEATER:
>
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Backup_Magic
>
> The problem is figuring out how to purchase a copy of BACKUP MAGIC.

I bought a copy of Backup Magic three years ago directly from Carl.   
He is a subscriber to this list.  (Hint: Log in to the subscriber list  
and search for someone with the name "Spock" in his e-mail address-- 
that's him.)

The CoCo subscriber list log in can be found here:
<http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco>

I had to send him a money order and get a copy of the floppy by mail,  
so the distribution is still decidedly low tech.

Backup Magic successfully made bootable copies of only a few of my  
protected game disks.

It failed on:
Kyum-Gai: To Be Ninja (Sundog Systems), It will indeed copy this. And I would say every other Sundog System software that used the Track0 copy protection routine.
Buzzard Bait (Tom Mix), This one can be done, But U need to send Carl the copy protected disk so he can tweak the routines to work, Same goes for the others listed here.
Sailor Man (Tim Mix)
Time Bandit (Michtron)

It did succeed on: And I will list the software here it also worked on.
Sinistaar (Sundog Systems)
Warrior King (Sundog Systems)
Caladuril 1 and 2, 7th Link, The Champion, Z-89, Marty's Nightmare, pretty much all off Steve Bjork's games,
Those Darn Marbles, 
Some off the Diecom Games, But not all as this copy protection is a hit or miss using Backup Magic.
There is many more I can list But I forget the names now.

Some off the games listed are now available in Cracked versions.
I have successfully used Back up magic on all off the Cer-Comp software. And other 3rd party software to date. As I said Using Tandy Dos is the best chance off it working. 3rd Party Dos's used their own routines which I think conflict with how Backup Magic works by using the disk basic routines used in the Tandy Dos.

On Aug. 31, 2007, at 6:11 PM, carl j england wrote:

> Backup Magic requires a CoCo3 and two disk drives.  Can be used to
> backup MOST Copy-Protected disks.  Can also be used to transfer the
> Copy-Protected disk to your PC (PC must have a floppy drive--has
> only been tested using David Kiel's emulator).  The "real" copy is a
> duplicate of the original and is also Copy-Protected.  The emulator
> copy will have a "virtual" copy-protection.  It cannot be copied using
> the emulator, but can be copied under DOS or Windows.
>
> The price for Backup Magic is $25 (includes shipping)


-- JP


G'Day Fellow Coconuts.

I have to disagree with what software Backup Magic will copy. I will put next to your list the ones that it will copy, I should know as I was the 1st person to ever Beta Test it out and get a full working copy from Carl England. What I did find is that Using a Tandy based DOS would give you the best results for copying, some 3rd party Dos's would not copy certain software etc. Read the Add on I have posted in the earlier section. And I agree If you want to backup your software it is a must to purchase Backup Magic.

 Well when you are talking about copying a protected disk in around 40secs flat it is worth it. No more waiting 5mins or so.

laters

Briza