Copying Age of Empires III (has SmarteCD Protection)

[UltraWoody]

I just purchased Age of Empires III from EB Games.

I ran A-Ray Scanner v2.0 to find out what kind of protection it has.
Apparently it contains the smarteCD protection which I understand is difficult to break through without massive read errors.

My question is: HOW can I create an image to burn from??

I know the first disc is copy protected, but the 2nd and 3rd are not.
Does anyone know how to bypass this? It's giving me one heck of a time.

Thanks to any and all replies!

[AnalCobra]

Try an image with Alcohol with the following options enabled:
ignore read errors
read subchannel
read dpm, precision: high
that must work.

[UltraWoody]

The SmarteCD War Rages On

Thanks for your help, but I couldn't get it to work.

I tried selecting the "Read Sub-Channel..." option,
I also clicked the "Ignore Fast Read Errors";
I put the precision to "High" and used DPM. No success.

There are a number of options to use while in the pre-record
phase. For example, there's SafeDisc and SafeDisc 2/3.
There's also General Protection and a bunch of others,
although there is no smarteCD option anywhere in there.

I've cracked through a lot of CD protections, and this is,
by far, the hardest protection that I've faced. I'm beginning
to think there is no way through it.

If someone has any other ideas, I'd LOVE to read them.
So far I've used CloneCD, Alcohol 120, and BlindWrite to
absolutely NO avail. And ideas? Anyone??

Thanks again!

[Nikos]

Thanks for your help, but I couldn't get it to work.

I tried selecting the "Read Sub-Channel..." option,
I also clicked the "Ignore Fast Read Errors";
I put the precision to "High" and used DPM. No success.

I did some research on SmartE, and it turns out that the only thing to do is to ignore errors while reading. Just select "Safedisc" (NOT "Safedisc2/3") when making an image with Alcohol. No need to read sub-channels, neither DPM data.

By the way, what do you mean with "couldn't get it to work"? Is the drive unable to make an image at all, or does the game not start when trying to play with the mounted image?

There are a number of options to use while in the pre-record
phase. For example, there's SafeDisc and SafeDisc 2/3.
There's also General Protection and a bunch of others,
although there is no smarteCD option anywhere in there.

Just using "Safedisc" for both reading and writing should do it. (I hope you're not trying to copy "on-the-fly" or something lame like that? You should use the "Image Making Wizard" first to make the image, *then* write that image to CD-R with the "Image Burning Wizard".)

I've cracked through a lot of CD protections

No, you didn't "crack" through anything. DTools (and Alcohol) are not for "cracking" anything. "Cracking" refers to removing the protection from a game. DTools does not do such a thing. It just provides a virtual drive.

and this is,
by far, the hardest protection that I've faced. I'm beginning
to think there is no way through it.

"Fable - The Lost Chapters" is SmartE protected and runs perfectly here, both when mounting an image in the virtual drive and when playing with the backup CD-R in a real drive.

[UltraWoody]

No thanks for the 'negative' comments.

THANK YOU for the actual helpful ones. It works now.

[joeldecaroual]

Hello,
(Sorry for my very bad English but I'm French)
Maby can I help you?
First desinstall AOE3 and all his components.
Clean all traces of AOE3 with Ccleaner (Crapcleaner) It's free.
Reboot your PC.
Install CLONE cd (free for 20 days)
If you have 2 hard internal drives, create a sain partition (warning! not an extended partition), choose a letter M, or N, or U etc...(but not D). The letter must be after the letter of virtual drives of Daemon tools (I,J,K,L for exemple).
Create in this partition a ''dossier'', name it ''DISKS AOE3".
After you create 3 images of the 3 disks of AOM3 with Clone CD You name it:
CD1;CD2;CD3.
After you create a ''dossier'' in this partition named ''AOE3_GAME''.
After that you try to install the game only with the images of the 3 cd.
For exemple with Daemon tools do:
Mount image and you mount CD1; installation begin.
After when the installator says ''input CD2'' do:
Unmount Image (you unmount CD1)
Mount Image and you mount CD2 and so one.
At the end of the installation unmount CD3.
Reboot your PC.
With Daemon tools mount CD1.
Close Daemon tools (Exit).
Click on the AOE3's icon.
If you are lucky you can play.

Best regards and sorry, very sorry for my very bad English.

cordially

joeldecaroual

PS sorry note AOE3 and no AOM3

[Nikos]

No need to do all of this stuff, actually. And UltraWoody said "it works now".

[webyogi]

Does not work

I just tried your configuration suggestions, but it dit not work.
I have a Plextor PX716A device. The burnt CD could not be read because of read errors. I checked the cd with the Plextor tools. The tools reported various read errors.

[Mystique]

I just tried your configuration suggestions, but it dit not work.
I have a Plextor PX716A device. The burnt CD could not be read because of read errors. I checked the cd with the Plextor tools. The tools reported various read errors.

i have the same burner and the read errors only appear the first two seconds on cd1. enable "Ignore Fast Read Errors" and its an easy way to create a image.

when the image isnt working as an original one go to **** Copy world and you find there an working Mini Image in +ISO format.

Hope it helps

[Nikos]

I just tried your configuration suggestions, but it dit not work.
I have a Plextor PX716A device. The burnt CD could not be read because of read errors. I checked the cd with the Plextor tools. The tools reported various read errors.

The errors are part of the protection. Problem is, if the CD is scratched or dirty, you'll get errors while making the image at places where there actually shouldn't be any. Clean the CD, and/or increase the "read retries" in Alcohol's options. It will take longer to make the image, but it's safer (and only recommended with scratched CDs).

[mosse10]

please help with age of empires 3 tried everything but still wont work

[Methadon]

please help with age of empires 3 tried everything but still wont work

What is it that doesn't work?
A little more info would be good.

[NetSoerfer]

How did you create the image you're trying to run it from? Does it work from the original?

[Mergim1919]

Hey... I tried Virtual-cd-drive but it doesnt read my command (I press unlock all cd-rom drives then i press hide all virtual drives but it still stays on hide all virtual driver..



Thnx for the help

Age of Empires 3 ERROR (link)

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1205/error7mw.jpg

If you cant see the text : just save and open

[NetSoerfer]

Please only post ONCE as stated in the Site Rules, not eight times!

What are your hardware specs? How did you create the image?