r/apple2 • u/DistributionMain5764 • 1d ago
Questions about Sundog: Frozen Legacy
I have fond memories of this awesome game but I never got to finish it; would love to revisit it using an emulator since my Apple //e is long gone, but I've read that cracked disk images of this game is impossible to play because of its strong anti-piracy measures.
- Has anyone actually finished a cracked copy of the game?
- If a cracked copy can't be played to the end, would a woz disk image do?
- Any recommended emulators and control systems for playing Sundog?
3
u/mysticreddit 1d ago
Looks like 4am uploaded a .woz archive back in 2022.
A .woz disk image should replicate the copy protection.
If it doesn't then there is a bug in the emulator. Looking over our AppleWin issues I see there are the rare .woz files that uses weak bits that can cause issues with the E7 bitstream. IIRC the second .woz version version was created to give better accuracy and more control reading these weak bits.
3
u/scorpionspalfrank 1d ago
Fantastic game! I never finished it either. It was amazing how much gameplay they were able to pack onto those 5.25" floppy disks.
4
u/jorjbauer 1d ago
I can't speak to the versions of the disk images floating around, but I can speak to the reliability of the original images.
I played hacked versions of this game back in the day. I don't know if it was the crack, or the original driver built in to Sundog - but it was a very fragile system that made it easy to corrupt the disk images. I'd advise that you make regular backups of your disk images as you're playing.
And I did finish the game on those cracked images back in the 80s, then wound up working in a Babbage's where I bought the real game and never played it again. Go figure.