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lordkg:start

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LORDKG

LORDKG makes the five registration codes that LORDCFG asks for when you register Legend of the Red Dragon 4.07 (the 2009 patch shows itself as “4.08 Beta”). The codes depend only on the sysop name and the BBS name.

The current version is 1.0 (8 November 2026).

Why it exists

Gameport sold the LORD 4.07 registrations, but it has been unreachable for many years. Michael Preslar, the author of LORD 4.07, hasn't been able to contact them either. No one has been able to buy a code for more than ten years, so a sysop running 4.07 today has no other way to register it.

What's in the zip

File What it is
LORDKG.EXE The DOS program: any PC from an 8086 up, DOSBox, dosemu or FreeDOS
LORDKG.PY The Python 3 version, for Linux, Windows and macOS (no extra modules)
LORDKG.PAS The Free Pascal source of LORDKG.EXE
LORDKG.TXT The manual
FILE_ID.DIZ File description
COPYING The GNU General Public License, version 2

Both programs give the same codes.

Using it

Run it with no parameters and it asks for the two names:

C:\LORD> LORDKG
 Sysop name -> Seth Able
 BBS name   -> The Red Dragon BBS

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
 Regcode #1 -> 48302
 Regcode #2 -> 60389
 Regcode #3 -> 1187
 Regcode #4 -> 6944
 Regcode #5 -> 1480
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Or give the names on the command line, in quotes if they have spaces:

LORDKG "Seth Able" "The Red Dragon BBS"
python3 lordkg.py "Seth Able" "The Red Dragon BBS"

If your shell or BBS menu can't pass quotes, use /U and an underscore for each space: LORDKG /U Seth_Able The_Red_Dragon_BBS. LORDKG /? shows a short help screen.

Registering LORD

  1. Run LORDKG with your sysop name and BBS name.
  2. Run LORDCFG.EXE in the LORD folder and choose to enter the registration information.
  3. Type the two names exactly as you gave them to LORDKG, then the five codes.
  4. The LORD title screen now says REGISTERED!

The names must match character for character. Capitals and spaces change the codes, so “Seth Able” and “SETH ABLE” get different ones. Names can be up to 30 characters; LORDKG ignores anything past that.

How the codes are worked out

LORDKG uses the same calculation as an older Windows program, lord47kg.exe (author unknown), worked out from its machine code. Both names are first padded to 10 characters with A, B, C… if they are shorter.

Code How it is made
1 The sysop name's characters added up, with every second character counted 256 times. Kept to 16 bits (0-65535).
2 The same, for the BBS name.
3 Characters taken in turn from the sysop name (1st, 3rd, 5th…) and the BBS name (2nd, 4th, 6th…), added up. The shorter name is padded with the bytes 0, 1, 2… to the longer length.
4 Half of each sysop name character (rounded down), added up, then doubled once for each space or capital letter A-Z in the padded name, at most 4 times.
5 Half of each BBS name character (rounded down), added up, kept to 16 bits, then doubled.

The Python and Pascal versions were checked against each other on 4,913 random and edge-case name pairs, and the DOS build in DOSBox. Both also give the sample codes that came with lord47kg.exe (sysop / bbs: 45788 29601 846 7216 782).

Building LORDKG.EXE

With the Free Pascal 3.2.2 i8086 cross compiler for the msdos target:

ppcross8086 -Tmsdos -WmLarge -O2 -XX -Xs LORDKG.PAS

The same source builds with ordinary Free Pascal for Linux or Windows: fpc -O2 LORDKG.PAS.

Downloads

From https://retro.theiguru.au/lordkg/, or the Heisenbergs Files area on the BBS: LORDKG10.ZIP.

Licence

LORDKG is Copyright (C) 2026 Michael Slater. It is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or (at your option) any later version, and comes with no warranty.

Legend of the Red Dragon is by Seth Robinson (up to 4.06) and Michael Preslar (4.07). LORDKG has no connection with Gameport or with the authors of LORD.

See also: Version history, LORD FP, LORD Server.

lordkg/start.1794150950.txt.gz · Last modified: by 127.0.0.1