Newbie - 1st attempt - Trying Civ IV

[WolfStar76]

Hey all.

A friend of mine pointed out Daemon Tools to me, as an alternative to juggling my 3 most common CDs in and out of my single CD-ROM drive.

For my first experiment, I'm trying to get Civilization VI working with Daemon Tools, but I seem to be missing a step somewhere.

I used Roxio Media Creator to make an ISO of the play disc (mine is the American 2 CD version). I placed that ISO onto my HDD and mounted the image.

I checked the game database, and found that it lists the Italian DVD as using SafeDisc. Since mine's the CD and not the DVD, I figured I'd play better safe than sorry, and I downloaded A-Ray and scanned the original CD. It confirmed that Safedisc (4.60.000) is in use.

I turned on SafeDisc emulation in Daemon Tools, mounted the ISO, and hit play on the autorun that came up.

Alas, at this point I found Civ VI asking me to please insert the correct CD.

I'd heard that some games keep track of the install path for the CD in the registry, so I looked around, and while I found an entry that was similar, editing that from my physical CD-ROM drive to the virtual drive, still produces the same error.

At this point, when I try to run Civ IV, I can see the game scanning my CD-ROM drive and then giving me the error.

So now, I turn to you all for help. Is it just a bad ISO file? An option I'm missing somewhere? Any pointers you guys can give me are much appreciated.

[Kinlaadare]

Forget about Nero or Roxio to make an image of a CD protected game... You won't ever manage to make them run (except for some old protections)

Use Alcohol or Blindwrite instead.

Alcohol can be found here : http://www.alcohol-soft.com
and blindwrite here : http://www.vso-software.fr

[Xristaki]

Please do a search next time on the forums. Refer to this thread.

http://www2.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/showthread.php?t=6284

Read my post which is second on the page

[WolfStar76]

Tried a search, but my search skills are, apparently, feeble (think I tried searching on Civilization instead of Civ - and on Sid Meier which isn't listed).

Thanks for the link, however.

I kept tinkering last night a bit more, trying to get Warcraft III to work (the guy who referred me to DT uses his with WCIII for better load times).

I dumped Roxio in favor of DiscDump, UltraISO, and Alcohol52%, but for the life of me, I can't get an ISO that works. In every case the game (WCIII this time around) tells me that I don't have the disc in.

I even attempted to use the Alcohol52% emulator with no success.

I'm using A-ray to scan the disc, then setting Alcohol to match the encryption type, but still being prompted for my disc.

I assume I'm still missing something somewhere - but shouldn't that be all that's need? Get a good 1:1 ISO copy, mount the image, and play?

I suspect I'm doing something wrong in the ISO phase, but, more tinkering should solve that. . . I hope. :-D

[AnalCobra]

Make an Image with Alcohol 120%(52%) and make an mdf,mds Image selsct this sort of image don't select iso!!
There are serveral Profiles integrated in Alcohol for the protections, scan the protection and choose the right Profile for this.
Then try mounting this image.

[Lord KiRon]

Yes "something wrong with ISO" - image has to be made using Alcohol 120% (or may be BlindRead - not tested) ONLY with correct SafeDisk4 settings set !

After that you have to use AntiBaxx to "hide" Alcohol 102% from the protection.

[WolfStar76]

Turns out the problem was more nefarious than the software being used (though, I did upgrade to 120% just to be safe).

Looks like my "trusty old" CD-RW was the culprit. I borrowed a DVD+-RW from another machine and it was able to make me a playable WCIII image.

I'm off to work for now, but will tinker with the suggestions made here for CIV IV when I get home tonight.

Thanks for the pointers, and the patience, all.

[WolfStar76]

Lord KiRon,

Still struggling with making an image for Civ IV, was hoping I could get a couple tips from you (or anyone else who's managed to get a working image).

I've scanned my play CD (American version is a 2 CD set) with A-Ray Scanner, and it lists the disc as being protected by SafeDisc 4.60.

I've loaded Alcohol 120% (1.9.5 build 3105) and the only "Safe Disc" options I have are "SafeDisc" and "SafeDisc 2/3". I'm guessing that I need a "SafeDisc 4" option, because neither of these versions seem to be working for me. Is there simply something I'm missing in the options? Is that a non-trial feature? What protection did you use to make your image?

Secondly, once I get a good image, will I need Anti-blaxx *and* sd4hide? I've noticed, now that I have 2 drives in this box, that sd4hide is needed to run the game in the NON-install drive - but Civ VI doesn't seem to complain about Alcohol 120% for me. I simply put the disc into the DVD-ROM, sd4hide, and it runs.

I tried installing BlindWrite, but it refuses to run on my system, so it looks like I'll be buying Alcohol 120% if I can just get over this last hurdle . . . and once I hit payday.

Any pointers you (or others) have, are appreciated.

[Zyxthior]

First off, the American CD's are labeled wrong (atleast on the pre-order edition I have). Forgetting about images for a second, you'll notice you won't even be able to play the game with CD #2 in the drive. You must have CD#1 in the drive to play it (so in turn you need to make an image of CD#1).

Also, when you install D-Tools, use expert installation and change Registry entries from '347' to anything else (I use '123'). This helps out with some of the blacklisting.

I used Alcohol 120% to create an MDF file of the Civ4 CD on the SafeDisc 2/3 setting. Mounted the image with D-Tools and played away.

[WolfStar76]

Yup, knew about the labeling, since I've played it a time or two raw off the discs.

It looks like it was just bad luck, up to this point. I've made a 3rd go at the disc with the Safedisc 2/3 setting - and while I still got (the expected) read errors, it proceeded to image this time without stopping and giving me an error that it was unable to complete.

I have to jiggle sd4hide around a time or two to make it work, but it works, and that's what really matters.

Having got 2 images under my belt now, I move on to my girlfriend's copy of The Sims. . . and I've registered my copy of Daemon Tools (and will register Alcohol today or tomorrow as well).

Thank you, everyone, for your advice, guideance, patience, and above all, your help.