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Lenslok, ASAP Developments Ltd., UK

The Price of Magik displaying a Lenslok pattern

Lenslok was a copy protection mechanism found in some computer games for the ZX Spectrum, and also for the Sinclair QL, 8-bit Atari, Commodore 64, MSX and Amstrad CPC. The most famous game to use it was Elite by Firebird.

The Lenslok was essentially a row of prisms arranged vertically in a plastic holder. At some points in a game, a two-letter code was displayed on the screen, but it was corrupted by being split into vertical bands which were then rearranged on screen. By viewing these bands through the Lenslok they were restored to their correct order and the code could be read and entered. The device was small enough when folded flat to fit next to an audio cassette in a standard case.

In order for the Lenslok to work correctly the displayed image had to be the correct size. This meant that before each use the software had to be calibrated to match the size of the TV screen. Additionally, the device could not be calibrated at all for very large or very small televisions – very small TV sets. So perfidiously this probably applied only to all Sinclair televisions. B-))

Software that used the Lenslok system:

ACE                           by Cascade Games Ltd
Elite                         by Firebird
Fighter Pilot                 by Digital Integration (8-bit Atari version only)
The Graphic Adventure Creator by Incentive Software  (Amstrad version only)
Jewels of Darkness            by Level 9 Computing
Moon Cresta                   by Incentive Software  (Amstrad version only)
OCP Art Studio                by Rainbird
Supercharge compiler          by Digital Precision   (Basic compiler for the Sinclair QL)
The Price of Magik            by Level 9 Computing
Tomahawk                      by Digital Integration
TT Racer                      by Digital Integration

Odds

Approx. 500 boxes of Elite were shipped with a wrong version of the Lenslok.

Lenskey

Lenskey is a Windows software which can decode the scrambled images and help playing Lenslok protected games with emulators which do not support it. See link below.

Archive

	Name		Letzte Änderung		Länge
	ACE (Cascade)/		2019-08-20 05:25		10
	Elite (Firebird)/		2019-08-20 05:25		24
	Jewels of Darkness (Rainbird)/		2019-08-22 19:21		8
	The OCP Art Studio 48k (OCP)/		2019-08-20 05:25		12
	The Price of Magik (Level 9)/		2019-08-22 19:23		10
	Tomahawk (Digital Integration)/		2019-08-20 05:25		15
	TT Racer (Digital Integration)/		2019-08-20 05:25		6
	Lenslok - Elite.jpg size: 660 × 340		2013-10-11 15:41		41556
	Lenslok - Tomahawk.jpg size: 658 × 354		2013-10-11 15:41		53910
	Lenslok for Elite.jpg size: 275 × 183		2013-10-11 15:22		10903
	Lenslok Instruction Sheet.pdf		2013-10-11 15:19		72338
	The Price of Magik.gif size: 320 × 240		2013-10-12 20:42		2308
	LensKey				99

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