Original version of Barbarian II for Commodore Amiga was released with a virus
In the 80s and 90s the main concern of those who used pirated computer software was being able to find a virus inside it that could damage the machine and infect other software in their possession. It was unlike to find a virus in the original software, as it was obviously virus free, or at least in theory. It is known that an original Commodore Amiga video game was mistakenly put on sale with a dangerous virus inside.
The video game is Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax, published by Palace Software for various computers since 1988, including the Commodore Amiga. It is the sequel to Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior and has as its protagonist a barbarian who must explore a volcanic territory and dungeons, facing monstrous creatures.
It received mostly good reviews from critics of its day, both for looks and playability. He also stood out for his good dose of violence.
However, I almost ignore the fact that some original copies of Barbarian II for Commodore Amiga were put on the market infected with the Lamer Exeterminator virus version 2. The Games Machine magazine in issue 12 warned readers of this danger precisely in the review of the game.
The notice reported:
Attention! Palace reports that unfortunately some original copies of Barbarian II have been infected with the Lamer Exeterminator.
You can examine your copy using the VirusX3.2 that you will easily find in almost all Italian BBS, and in any case it is a program in the public domain (note: very few people accessed the BBS at the time).
However, the virus cannot be eliminated, because if you try to do it in disk one, you are going to ruin the protection of the game and thus you will not be able to run the game anymore.
When you load the game, therefore, always remember to TURN OFF THE AMIGA for 30 seconds before loading any other game, to avoid bad infections.
Recall that the Lamer Exterminator is a virus that unfortunately destroys files and is therefore very dangerous.
Abroad the discs are replaced, but in Italy we do not yet know what will happen because at the time of going to press we could not find the importers (note: in reality there was no useful information at least publicly).
However do not worry, there are very few infected copies, and if you take the precaution of turning off the Amiga you will never have problems (note: maybe they weren't that few as there are several rom images of the game with this virus).
A situation therefore bordering on the absurd, especially since in Italy no one knew anything about it, let alone who they could turn to to have the infected copy changed, in addition to a possible disaster that could cause the spread of the virus in the collection of an unsuspecting user.
But what was this virus? It was a virus created to target LAMERs, a word that at the time was a symptom of a loser and that was also attributed to those who used pirated software, therefore non-original games and programs, copied or downloaded from the BBS of the time.
The Amiga Magazine number 9 of January 1990 tells us about it, which in the same issue reviews Barbarian 2 but without indicating the possibility that it could contain this danger, which however is specifically described in a separate article that talks about the viruses of the time, evidently with the belief that all copies had been withdrawn, but that was not the case.
Here's what the vintage article says:
Particular attention deserves the "Lamer Exterminator" of which there are several versions. As the name implies (the term "lamers" "indicates the people who collect pirated software), this virus, in the intentions of the authors, should have destroyed pirate discs.
Unfortunately, given the difficulty of identifying it, it has damaged the discs of many programmers even within some well-known Software Houses (the news is recent that the first copies of Barbarian II placed on the market have been hastily withdrawn because they are infected with this virus).
This has created considerable economic damage that can only be recovered with an increase in prices.
Not happy with the damage created so far, the authors of "Lamer" have created a new virus called "Revenge of Lamer Exterminator" fully clarified. The sure thing is that it does not just damage some DATA-BLOCKS, but tries to format the disk entirely.
Lamer Exterminator is the most complex and deadly virus to appear on the Amiga. It is always installed in memory at different points (randomly established).
It is rewritten in the BOOT-BLOCK of the disks in an encrypted manner and with each new infection the encryption key changes. It has an internal counter and after two times the computer is reset or after having infected three disks, it randomly chooses a DATA-BLOCK of the disk and fills it with the word “LAMER”.
This was the explanation of the article of the time, and in total of official versions of the "Lamer Exterminator" 8 came out. According to the website of the Amiga virus encyclopedia, the damages could be varied beyond the infection on various media, and ranged from locking and resetting the computer to a situation in which the virus destroys the data blocks by overwriting them 84 times with the string 'LAMER!', causing read / write errors on the affected storage media. This causes file system corruption and data loss, which is unrecoverable.
The message that left the sequel of this virus, called Revenge Of The Lamer Exterminator, which appeared on the Amiga before destroying a disk is interesting:
I realized that the person using the computer is a LAMER (*) (loser).
We, who are responsible for the "Revenge Of The LAMER EXTERMINATOR" Virus, believe that only intelligent people are suitable for the use of the AMIGA Personal Computer.
Since you apparently weren't smart enough to prevent this virus from getting your computer and software (you should have used a condom), we have to assume that you are a LAMER (aka LOSER) and therefore we had no alternative but erase your floppy disks, to get your attention.
We look forward to the first Amiga magazine that explains the inner workings of this ingenious (or so we think) virus.
However, we are not very confident, since the three versions of the original "LAMER EXTERMINATOR" virus have never been properly analyzed in any Amiga magazine.
We have made this virus a little more aggressive so that more people recognize it and hopefully they will learn something to overcome the terrible disease of LAMERism.
By the way, the A in LAMER is pronounced like the A in DAY (in our experience LAMER people don't know English correctly).
Signed:
Foundation for the extermination of LAMERS. (**)
(*) You can recognize a LAMER or a LOSER as someone who can only use the Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga keys on his Amiga, and may also know how to load X-Copy ...
(**) Due to the primitive and violent nature of some LAMERS, we have decided not to reveal our real identity, in order to avoid unnecessary visits to the hospital on our part!
Coming soon in a cinema near you:
*** The LAMER Slayer - A New Beginning ***
- Press a mouse button to continue being a LAMER -
(after that the disk was destroyed, and if it was write protected after 6 attempts of infection it would reset the machine)
This notice accompanied the review of Barbarian 2 on The Games Machine
