Elite Lenslock

maxhall · March 2007

Hey Hey,
I have just purchased "Elite" for my trusty ZX spectrum, unfortuantly it does not have the "lenslock" thingy with it! arggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh

Anyhow, does anyone know any code or crack to type in to get the game to work without the lenslock? It seems such a shame to have all the original box, tape, manuals, posters etc and not be able to play this classic...
Any help appreciated!

All the best
Max Hall

www.myspace.com/maxhall1

beanz · March 2007

Not sure, for now though you could download a tap with the lenslok removed from it and back it up to tape with a tap player.

TechnicianSi · March 2007

Scouted about a bit, and I couldn't find any way of bypassing it normally on a Speccy. Beanz suggestion is as sound as you're going to get I think, unless you can find another copy of Elite with the lenslok, or perhaps grab a copy of Tomahawk.

DEATH · March 2007

I'm not sure but I think they were specific to the game. It made it expensive to use which is why it never really caught on.

Best thing you can do is download the TZX of Elite 128 (I KNOW for a fact that this version does not use any protection). Download TZX2WAV from the utilities section and convert the TZX file to a WAV. Burn the WAV to a CDR as audio, then record the audio track onto either your Elite tape, or (my preference) a blank. That should get you up and blasting the Thargoid scum!

zx128k · March 2007

More info about Lenslok can be found here...

http://www.birdsanctuary.co.uk/sanct/s_lenslok.php

There's even a Lenslok emulator for Windows by Simon Owen.
Can be found at his homepage:

http://simonowen.com/

maxhall · March 2007

Hello there,

I have a lenslock with "tomahawk" suppose that is worth a try for sure, thanks, TechnicianSi, and mouse, I do think they are specific to each game though, but worth a try...

Could do the wav to Tape idea though, nice one, have a studio here would be no problem...

All the best
Max.

Sard · March 2007

maxhall wrote: »

Hello there,

I have a lenslock with "tomahawk" suppose that is worth a try for sure, thanks, TechnicianSi, and mouse, I do think they are specific to each game though, but worth a try...

Yeah I have both Elite and Tomahawk originals and each game needs its own lenslock. Mine do anyway :)

StuBruise · March 2007

By the looks of it Elite 48K was released with a few different loader systems; the TZX version on WoS has a totally different loader to the TAP versions (which are both different to each other anyway). If yours has the same loader as the TAP one (the standard one, not the Joystick Club release) then this should do the trick:

CLEAR 65448 : LOAD "" CODE : POKE 65484,127 : RANDOMIZE USR 65449

If it doesn't work then you've probably got the version with the same loader as the TZX version and you might as well download Elite 128K or the Joystick Club version.

Winston · March 2007

Grr. The Lenslok. The most irritatingly pointless copy protection device (in a long line of copy protection devices that didn't actually prevent copying).

I remember getting Elite with such anticipation, and then finding with our dodgy telly getting the code right was a nightmare. Fortunately, hacks soon appeared.

maxhall · March 2007

Hey nice one folx, ill try that little bit of code on my loader and let u know if it works.

Probably try tomorrow, saturday is a day is the pub! burp....

Cheers for your help guyz

All the best
Max.

maxhall · March 2007

Thankx stubruise but, my "elite" is a fastloader version, its the Firebird gold edition one, if that helps. Tryed your bit of code but alas no joy, but thankx anyhow...
All the best
Max.

StuBruise · March 2007

Oh well, it was worth a shot!

Just a thought... I don't suppose you tried it on both sides of the tape, just in case the other side had that loader?

maxhall · March 2007

I did, that was my 1st thought wondering if it had a slow load on other side, but alas, no joy, thankx anyhow.....Prob end up buying another copy with the lenslock...unless anyone on this forum has a "elite" lenslock they will sell me?

Will have to stay addicted to the BBC version for now... (spit, boo, arrg BBC!) hehe

All the best
Max.

FrankT · March 2007

If its the same as the Firebird Softlock version tzx in wos archive, I`ve just cracked it. The pokes are;
POKE 50858,161 : POKE 50868,161
This will make the Lenslok always ask for 'OK'. Or;
POKE 53372,0 : POKE 53373,0 : POKE 53374,0
This will bypass the Lenslok altogether on loading.

If you can confirm yours is the same version as the Firebird Softlock, I`ll write up a softlock crack with either of these pokes in place. As you can only enter the first 2 pokes with a multiface.
If your version is different, try to upload the sample you made so I can crack it anyway.

StuBruise · March 2007

Elite 48K Hack from YS issue 10:

10 REM ELITE HACKING PROGRAM, (C) ZZKJ 16/3/1986
20 LET t=0: FOR n=64643 TO 64807: READ a: POKE n,a: LET t=t+a: NEXT n
30 IF t<> 19301 THEN PRINT "CHECKSUM ERROR": STOP
40 FOR n=n TO 1e9: READ a: IF a<256 THEN POKE n,a: NEXT n
50 POKE 23693,0: POKE 23624,0: CLS: RANDOMIZE 1267+USR 64643
70 DATA 118,205,162,45,127,90,90,75,74,72,59,59,225,17,167
80 DATA 252,6,129,26,203,65,40,3,134,24,1,174,18,19,16
90 DATA 243,35,13,242,144,252,111,169,25,195,95,109,72,143,181
100 DATA 127,102,169,113,115,78,123,100,175,195,95,5,67,143,80
110 DATA 106,127,211,67,102,148,98,196,67,95,211,119,146,207,67
120 DATA 102,211,95,206,67,115,115,67,102,119,98,132,70,115,199
130 DATA 67,111,52,52,211,37,99,72,102,115,98,60,169,95,52
140 DATA 163,146,71,169,102,117,98,170,169,95,56,163,146,173,169
150 DATA 102,169,117,52,169,171,195,40,166,163,140,53,195,43,52
160 DATA 175,119,155,95,174,170,146,74,196,159,119,95,97,163,143
170 DATA 52,61,127,52,127,203,211,228,143,214,150,117,50,44,25
200 DATA 50,93,154: REM ENERGY
210 DATA 50,23,156: REM MISSILES
220 DATA 50,23,165: REM BLOW UP SPACESTATIONS
230 DATA 50,243,163: REM LAUNCH THARGONS
240 DATA 50,0,183: REM ONE HIT TO DESTROY
250 DATA 50,167,182: REM LASER TEMP
260 DATA 50,165,222: REM FUEL
270 DATA 50,216,219,50,226,219: REM HYPER ANYWHERE
280 DATA 50,196,219: REM GALACT HYPER
290 DATA 50,51,156: REM ESCAPE
300 DATA 50,80,156: REM NO LOSS
310 DATA 50,6,232: REM CARGO
320 DATA 50,148,112: REM BOMB
330 DATA 62,201,50,160,112: REM NO BOMB FLASH
340 DATA 62,3,50,245,211,62,24,50,3,212: REM CASH
350 DATA 175,50,27,240,50,37,240,62,24,50,186,163: REM E.C.M. JAMMER
360 DATA 62,33,50,90,240,62,246,50,94,240,175,50,96,240: REM CLOAKING DEVICE
370 DATA 62,195,50,22,117,175,50,220,180,50,185,183: REM INDESTRUCT
390 DATA 201,999: REM END MARK

Insert one of the following lines to crack Lenslok:

190 DATA 50,173,194
375 DATA 62,201,50,19,194

The first one makes it accept any input (it's the same poke submitted by Viktor Drozd to the Tipshop), the second one bypasses Lenslok completely (by patching the first byte of it to be a RET instruction :)).

If you don't want a particular cheat, remove the appropriate line but make sure you leave line 390 intact!

dekh · March 2007

Just turn your head on one side and squint through your lashes until you can see the letters.

maxhall · March 2007

i have little lashes, lol
Thankx for the code, will try that one, think it may be easy to get a new copy , lol
U lot are amazin............
will try though for sure, ;)
Max

thx1138 · March 2007

Not much point in doing it, but I wondered, would it be possible, for someone with a working lenslok, to plot on graph paper the shapes and the corresponding letters and numbers, and eventually build up a complete list?

obo · March 2007

thx1138 wrote: »

Not much point in doing it, but I wondered, would it be possible, for someone with a working lenslok, to plot on graph paper the shapes and the corresponding letters and numbers, and eventually build up a complete list?

Yes, but you'd need to store how the letters look on both left and right sides, because of how the lens decodes it. You'd also need a sheet for each game since the lenses are different. Most of the protections also had a time limit on entering the code, so you'd have to be fairly quick in looking up the patterns.

Here's a screenshot I made when decoding the Elite pattern for LensKey. Numbers 1 to 6 under the red strips are for the left letter, and 7 to 12 under blue strips for the right. The grey block on the left isn't used by the image and (IIRC) randomly generated.

I don't have details of where the code is generated and written, but 0xc7b4 (on the image) shows where the two letters for the correct code is held (easy to view with Multiface or emulator debugger). It wouldn't take much hacking to put any two letters there so you could generate all combinations needed for a cheat sheet. Might be interesting to see how it worked out... :-)

Si

Dave Batty · March 2007

I've got an Elite lenslok in a drawer upstairs somewhere which i never use, you can have it for the price of postage if you want it PM me!

obo · March 2007

thx1138 wrote: »

Not much point in doing it, but I wondered, would it be possible, for someone with a working lenslok, to plot on graph paper the shapes and the corresponding letters and numbers, and eventually build up a complete list?

I've just realised this would only work if you printed onto transparent sheets, and only included the left strips on the left sheet and the right on the right sheet. You'd then have to overlap the patterns of each to find the matching combined image.

Maybe not so easy to try out after all, but it is still technically possible. It might be better just to train your brain at guessing it, as that often worked for me within the 3 tries. There were always certain characters that were easy to spot, and you could look at the proportions of the rest to make a reasonable guess.

Si

Rainbird Rich · March 2007

Yes, I can recommend that web site as well! ;-)

zx128k wrote: »

More info about Lenslok can be found here...

http://www.birdsanctuary.co.uk/sanct/s_lenslok.php

There's even a Lenslok emulator for Windows by Simon Owen.
Can be found at his homepage:

http://simonowen.com/

maxhall · March 2007

Cheers guyz, interesting read for sure.
Think i may have located a spare lenslock from this forum, hopefully that will cure the problem and off i go into space!
All the best
Max.

Elite Lenslock

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