PC games "backup" newbie...

[Winston001]

Umm......I'm a little frustrated for my son who misplaces his games cds but we can't copy them and the games won't play without the cd.

Now I'm aware in a vague way of ClonyXL? and Daemon Tools - (in fact I have Daemon), but have no idea how to use this software. And despite googling any advice I've come across already assumes more knowledge that I've got......

Any suggestions?

[Dargor]

Get a no-cd .exe for the game.

[The Pastor]

just run a brute force on the back door while uploading the windows-ram crack. Its pretty easy, although if that doesnt work just try haxing the internets.

[Winston001]

Get a no-cd .exe for the game.

Yeah I understand that up to a point but I've never looked at game files and aren't sure how to do that. Or maybe I misunderstand. I have the idea that I need to replace a line of code in the game........?

[Cajun]

i go to megagames.com

get a no cd crack

which pretty much you over the the start exe file in the install directory with the one you download, so in turn it will not ask you for the cd at startup or such

[Romeo]

AS LONG AS YOU OWN THE LEGITIMATE PHYSICAL MEDIA

1) It is entirely legal to make an .ISO (an "Image" - which is a 700-ish MB file) of a CD/DVD and then store it on your computer. You can either use the 30 day trial of <a href="http://www.free-downloads.net/programs/Alcohol_120_">Alcohol 120%</a> or the OpenSource <a href="http://www.cdburnerxp.se/download.php">CDBurnerXP</a> to do this. You can then burn these ISOs to a blank CD/DVD so you have a backup copy.

2) It's also legal to "mount" an ISO "image" inside your computer using <a href="http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php">Daemon Tools</a>. Mounting means that you add a "Virtual CD-rom drive" inside your computer, and the computer will treat this exactly as if it were a real one. So, you mount your game backup ISO File on this Virtual CD-rom drive and the game will run perfectly, without the need for a no-cd crack.


Alternatively, you could just go to <a href="http://gamecopyworld.com/">GameCopyWorld</a> and get yourself a No-CD crack. But sometimes that messes with the game, say, if it's an online game some anti-cheat software will pick it up as a hack and ban your hardware.


Failing that, just do what Renegade Master says - that's probably the most efficient method.

[jrandom]

'CloneCD', by SlySoft (http://www.slysoft.com/en/), will create images of almost any protected game CD which can be stored on hard disk and loaded via their Virtual CloneDrive utility, allowing the protected game to run. It's well worth the US$39 licence fee.

It's always worked for me with the sole exception of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, which uses 'Starforce' copy protection. That's some evil shiznit.

Games which use other more common and less invasive copy protection systems should be easily imaged by CloneCD.

[The Lone Rider]

You know the easiest solution is buy him one of those CD cases like the Laser cd wallet boxes.

[Fub@r]

If you use the no-cd exe method keep a backup copy of your original exe file just in case the no-cd one doesn't work.

Images work well, I have used them for years and never had a kick or ban because of it. Download an image from Gamecopyworld or alike, these images can be really small like a few megabytes compared with an image you make of a few 100 megabytes if not more.

Using an image you will also find the game will load faster as it doesn;t have to wait for the cd/dvd to spin up.

Only restriction with an image is I don't think Vista allows programs like Daemon Tools, I could be wrong

[Lias]

People pay for software in this day and age?

Thats so so depressing.. they need to start teaching piracy 101 at night classes or something.

[geek]

Images work well, I have used them for years and never had a kick or ban because of it. Download an image from Gamecopyworld or alike, these images can be really small like a few megabytes compared with an image you make of a few 100 megabytes if not more.


That is special cracked disk images. They are an "image" of the original disk but dont contain the same information. Normal images contain all the same data and file size.

[Dargor]

People pay for software in this day and age?
Well someone has to, there wouldnt be much of a industry if they didnt,
but yea, $100 for a game that costs $3 print is WAY too expensive.

[jrandom]

People pay for software in this day and age?

Fuck you, sunshine. If they didn't, I'd be flipping burgers at Mickey D's for a living.

The trick is to find a market and design software such that, all things considered, the majority (or at least a minority sufficient to generate profit) of users find it more efficient to pay your licence fee than to bother with a crack.

[jrandom]

$100 for a game that costs $3 print is WAY too expensive.

Come visit me at my office sometime and I'll show you some of what goes into writing software. It's a long and expensive process, with huge risk - all the cost goes in up front, and then you have to chuck your product out there and hope like hell that your bet, sweat and tears were right, and it's worth money to someone.

So please try not to be an idiot on the subject. I find it depressing.

[Lias]

Fuck you, sunshine. If they didn't, I'd be flipping burgers at Mickey D's for a living.

The trick is to find a market and design software such that, all things considered, the majority (or at least a minority sufficient to generate profit) of users find it more efficient to pay your licence fee than to bother with a crack.

I'd imagine your target market is almost certainly businesses rather than home individuals.

Should a business run legit software? Sure. Should a home user pay $100 to find out that the latest uber hyped game is utter shite? No. Or should they have to pay the outrageous fees that get charged for things like photoshop, office, or even humble old winblows. I'm told that the full price all the goodies versions of vista are up around a thousand bucks.. Fuck you very much microsoft..

[jrandom]

I'd imagine your target market is almost certainly businesses rather than home individuals.

Yup.


home user...

Agreed.

Still. Hard call to make, really. Do MS squeeze the market too hard? Not if you define 'too hard' in purely capitalist terms. When they start losing money, they're squeezing too hard.

I have difficulty finding the emotional energy to care either way, though.

[Dargor]

Come visit me at my office sometime and I'll show you some of what goes into writing software. It's a long and expensive process, with huge risk - all the cost goes in up front, and then you have to chuck your product out there and hope like hell that your bet, sweat and tears were right, and it's worth money to someone.

Opps, typo, "$3 TO print", i ment, to burn the cd and put it on a shelf. I didn't want to say anything about the total cost. I know it a lot more than that.

Maybe if you got rid of those annoying things in games people would pay more, like the need to have the cd in to play, people are going to crack it anyway. Stop wasting money on that.

When you make the illegal alternative easier/better piracy is what you get. mp3's are a prime example of this, it applies you games as well.

Honestly how can you think $100 is a good price, most games are targeted at a young audience who don't earn that kind of money.
Im sure you would get more money if you released at a more reasonable price. We want to support you but.. not that much.

And what if the games shit. nobody want to spend $100 to discover a shit game. Demos only go so far, and are never an accurate representation of the full gaming experience.

Maybe i would come and visit you but i think i might have a bit of trouble finding Norse mythology land http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niflheim

Is that trying not to be an idot enough for you.