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Added by Alexey on Wed Nov 30 21:26:40 2005


Hello, guys.
I'm a big fan of many old games from Titus, especially created by great Eric Zmiro! I have a license CD-ROM "10 Awesome Games from Titus" and it works fine from there, but i'm tired to use mu old 486 PC and put CD-ROM in drive every time i want to play one game.
In addition, there are some related troubles when i try to run games on my new PC using DOSBox or other emulators (CD-ROM launcher hangs-up in DOSBox in mail menu) or there is an error "only from CD-ROM" (game think i run games not from CD-ROM, but from HDD).
All main games' executables on that CD-ROM packed/encrypted in *.SQZ files using some exclusive tool hypothetical named "Eric Zmiro (un)cruncher (exec code IV)" (i thint they are NOT in real SQZ format, just encrypted and renamed to *.SQZ EXE files.
So, can anybody know how to unpack\decrypt main executables from each game?
Perhaps, somebody knows how to do it or rnjw where to get this tool or other tool "Eric Zmiro's Best Protection Kit", used by "The Humble Guys!" to crack some Titus games (not sure it helps, but may be).
Please undestood me correct: I AM an owner of ORIGINAL LICENSED CD-ROM and just wand to enjoy MY games from THIS CD, but without this damn protection. There is no problem to copy this CD-ROM to CD-R or to ISO-image, so it's not why i need to remove this protection.
I know, i CAN download cracked (unprotected) versions of these games, but i don't like it, i want to PLAY MY versions, but WITHOUT CD-ROM.
I saw the great Eric Zmiro was here, may be Eric help me?
Guys, please help me!!!

Reply by Fabulous Furlough on Sun Jan 13 08:01:55 2008


Best Protection Kit was what Eric called his protection. He released it in several versions, and released one half baked one that had weak encryption, and then the unsqz engine in the .exe file. I was able to pull out the sqz code into my own tool, and use it to just unpack his stuff from then on. That tool would be 15 years old now, and I no longer have it, but I figured you might want to know the story.

Reply by Fabulous Furlough/THG on Sat Feb 23 20:16:17 2008


Thinking back on this, I think the game with the "half baked" version of the protection was around the time of "Crazy Cars", or "The Blues Brothers". If all else fails, just grab all the Titus games you can, and look through the protection code. Eventually you'll find the SQZ unpacking code, and you can do what I did to make an unpacker.

Reply by Rocco on Fri May 16 06:36:35 2008


I can`t believe that you are still alive. The humble guys were my heroes. Thanks for so many cool releases when there were no decent groups on the pc.

Reply by Fabulous Furlough on Sat May 24 23:19:15 2008


Thanks Rocco! We came from the 64 & Amiga, and were SHOCKED to see how lame the PC scene was. So, we just ran our group like we had on the other platforms, and you all know the results! :-)

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Reply by Eric ZMIRO on Wed May 8 07:28:13 2013


what an old post!
Always wanted to unpack the code? Please write me an email.

Mr Fabulous Furlough, are you ready for a new challenge?