I'm confused - Virtual CD apps

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 4:00 pm

So here is what I don't get. I understand that virtual CD apps are something of grey area (at least I think they are) - in the sense that if the app is capable of cracking the copy protection of a game to allow me to not need the CD, obviously distribution of the image file enables piracy.

I get that part. But I also get the part about me not wanting to lug around 300 CDs to play all the games I have installed (I'm using the word "play" loosely - that usually translates to "install, watch intro and never run again unless I need it for a multiplayer LAN event" - but that is neither here nor there). So I seek the happy middle ground, which for me is an app that would let me create these images (which sounds a lot like "my ground").

For almost a year, I've used Virtual Drive Pro (version 8), which worked smashingly at the time, but most games released in 2004 (and every game released by Eidos going back to the original Thief) don't work.

My question is this. The newer version of Virtual Drive Pro alleges that it works with SecureROM 5 (which seems to be the common thread among the games I have that don't work). Does anyone use version 9 of either Virtual Drive or Game Drive? Have you found that it resolves a lot of the compatibility issues?

I see that they have an upgrade offer that will get me the whole VD9 suite for $15. And I see that they have a 30-day trial for me to test with. So maybe this post wasn't very useful after all.

Also - does anyone know whether or not these apps work with DVD-based games?

Eduardo X · Post by **Eduardo X** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 4:08 pm

I don't know why you'd pay for one of these things when there is Daemon Tools.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 4:20 pm

Eduardo X wrote:I don't know why you'd pay for one of these things when there is Daemon Tools.

Because I like to pay for things?

Oh - that and I didn't know about Daemon Tools when I bought Virtual Drive last year.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 5:56 pm

I use Alcohol 120% to mount images and play without the cd in. It also speeds up loading of lvls.

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 6:00 pm

I tried to review GameDrive once, but I tried several different games with it and it didn't work with any of them. Since creating the ISOs was time consuming (making it all the more annoying when it didn't work) I gave up on the concept and never went back.

Sith

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:10 am

Personally, I'd rather seek out No-CD cracks (or make my own) than waste the harddrive space needed for the cd images. I'm betting it's just as legal or illegal as mounting an image to a fake drive.

Though I suppose your image could count as your "one backup copy" which is entirely legal (as far as I know), while the no-cd might not be.

Ah..I'm not up to speed on legalities.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:17 am

Kyosho wrote:Personally, I'd rather seek out No-CD cracks (or make my own) than waste the harddrive space needed for the cd images. I'm betting it's just as legal or illegal as mounting an image to a fake drive.

What else am I going to use my 3/4 of a terabyte of storage space for?

I don't want to go the no-cd crack route, because I don't want to monkey with the binaries. GameDrive 9 alleges that it cracks SecureROM 5.xxx, and says that version 9.03 works with Thief III.

My tests say that it does not. Thief III barfs when it detects that you have emulation software running.

Irritating.

godhugh · Post by **godhugh** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:19 am

Like Daehawk, I use Alcohol 120%. It's worked with every game I've bough, including a bunch of newer ones (Vampire: Bloodlines, Rome: Total War, Sims 2 DVD, etc...). Instead of buying a new version of Virtual Drive I'd switch to Alcohol.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:24 am

I prefere to just install and crack 90% of my games - it is just simpler to replace one file than to futz around with a second application. For the rest (some games without cracks, games with hordes of FMV on the disk, etc), I rip with Alcohol and mount with Daemon.

ignar · Post by **ignar** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:48 pm

Another vote for alcohol. Used since FantomCD days, and it works reliably.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 2:30 pm

The trouble with cracks is that some games now days reconize them and gimp your game. Like X2 made you bleed money is you used one.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 4:03 pm

I agree that cracks are not reliable, and often not up to date.

For instance, my "travel" game is Civ 3. For various reasons, I do not want to have to pull out the CD drive (separate) for my laptop AND look for the game CD when I am sitting in the middle of the middle row in coach (in this respect Civ 2 was so so nice).

Anyhoo, I looked for and downloaded a no CD crack to overcome this annoying problem, but did not find one that supported the latest Civ 3 version.

In this one case, I decided to try it anyway, and it broke several functions of the game.

I am one of those freaks who HAS to have their game running with the latest version (same with drivers)...or I would almost rather not play it (crazy, no?), so this completely turned me off.

I think I will try Alcohol as well - but I think I read somewhere that if some programs detect Alchohol installed, they will not run?

Anyone run into that problem?

godhugh · Post by **godhugh** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 4:33 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote: I think I will try Alcohol as well - but I think I read somewhere that if some programs detect Alchohol installed, they will not run?

Anyone run into that problem?

Not yet, I haven't. I've heard the same thing but have seen no first-hand proof that it exists.

Eduardo X · Post by **Eduardo X** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 4:45 pm

Doom 3 wouldn't run for me with a few different programs installed, but I couldn't pinpoint if it was CloneCD, Alcohol (I only had a demo of it) or Daemon. I ended up having to uninstall them all.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 6:25 pm

I refuse to buy games that wont install because of other software on my system so could'nt say.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:45 pm

godhugh wrote:Like Daehawk, I use Alcohol 120%. It's worked with every game I've bough, including a bunch of newer ones (Vampire: Bloodlines, Rome: Total War, Sims 2 DVD, etc...). Instead of buying a new version of Virtual Drive I'd switch to Alcohol.

Virtual Drive works with all of those - including Doom 3. So far it doesn't seem to work with *any* game from Eidos, Star Wars Battlefront, or Chronicles of Riddick.

I give up. I'll put the damn CD in.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 2:04 am

Eduardo X wrote:Doom 3 wouldn't run for me with a few different programs installed, but I couldn't pinpoint if it was CloneCD, Alcohol (I only had a demo of it) or Daemon. I ended up having to uninstall them all.

I had the same problem with Doom 3 -- it was CloneCD. Quite annoying. I spent nearly 2 days trying to figure out what was wrong, until I found help online.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:01 pm

So is the concensus that Alcohol is probably going to cause the least amount of "game x won't play because it's installed" problems?

I don't want to shell out $60 for it only to not be able to play my fav games.

It's crap like this that makes me like Steam (puts on flame retardant suit).

Auto patches your games (see previous posts about my being freakishly anal about having to always have the latest patch before playing a game), and no FRICKIN CDs required.

pengo · Post by **pengo** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 2:02 am

You don't have to pay for alcohol, but you can

Anyway they offer a demo version, download that and try it out.

Otherwise try Daemon Tools. It allows you to type in your own name for the virtual cd/dvd drive(r). So that hopefully game protection don't pickup its uninstalled (other than removing it from your add/remove list).

Regards

Scanner · Post by **Scanner** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 3:03 am

Dump Virtual Drive Pro.

Right now, Alcohol120 and Daemon-tools are the state of the art.

croman · Post by **croman** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 1:29 pm

I also use Alcohol, works great

U2K Tha Greate$t · Post by **U2K Tha Greate$t** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 2:46 am

Well my cd-rom drive is acting better, for how long, who knows?

I need to know how to make some no cd patchs, i know people say its illegal, but i aint lying about having over 300 damn pc games , real cds.

I dont know how a virtual drive works, so thats why i wanna make me some no cd patchs. I dont like 120, and D-Tools sucks. I think i might check out softdisc.

and still ask around on how to make no cd patchs.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 12:18 pm

You don't normally 'make' no-cd patches, unless you know how to reverse engineer and reprogram a game executable. There are groups out there that do this as sort of a hobby - an illegal hobby, but a hobby anyway.

There are a few sites, however, that store stacks of already created no-cd cracks for us programming-ignernt end users. www.gamecopyworld.com and www.megagames.com are two that can be linked here, have most of the cracks, and are reliable - I have yet to receive a virus, trojan, or piece of spyware from either site after several years and hundreds of cracks. If you get one from elsewhere, be very, very cautious.

Just be aware that each version of the game (each new patch) requires a new crack, and these are sometimes released long, long after the patch. For lesser known games, they are sometimes never released. You'll also have to have an 'unaltered' copy of the game executable - the .exe file that runs the game - before you'll be able to apply new patches, so make sure you back yours up before patching.

It isn't as complicated as I make it sound - just find out what patch version of a game you are running (IE - 1.10), go to one of the sites above, get the crack for that version, go to your install directory and make a copy/paste of your game's .exe for a backup, then follow the instructions included with the patch. The instructions are in the .nfo file; just open it with notepad. Normally, the crack will just be a new .exe file that you replace your normal one with, although sometimes it will be more complicated.