Cobra! wrote:

Okay, now we're getting somewhere! I'm getting an error saying no CD is inserted, and the crack patch seemed to make it not work again.

I'll be honest, I downloaded an iso to see if the game works before buying the actual game, because, at least over here in Scotland, the game seems to be quite rare, and expensive on the PC, and wanted to see if I can get it working before I buy it. I guess now I have to buy the game to see if it works, which is fair enough.

So it may be a while before I get back to you on whether or not it really works. Unless someone with the actual game can tell you before me, that is. I hope that's alright?

The original .exe does the same to me while the no-cd fixed .exe seems to load and close after a while. I read somewhere that the game uses securom for protection, but no anti-securom software available could recognize the game's protection. Gosh, I hate to be switching CDs all the time... 😠

Yeah, I read the same thing, I didn't know Securom even existed back then! I never had any issues with Securom before, usually any game that uses it works perfect for me, do you have the original CD and had it in your disc drive when you tested the original exe?

If so, then I have an idea, I usually have problems with Starforce protected games, but maybe my solution to those games can apply to Securom ones. I usually look around for a compressed, pirated copy, becuase the exes were cracked to work without the disc in the drive, grab the exe from the pirated copy and place it in the original game's directory, that usually gets the game running for me.

I also found that Game Copy World have a download for a general securom crack/patch, but when I tried that, I kept getting an error message that just says "Internal Error"...

If the game works with the CD in the drive, and that you just didn't have the CD, that that's good enough for me, I don't mind switching CDs, to me, it gives me a reason to take a game off the shelf after installation, and won't just be there collecting dust. That's just me, though, I can understand those who don't like that, because it isn't very convenient.

Maybe the game is looking for the disc in the wrong drive, because to use the iso I downloaded is in a different drive than my real CD drive, is there anyway to check for sure, and change the drive it looks in?

Just tested the game and it runs fine with 3dfx with wine if you have that option available to you

Bladeforce wrote:

Just tested the game and it runs fine with 3dfx with wine if you have that option available to you

The thread title specifically says he has Win7 x-64. Unless there has been some huge advances in WINE for Windows since that last time I looked, this is not an option.

Always good to hear options if the game isnt working on windows. Windows, ironically isnt the be all and end all of running older windows games

Well I'm building a new PC in September for university work (and gaming, as my budget will allow), and was thinking making the PC be able to dual boot between a couple of Windows OSes and Ubuntu, so unless I can somehow install Windows ME or something on the PC I'm building, Ubuntu could be an option for running pre-XP games.

Cobra! wrote:

Maybe the game is looking for the disc in the wrong drive, because to use the iso I downloaded is in a different drive than my real CD drive, is there anyway to check for sure, and change the drive it looks in?

The aforementioned Process Monitor.

Oh yeah, okay.

Right, I managed to find the process and what it does, and it turns out that it looks in every drive for the CD, including the drive with my iso mounted on it, so that's not the problem. Does that mean if I bought the genuine game, it wouldn't recognise it either, or is it just an iso thing?

Ordinarily I would expect a downloaded ISO to include a note (sometimes in a .NFO file that can be opened with Notepad) about any special instructions required to get it running.

Is there no demo version out there that you could use for testing?

The game works "from a box" in Xp/Vista, but you can't select the glide renderer. You must rename .exe/install patch only if you want use nGlide/Voodoo hardware.
There are more games with the disabled glide support in the system ACT database. Falcon 4.0, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil are examples.
@Cobra! - .iso don't have the sub-channel data so Securom will fail. So - stop bugging anyone with "help me run my bad copy of this game", please.

Jorpho wrote:

Is there no demo version out there that you could use for testing?

Nope, so I (hesitantly) downloaded an iso to test it.

Gamecollector wrote:

@Cobra! - .iso don't have the sub-channel data so Securom will fail.

Okay, so the actual game will work? That's all I needed to know, thanks.

Gamecollector wrote:

So - stop bugging anyone with "help me run my bad copy of this game", please.

Okay, fair enough, I'll go buy the real product, then bump this thread if I get any issues with that, if that's okay? Although anyone with issues with the real game can feel free to continues this thread in the meantime.

Okay, just a quick update, I finally got the genuine game, and I have had no issues with getting that working, I have recently installed Linux Lite (Xubuntu derivative) on my PC and I have got the game running with that under WINE without any issues at all, I have yet to try it on Windows 7, but if I eventually do, I'll update it here.

Thanks everyone for all of your help!

EDIT: I'm back to square one with Windows, because it doesn't work at all on Windows 7. It seems to run just fine under Wine in Linux, so I'm not too bothered anymore. If anyone else has the problem, I guess fell free to bump it. Unless the guys here don't like that, that is.