1.02 No CD Fix?

[RSColonel_131st]

Before I get flamed...I'm not a pirate or somefink. You can test me by asking questions about the CD Design, Manual Quotes, whatever you please - I have the real deal, bought in shop from CDV.

But, my usual gaming evening involves BF1942 (yeah, yeah, arcade...but fun) and CM. Trough constant switching of CD's I almost scratched the CM Disk once when I dropped it. No CD means the good stuff can stay in the DVD Package and goes unharmed.

I wonder, nowadays, of the CD-in-Drive Check is really usefull anymore, anyway.

[Quintus]

This is pretty much my position... although in my case it's the whole 'switching CMBO and CMBB CDs' that is the issue.

Love the games, don't want to wreck the CD's but can't copy them for safety's sake.

(although, as CDV told me, it IS possible to copy the CDV CMBB, I just don't know how).

Shame you can't get a 'game only' CD (lacks all installation files) or something like that by sending in your manual cover. It COULD be open to abuse by pirate types but they'd be pirates who'd sent in a mailing address and (say) a five dollar cover charge AND they'd have to have access to a genuine copy of the game to set up in the first place.

Just a thought.

[edgars]

I have (a legal) Mac CMBB and I have made a disk image – an exact copy of CD – of CMBB. It's sitting on my hard disc, when i want to play, i simply double click the disc image icon, and it mounts in a matter of seconds.

The CD drive is free, so i can play some music, and original disc is safe and protected, lying in the drawer.

EDIT: I wonder if you can do the same on a PC?

[ February 14, 2003, 06:07 AM: Message edited by: edgars ]

[Other Means]

while my attitude to piracy in general is pretty {ahem} unformed, my attitude towards privacy of BTS stuff is unforgiving.

you know these are 4 guys who are just trying to make a living & supply us with the stuff we want to play. they're not M$ or Sony or EEE AAAAH SPORTS (anyone else replace their intrusive intro movie with a blank file?).

saying that, replacing CD's all the time is a pain. this utility

http://www.virtualcd-online.com/

may help. i've not tried it myself as i've not had time (new house - even CMBB's a stretch).

tell me if it works.

cheers. i'll try to use less brackets next time.

[hardcampa]

As edgar says you use a "Virtual CD manager" of some sort, this will work on PC as well.

I just tried to create a copy of my original CD with "Virtual CD" for PC. It works.

It seems as game companies in general release a no CD patch together with a normal patch after the game has sold enough. Otherwise (if you don't select to find a NO-CD crack) this is a good option to keep the original CD safe.

[ February 14, 2003, 06:42 AM: Message edited by: hardcampa ]

[Hortlund]

While I do understand the need for a CD check, it can get pretty damn frustrating when the CD (or my CD player) starts to screw up.

I havent been able to play CMBB for two days because my damn computer wont find the damn game disc. It becomes hopelessly frustrating when you insert the game disc, click on the .exe file and get a "please insert CMBB into drive E:" message.

And I know I'm screwed because

a) I wont go to pirate sites and look for a no-CD patch (I doubt there would be one there anyway with 1.02 and all)

The game is sold out in Sweden, its hopelessly hard to track down a new copy of the game, and besides I really should not have to buy a new copy just because the disc is damaged or whatever.

c) I wont mail my disc to CDV or wherever, because I think I can get the game to work roughly 1 in 10 times, and that sure beats waiting for months for a replacement disc from CDV.

It pisses me off though.

[Redwolf]

The original poster wanted to play a CDV version.

From previous reports the CDV version doesn't work with virtual CD because of their "advanced" copy protection, compared to the BFC version.

Just stack up on CD drives.

[HijackGMH]

I use VirtualCD and have no trouble running CMBB, CMBO, and a third program without any switching. My original CDs sit safely on the shelf.

[RSColonel_131st]

I take it advanved copy protection also means I can't make a copy to waste?

Well, maybe I'll keep 1.01 then for now.

[Other Means]

if you're updating to 1.02 with the download patch then upgrading won't change anything. it's the way the CD tracks are written that is the copy protection.

anyone have any joy with virtual cd, the euro version & XP?

[Quintus]

if you're updating to 1.02 with the download patch then upgrading won't change anything. it's the way the CD tracks are written that is the copy protection.

I did try making a copy of my CMBB disk and the CD 'burned' okay. However, the copy wouldn't run on my '98 machine. On a whim, I tried it on a windows 2000 machine instead and it ran... However, when the 1.01 patch was installed, the copy no longer worked.

I am guessing therefore that there is some 'property' of the original CD that the 1.01 exe is programmed to look for and that this quality is not copied by my CD copying software (win-on-CD and Nero).

I'd much rather find a legitimate way around this than rely on the l33t sk1lz of some hax0r or whatever.

[Soddball]

Originally posted by Leutnant Hortlund:

While I do understand the need for a CD check, it can get pretty damn frustrating when the CD (or my CD player) starts to screw up.

I havent been able to play CMBB for two days because my damn computer wont find the damn game disc. It becomes hopelessly frustrating when you insert the game disc, click on the .exe file and get a "please insert CMBB into drive E:" message.

And I know I'm screwed because

a) I wont go to pirate sites and look for a no-CD patch (I doubt there would be one there anyway with 1.02 and all)

The game is sold out in Sweden, its hopelessly hard to track down a new copy of the game, and besides I really should not have to buy a new copy just because the disc is damaged or whatever.

c) I wont mail my disc to CDV or wherever, because I think I can get the game to work roughly 1 in 10 times, and that sure beats waiting for months for a replacement disc from CDV.

It pisses me off though.

That sounds more like a CD player issue than a CMBB issue to me. What happens when you try (*gasp*) something other than CM:BB in the drive?

[Hortlund]

Originally posted by Soddball:

That sounds more like a CD player issue than a CMBB issue to me. What happens when you try (*gasp*) something other than CM:BB in the drive?

No, see that is the weird part. When I try other CDs they work just fine. I've tried to clean my CMBB CD, but it doesnt do any difference. Every time I try to start CMBB its like my CD player gets second thoughts...first I can hear it speed up *vrooom* then it just goes quiet and the CMBB screen just sits there...nothing happens, and I have to ctrl+alt+del out of there. If I click again on the cmbb icon I get the "insert your f**king broken CD into your Romanian-quality piece of crap soon-to-be-ex-CDplayer."

As I said...frustrating...

[Soddball]

Wierd. I had the same thing happen to my CM:BO CD - in the end I just changed the player for a DVD player and haven't had problems since.

[Captain Mike]

The solution is Virtual CD 4.5 !

It works with Windows XP, the CDV-version of CMBB and Patch 1.02. No problems at all!

Mac rulez!

[Other Means]

something other than CMBB? steady on.

i'm no expert on these things. or many other, most...nearly every...BUT: it does sound like the CD has a special track on it, which the .exe looks for. it won't be taken over by nero causing the exe to hang.

if virtual cd takes this over then it's a smart utility.

[Bone_Vulture]

Originally posted by Leutnant Hortlund:

...first I can hear it speed up *vrooom* then it just goes quiet and the CMBB screen just sits there...nothing happens, and I have to ctrl+alt+del out of there. If I click again on the cmbb icon I get the "insert your f**king broken CD into your Romanian-quality piece of crap soon-to-be-ex-CDplayer."

That happens to me often when I attempt to play movie DVD's. I've found a rather odd, but usually working solution. Launch any program that has an "eject disc" button, like the CD player. Use this button to open/close the drive without touching the actual button on the drive's front panel.

Beats the hell out of me what's so special about it, but the DVD's usually function after this trick!

But if you're truly unlucky, your drive's a similar lemon as my very first 4x CD-ROM drive. It made sounds similar to scraping a cinderblock when attempting to read CD's, and obviously failed to read over 60% of them. :mad:

[Battlefront.com]

RSColonel

I wonder, nowadays, of the CD-in-Drive Check is really usefull anymore, anyway.

Yes, it is very useful. True hacker/pirates can get around any form of copy protection, sooner rather than later. However, thankfully the vast majority of gamers out there are fairly unsophisticated. Heck, some of them can barely get the games they buy to run What has been termed "casual copying" is the most common form of copying, so anything that takes a bite out of that is worth it to us. And yes... people can copy CDs for their buddies, but when we are talking about a niche game this becomes much less of a thought. Quake or Starcraft would be easy to locate at a friend's house, but Combat Mission? Unfortunately for us, not as likely

We strongly discourage no-CD hacks because it is primarily designed for people who wish to bypass our basic form of copy protection. So until someone comes out with a viable (and affordable) method of copy protection, or manages to end software piracy, we will continue to require CDs in the drive for the forseeable future.

Steve

P.S. Locking this up because it really isn't a conversation we want to encourage her for what should be obvious reasons.