I bought for my kids a cd with a Dora game for the pc: the dutch
version of "Dora's Dance to the Rescue" by Atari.
Because my kids are still very young (2,5 and 3,5 years old) I usualy
make images of game cds which I then mount as a separate drive. This
makes that there's no more need to change disks and makes sure the
original disks don't get damaged. I didn't follow this strategy from
the start and they already broke one game cd that I didn't make a
backup copy of. This Dora game although won't work as an image. It
detects that it's being used from a virtual drive and gives an error
message about it.
So I tried making a cd copy using Nero. But then the game complains
about not finding the original disk and won't work again. So I guess
something changed in the cd copy compared to the original disk? Is
there a way to make an exact copy of the game so that it will still
work? Maybe I need to use software other than Nero? Then I can just
put the original disk away for in case something happens to the copy.
I though everyone has the legal right to make copies of stuff you buy
for backup purposes? But what use I have for this legal right if the
copy doesn't work?
I have been searching Google and found stuff about people having the
same problem with other Atari games, but I couldn't find anything
about a working solution...
I think they should at least put a warning on the cd box that you're
unable to make a working backup of it, in that case I could notice it
in the store and would just buy another game. For me, it is to
important to be able to make an image or at least backup of it,
because one cd already got broken and that way it's just a waste of my
money.
Veerle
(No Mikey S-lickers have been able to prove ANY of the above )
(is a LIBEL -- despite Mikey claimed to have PROOF of libels!)
'
For a start, go here:
http://www.gamecopyworld.com/
http://m0001.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_dora_dance_to_the_rescue.shtml
Taking smh's tip a little further. You need a "NoCD" crack for your
game, Veerle. This you paste into the game folder. I see in this link
that the Dutch version is "greyed-out" (inactive) but have a search
around. Repost if you have no luck.
Does/did something get installed from the original CD? If so, it has
probably kept a record of the drive letter and when you try to use a virtual
CD the drive letter is different.
If that is the case you might try looking in the install folder for an ini
or cfg file; if found and drive letter is listed change it to the virtual
drive letter. Alternatively, change the virtual drive letter to that of the
install drive.
--
dadiOH
____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
--
Xandros
"Veerle" <veerl...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:f342d5af-8b04-449f...@l64g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
"Veerle" <veerl...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:f342d5af-8b04-449f...@l64g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
I deinstalled the game. Then I did a re-install from the image drive
(I don't use Nero DriveImage but PowerISO by the way, Nero is what I
used to make a cd copy). Then when I tried starting up the game
(without cd but with image still mounted) it gave me a different error
than before, something about the wrong disc being inserted. So the
suggestion Michael gave doesn't do the trick. And it also proves all
the drive letter theories wrong (dadiOH and Xandros).
Then I applied the english fix from gameworld (thanks smh and
sandy58!) by lack of a dutch fix (I tried searching for a dutch one
but it always got me back to the gameworld website). That solved the
problem. I can now play the game without the original cd and even
without the image mounted. I tried it for a few minutes and Dora still
seems to talk dutch (with the occassional english, but that's the
point) and also the few text lines I saw were still in dutch. Guess
all the language dependent info is not in the main executable (which I
replaced by the fix) but in the other files. This is exactly what I
wanted. Thanks a lot!
Less important now that I've found a good solution is to mention that
I did make a entire disc copy of the original cd using Nero. An
installation that was done with the original disc (and that was not
fixed in the way described above) does not run with the copied cd. So
either the entire disc copy doesn't make an exact copy of the cd
(probably using one of the methods described by LVTravel) Or when
installing the game some unique code of the cd is saved on the hard
disc and when starting the game the two codes are compared. I could
find that out by installing the game with the copied cd and seeing if
the game works with the copied cd then. But that will be for some
other time. My guess is that the entire disc copy doesn't make an
exact copy, because the other possibility doesn't prevent people from
making illegal copies which is what I guess that Atari is trying to
do.
Thanks again to all of you for thinking along and helping to solve the
problem!
(No Mikey S-lickers have been able to prove ANY of the above )
(is a LIBEL -- despite Mikey claimed to have PROOF of libels!)
'
If you want more than sandy58's "NoCD" solution and want to make a
working copy:
CD Backup Guides and Tutorials - Articles on BlindWrite, Alcohol
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f81/
Copy Protection Identifying Guides
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f81/copy-protection-identifying-guides-updated-may-2008-a-102273/
Blindwrite
http://www.blindwrite.com/
Alcohol 120%
http://www.alcohol-soft.com/
As often happens, my server does not get the original post, so I am
replying here, to a reply not relevant to this post.
There are many ways that a program can determine whether it is running
from an optical disc or a writable one (hard drive). For example, it can
try to write something to its root, using failure to do so as an
indicator that it's on an optical drive. There are many other schemes.
If that's what the program is doing, you can run from an image only if
you can defeat whatever is being sensed. The odds are that you cannot
even determine how the type of drive is detected let alone circumvent it.