ADG Filler #62 - Imagitec Multimedia's Shareware Ploys

[@RetroJaro]

Let me take you on a trip to my own personal childhood. Once upon a time, in the 90s, when I lived in Fort Myers, they had a flea market. Amongst the swimming frogs and planes made out of cans, there was a small software vendor. They'd sell disks on shareware for between 1 and 5 per game. Younger me of course didn't know it was shareware per se so I'd get my software from there. I got introduced to epic megagames, apogee, and id software through this place. I also got some weird stuff.. like the crystal dream 2 demoscene thing.

[@querpmuerp]

Wow, think about "unlocking" the passwords as a kid. You would feel like hackerman!

[@VaporZone]

Could I have an ISO of this CD, I've been on the hunt for many years for this very CD. I'd really appreciate it if you could send it to me or in a reply. Thank you very much for your time.

[@whosquad3114]

Been watching for 3 years and didn't know you where Canadian. High five for a fellow Canuck!

[@RanFuRe]

This is one of my favorite videos of yours. I can't really pin down the reason, but I found this not only interesting, but somehow exciting. Like finding an unknown box in the attic.

[@elimalinsky7069]

I remember getting a demo CD of Comanche 3 that was given away in a computer store. The full game was actually stored on the CD but was locked away. Someone created a patch and shared it on the internet that simply replaced the executable and unlocked the full game. I actually got the patch on a floppy disk from a friend at school, who copied it from another friend, who discovered it on the internet by word-of-mouth from yet another friend. That'a how we did things back then.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Eli Malinsky Sounds about right. ;)

[@gnntech]

This is somewhat similar to modern games which include the 'downloadable content' on the actual game disc that can be later paid for individually and unlocked. Not that I agree with the business model but it does make it easier to mass-produce the discs.

[@LudiAntiqui]

I picked up one of Imagitec's 6-game packs back in the day. Looks like I missed out on an even bigger haul of shareware, haha.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Ludi Antiqui Let me know if you ever come across that CD again! ;)

[@andersrabenhansen5017]

+Ludi Antiqui Commander Keen profile picture. Very retro :)

[@LudiAntiqui]

I've tracked it down and sent you a message about it!

[@lmhtommy]

I like these blearily uploads

[@TheMoogleMaster]

Facepalmed!

[@lmhtommy]

lol yeah not exactly sober.... I think I'll leave it as a reminder :p

[@Pixelmusement]

+Kill Furries My eyes always look like that, even when I'm wide awake; been like that since I was in my early teens and it's a LOT easier to notice now that I've got full 1080p HD going. :P

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Hey, he's in Canada, it's all legal there, now! (Well, almost.)

[@armornick]

It was actually pretty common sense to store data in the executable before people really started to get the technical knowledge to use hex editors. Even programs today save a lot of text inside the executable (although not sensitive data obviously). And it fits with the company trying to save money everywhere (by making a single disc and selling it multiple times).

[@Pixelmusement]

+Nick Armor But as PLAIN TEXT? There's this magical little trick programmers have known about since nearly forever called "obfuscation", where you store the data in a manipulated manner, even if it's just simple bit-shifting or whatnot, to protect against casual viewing of the data. Most PC games with passwords you can type out do this and it's super-simple to program. There is no good excuse to leave passwords in plain text. Ever.

[@armornick]

Sure, but this was ages ago before every programming technique was readily available on the internet. This was a company trying to keep things as cheap as possible too, so I can imagine them hiring the cousin of the founder who just started programming using the Windows API reference and not knowing much about copy protection. Programming was very different before the internet.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Nick Armor Fair point, but that's not a GOOD excuse, just an excuse. ;)

[@develin]

Good story. Would have loved a quick rundown what was on you CD. Also, the typo isn't really a proof that this wasn't used at all, just that it wasn't used to display the title in the catalog. Would have been interesting to see what would happen if one would edit one of the passwords.

[@negirno]

So they basically did on-disc DRM but for stuff which is either already free or just the shareware version? And I don't think they went out of business because of the internet. There were a dozen other shareware CDs not mention the various discs accompanied with computing magazines, so you could get the latest and greatest every month. Or at least their trial/shareware versions...

[@Pixelmusement]

+Negirno Well, the internet sure didn't help them STAY in business. ;P

[@wyattmcrae139]

My brothers and I received so many of these from extended family for birthdays and Christmas. We'd play the games off of them for a while until we would inevitably lose the jewel case or the paper insert, losing the code in kind. Those were the days.

[@XanthinZarda]

Well, it is still Edutainment month. You've done Munchers, two super solvers, TIM, Oregon Trail...so my WAG is Carmen. The Opera.

[@thishandle.wasnttaken]

I know of the imagitec design that helped Jeff Minter produce the soundtracks for Tempest & Defender 2000. Strange how there's multiple of them.

[@kizmetmars]

My guess, Commander Keen Goes Wild! No, Duke Nukem Does Dallas.... is it Skunny Farm? I'm out of ideas.

[@TheMoogleMaster]

What was in the music folder?

[@Pixelmusement]

+TheMoogleMaster Actually... surprisingly little. A couple trivia programs, some teaching aids, programs for organizing your music, a DOS audio CD playback program, and bizarrely, the "12th Warrior" MOD music file... just... by itself. (Says it includes two bonus songs but doesn't say which.)

[@Lachlant1984]

The music in this video reminds me so much of the music to the first level of Rise Of The Triad Dark War, and that's a good thing because I love the music in that game.

[@douglasbrown5549]

I was looking for a link to Imagtec .Can you help Me .I was using a Lottery program from them which I purchased in 94 but it was on a Floppy disk.Can you help me .My program is Corrupted and I have tried to find a replacement.

[@arsenixa]

there were also porn dvds given as samplers which have you call a pay number to get a code to enter in the menu. However on a PC you can simply access the content directly using a player like VLC. Or you can use a DVD menu editor to figure out the code

[@triggthediscovery]

I would guess that if each title has it's own password, then if you ordered that shareware title from them they would just send you another copy of the disc you already own just with a new password for the title you purchased

[@Pixelmusement]

+triggthediscovery No, you actually had to choose 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" formats when placing orders; they didn't send CDs. Furthermore, some of their software wouldn't be allowed to come on one format or the other for whatever reason and the catalogue makes notes of this when you try to complete an order form using it. :P

[@MrGeekGamer]

My guess is Pickle Wars.

[@malokegames]

I was going to say the same!!! Just looked first on the commentaries to see if anyone had the same idea hahaha

[@DanZero77]

Companies like Software Labs sent me catalogs throughout the 90s that offered shareware to order on their own floppies, for around the same price if I remember correctly.

[@lilwyvern4]

Points for trying Imagitec. Not many points, but a few.

[@TheMoogleMaster]

I'm going to guess Commander Keen 4: Goodbye Galaxy.

[@amit_serper]

you were working too hard to separate the codes. that's super easy with IDA pro and a python script. Also, was this an exe file? did you look at the text section of it where all the strings are?

[@Pixelmusement]

+Amit Serper Trust me, this was not a scriptable process. Feel free to download the raw file listed in the video description and try it yourself, there's simply no way to delimit the data that's there since some entries in what was clearly tabular data are simply omitted entirely, not a single byte to indicate specific entries are even missing, and no bytes to indicate string lengths, terminators, or anything like that. It was stored around the centre of the executable file, after executable data and before more generic string data.

[@amit_serper]

Super interesting, I really wanna crack it open with IDA pro. any chance to get executable itself? 😀

[@Pixelmusement]

+Amit Serper Nope. Even if the company doesn't exist anymore SOMEONE owns the copyright to those programs, although I wouldn't be surprised if other people have already released 'em through less than legit software sites. There's also a lot of extra files beyond the executable so I imagine if you wanted to hack the actual password data, not the raw text I found, you'd have to dig quite a bit deeper. :P

[@ABalazs31]

It isn't necessarily the case that someone owns the copyright. Copyright can expire (though this didn't because the absurd length copyright terms have these days) or the covered material can also become orphan works: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_works

[@NeilRoy]

A fellow Canuck, yay! ;) I'll guess Blake Stone... I was gonna say "Pickle Wars" but everyone one else is saying that and as a Canuck, I know how crafty you can be!!! :D

[@cyrus649]

Pickle Wars?

[@MaximilienNoal]

I appeared three times overall. Nice. ;)

[@Compucles]

It doesn't hurt the consumer, so I have no issues with them taking a money-saving shortcut like that (which would've worked even better if they had used any kind of encryption for those passwords. The *true* scummy practice was selling CDs of free games! Imagine if someone tried to sell a commercial book anthology of nothing but stories in the public domain with no theme, no illustrations, nor or any other kind of additional content.

[@zirkoni42]

What's so bad about Skunny Kart (except that it's a Mario Kart rip-off)? Used to play it a lot with with my sister on a 486 DOS machine. The battle mode (or whatever it's called) was especially fun to play.

[@POLE7645]

zirkoni88 He made a review on it. This game is not only broken in many ways, it also stole source code for it's engine (from Wacky Wheels, a much better game).

[@malokegames]

I feel it will be: Pickle Wars!

[@manicware96]

I don't know if you even care, but Imagitec wasn't actually "lasted 2 years", like you stated. They re-branded themselves as Magicom Multimedia, and continued to sell 40 packs, Imagination Station's and other stuff. They finally closed in 2004...

[@Pixelmusement]

+OddballWizard See, Magicom turned up in my research for this video, but I couldn't find a definitive connection between them and Imagitec as information about these old shovelware companies is hard to come by. What was the connection you were able to find?

[@manicware96]

www.ic.gc.ca/ gives info about the Magicom's trademark, and Imagitec is listed as the tm's old owner. Besides, the logos of the companies, and covers of the cds looks suspiciously similar in it's style. It can't be just a coincidence.

[@Pixelmusement]

+OddballWizard Curious indeed... It's definitely possible they were both the same company. Either way though "Imagitec" as a brand died after a couple years even if the company seeminly didn't. :B

[@SlavestoArmok]

@@Pixelmusement If you guys would like to know forsure I think I 99% sure tracked down the owner of Imagitec (if not her, definitely one of her relatives), Her name is Andrea Nadeau-Larson she lives in the states now but from her FB profile it appears she is indeed the owner, as her friends list shows alot of people from GABRIOLA ISLAND, BC, which according to gov of canada website is where the companies address was, I looked the address up on google maps and noticed theres a sign infront of the property with her last name, I was thinking of shooting her a message and asking about Imagitec and if she also owned Magicom as both companies did indeed have similar logos/case designs but I wouldnt feel comfortable doing that haha, Still very interested by this company and their business practices though

[@Pixelmusement]

+Dat IcedTea All things considered, they were probably just a typical shareware distributor with an odd but interesting approach to distribution. I can't imagine the story of their operation being too significant really so I'd leave her be. :P

[@sergiovw1500]

360p? can you improve the quality?

[@Pixelmusement]

+sergiovw1500 Just give it a few minutes. KZbin must be taking longer than usual to do the HD. :B

[@sergiovw1500]

ups sorry, this happens only to me, lol

[@CoCoNOFox]

is proably youtube still encoding the high res video

[@andersrabenhansen5017]

+Pixelmusement This video quality gives a VHS retro vibe to it :)

[@sephonoff]

I have two of them Volume 21 series 3 and volume 34 series 4

[@Pixelmusement]

+sephonoff You should check to see if those passwords work on the Series 3 disc! :o

[@VaporZone]

I'd love to have iso's of your discs aswell, they are nowhere to be found on the net.

[@Darkstar2342]

I'll guess the next one will be Pickle Wars :)

[@robinsonnox9980]

Oh hey, I see Billy the Kid So I DIDN'T imagine that game

[@Pixelmusement]

+Graham Markusson Although you might've wished you did just imagine it... :P

[@vonhapen1]

Pickle Wars. Yes!!! :)

[@bsharpmajorscale]

Gemini is a 1337 hacker. Is the next game Barbie? /s

[@DarkTenka]

Wow.. the ultimate Day 1 DLC scam. I think it's clear what happened to Imagitec ... they formed up with EA.

[@invghost]

Pretty sure you did give us a hint haha.

[@cyrillobaggins8789]

HACKER!!!!!!!!!!