Matrix Games Forums

Hi,

I bought Korsun when it came out and I would really like to play it, but my problem is, that I can only use my Laptop for playing it and it only has an external CD-Rom Drive.

Since I will not carry around this thing only to play Korsun, I still have not tried the game. It is my understanding, that Korsun needs to have the CD in the drive all the time to play it and that the CD is copy-protected, so it is not possible to use a Virtual-CD-Rom Software, is this correct?

I don't want to start a discussion about copy protections in general (since Matrixgames obviously has decided, that they think it is necessary and that we - their customers - simply have to live with it, although it hurts us sometimes more than the guys they want to fend off).

But I would really like to play the games I spent my $ 40 on and therefore ask, if someone has a solution? (And at the same time tell Matrixgames, that I will not - although I would like to - buy any of their programs, because I simply can not play them).

Thanks,

Chuck

There are atleast two answers I can think of. There might be a No-CD exe file for KP available on some site where those can be found. I've used such files earlier with other games and they are usually ok. You just copy the new exe over the KP.exe and you dont need CD anymore.

The other one is making a CD image file of your KP CD and then making a virtual CD-ROM drive of it with software like daemon tools. That fools the programm thinking it has the CD when infact you have just copied image of it on you HD.

Thanks for your answer, but:
I was not able to find a no-CD file anywhere (and - to be honest - I feel somewhat strange, when I have to search for these kind of files after paying $ 40 for the game) and it is not possible to create a Image file because of the copy-protection (at least not with the software I use and I tried several different ones - CloneCD and VirtualCD. Maybe that has to do with the CD-Drive I am using, because I have heard, that the succes of "imaging" a protected CD depends heavily on the drive you are using.

So, it looks like I have to wait for a No-CD file or find someone, who is able to vreat an image of the Korsun CD.

Chuck

Chuck B. wrote:(and - to be honest - I feel somewhat strange, when I have to search for these kind of files after paying $ 40 for the game)
Chuck

Unfortunately ALL games require the CD.

If you buy 3 games then CD swapping becomes a part of life. I intend my next computer to have 5 CD ROM drives to stop the CD swapping.

Is this your first ever computer game?
-

>> Is this your first ever computer game?
No, I bought my first game in 1982 ...
And I can still remember the time between games being to large for 1-4 Floppy Disks and the widespread use of CD-Roms when all you had to do was to install all the games on your huge Hard-Drive (40 MB) and just play them ...

It is not true, that all games require CDs. There are some companies out there that do not want to participate in the race between copy-protection and their breach and / or don't want their customers to handle multiple CDs just to play a game (although I have to admit, that they are quite rare).

Chuck

Joe 98 wrote:Unfortunately ALL games require the CD.

If you buy 3 games then CD swapping becomes a part of life.

Speak for yourself... I loathe it, and use cracks whenever they are available (which is usually). Quite apart from the annoyance of disk-swapping (which is particularly irritating on a laptop, as the whole point of them is that you don't have to carry a load of other clobber about with you) CDs are far from the bomb-proof technology they were once stated to be, and IMHO once the game is installed they belong safely in their box. I buy all my games, and I can't say using cracks or a virtual drive to circumvent such annoyances troubles my conscience unduly.

Hertston wrote: I buy all my games, and I can't say using cracks or a virtual drive to circumvent such annoyances troubles my conscience unduly.

I'd say if it bothers your conscience at all there is something wrong with your conscience. It's your game after all.

Actually you own the CD. You also own the label printed on the CD. But the data on the CD is owned by the copyright holder.

Dumb but true.

I saw a program at Best Buy called "GameDrive" which purports to create virtual cd drives--up to 23 of them. Farstone.com is their site. Don't know if this will work for you or not. It was about $20, as I recall. I support copy protection, but I had to return the Shogun expansion pack a while back 'cause it wasn't compatible with the brand of cd drive I had at the time... Hope the state of the art has gotten better since then... But it is not fair that asian nations can close the technology gap by ripping off our software and stamping out cd's like pennies... (End of rant....)

I admit that I too use cracks if possible to run all programs that require a cd - this whether I bought the program or am 'ermmm' borrowing it. I hate swpaaing cd's.

On the other hand I can understand a company using cd copy protection. Finding and using a crack may be easy to some of us but for most would probably protect the material I think.

Brubaker

The first thing I do when I buy a game is go to gamecopyworld to get a no-cd executable.

As I stated on usenet a couple of weeks ago, the best copy protection a wargame can have is having a printed manual instead of a pdf file.

Figuring out KP and HPS games without a manual? Fogeddaboudit.

Ozie wrote:I'd say if it bothers your conscience at all there is something wrong with your conscience. It's your game after all.

You'd be surprised. I recall one of the moderators on the Ghost Recon boards - some folks read daily from the Qu'ran or the Bible, but I think this bloke read the EULA every night before bedtime !

That's a very good point on manuals. I don't know what you get in the States, the UK version just has the "players guide" tutorials (although the cover says "User Manual"). In fairness they are very good tutorials and it's a great help having them in paper form, but the same is just as true of the reference material in the main manual. A printed manual makes so much difference, as anyone who got the US version of Airborne Assault will know. I guess at the end of the day, printed manuals are just too expensive if small producers like Matrix want to compete with other games on price. I would happily pay extra for a decent printed manual (remember the days when ALL wargames had printed manuals ?) , but I've no idea if that's a majority opinion.

>>> But it is not fair that asian nations can close the technology gap by ripping off our software and stamping out cd's like pennies... (End of rant....)

I don't think that these guys can be fend off with copy-protection ...

In fact, there is no such thing as a "copy-protection", merely "copy-deceleration". And this time, with Korsun, it works against me and everyone who would like to play this game on a laptop.

I am sure, that there will be a "no-cd" file for Korsun in the future, so we just have to wait ... (which is sad enough).

The result for me is the following: Never buy a new game, before a "no-cd" file is available (I am not sure, that this result will make the game companies happy, but hey - I didn't ask for copy protection ...)

Chuck

I personally find it curious that this is now the most active KP thread.

Chuck buy a new laptop buddy or stick your CD drive in your bag - it goes next to the equally cumbersome power source also of immense use in playing wargames by laptop for longer than 20 minutes. The CD itself is a thin thing, won't take up much space.