Running Games Without DVD in Drive

Nilrem

gonzo127 wrote: »

steam and rebuy the game might be an option if tis only a few games

That's pretty much the reason almost every game I've bought in the last 3-5 years has been on Steam - no discs*, no mucking around and no problem reinstalling on new machines (it helps I've generally been on the VM biggest cable package, when my games drive died a couple of years back I downloaded about 200gb over a couple of days from Steam).


*Well sometimes I've bought the retail version of a Steam game because it was cheaper, but still downloaded rather than disc installed (it's as fast/faster to download than use the disc in many cases for me).

Dave_C_2

<rant>
Once again the honest buyer is being penalised because of DRM/Copy protection. If you illegally download the game then you don't need a disk in the drive. But if you legally buy the game then they insist on a CD/DVD being in the drive.

Copy protection is fair enough on new games, I can understand that this will slightly reduce piracy. But the game producers could easily put out a No-DVD patch for older superseded games after a year or so. For example Tomb Raider Anniversary, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Bioshock and so on.
</rant>

As per post number 2, try Googling for Bioshock Nodvd (obviously change the game name). Always scan any downloaded files with Malware bytes or AV product of your choice just to be on the safe side.

Dave

-TangleFoot-

gonzo127 wrote: »

steam

Other places to look in addition to the above:

• GOG.com
• GamersGate UK

prowla

I used to use a program that would make an image of a disk that could be mounted as a drive.

[STRIKE]Unfortunately I don't remember its name.[/STRIKE] Correction - I googled, and it's called Magic.

It is a missing feature of Windows that you can't mount an iso image as a drive in the OS. (You can in Linux.)

johnnyboyrebel

As mentioned above, you just need to rip the disc to your pc then you have the files which you could them mount onto the pc with no drive. It will most likely be an .iso. With that you install Daemon Tools (on the pc with no drive) then open the iso in that. That loads up as if you have put a disc in.

To rip it, just use DVD Decrypter. If there is any security on the disc then it doesn't matter as DVD Decrypter will bypass that entirely.

Of course you then need some way of getting your iso onto your other pc so use a USB or upload to the cloud (or anywhere online) Bit of hassle I guess but gotta be worth it to keep the kids happy

Mondez

DVD Decrypter works for video DVD's (and even then not some new ones), not games. Some older games can be copied correctly by the likes of nero, alcohol or CloneCD, but not all and you have to jump through some hoops to have some games not freak out that you are using image mounting software such as using rootkit techniques to hide the software from the game. Easier just to find one of those modifed nocd executables for the version you are running.

LincolnshireYokel

Dave_C wrote: »

<rant>
Once again the honest buyer is being penalised because of DRM/Copy protection. If you illegally download the game then you don't need a disk in the drive. But if you legally buy the game then they insist on a CD/DVD being in the drive.

Copy protection is fair enough on new games, I can understand that this will slightly reduce piracy. But the game producers could easily put out a No-DVD patch for older superseded games after a year or so. For example Tomb Raider Anniversary, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Bioshock and so on.
</rant>

As per post number 2, try Googling for Bioshock Nodvd (obviously change the game name). Always scan any downloaded files with Malware bytes or AV product of your choice just to be on the safe side.

Dave

The fact is that most people who torrent for copies of games of music for free wouldn't have bough them anyway, so the proposition that the music or games makers loses £xxx million from pirating is in fact complete nonsense. In fact theres been studies, and practical experiments that shows allowing free copies to circulate boosts sales, because of the greater market exposure.

There are several ways to get round DRM and anticopy technologies, but most involve finding a patch or patched copy of the game, or a key, or a key generator, which all involve torrenting for it, and you need to have considerable defences up on the PC because such torrents are highly likely to contain malware, and some of the more nasty malware at that, so its not something for the technically illiterate to attempts.

I have a PC with three hard drives, two of them bootable and mirror images of each other and the third a data drive, I use to torrent on. In the event of the malware warning going off, i can immediately restart, switch boot in the bios, and reboot on the other drive, and clean the first drive whilst its boot is offline, which is by far and away the most effective way to demalware a drive.. The data drive also has images of both the boot drives, so i can even format and reimage to clear an infected drive. This method I have arrived at after years of torrenting and several major malware disasters, including one virus that totally destroyed the data AND FORMAT on a 240 Gb HDD in under 20 minutes.

But unless you are seriously geared up to handle nasties as above, i wouldn't recommend anyone casually tries torrenting for no-cd patches or keygens, its playing with fire, PC wise.

Dave_C_2

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

But unless you are seriously geared up to handle nasties as above, I wouldn't recommend anyone casually tries torrenting for no-cd patches or keygens, its playing with fire, PC wise.

This was the point of my rant. Surely it's in the game companies' interest to release a safe no-cd patch for games to stop users going to dubious web sites. This will encourage legal buying.

Some games do play without a disc right from the start (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
and Far Cry if I remember correctly). Also 2K games removed the appalling DRM restrictions on Bioshock. So the will is there in the industry, just that some of the big players don't want to do it.

Dave

Mista_C

Dave_C wrote: »

This was the point of my rant. Surely it's in the game companies' interest to release a safe no-cd patch for games to stop users going to dubious web sites. This will encourage legal buying.

Some games do play without a disc right from the start (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
and Far Cry if I remember correctly). Also 2K games removed the appalling DRM restrictions on Bioshock. So the will is there in the industry, just that some of the big players don't want to do it.

Dave

I'm not really a gamer these days but I do like the occasional half hour on the older GTA games. I lost (missing, scratched, etc) most of the media during a move but the games were still installed on my PC. I certainly wasn't buying them again so I went off to find myself some No-CD patches instead.

If companies charged a couple of quid for supplying a No-CD patch it would still benefit them and for many consumers it could be an acceptable alternative to re-purchasing the games. I wouldn't mind paying £1.99, the price of an iPod app, for some reminiscing.

-TangleFoot-

Mista_C wrote: »

I do like the occasional half hour on the older GTA games.

These ones?