ComputerGame requires CD -- how to make it a no-CD game?

[signal]

Recently, I purchased a comp game. I don't know why I did it... havent't played any games for years. The game requires that the CD be in the comp every time you play it. This is really annoying (since I have a laptop) and I would not have bought the game had I known this.

Well, I found a possible solution: gamecopyworld.com.

This website has "cracked" exe's of the games that do not require the CD to be in the drive, but this can be potentially dangerous.

So basically my question is what to do???? Is there another solution?

Is there a way to scan the exe to make sure it's safe?

By the way, I downloaded it to another comp and scanned it with Macafee and it said "no viruses".

Any advice on what I can do to verify that the exe is safe?

thanks to any one that can help.

[CORed]

Using the cracked .exe's is risky. They may have viruses spyware, or a keylogger, even if they don't show up on a scan. It is also possibly illegal. The current US copyright laws make circumventing copy protection illegal, even if you are not otherwise violating anybody's copyright. Of course, the probability of getting caught and sued or prosecuted for this is minimal. However, I would still advise against using the cracked game, unless you are prepared to reformat/reinstall if it turns out to have malware.

I would suggest that you complain bitterly to the game publisher and demand a refund (you probably won't get it). Requiring the CD to use the game that you lawfully purchased is BS. Not telling you that it is required is even worse.

[signal]

Thanks for the reply.

As far as illegality goes: it states that reverse engineering or using reverse engineered software is against the TOC. There probably are a host of other inscrutable laws that outlaw this activity too. But, since I paid for the game I have no moral dilemmas in this situation.

I agree that the whole CD thing is BS. I think it states that the CD is required to play in the manual, but it does no good to the man in the store reading the box.

I guess I will just put up with the annoyance or not play at all. When I talked with people who regularly play games on the comp, they seemed to assume that most games require the CD in the drive so I wouldn't be surprised if this is the status quo these days.

[blinden84]

Do you have a large HD? you can get Alcohol and make an image of the game and use it to virtually mount the image.

[signal]

I have 40 Gb free and 60Gb total.

I've heard of alcohol before & will look into this more. Is this easy to do?

[jschaud]

anyone ever try looking around in the registry for a check CD key or something like that. i seem to remember a guy in college that could do this in like 5 minutes. its probably a whole lot more difficult these days though.

btw, dont try this unless you know what you are doing.

[Shroomy]

As blinden84 suggested.

Make an image of the CD using any cd burning software (recordnow, nero etc.)

use alcohol or the free microsoft one ...
Microsoft Virtual CD ROM

[jdog1999]

I would use ISO recorder its free.
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm
and Daemon tools its free for personal use
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php

Copy the cd to ISO and setup daemon tools to auto load.

[signal]

Thanks Jdog & Shroomy and others:


Finally, I have gotten this to work and I just wanted to write back & say what I did to get things to work in case some one has a similar problem in the future & searches for a post on how to solve this problem.

Here is what I did:

1. Download Alcohol 120 & Daemon Tools
2. Make image of CD that is required in drive, using Alcohol 120 & I used slowest dump rate and set it for the type of protection that was used.

There are online databases that supply this sort of information regarding games, etc. In my instance, the protection was Safedisc v4.6. Alcohol 120 did not have Safedisc 4.6 option, but I used Safedisc 2/3 & it worked. But make sure you use the slowest speed, otherwise it might not work (this is what I experienced).

3. Close Alcohol. Remove CD that was imaged from drive.
4. Open Daemon Tools.

--
5. (optional) Disable all optical CD/DVD drives from windows xp device manager... withSafedisc it won't work unless you do. Just enable them after you're finished.
--

6. Mount image file you created using daemon tools.
7. Launch application normally, et voila, you can use it without the CD in the drive.

Drawbacks: you have a large image file on your HD & you must enable/disable devices....

* I tried another thing: make a mini-image. Either I did not do it correctly or it does not work for Safedisc; however, the full image seemed to work decently.

If anyone needs advice in the future, PM & I will help if possible; but it is not too difficult if you can find useful on-line references.