Pick'n Pile (Mac OS Classic)

Pick'n Pile
Also known as: Pick'n'Pile Developer: Atreid Concept Publisher: Ubi Soft Platform: Mac OS Classic Released in EU: 1991 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden developer credits.

Pick'n Pile is a column-stacking puzzle game played with balls that act like Boulder Dash boulders.

Copy Protection Decoy

It wasn't unheard of for Mac games to store their copy protection passwords as plaintext strings in the resource fork, where even the most novice of hackers could find them. In this game, they'd find only two lines of interest among the STR#s: "dCOY" and "512". This clue points to dCOY resource 512, "Code wheel comp.", which consists of some backwards text with "†Nu" where the spaces should go.

Decoded, the text reads:

You've been HAD buster ! These are not the codes...If you wanna be a pirate you'll have to try harder than this.

Hidden Credits

Hold down Option when choosing About from the Apple menu to read some scrolling credits in French.

Original

Translated

Pick'n'Pile Macintosh v1.0 De L.N. Bossavit pour Atreid Concept & UBI Soft Entertainment Software. D'après Pick'n'Pile de N. Choukroun et M. Ancel. Ce logiciel est dédicacé à : -- Douglas Adams -- -- Douglas Hofstadter -- Et plus généralement à tous les écrivains qui ont adopté le Mac comme outil de travail... Pick'n'Pile Mac n'aurait pas vu le jour sans les conseils et les encouragements de: Nicolas, Philippe, Sophie, Michel, Gérard, Steph' et tous les habitués du 3614 HG2... Certaines parties de ce logiciel sont © Symantec Corp. puisqu'il a été réalisé grâce à l'excellent THINK C 4.0 . Merci enfin à Apple de nous avoir donné le Mac... Même à ce prix !

Pick'n'Pile Macintosh v1.0 By L.N. Bossavit for Atreid Concept & UBI Soft Entertainment Software. Based on Pick'n'Pile by N. Choukroun and M. Ancel. This software is dedicated to: -- Douglas Adams -- -- Douglas Hofstadter -- And more generally to all writers who have adopted the Mac as a working tool... Pick'n'Pile Mac wouldn't have seen the light of day without the advice and encouragement of: Nicolas, Philippe, Sophie, Michel, Gérard, Steph' and all the regulars of 3614 HG2... Portions of this software are © Symantec Corp. since it was developed with the excellent THINK C 4.0. Finally, thanks to Apple for giving us the Mac... even at this price!

3614 HG2 was a Minitel server for Mac users in France.

Unrecoverable Errors

• 

  In testing under emulation, this message recommending System 6.0.2 or later only showed up in System 4.0 and earlier. In Systems 4.1 through 6.0.1, the game would try to load but usually crash before long.

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  The one thing confirmed to set off Pick'n Pile's virus self-check is the presence of an nVIR resource, whether it's the actual nVIR virus or an empty resource you created yourself in ResEdit.

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  The alert indicating a corrupt resource is also displayed if you try to clear and then view the high scores while the application is write-protected.

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  If the game lacks the system resources to animate the whole screen, it will suggest trying an undocumented feature: on a color system, holding Option at launch will force it to use the smaller graphics meant for 512x384 displays. Holding the Option key will have the side effect of showing the secret French about box in place of the title screen.

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  Switching to a different bit depth is an immediate game over.

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  A catch-all crash handler.