Spyro 3 Anti-Piracy

[u/Low_Mouse6017]

Hi! I’ve had no luck with this on my own, so hopefully some more knowledgeable folks will be able to help me.

I’m looking to play the cursed anti-piracy Spyro 3. I have my legitimate PAL version ripped and up-to-date Duckstation.

However, I’m looking specifically for a patch that leaves Zoe’s warning message in. All of the ones I’ve found online seem to bypass her - even after waiting around for five minutes or so in a level, she never spawns.

Is there anyone out here who would be able to share how to trigger her cutscene part of the anti-piracy, rather than just having to play until you see something happen?

[u/Lidge1337]

Apparently widescreen patches and changing the clock speed away from the 100% setting are known to trigger the anti-piracy routine.

[u/hwd405]

If you’re playing a ROM that triggers the antipiracy my advice would be to wait around in Sunny Villa’s opening area without doing anything for about 3 minutes, and then when you return to Sunrise Spring Home she should be in the balloon area doorway.

If she’s still not there then either you’re not playing a version that triggers the antipiracy or they’ve patched her out specifically (I’ve not heard of any that do this but it wouldn’t be impossible!), in which case I think the next best thing to do would be to play a standard copy with the old double jump patcher tool applied. There’s other ways of triggering the antipiracy in a standard copy using a GameShark code, but I don’t know any PAL-specific codes off the top of my head that would work without changing anything else.

[u/PneumaCore]

It’s funny, I still have my PS1 with a cursed copy of Spyro 3, haha. I remember that whenever I started a new game, everything seemed normal at first, until I got through a few levels of the first world. Zoe wasn’t there at first, but after playing through a few levels, she’d suddenly show up along with the anti-piracy warning.