What was so bad about StarForce DRM back in the day?

As far as I know early versions of StarForce was relatively benign CD copy protection.
It's somewhere in the late 00s where they introduced some weird custom driver shit that caused all kinds of problems.

It's Russian

>youtube thumbnail thread
How about you watch the video instead of bothering us with retarded questions?

>>11853380

>>11853368 (OP)
i love the way this guy says the word two

>>11853393
I prefer how Sean Seanson says the word three

>>11853368 (OP)
It could crack and damage CRT monitors

>>11853368 (OP)
It can brick your disc drive, and fuck with other software
So the way it works is that StarForce is installed as a driver that sits between your optical drive and any software that tries to access that drive. This meant that especially on early version of StarForce you'd get issues with CD burning software, other copy protections, and sometimes even Windows itself BSOD'ing because it couldn't figure out wtf is happening as StarForce fucks with the data streams in-between.
However even functioning properly, StarForce isn't a good citizen. One of the things it does to identify real disc drives (vs emulated drives) is spinning the disc fast. Like really fucking fast. And then slowing it down suddenly, and then spinning it fast again. Repeat for a few cycles at the start of every StarForce protected game and some disc drives end up dying because they're not meant for this kinda shit.
Unfortunately most StarForce cracks are shitty bypasses that should've been NUKE'd way back then, so if you're into retro PC gaming you'll run into it sooner or later. I'd suggest having a sacrificial disc drive for it.

How many pc games actually used this drm method? I’d guess it wasn’t that many.

>>11853380
Don't you love turboautists who get irrationally angry at one of the first results when searching something on Google images?

>>11853454
You would be more intimately familiar with it if you lived in eastern Europe since every slavjank at the time was accompanied by it. STALKER, Men of War, Space Rangers, Perimeter etc.
Even without those there were a few major titles that used Starforce, like Splinter Cell or Prince of Persia

>>11853454
Most StarForce-protected games had alternative versions released in other regions or later on (with the exception of some very eastern european games you've never heard of), but one game that was always stuck with StarForce is Trackmania Sunrise
Thankfully it's one of the few games to get a proper crack for it that fully removes StarForce entirely, it took like 15 years to get it though.

>>11853473

ive still got a Space Rangers 2 cd with 'STARFORCE DO NOT INSTALL' written in sharpie on it.
I also have the original DCS Black Shark which is starforce, but was a serveer authorisation method that wasnt supposed to be as bad. Still dont trust it though.

>>11853368 (OP)
it caused your disc drive to emit mustard gas if it detected pirated games

>>11853563
The entire Eastern Europe would be uninhabited Lebensraum then.

>>11853563
>>11853581
So WWI Eastern Front?

>over 1 million sold in Japan
Doubt.
Even hardcore shmupfags don't care about shooting the alphabet.

>>11853471
>"I'm curious about the subject, let me find an image"
>"Oh, this image goes to a video about the topic... should I watch it and get an answer? NAH! Who would do such a thing?"

>>11853426
>Unfortunately most StarForce cracks are shitty bypasses that should've been NUKE'd way back then
What's wrong with them?

>>11853380
This guy is mad he was too useless to be a janny so now they're trying to backseat janny. Lmao you're a loser.

>>11855160
Because they're simple bypasses, they required the entirety of StarForce to be installed and functional on your computer, so even if you were playing pirated versions you'd have to suffer with any application compatibility issues with the StarForce drivers
This also means those cracks aren't compatible with modern versions of Windows, due to Microsoft blocking StarForce from installing due to its malware-like nature
Shitty cracks is an issue that still persists to this day, most Denuvo cracks (with a few exceptions) are also bypasses which means if there's ever a software or hardware compatibility issue with Denuvo itself those "cracked" versions also stop working

Never had a problem with it because I pirated everything even back then.

>>11853368 (OP)
Like many have said, it fucked with your disk drive, and even burning/ripping/emulation software. Your disk drive would eventually perform worse and worse until it is kicked into slowass PIO mode and break. On top of all the bluescreens and other issues, it was also generally not uninstalled if you uninstalled the game. Microsoft basically labelled it was malware and has blocked it from running on modern Windows, which is one of the main reasons why no Starforce games work on modern Windows anymore.

I don't recall but I think it even started refusing to run if you had drive emulation software installed, I know one of the DRMs at the time did that, I think it was Starforce. Before that it would also refuse to let you launch a game off a SCSI disk drive (because emulators at the time emulated SCSI drives) unless your system had no ATA optical drives connected to it.

I recall someone in a magazine once describing it as "scorched earth", basically taking out anything on your system that could even tangentially be used for piracy just in case, even if that's not what you was using it for, and causing all sorts of problems in it's wake.

>>11853864
>>"I'm curious about the subject, let me find an image"
>>"Oh, this image goes to a video about the topic... should I watch it and get an answer? NAH! Who would do such a thing?"

4chan:
>"What kind of a retarded zoomie are you if you watch YouTube videos about retro games? ESPECIALLY if it's from a so called YouTube celebrity?"

also 4chan:
>"Why the fuck didn't you watch this video from a YouTube celebrity about the subject instead of ask about it?"

>>11855160
Like >>11856087 said, a bypass does not remove the DRM, or many times even prevent it from running, it just tricks it's checks into passing and thinking that the game is a legit copy. This how practically every cracked version of a modern Denuvo game (back when it was still being cracked) worked too. So you are still installing and usually also letting all of that crap run on your system, it's just being tricked into thinking your copy is legit. So you would still have all the issues of installing a legit copy with the DRM would have, on top of possible additional issues from the crack.

>>11853368 (OP)
I was playing on Xbox360 and PS3 through that era. I completely missed the whole star force pc gaming shenanigans. No regrets.

>>11853368 (OP)
i hate zoomers so much it must be real

>>11853426
>>11856087
What are some notable games that are affected by those shitty cracks?

>>11856478
The point is, stop asking /vr/ retarded questions

>>11853426
>Unfortunately most StarForce cracks are shitty bypasses that should've been NUKE'd way back then
things were a bit different back then. the crackers also didn't anticipate windows upgrading to a newer version that would make all these cracks unplayable. it's a race to be first so shortcuts were taken. not much has changed in current year. instead of a driver your game depends on steam api dll emulator. they don't get nuked.