Laserlock/Laserlok

General Information

Ring based disc protection from MLS LaserLock based out of Greece, though found on discs from all over Europe. Comes in 3 versions "Standard", "Star" and "Marathon" each succeeding the other.

Discs with the DRM has been found from the mid 90s all the way to the late 2000s.

Identification

Discs carry what looks to be a physical ring either at the start or the end of the disc. Though what sets Laserlock apart from other Ringed DRMs is the fact that what looks like a single ring, are actually 12-22 smaller rings bunched close together and sometimes mixed in with EDC errors. The rings are associated with a single hidden dummy files called Laserlok.in or Laserlok.out depending on where they are located. The file itself housed in a folder called "Laserlok".

No game with Laserlock Star has been found (Possibly, see additional info) but Marathon was introduced in 2003 and has been seen on both CDs and DVDs. Unlike standard Laserlock rings are always found at the edge and feature the full 22 rings.

Unlike most ringed DRM, Laserlock is not tied to a single plant as MLS LaserLock licensed it out quite extensively. Sometimes "Laserlock" is written in the mastering code and sometimes a Laserlock string can also be found in the PVD as well. But this is no rule.

Dumping

Follow the Ringed Disc Dumping Guide. Unlike many other ring based protections there is a rough method to tell exactly how large each ring is.

Using https://redump.info/disc/78564/ as an example.

2099-2176
2474-2551
2849-2926
3224-3301
3599-3676
3974-4051
4274-4351
4574-4651
4874-4951
5174-5251
5549-5626
6224-6301

Notice how each ring starts on either a 4 or 9 and ends on either a 6 or 1? This is known as a Laserlock pattern and is believed to be an artefact of the mastering process for these discs. Finding it using our current dumping methods takes a lot of time though. And it is currently not something we ask of dumpers. Note to that this does not apply for Marathon.

Additional information

[https://redump.info/disc/128068/ A single laserlock disc) has been found that does not use Rings in favor of a bad sector scheme that most closely resembles CodeLok_/_CopyLok. This might represent Laserlock Star but this is unconfirmed and until more research is done, these discs can only be dumped using a Kreon flashed TS-H353B/SH-D163B.