Entering your EV Nova registration code is still possible

In a nutshell: if you have a registration key for EV Nova and still know the moment when Ambrosia sent you this key (within an accuracy of a few days), you can still register new installs of the game if you set your computer's clock to a time just after that moment. You only need to do this for the registration, after that you can set your clock back to normal. It may be necessary to disconnect all networks to disable additional attempts of the registration app to check the time.

However, given that Ambrosia is now defunct and getting the game to run properly nowadays is a hassle, a better option is to just back the Cosmic Frontier Kickstarter campaign, and wait for the game to be finished. I'm pretty sure there will be a way to load the EVN scenario into this new game engine.

The long story:

Escape Velocity Nova, or EV Nova in short, was one of the most iconic games from the now defunct Ambrosia Software. Their website is still online at the time of this writing but buying anything would be a bad idea because their registration service is dead. Not that you would want to buy much of their catalogue because most of it is too outdated to run on modern systems.

Recently the GPU in my early 2011 MacBook Pro had self-destructed and I decided to buy a new MacBook Pro. While waiting for it to arrive, I could still use my old MBP by forcibly disabling the discrete GPU. Of course this meant I couldn't play any games needing the GPU, hence I started playing EV Nova again. Everything was fine until I finally got my new MacBook Pro and wanted to continue the storyline I was in. Two problems:

1. EV Nova simply does not work anymore in OS X Mojave. It seems some are able to run it, but for me neither copying the binary from my old MBP to the new one, nor reinstalling it and re-applying the RyuKorijo patch helped.
2. Entering my registration code in any newly installed copies was impossible because the code has expired and there is no way to obtain a new one, moreover Ambrosia's licensing server is dead anyway.

Problem 2 proved relatively easy to solve. The registration system will accept codes if they are not older than a certain number of days. This means you can still register the game if you turn back your computer's clock to e.g. 1 day after the buying date. Not sure how many days of margin one gets, but luckily I keep all my mails (and I really mean all) so I knew exactly when I had been issued my old registration code and I set the clock to 1 day after. Normally the game also does an online check of the code but that can of course be easily sabotaged by disconnecting all networks. With the Ambrosia servers offline however, even that is now unnecessary. Still, when trying it in Mac OS 9, the app seemed to somehow check the time online so I had to disconnect the network after all.

I still haven't solved problem 1 however. Others have managed to get EVN running in OS X Mojave but for some reason it keeps failing on my system. I have opened a new issue on the RyuKorijo GitHub in the hopes of getting some help. Given that there are rumours 32-bit application support will be entirely dropped in one of the upcoming major OS X updates though, trying to keep EVN running in OS X feels like a futile exercise anyway. I've tried running the game on two different platforms instead.

First in SheepShaver, because that would be the most convenient. I got the game to launch but the menu buttons lack their labels and do not work. Luckily the functions of the buttons can also be accessed by pressing certain keys: N for new pilot, O to open one, E to enter the game, P for preferences, Q to quit, and A for about (there's also an easter egg key by the way). There are some other minor problems like EVN sometimes crashing at startup and the target cursor not being visible which makes it difficult to select planets or ships. A plus however is that pilot files are interchangeable with the OS X version.

Next, in Windows 10 under Boot camp. Slightly annoying but I reboot for other games anyhow. I used all the tweaks found here and the game works, but it is only really playable in windowed mode. In full-screen the graphics are extremely jittery. I had to use these values in the resolution patcher to get the window take up almost the entire screen of my 15" MacBook Pro: 1600, 992, 1600, 800, 1280 (only the first two matter probably). A big drawback is that I can't port any pilot files from the Mac to the Windows version and there are some things off about the Windows version, like sound quality, readability of text, and the graphics are still jittery at times. And obviously it feels wrong to have to resort to Windows in order to play one of the most iconic Mac games!

In the end I prefer SheepShaver in spite of the issues it has, and I now play EVN inside it because the game just feels much smoother than in Windows and I can continue with my existing pilots. If the remaining issues in SheepShaver can be solved, I think it will end up the best long-term solution to keep playing EVN.

Update 2020/05: Cosmic Frontier: Override

A Kickstarter campaign has been launched to remake the Escape Velocity: Override game engine for modern operating systems. Although it isn't clear yet whether it will be possible to run the EV Nova scenario in this engine, playing the previous EV instalments with improved graphics and UI will become considerably easier. The kickstarter ends on Tue, May 26 2020 7:23 PM UTC, so head over to the campaign page and contribute if you want this to succeed!

Is ETCV (Ethereum Classic Vision) a scam or not?

There is quite a bit of FUD about the upcoming Ethereum fork, called Ethereum Classic Vision (exchange token ETCV) being a scam like Ethereum Nowa. This Dutch website for instance tries to give some evidence of this claim.

If ETCV is a scam indeed, the authors sure have done a lot of effort to make it less obvious than with Nowa, whose site has spelling errors and makes ridiculous claims about the forked cryptocurrency. The biggest warning light for Nowa is the procedure to supposedly obtain free ‘ETN’ (which by the way is an already existing token for Electroneum, another fact that makes Nowa extremely suspect). They outright ask you to transfer your ETH to their address and those who are even more gullible than that, can even make it worse by sending them their private keys as well. First rule of cryptocurrencies: never give anyone your private key. Second rule… never give anyone your private key!

The Classic Vision website on the other hand looks a lot more legit. It seems the ‘scam’ claims for ETCV are mainly based on two things:

1. Confusion between the supposed Nowa fork and the ETCV fork. The aforementioned article mentions some facts that appear to originate from the news about Nowa, like the photo models story. This confusion is understandable because the (supposed) dates for these two forks are only 1 day apart.
2. The idea that you are supposed to enter your ETH wallet private key to claim ETCV. There is some truth about this because there are only two ways to view an ETCV wallet on their website: either through a keystore or by directly entering the private key. Even though the latter seems to violate the First Rule, in this embryonic stage of the new currency with no third-party support yet, it makes some sense that these are the only options. Obviously the smarter option is to use the keystore but when following proper crypto hygiene, there is no risk with directly using the PK either as I will explain below.

The other suspect facts mentioned are that the website lacks certain information like the exact block number for the fork (which is true and pretty annoying), or obvious contact information for the authors. I don't know about you but in this day and age no sane person would spread all their personal details on a website. There seem to be enough contact methods albeit not very direct.

Proper Forking Hygiene

This leaves the private key issue as the only big source for concern and until I have actually seen the fork happen, I cannot tell whether this concern is warranted. It is perfectly possible they will indeed use any wallet credentials you enter on their website to plunder your ETH wallet instead of handing you free ETCV. However if you treat the fork as follows, there is zero risk of your ETH being stolen:

1. Create an entirely new ETH wallet using MyEtherWallet or a similar service. You will never use this wallet for anything else than the ETCV claim.
2. Transfer as much ETH to this wallet as you want to be replicated into 3 times the amount of ETCV (as they promise).
3. Leave the ETH on this wallet until you're certain the ETCV fork has happened.
4. Before doing anything else, withdraw all your ETH from the wallet to another wallet.
5. Now claim the ETCV using the wallet address from step 1.

If this is a true fork, what will happen is that the entire ETH chain state is duplicated into the new ETCV branch. This means any existing wallet addresses that exist for ETH at that point will also be valid wallet addresses for ETCV. Anything that happens with ETH after the fork will have no effect on the ETCV branch and vice versa because they each go entirely their own ways. Hence if you withdraw the ETH from your wallet with private key abc123, the ETCV wallet with the same private key will still contain the amount of coin that existed at the time of the fork (which in this case will be multiplied by 3). And of course if the whole thing was a scam after all and someone obtains your private key after you have emptied your ETH wallet, they cannot steal anything.

Update: It's (Most Likely) a Scam Alright!

Now the fork is supposed to have been performed, how do things look? Pretty bad:

• Their website has been suspended
• Before the site disappeared, a highly suspect prompt was added to it to ‘buy’ ETCV by sending ETH directly to a certain address. This prompt contained conflicting information that the ratio of obtained ETCV would be both 50:1 and 1:1. This looks just like a desperate attempt to grab some more ETH before their whole façade collapses.
• Their wallet site is suspended
• Their twitter account is suspended
• News articles about ETCV being a scam are popping up

Although all this is not 100% irrefutable evidence that it's a scam, let's say it is 99.9% evidence. I have to hand it to them, they were a lot more crafty than the Nowa people. They did a lot more effort to make their scheme appear legit. On BitcoinTalk they managed to gather a considerable following and it seems there still are some believers at this moment.

However, I have lost nothing because I have followed the above procedure even though I haven't executed the last step. I'll keep the wallet address just in case we are in that 0.1% and ETCV exists after all, but I don't hold my hopes up high.