Saw a list of games where certain events trigger when the game detects the game is pirated and wondering how this is detected. Ex: Earthbound
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In the specific case of those old console games, there were a few ways. The biggest one was save memory on the cartridge. Pirate cartridges had writable data instead of the regular ROM chips for the game itself, and a very large chunk of save RAM for your savegames. Earthbound, among other things, would check to see how much save RAM is actually present on the cartridge. The real retail games ships with a lot less. If more save space is available than expected, it’s pirated.
The other thing was to check the game code itself, but delay the checks. Examine the code that does anti-piracy and make sure it’s intact, but you don’t check it until the first boss fight or something. Thus someone trying to break the anti-piracy code thinks the game is fine, unless they tested it that far into the game. Then they realize their job is a lot more complicated and long.
Earthbound famously had a final boss anti-piracy check that, if failed, would crash the game after wiping the savegame slots. Harsh.
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