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Little cut-out holes that revealed specific numbers or characters depending on how the wheels were aligned. The Ritual of Entry

In the mid-1990s, software piracy was rampant due to the proliferation of floppy disk drives, CD burners (emerging), and BBS (Bulletin Board System) culture. Publishers responded with various forms of “physical Digital Rights Management (DRM).” One common method was the —requiring the user to enter a specific word from a specific page of the manual. More sophisticated was the code wheel (or “decoder wheel”): a rotating paper device that generated unique codes.

Using the code wheel was a straightforward but crucial step during the game's startup. When the game prompted for a code (e.g., ), the player would follow these steps:

If you are a fan of 90s RPGs or are exploring early localization, ensuring you have access to a digital version of this wheel is essential to experiencing Knights of Xentar .

The Knights of Xentar code wheel was precisely this type of analog DRM. It was an essential component for playing the diskette version of the game. The game manual explicitly states: "make sure you have the Xentar CODE WHEEL, described in the section CODE WHEEL. You need the code wheel to play the diskette version".

The (or decoder wheel) was included in the game’s physical box. When the game asked a question (e.g., "What is the 3rd symbol on page 12 of the manual?" ), you had to align the wheel to get an answer.