Timber Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Hello I just wanted to ask if its okay to use "No-CD patches" if you allready bought CMAK ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 I can't speak for BFC/BTS. That said, generally 'no CD patches' are typically discouraged. Their use condones piracy or at the very least may attract more attention by pirates to make available piratable versions of the game (more demand for the patches - more likely that pirates will continue to make them). I'm aware that the CD copy-protection mechanism is a bit annoying to players, but it is one of the few inexpensive ways to discourage piracy (at least simplistic piracy). 'No CD patches' are typically tools for pirates, though I'm sure a lot of 'legitimate' users use them for convenience. The problem is that their use just encourages the pirates (who may make such patches available for various reasons). Obviously BFC/BTS can't control or dictate what you install on your computer. Most people who want the convenience download and use these tools or patches regardless. For legitimate users who already have a copy of each game that they're playing I don't think that BFC/BTS really cares a whole lot about their use by individuals. But once these are used for piracy and rob them of sales it's a different matter. People who create and distribute such patches claim user convenience, but in the end the long range result is that they encourage high rates of piracy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 Uh, BFC is requiring to have a CD in the drive that is not copy-protected in the first place. If that isn't pulling our legs I don't know. If I come home and have PBEM files for CMBO, CMBB and CMAK I can play disk jockey. The best part is that some CDV versions don't have the CD-in-drive check but if you apply the CMAK patch from BFC you re-introduce it. I'm not impressed. Other manufracturers - and even distributors of BFC - remove the CD check in the last patch they release for a given game figuring it wouldn't hurt sales too much anymore and by then there are plenty of no-CD patches anyway. Sad to see BFC doing the opposite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 Believe me if you ever had the misfortune of your CDV copy diliking your CD player you could be in for a very long wait when you booted up. Even more annoying if you had several different types of CM to play and swop in and out. I absolutely use CD patches [and apart from a single legit copy of CMBO] I have multiple legit copies of each game. All players of CM have a vested interest in getting their mates to buy legit copies as we all want CM3 : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Posted December 5, 2004 Author Share Posted December 5, 2004 Hmm.. Ok im abit confused now. So you guy's dont know if its ok to use it ?? I mean ive allready bought all the CM games available, but its so irretating to put the CD in the drive each and every time you want to play... But if its considderet illegal i certainly wont aquire the patch... Timber Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 The use of a no-CD patch is not illegal. The developent of one is, at least in the U.S. The problem is the patch might not work correctly, causing you to come back to BFC tech support with a probem caused by it, or you might fetch a virus. I don't want CD patches. I want the game not to require the CD in first place, at least a year or so after it original release. That would solve the PBEM problem with several CMs nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markl Posted December 6, 2004 Share Posted December 6, 2004 Hi, I have purchased all 3 versions of CM. In my case I will not buy a game if I can not get a No CD. I check to see if they are available first. So in my case they increase sales. They all seem to work for play against the AI. But if you PBEM I hear there are issues. The only No CD for CMBB that I have causes the "A" drive floppy to search, but appart from that all 3 games have No Cd's on the web. I will be looking for a No CD before I try Dangerous Waters as well. Most No CD users are not pirates. Look at any flight Simulator site for FS2004 and they have the No Cd's in there essential file lists. This is because the average age of the players are over 30 and they do not tolerate having to put Cd's in to play. Cheers MarkL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markl Posted December 6, 2004 Share Posted December 6, 2004 Question for RedWolf, I am thinking of giving Linux a go. Just wondering what distribution is best for a family setup including playing games etc. I will be using a NVidia card. I would like a distribution that had an easy way to change screen resolution and refresh rates. This seemed to be hard with the distro'd I have tried in the past. Also I remember having to compile the video driver that I mucked up, hopefully this is not the case any more. I hope they have Linux support in the next version of CM. Any help would be appreciated. I need a version I can get in Australia, it does not have be be free, i do not mind purchasing a distro as they are fairly cheap. Cheers MarkL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenAsJade Posted December 6, 2004 Share Posted December 6, 2004 You don't need a no-CD patch. Just get a virtual CD drive, such as Alcohol 120%, and you can have all your favourite CDs in the drive at once! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexoscar Posted December 6, 2004 Share Posted December 6, 2004 Well, if you desire to spend your hard disk space, use alcohol to set up a virtual drive. A no-CD patch is a little program that is placed in the main directory of game. The original executable file is renamed as *.BAK Of course is easier and you dont have to spend a lot of hard disk space with the virtual CD for each game you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexoscar Posted December 6, 2004 Share Posted December 6, 2004 Moreover, the last anti counterfeiting system developed by ubisoft, doesnt let you install the game if the set up program detects a virtual disk like Clone or Alcohol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 Originally posted by markl: Question for RedWolf, I am thinking of giving Linux a go. Just wondering what distribution is best for a family setup including playing games etc. I will be using a NVidia card. I would like a distribution that had an easy way to change screen resolution and refresh rates. This seemed to be hard with the distro'd I have tried in the past. Also I remember having to compile the video driver that I mucked up, hopefully this is not the case any more. Kinda off-topic, but I figure BFC won't like this thread much anyway. Easy means different things for different people. Some people want the most convinient user interface when doing work and accept a bit of annoyance in setup. Other people absolute hate setup non-smoothness and accept to spend the rest of their computing life in a hairier interface. I recommend that you first download and install Fedora Core. It is most agressive to get you the newest conviniences, and most of the GUi is extra tuned for behaving like Windows (minus crashing ). Fedora Core is a fast-moving target and sometimes they screw up a thing or two, mainly installation, especially on notebooks. The update mechanism sucks. I you hit such a case then you can decide whether you want to slug through it. If not, then you go buy the Mandrake package. Mandrake is a little less convinient to use and doesn't have some of the progress already made. However, they have first-class installation and update procedures. Mandrake is also IIRC the only distribution which allows you to shrink a NTFS partition to make room. Other distributions can only shrink FAT, so if you have NTFS you need extra tools. About the video driver, if you want hardware 3D support then you still need to download and install NVidia's driver. It works flawlessly, though. I think their license doesn't allow inclusions in Fedora Core. Without it you get fine 2D out of the box, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markl Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 Redwolf Thanks for the reply. I will try as you suggest. Shrinking the paritions is no wory as I use Partition Magic which seems to do a good job. Thanks for the advice Cheers MarkL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panzertruppe Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 Amazing! I reach over into my CD shelf,open up the cd I want,put it in the CD drive,and I play a game! Takes all of 15 seconds of my busy life! Putting a cd in your drive is to much work? Now I understand why some people have to have a cell phone shoved in their ear 24 hours a day! Thanks to those no-cd cracks, the honest gamer has to deal with crap like STARFORCE and other copy protection. Shame on you lazy bastards! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 Originally posted by Panzertruppe: Amazing! I reach over into my CD shelf,open up the cd I want,put it in the CD drive,and I play a game! Takes all of 15 seconds of my busy life! Putting a cd in your drive is to much work? For answering a PBEM move that is movie-only and possibly doesn't contain any enemy contact - yes. And I need more than 15 seconds to run over to my computer if it's in the other room. Thanks to those no-cd cracks, the honest gamer has to deal with crap like STARFORCE and other copy protection. Shame on you lazy bastards! Uh, starforce is not really any more resistent either. The net result is the honest customers get punished and the pirates have the easy life with their no-CD patches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Efraim Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 Sorry if i offend andybody, I hope not. I actually dislike copy protections. Besides, they are useless. So: [sNIP] [MOON: Edited for content] [ December 20, 2004, 09:22 AM: Message edited by: Moon ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 Nobody offended. We're not going to hunt anybody who's using no-cd patches. I think Matt is using them, too But we don't want to encourage it, because it's a slippery slope. Therefore, I am locking this (and have edited the last post by Efraim). Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts