Copy Protection Codes

The original DOS version of X-COM and EU had some minor copy protection in the form of codes written at the bottom of certain pages in the manual. On startup, the game would pick a random page number and asked you to enter the code found there to start the game. Some people have lost their original manuals, purchased a copy where the manual is missing or just do not like the changes made with the v 1.4 patch so they are included below.

You can also download the codes in text format.

Removing copy protection by editing

For those of you with some experience in (hex) editing the executable, you could try a direct approach instead. Simply change bytes 105,881-2 in GEOSCAPE.EXE from [83 FE] (131,254 in decimal) to [EB 07] (235,7). Don't forget to also change byte 105,897 from [74] (116 in decimal) to [EB] (235). Once this is done, all you need to do is press enter at the codes screen and you'll go directly into the game without any fuss. (Still would be nice to totally bypass this screen all together, but we can't have everything in life). Many thanks to Marco Kaiser for indirectly pointing this out!