List of anti-piracy traps in Drillimation games

"Sorry bub, but it appears to be you are playing a hacked version of the game. This may be a pirated copy, as you may experience things that might not appear in a legal copy of the game."

- Official notice

This is a complete list of anti-piracy traps programmed within Drillimation games. Piracy has been an ongoing issue as long as video games were around for, and some clever developers have hidden anti-piracy traps within their games. Some notable developers, including Insomniac Games, Ubisoft, and Bohemia Interactive have planted these traps in-game.

Overview
Whenever a pirated version of a Drillimation game is started, one of the game's characters will show up and tell the player the following message:


 * Hi, I'm (person name)! Welcome to the full version of (game name)! Sorry bub, but this is actually a pirated version of the game. We knew you could get away with this. My parents wouldn't notice that! It's okay, though, I think I'll let it slide this time. I would've done the same. After all, games are expensive. I understand that you're not choosing to pay the price for them. Even more expensive is your computer or game console. But it's not any value to you. If you can't afford to buy this game, you couldn't afford to save a life or your machine.

In arcade versions of Drillimation games, the following warning language is used when starting up the machine:

North America

 * FBI Anti-Piracy Warning


 * This game is licensed only for non-commercial use in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Any sales, exports, or operation outside this territory, as well as any public performance, other use, or copying any part of it is strictly prohibited by international trademark and copyright treaties and may subject the violator(s) to severe penalties and prosecution to the full extent of the law.


 * Criminal copyright infringement without monetary gain is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and/or a fine of $250,000.


 * The contents of this game are protected by international copyright and trademark treaties. All rights are reserved to Namco/Drillimation.

Europe and Australia

 * FBI Anti-Piracy Warning


 * This game is licensed only for non-commercial use in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. All other rights are reserved by Namco/Drillimation. Any unauthorized sales, exports, or operation outside these territories, as well as public performance, other use, or copying any of this game's contents, may give rise to civil and/or criminal liability punishable by fine and/or imprisonment.


 * International copyright and trademark treaties protect copyrighted computer software, video games, and other programs. For more information, contact your local law enforcement agency.

Island of Sally

 * Bihez raqewnya rav nìk tup commercial use, mexew than playthroughu, television fegenilewqu as eqæ raqewnya conventionu. Gel denelu nat reserved es Drillimation.


 * This game is not for commercial use, other than playthroughs, television broadcast and at game conventions. All rights are reserved to Drillimation.

Appearance
For the first two generations of the series, the warnings were put on black backgrounds. Games that were made in the Driller Engine 1 Era use the Emulogic typeface, while games made in the Driller Engine 2 Era use the Chicago typeface. Games made in the Driller Engine 3 Era and beyond have their own background and typeface, depending on the theme for the game.

Driller Engine 2 Era
"Any kid who's watched Star Trigon or Lucky Star in the 1980s and 1990s were able to do this. I can't even imagine what it would be like for an adult."

- Susumu Takajima, during his copy protection interview in El Kadsre Gaming

Any game that was ported to MS-DOS, Windows, Macintosh, or TSUG usually had to have players answer trivia questions about the Drillimation anime or the game itself. Drillimation thought this would be easy for children to answer, but this prompted a negative response from adult players since they didn't care about the anime (this was exceptional for "brony" players). Some questions included out-of-date references, which drastically affected players if played today. For example, one question read "Reimu Hakurei has...", and one incorrect answer was "black hair" when the answer was "purple hair". As of today, this could be skipped if the player pushes Alt+F10 during installation.