VOGONS


First post, by Nilex

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UPDATE: Solution in Post 7

ORIGINAL POST:
No success here. Game refuses to recognize ever so slightly tampered CD-Image. Vanilla BIN/CUE cause no issues as expected, however I am trying to make a more compact version in effort to save space - but keep the Audio tracks. I gathered MW2 to be a tough nut to crack regarding its quality CD-check.

But that was some time ago, has there been progress since?

The only difference in my home-brewed BIN/CUE are the compressed audio files but the game doesn't hold back in spitting out "CD-Rom not found".
Tried BIN/IMG/ISO+CUE combo to no avail. Even the label was correct. DOSBox smoothly imgmounts them all before anyone asks.

Last edited by Nilex on 2017-08-16, 13:40. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 6, by leileilol

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DOSBox has a bizarre bug with Mechwarrior 2's CD if it's not in ISO form. IIRC the cd check was for checking a hidden file on the disc. Not even my self-made CloneCD image mounted on a host CD drive can't load on Dosbox (but is fine in PCem)

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long live PCem

Reply 2 of 6, by Osprey

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You might compare your CUE file with the example one (second one down, under "Compressed audio tracks" at the following link, to make sure that you have everything correct:

https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Cuesheet

Also, that page gives a tip to mount the image in a virtual CD drive (like Daemon Tools) and then mount that drive as a CD-ROM drive in DOSBox. Perhaps that would work better than mounting the image in DOSBox directly.

Reply 3 of 6, by Qbix

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leileilol wrote:

DOSBox has a bizarre bug with Mechwarrior 2's CD if it's not in ISO form. IIRC the cd check was for checking a hidden file on the disc. Not even my self-made CloneCD image mounted on a host CD drive can't load on Dosbox (but is fine in PCem)

Well, we decided to "bug" it for all OSes equally. Not sure how you would show hidden files when mounting your cd under linux or mac os x.
So hence I only added support for it in image mode.

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 4 of 6, by Nilex

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@leileilol
ISO is a whole different ballgame because it cannot be made 1:1 copy of mixed-mode CDs. For one, all audio track will be missing and that's a problem if MW2 checks them. One has to watch what he's doing when cloning those. I'm looking at MW2 as culprit because it's so rigorous. As I said DOSBox mounts the 1:1 copy and MW2 reads it flawlessly. It's when changes are made MW2 starts refusing to cooperate. Nothing to do with DOSBox - one of the main authors confirmed it many years ago afaik.
There is one hidden file in the root, called OLD_HERC.DRV, which I've tried some manipulation with after your post but without results.

@Osprey
DT is a steaming pile of malware garbage. Has been for at least 3 years now and frankly I'm surprised it's even allowed to be mentioned on this board. A damn shame because it was best all-in-1 tool once upon a time.
My CUE is fine as far DBox is concerned. Mounting compressed CUE image however, to my knowledge, isn't possible by using virtual CD-imaging apps. Even link you posted suggests it's a feature exclusive to DOSBox. If I'm wrong though feel free to correct me.

* * *

I was hoping a less strict MECH2/MW2.EXE CD-check was created in the meantime, one which would allow some leeway regarding stripping duplicate CD content and compressed audio tracks. My two last-resort options are full BIN/CUE + min install or simply NoCD + full install and I dislike them both equally. This dude is not ready to throw in a towel yet.

Reply 5 of 6, by Osprey

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Nilex wrote:

@Osprey
DT is a steaming pile of malware garbage. Has been for at least 3 years now and frankly I'm surprised it's even allowed to be mentioned on this board. A damn shame because it was best all-in-1 tool once upon a time.

I wasn't recommending Daemon Tools. I was simply giving it as an example because that's the example that the link that I posted gave.

Nilex wrote:

My CUE is fine as far DBox is concerned. Mounting compressed CUE image however, to my knowledge, isn't possible by using virtual CD-imaging apps. Even link you posted suggests it's a feature exclusive to DOSBox. If I'm wrong though feel free to correct me.

I must've missed the note about it being exclusive to DOSBox. That must be why I was so surprised that compressed audio tracks were even possible with cuesheets. I had to look it up to even understand what you were trying to do.

Reply 6 of 6, by Nilex

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After nearly giving up I cracked the code.

Solution
The only requirement for the game (full installation) to see DOSBox mounted CD-Image and, consequently, run is the presence of "OLD_HERC.DRV" file on it, which HAS TO have hidden attribute. That's it. My game now runs and plays on 64 KB sized ISO with only one 264 bytes file in it. How cute is that?
Note that the ISO has to be imgmounted via DOSBox exclusively. Mounting with virtual app and then mounting the drive with DOSBox wont work. You can add CUE and compressed audio tracks for in-game music and then imgmount the CUE for the complete experience at ~quarter of the size.

It's possible you will have to include some more files from the CD which hadn't transfered even during Full install (whole KEATING & LAUNCH folders, and few other files) into the aforementioned ISO just so the game doesn't crash if it needs to load data from them sometime later. I've no idea if that's necessary though. In my short test of loading the first mission everything ran without a hitch up to that point.

* * *

It came to me late night yesterday when I focused on the DRV file because it precedes the no-CD error in MECH2.EXE hex view. Precisely, I had to add the file as 'normal' and the switch to 'hidden' before creating the ISO because my go-to app unintuitively disables hidden file handling by default. It simply refused to add if it had hidden attribute. Had I noticed sooner there would be no topic to begin with. So in the end it turned out that the MW2 CD-check isn't anything special after all - on the contrary in fact!

EDIT: Look like the exact same solutions has been posted HERE, a decade ago by noabody (good job Sir). Well isn't that cute, wish I'd seen it couple of days ago 😒