That’s what I call copy protection (not that it would work now).
I had a copy
I had a copy too – didn’t everyone? – but managed to snag a copy of the maps and stuff. I remember you’d to “hop”, “clap” and “say ‘kweepa'” at various points in the tunnels to avoid being eaten. No way you’d just guess that.
Lurking Horror was the one that legged me up. There’s a computer in the room you start in, the password to log in is on a ‘student ID card’ in the packaging. Without it you could play a chunk of the game but there was a bit you couldn’t complete. I spent months playing that bloody thing without knowing this. Never did finish it, that should probably be my entry on this thread.
Sierra pulled it a couple of times too. One of the Police Quests, there’s a section where you’ve to arrest a drunk driver. Tried every command under the sun without success; the game manual tells you you’ve to “administer fst” (field sobriety test). And King’s Quest… III I think, came with a spell book containing recipe ingredients, without that you can’t get very far at all.
I kinda miss the days where an incentive to actually buying a game was all the bundled ephemera that came with it. These days you’d be paying a huge premium for the ‘collector’s edition’.