The Aegis Shield
The super synergy effect also served as clear pressure on Yoo Jae-won to meet the December 10 deadline. Beyond that, Electronic Arts issued a press release announcing the distribution agreement with ID Technology for Keyboard Warrior. Although the contract fee was not disclosed, word had already spread through industry circles. The story was big enough that anyone reading the newspaper would know about it. As a result, Korean correspondents based in the United States quickly identified ID Technology and Keyboard Warrior and wired the news back home.
For several days, the Seoul branch where Choi Kang-wook worked was thrown into chaos. Reporters seeking confirmation mixed with those wanting detailed interviews, turning the office into a marketplace frenzy. What they all wanted was an interview with Yoo Jae-won. Fortunately, Choi Kang-wook and Robert Halley handled everything in front of the cameras, fiercely guarding Yoo Jae-won’s personal information so that no swarm of journalists descended on Deokjin-ri’s Naeo Village.
While the outside world erupted over Yoo Jae-won’s massive success, the man at the center of it all remained focused on school and continued working nonstop on the complete version of Keyboard Warrior. His already rapid development pace accelerated even further under intense concentration. He needed to finish by December 10, yet it looked like everything would be done by mid-November. Even then, the work would not truly end. If anything, completing the anti-piracy technology—potentially more important than Keyboard Warrior itself—was the real task. Originally planned for a 1992 or 1993 release, the technology’s launch had been moved up significantly.
Of course, no copy-protection method is perfect. Unless a game requires constant internet access like modern multiplayer titles, even the 21st century offers no complete solution. Still, holding off hackers for several years would be more than effective.
“Hmm. What should I call it?”
Yoo Jae-won stared at the keyboard, deep in thought for several minutes. After a few more minutes of deliberation, he reached a conclusion.
“There really isn’t a better name than Aegis Shield.”
The difficulty had never been in implementing the technology. The challenge was finding the right name. According to the original master plan, it was supposed to be called SecureROM. By 1993, floppy disks would be phased out in favor of CD-ROMs, so he had planned to combine “ROM” with “security” to create the name. But with the schedule advanced by four years, the situation had changed. At present, CDs and CD-ROMs were primarily used for music rather than data storage, and even that market was still struggling against cassette tapes. Since the CD-ROM era had not yet arrived, using the name SecureROM was impossible.
On the other hand, the name Aegis was already widely recognized. When the Soviet Union realized it could never match U.S. Navy carrier battle groups with surface ships alone, it developed tactics involving hundreds of supersonic anti-ship missiles launched simultaneously from bombers and fighters. In response, the United States began developing technology to intercept every single one of those missiles, giving birth to the Aegis fleet air-defense system. Thanks to that, the divine shield of Greek mythology had been reborn as a symbol of cutting-edge modern technology. It was the perfect name for the copy-protection system Yoo Jae-won intended to create.
The fact that he could afford to worry about the name at all was because the core technology developed for CD-ROMs could be applied directly to floppy disks as well. The essence of anti-piracy protection lay in clearly distinguishing originals from copies. Yoo Jae-won could achieve this by combining hardware characteristics with advanced cryptography. Both CDs and floppy disks shared the ability to store more data than their official capacity—an overburn technique. Standard CD capacity was 650 MB, while 2D floppies held 360 KB. Even with such vast differences in media capacity, overburning allowed CDs to reach 700 MB and 2D floppies to exceed 400 KB. Unlike flash memory in the 21st century, which fills up completely, floppy disks and CDs retained unused space. Early storage technology had been prone to errors, so manufacturers left generous margins; now, in a more mature stage, those areas were simply wasted.
Yoo Jae-won planned to embed a unique mark in that space and have the program read it every time it launched to verify whether the copy was genuine. That marked region would be the SecureROM.
“I’ll have to write a dedicated format file.”
He had no intention of accessing that space in any half-baked way. The current DOS file system was FAT, which locked 2D floppies at exactly 360 KB, making anything beyond that inaccessible. Overburning 2D floppies was only possible on specialized systems, and even that technology would not appear until the late 1990s. To make it work now, he needed a method that remained compatible with DOS FAT while creating a hidden area. For Yoo Jae-won, this was no problem. Even if the operating system did not support it, he had already mastered precise hardware control through assembly language in his previous life. Since existing operating systems like DOS or UNIX could not access the hidden region, no amount of disk copying would ever duplicate the SecureROM.
Creating this expanded space alone would provide differentiation, but SecureROM did not stop there. Inside the expanded area, he intended to store the complete hash data of the original file. Hash data was specialized for preventing tampering. As long as the original file remained intact, verification would always produce the same value. If a hacker attempted to crack and forge the file, a different value would appear. By comparing hash values, the system could determine whether a file was original or had been tampered with.
The greatest advantage of SecureROM was that a single physical floppy disk could distinguish genuine copies from counterfeits. There would be no need to inconvenience legitimate users with passwords or other measures that only affected them. At this point in time, it was a copy-protection system that, like the shield of Aegis, could not be breached by any attack.
“Well, it’s not without drawbacks.”
In places like computer labs where many machines were gathered, a single original could be passed around and run on multiple computers. Still, compared to mass distributors of pirated copies, this was a minor issue. Furthermore, requiring frequent disk access during gameplay for verification would solve the problem easily. Another drawback was that applying the technology required completely reformatting the floppy. Yoo Jae-won would have to format the disks using a special file containing the format method he had written directly in assembly language. Once formatted, an all-in-one format file would automatically generate the Keyboard Warrior-exclusive SecureROM, so there would be no extra hassle.
While Yoo Jae-won poured his efforts into Keyboard Warrior and Aegis Shield, ID Technology continued to run smoothly. Following Yoo Jae-won’s instructions, the Remington team completed technical support and investment in id Software, acquiring a 50.1% stake for $10,000. It was a bargain. Yet John Carmack and his friends welcomed the deal with open arms. Their entire capital had consisted of $3,000 pooled from their wages at Softdisk plus another $3,000 invested by a man named Miller who had recognized their talent. With the additional $10,000, they could now purchase all the equipment needed for game development and receive proper salaries while working. Moreover, the contract explicitly stated non-interference in game development and promised full hardware support, including scrolling technology.
Choi Kang-wook at the Seoul branch was also working diligently. He checked the progress of Ribbon Interface patent applications in the United States and Europe and began stock investments. He opened an account in the company’s name at Daishin Securities near the office and purchased shares. The stock Yoo Jae-won had specifically pointed out was, of course, Daishin Securities itself. He bought 100 million won worth of Daishin Securities stock at the counter. It was only natural that the employee handling customers was shocked. One hundred million won was a sum even the teller rarely saw. Moreover, purchasing the entire amount in one go caused the stock price, which had been falling toward the 12,000-won range, to suddenly stabilize.
What was even more surprising was that ID Technology possessed both the will and the financial capacity for additional purchases. Payments from Korean conglomerates were steadily arriving, and $165,000 in U.S. dollars had come in from America. Originally it had been $175,000, but the amount had decreased after investing $10,000 in id Software. After subtracting the 100 million won dividend and taxes, the roughly 300 million won in cash would all be directed into stock investments. Choi Kang-wook had promised Yoo Jae-won that the buying would continue until late spring of the following year, in May. After the teller confirmed the purchase was complete and Choi Kang-wook reviewed the transaction statement, he wondered whether this would turn out to be a complete loss or another massive success.
Several more days passed, and it was now late November. Yoo Jae-won sent the completed U.S. version of Keyboard Warrior, protected by Aegis Shield, to Electronic Arts via international air courier and finally let out a sigh of relief. Electronic Arts would test whether piracy was still possible, and if they were satisfied with the Aegis system, they would send the data and files needed for mass production of Keyboard Warrior over the internet.
As the farming off-season began, a small change appeared in the peaceful daily life of Naeo Village in Deokjin-ri. It was brought about by a single impressive car entering the village. The vehicle glided in and came to a stop in the central clearing. An outsider stepped out from the driver’s seat.