Profit manager, security locked dos program

[Guest]

I have a dos program it is a horse racing staking program it was written in 1995 and came with a token security system on it which allowed you to install it 3 times. It was a very expensive program costing £500 in 1995.
My problem is that there was only one install token left and I tried to install it in dosbox but for some reason it didn't transfer the security file properly the program seems to have installed fine but throws up a message saying no security file present or it is corrupted. The diisk now reports that it is no longer a master disk as the tokens are now all used.
My question is as this must be a primitive security system do you think it would be possible to reset it?
The company that wrote are of course long gone.
any suggestion would be gratefully appreciated.
regards
Eric

[dosraider]

A bit late now to ask for help now that the lock is on ....

See, you only had to create a raw image file of the floppy and use that with imgmount in dosbox, you could have used it a zillion times.
Ah well, too late to do so now. *sigh*

Maybe begin with the begin:
What's the name of that soft?
Eventually version?
Dev by ...?

Also I'm wondering what's the use ourdays of a "horse racing staking program written in 1995" ......

Must also warn you, dosbox is written for games, not for such programs, means not all doscalls/commands are included/implemented in dosbox.

A last word of warning: if your question leads towards copyright infringement this topic will be closed .....

[Guest]

The software is called profit manager plus ver3 it was marketed by a fly by night company called first post racing. It was sold with a get rich quick program that was supposed to pick winning horses. Of course that didn't work but the staking program is very good and works fine.
The company first post racing went bust and the owner turned out to be a con man who has had various run in's with the authorities since.
So there is no way of getting it reinstated and I don't think there is any commercial interest in the program or any rights to it as it has never been marketed again by anyone.
I purchased it legitimately and have the master disk.
It says that it transfers a token to the hard drive and creates a hidden sub directory called " PACKAGE3.123" in which the token is located. You can move the token back to the master disc using "ccmove" .
It would seem that this is where the hicup has occurred because it said it moved the token ok during install and when I checked the virtual drive all looks correctly installed. However it won't run as it says the token is missing and the master disc reports no token on the disc. So it has either got lost or the file has not been correctly constructed.
I assume it must be possible to reset the counter in it some how but do not have a clue where or how to look.
Any advice would be greatly received as I would love to get it working again.
Eric

[dosraider]

It says that it transfers a token to the hard drive and creates a hidden sub directory called " PACKAGE3.123" in which the token is located. You can move the token back to the master disc using "ccmove" .
It would seem that this is where the hicup has occurred because it said it moved the token ok during install and when I checked the virtual drive all looks correctly installed. However it won't run as it says the token is missing and the master disc reports no token on the disc. So it has either got lost or the file has not been correctly constructed.

Hmmm, see here you hit some of the boundaries of dosbox.
Whilst it won't crash when the 'move' dos command is used, the move command isn't implemented and thus programs using 'move' won't work correctly. 'Move' is one of the commands that are ignored by dosbox. (same as 'more' 'share' and others .....)

a hidden sub directory called " PACKAGE3.123"

Can you find this subdir on your virtual C: whilst in windows ?

It's all pretty vague, you see, you think this , suppose that, but I have no idea how that protection really works, or whatever.
Maybe it's possible (most probably I would say) to reset that counter with a Hex editor, but without the original files it would be a long trial and error process.

What you eventually could try is to install/run soft in VPC2007/MsDos6.22 from a disk image, that way you would have full dos commands options, contrary to dosbox's restricted ones.

Your best option? I would say ask around and try to get that software/master disk from someone ..............

[Edit]
Hmmm, a quick search for 'profit manager plus' didn't return any relevant results about that prog of yours, could be it's one of the many 'lost forever' ones.
Another possibility to get some help is on dosbox home forum
http://www.vogons.org/index.php
But they usually don't really like to give help for 'unlocking' or 'cracking' protection problems, but you always could try.....

[Guest]

Yes windows shows the file Package3.ccc on the master disk and Package3.123 on the virtual drive where I installed the program.

[dosraider]

Size in bit of both them things?
Can you hex read/compare them ...????
If that question doesn't make any sense to you I'm afraid it would go to far to get things done.

Also it wouldn't amaze me they are encrypted, in 1995 there were already some good encryption algorithms, if that's the case you're probably screwed anyway.

[horsedentist]

Hi
After a couple of hours on line I found this old thread

http://www.woodmann.com/forum/archive/i ... -5158.html

All the files mentioned in the thread are present on my master disk ccmove.exe, package3.ccc, etc so I believe this is the copy protection used on it.

Further research threw up this company as the probable suppliers of the system

http://www.microcosm.com

I have emailed them with all the purchase information and all the vendor details and asked if they can help at all, but of course they may decline as it is probably unethical but I will await their reply before trying anything else.
However the tread seems to indicate that it is a system that can be over ridden.
regards
Eric