Draft:List of video games with notable anti-piracy measures

The following is a list of games that are notable for their implementation of anti-piracy.

1980s

• Lenslok was a copy protection mechanism used in many 8-bit home computer games involving a plastic prismatic device shipped with the game that would require users to read a secret code on the screen using the glass in order to unlock the game. First used in Elite (1984), a flaw in the Lenslok was that it required a certain-sized monitor in order to read it properly, not helped by games being distributed with the wrong devices. The last game to use Lenslok was Jewels of Darkness in 1986, after which it was abandoned.

1990s

• The Amiga version of RoboCop 3 (1991) came with a special dongle that would be plugged into the controller 2 port of the computer in order to start the game, with Ocean Software claiming that it took their most expert programmers a month to crack even the first level of protection; however, the game was cracked a week before release regardless.
• The platform game Puggsy (1993) does not use battery-backed SRAM due to having a password system, but nonetheless checks the Sega Genesis cartridge for SRAM anyways. If it detects it (either due to being played on a game backup device or emulators that blindly write to SRAM), after the fifth level, the game will suddenly end and tell players to stop playing a "silly" copy.
• EarthBound (1994) has varying effects if the game detects its copy protection has been disabled. Enemy spawn rates in the overworld are increased to an enormous extent, and if the player manages to reach Gygas, the game will intentionally crash before deleting all the save files.

2000s

• Spyro: Year of the Dragon (2000), if improperly pirated, would inform the player about an hour of gameplay that they are likely playing a hacked copy and begin activating detrimental effects, from removing eggs from the player's inventory to crashing the game at the final boss. A proper dump of the game did not appear until December 2000.
• The PC version of Manhunt (2003) came with SecuROM and crack protection that went unnoticed due to a successful crack by Razor 1911, however after Rockstar Games was called out for using a cracked version of Max Payne 2 (2003) on Steam, the itself pirated version of Manhunt was replaced with a prerelease version without its crack protection disabled. This went unknown until 2023, as before then it was assumed that all the effects (such as doors locking and several other measures) were the result of compatibility issues.
• In Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (2007), the game will abruptly halt after 20 minutes of gameplay with a fake "Thank You for Playing!" screen.
• Spore (2008) used a modified version of SecuROM that would require the player to authenticate their copy every 10 days, as well as a maximum of three (later five) downloads per disc. Heavily criticized for its implementation, the SecuROM protection ultimately became useless as Spore was cracked two days before its Australian release, going on to become among the most pirated games of all-time.
• Aside from using SecuROM, the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) makes it so that any improperly cracked copy would make it so that the game's "drunk camera" (normally only used if the player got drunk) would be active after several minutes of gameplay, as well as make all vehicles drive forward regardless of player input.

2010s

• Alan Wake (2010) does not detriment the player if they're playing a cracked version; instead, the main character instead wears an eyepatch throughout the game, and the loading screens remind them to purchase a copy.
• If Serious Sam 3: BFE (2011) detects that it is a pirated copy, the game spawns am invincible variation of the Arachnoid enemy that will pursue the player through the whole game.
• Game Dev Tycoon (2012) had a cracked version released by its own developer which would seemingly function as normal, except that their game sales would be significantly lower than a normal version. Eventually, the player receives a notification that their games were being pirated, which would eventually bankrupt the company as sales continue to dwindle.
• Skullgirls (2012) will function as normal until reaching an ending, at which point the game exits to the main menu and displays the message "What is the square root of a fish? Now I'm sad." This gained significant popularity after the developers called out one pirate on Twitter.

Hoaxes

• In October 2020, a video surfaced online of alleged undocumented copy protection measures for Mario Party DS (2007) where the game suddenly throws an error screen before displaying the message "Piracy is no Party!" and an image of the characters behind bars. Despite its convincing nature, it was soon disproven to be fake shortly after the video came out, but ended up spawning a trend of fake anti-piracy screens in other games.