When 40-Year-Old Tech Stands Between You and Progress
Imagine stumbling upon a piece of software so ancient, it required hardware older than most modern programmers to run. That's exactly the scenario we recently found ourselves in: an epic quest into software archaeology, culminating in a showdown with a copy protection dongle dating back four decades!
A Journey into Legacy: The RPG Accounting System
Our adventure began assisting a friend's accounting firm. For an astonishing forty years, they'd been tethered to an incredibly legacy software package. The software itself was built using RPG ("Report Program Generator") – a programming language so venerable, it predates COBOL! Originally designed for IBM midrange computers like the System/3 and AS/400, RPG found its way to MS-DOS, enabling these robust business tools to run on personal computers.
The firm's setup? A Windows 98 machine (yes, in recent memory!) running the RPG software within a DOS console. And here's the kicker: this critical software demanded a special hardware dongle connected to the computer's parallel port to even launch.
The Elusive Protector: A Dongle from Another Era
Hardware dongles were a common, albeit frustrating, method for "enterprise" software vendors to safeguard their intellectual property. Our particular dongle was a mystery, its label worn and scratched over decades of faithful service. Yet, crucial clues emerged upon closer inspection:
- The words "Stamford, CT" hinting at its origin.
- A probable logo for "Software Security Inc.", a company with a sparse digital footprint, primarily found in early 90s SIGGRAPH exhibitor lists and patent filings for software protection.
- The prominent word "RUNTIME," a key piece of the puzzle for understanding its function.
The First Step: Digital Preservation
Before diving into the intricate world of reverse engineering, the immediate priority was to create a full disk image of the Windows 98 PC. This crucial step ensured the preservation of the legacy system's state, providing a stable baseline for our further investigations and emulation efforts. The battle against technological antiquity had just begun!
