Can Daemon Tools be used instead of inserting my original CD?

[wazoo]

Operating System: XP
Burning Software: Alcohol120, Nero
Anti-virus Software: None
DAEMON Tools Version: 3.47

Did a search of the forums, but could not find this....

Believe it or not, I have a large library of original games. I often jump between them, and pulling out an original is a pain in the neck!

So... before I install and reg DT, I wanted to know if I can do the following.

1) Since I install all of my games from the original CD's, is there a way to emulate protection (and thus NOT have to rip an image) with DT? I know I can find and download a none cd executable somewhere.... but I'd prefer not to (plus I have about 20-30 games installed currently).

2) Assuming I cannot just have DT emulate/intercept protection calls and thus act as a kind of universal none cd fix, how can I rip from my original, mount the image, and have copy protection emulation work if the program is looking for my original CD in my physical and not virtual drive; i.e. it looks, I assume, to the drive from where I did my original installations from.... so would not mounting an image onto a virtual drive be useless? Do I have to completely uninstall my original installs, rip all my originals, and then install from images to get this to work??

Sorry to sound so dumb, but I'm really stuck on this one.

Thanks!

Wazoo

[Copytrooper]

If you use images to play you don't need any emulation, just create the images in appropriate image format (e.g. Alcohol or Blindwrite).
Depending on the protection and the particular version used Daemon Tools could be blacklisted, in such cases try workarounds (if available), or wait for next version.

[wazoo]

If you use images to play you don't need any emulation, just create the images in appropriate image format (e.g. Alcohol or Blindwrite).
Depending on the protection and the particular version used Daemon Tools could be blacklisted, in such cases try workarounds (if available), or wait for next version.

Well... as I mentioned, I generally *don't* use images to play games.

So my questions still stand:

1) Will emulation work if I have installed the games from original CD's. If so, how? I went though the dox and could not figure it out.

2) Assuming I *do* have to image m CD's, how would it work if I have already installed from originals?

Wazoo

[Copytrooper]

1. How do you understand emulation? Emulation is needed if your writer is unable to produce working backup only. So Emulation does NOT help to play without cd or image!
2. Usually yes, some games use registry and/or ini-settings, so either change those settigs (we can't tell you which!), or install those games from mounted image.

[wazoo]

1. How do you understand emulation? Emulation is needed if your writer is unable to produce working backup only. So Emulation does NOT help to play without cd or image!
2. Usually yes, some games use registry and/or ini-settings, so either change those settigs (we can't tell you which!), or install those games from mounted image.

Ok... I think I get it now. I did not understand how emulation is used in this context. I was thinking of something that would emulate SafeDisc 3 and thus when my original executable went to look at the CD, the emulator would intercept the call and return a value that made it think the disk check worked.

Thanks for the info!

Wazoo

[Copytrooper]

SafeDisc works fine from mounted image without emulation.
Since SafeDisc v2 it's not a simple protection check anymore, but additional so-called weak sectors are used to decrypt the game exe. These sectors can be written by a few writers only, SD3 is even more hardware dependend. But images will work fine.

[Pyros777]

Operating System: Windowx XP SP2
Burning Software: Nero 6.0.0.28
Anti-virus Software: None
DAEMON Tools Version: None

how can I rip from my original, mount the image, and have copy protection emulation work if the program is looking for my original CD in my physical and not virtual drive

Most games leave an entry in the registry telling the computer which drive to check for the game. For this reason, sometimes you need to go in and change that value.

Example:

You've installed your game from the original CD, using a physical CD-Drive.

The install process creates a registry key that effectivley says "Game was installed from drive D: (F:, E:, etc.). Check this drive and no other when the user tries to play the game."

Something that might look like this:


In this case, all you have to do is change the drive letter from that of your CD-Drive (the drive you installed the game from), to that of your virtual drive. This will make the game think that you installed from the virual drive, and thus will check there.

^ In my example, it shows drive H:\ because thats my virtual drive. The one I installed the game from.