Very nasty surprise.

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
What is a spawn install?

As others have mentioned, it allowed one purchased copy to allow, typically, two other computers to play the game, but only in MP mode, and only with the machine with the "master" installation hosting the game - I think they tended to use the CD as indication of which machine was the legit/master.

You might be able to do something like this for server games, but I don't see how it'd work for PBEM....

Unless ... If the CD keys are encrypted into the turn files, and all the turns are coming from the same CD key, allow the game to proceed as though it was a somewhat less limitted demo. Maybe keep the turn limit, but allowing race selection & research as normal. This has the benefit of requiring minimal changes to the program - checking the keys, and ending the game early if all keys are the same.