PC Floppy Copy Protection: Softguard Superlok
owl writes:
https://martypc.blogspot.com/2024/08/pc-floppy-copy-protection-softguard.html
Softguard Systems was founded by Joseph Diodati, Paul Sachse and Ken Williams in 1983^1. The company went public in 1984, and by 1985 was one of the industry leaders in copy protection technology, although they produced a few other unrelated products as well.
Advertisements for their copy-protection product, SUPERLoK, were commonly seen in the classified sections of publications such as InfoWorld and PC Magazine.
The original Superlok product required professional disk duplication to lay down the requisite copy protection track. Eventually, Softguard would produce the "SUPERLoK KIT," which was writable with a standard PC floppy controller. An advertisement for the Kit can be seen above, left. The Kit version was aimed at smaller developers on a budget, and did not offer the same level of protection. This article will focus on the original Superlok product.
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