Last for now in the set on copy protection is Police Quest 2. I might go into some others, I dunno, and I have something planned where I optimize the hell out of the PQ2 copy protection script by means of KQ4. But let’s get down to it.

(local
  [yourAnswer 40]
)
 
(procedure (ToUpper &tmp i ch)
  (= i 0)
  (while (= ch (StrAt @yourAnswer i))
    ; If ch is between 'a' and 'z'...
    (if (and (>= ch 97) (<= ch 122))
      ; ...change it to uppercase.
      (StrAt @yourAnswer i (- ch 32))
    )
    (++ i)
  )
)
 
(instance rm701 of Rm
  (method (doit &tmp myPick)
    (= myPick (& (GetTime gtTIME_OF_DAY) 7))
    (= yourAnswer 0)
 
    (Print "TO: Detective Bonds\n
            FROM: Captain Hall\n
            SUBJECT: ID of evidence photo\n
            \n
            Please provide the LAST name of the person pictured in
            the attached evidence photo for homicide case 186751.\n
            \n
            Please respond in box below, ASAP!\n"
            #icon 701 0 myPick
            #edit @yourAnswer 20
    )
 
    (= gQuit true)
    (ToUpper)
 
    ; Like in C, StrCmp returns zero if the strings are the same.
    ; Zero is false, so we use a not to make equal be true.
    (switch myPick
      (0    (if (not (StrCmp @yourAnswer "GRANANDEZ")) (= gQuit false)))
      (1    (if (not (StrCmp @yourAnswer "SIMMS"))     (= gQuit false)))
      (2    (if (not (StrCmp @yourAnswer "TASELLI"))   (= gQuit false)))
      (3    (if (not (StrCmp @yourAnswer "COLBY"))     (= gQuit false)))
      (4    (if (not (StrCmp @yourAnswer "BAINS"))     (= gQuit false)))
      (5    (if (not (StrCmp @yourAnswer "SNIDER"))    (= gQuit false)))
      (6    (if (not (StrCmp @yourAnswer "JONES"))     (= gQuit false)))
      (else (if (not (StrCmp @yourAnswer "DICKEY"))    (= gQuit false)))
    )
    (if gQuit
      (Print "Sorry Bonds, you'll need to do better than that!")
      ; With gQuit set, we'll exit at the end of this doit cycle.
    else
      (gGame restart:)
      ; The main game object can tell if we're restarting, so it'll
      ; put us in the first playable scene instead of the title screen.
    )
  )
)

Gee, I can think of a way to improve this already. Let’s turn yourAnswer from a local to a temp, and inline ToUpper:

(method (doit &tmp myPick i ch [yourAnswer 40])
  ; ...
  (= gQuit true)
 
  (= i 0)
  (while (= ch (StrAt @yourAnswer i))
    (if (and (>= ch 97) (<= ch 122))
      (StrAt @yourAnswer i (- ch 32))
    )
    (++ i)
  )
  ; ...
)

And that’s just one improvement. It really helps that, unlike the subtitle typing in Larry 5, we only uppercase one thing once. Tune in next time to see what could be done.

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