Matthew writes (about how Wizardry was encrypted):
But, alas, the character files were in plaintext, and numerous people figured out how to edit them.
They were that way for two reasons: performance (they were always being read and written) and reality (it was a known plaintext situation, since the user could change his character in any manner of methods, like simply trading gold around between the characters, and thus map out the database) Encryption in those days wasn't intended to be strong; it was intended to be strong enough to hold off the pirates for the crucial first few months of sales. Given that we were pushing the machines to the limit of their performance envelopes, we couldn't take too much of a hit (time or code-wise) for strong encryption. And I think Sir-tech still replaces Apple II discs, but I am no longer involved in the company, so you'll have to call and ask them. ;^)