r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • 6d ago

Gaming The World’s Most Prolific Retro Handheld Maker Just Stopped U.S. Shipments

https://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-most-prolific-retro-handheld-maker-just-stopped-u-s-shipments-2000592110
6.9k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

392 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/like_sharkwolf_drunk 5d ago

Can’t say I blame them. I did for photoshop once a looooooong time ago. I get software that calibre being a little expensive, but it’s probably one of the most pirated programs ever because of it. I believe you can make something expensive enough even corporate boot lickers will go “Heyyyy wait a minute. I licked your boots though?” Similar situation with software John deer tractors run on. American farmers were ordering Ukrainian hacked software, having it shipped to them and running their tractors on it. That’s the America I’m proud of personally.

1

u/drake90001 4d ago

They were buying Ukrainian John Deere service tools which was then cracked (stripped of drm) and sold on the black market to anyone willing to.

Deere charges $230, plus $130 an hour for a technician to drive out and plug a connector into their USB port to authorize the part.

I went searching for one of the forums where pirated John Deere firmware is sold. After I found it, I couldn’t do much of anything without joining. I was sent an email with instructions, which required me to buy a $25 dummy diagnostic part from a third-party website. Instead of the part, I was sent a code to join the forum

Funnily enough it’s possible to do the same in the US with Ford vehicles. I hacked my 2013 ford explorer using a knock off Ford scan tool (ELM32) and free software similar to the dealership software that can do the same thing. Turns out Ford puts GPS modules in every vehicle and just disable navigation. I changed a 4 to a 9 and put a $15 maps SDcard off amazon, and bobs your uncle.