LaserLock was a DRM (digital rights management) tool created in 1995 to lock video games to the original CD-ROM.
However, as countermeasures to LaserLock were well known in the cracker community, it was largely ineffective at preventing copying and didn’t last long as a result.
In a recent video, modernize.py looked at the challenges of cracking such an old game protected by LaserLock as well as the work involved in doing so.
While not all DRM is this hard to get around, it does serve to highlight the often fruitless and expensive war gaming companies have fought and often lost when it comes to protecting their intellectual property.
This is especially the case as nostalgia for older games grows, with more and more people looking to revisit titles from their past.
