Should be fine since it's a backup of an original disc for personal use.

No copy protection afaik (and even if there was, the programs you're using would certainly be capable of dealing with one that old). Does the original disc still work? Maybe it's started to rot (both of my copies certainly have), and the copy obviously can't be any better than the original.

edit: definitely no protection, you can simply drag the naked files over to a new blank cd and it'll work. Game doesn't care about the audio tracks or even the disc label.

Thought so, too.
The original Disc does work fine, installs and plays cd-audio.
Searching with google results in many problems copying a mixed mode cd.
Does someone can name a program which can copy a mixed mode cd?

Nero - Burning Rom?

I don't remember having had a problem with Warcraft II, and I'm pretty sure I used ImgBurn (version 2.5.0.0, if that matters) to create the image. It resulted in bin/cue files which I use for DOSBox. No problem with the CD audio tracks, and the image is recognized by my Warcraft II installation in DOSBox.
I've also burned a CD from it, and I also don't remember any problems with it.

elszgensa wrote on 2024-05-16, 18:01:

Game doesn't care about the audio tracks or even the disc label.

That doesn't completely match my experience: Maybe it indeed doesn't care about the audio tracks on the CD, but I know for sure that some version of WarCraft 2 at least cares about the MSCDEX passthough API (which is used to send audio calls to the CDROM .SYS driver) being available on the drive letter of the CD drive. Back in the days, I used a patched version of FakeCD that passed on the audio API calls to the actual CD driver, and just presented the files from the hard-drive copy of the warcraft CD. Somehow, Edward Grieg's "Morning Mood" is burned into my mind as being WarCraft 2 music. 😉

Nero doesn't work either.
Nero says like the other programs, that there were no error in burning the cd.
The copy of the original doesn't work nevertheless.
If i try to save the audiotracks from the original or from the copy, Nero doesn't display any track and says "Please insert CD".
VLC plays the Audio from the original and the copy.
Using cdrom.sys and mscdex.

My memory on this is a bit fuzzy, but I think Blizzard used to make dual PC/Mac discs at one point. Not sure if WarCraft 2 falls under that category though.

In any case, such discs are difficult to image the normal way and might need a specialized program.

This is quite strange. I don't have a German Warcraft II, but I do have the English version, and I can't imagine it being so difficult to clone the disc. I'm going to try to image it now.

Could you explain in detail the steps of the cloning/imaging process you used? Which version of Nero? Did you use the CD Copy option, and which settings? If you run Disc Information (Ctrl+I) on the original and the copy - do they look identical to Nero?

Warcraft II is a hybrid PC/MAC disc, but Nero detects the data track correctly as Hybrid. But does it copy it correctly, that's the question.

Nero Portable 16.011.0
Used the copy option.
Under reading options I chose Mixed Mode or CD Extra. Tried Disc/Session-At-Once and Disc-At-Once/96
The discs look identical under Nero.

"Found" an english image with one .cue and 17 .bin files. Burned it with ImgBurn.
Installation is possible, but again the CD is not found...

Made me a mixed mode CD with Nero. Fail.
Extracted the audio Files with Goldwave and copied the data to the HDD.
Now I don't know what to try anymore...

Do you have more than one optical drive in your PC? The cd path has to be correct in WAR.INI (e.g. "cdpath=d:\"), not sure what the installer writes in there if you have multiple drives (e.g. only the first drive, or the drive that you installed it from).
Other than that, maybe you could try installing it in DOSBox to see if it works there? As I said, my image works in DOSBox without a problem, the game recognizes it and the CD audio plays as well. As I'm not home right now I can't check whether my burned CD causes any problem on a real DOS machine. I like to believe that I'd remember if it did, but I'd have to test it to be sure.

I have only one CD-Drive. Tried Letter D and F.
The Image works in Dosbox, but I need it to work under "real" DOS.

Are you sure the physical CD drive can read burned discs properly?
Copying a mixed mode CD is not difficult, nearly any burning software should be able to do it.

I installed the Game from the burned CD, so the physical Drive can read it properly.

You can maybe ask on the VGPC discord server: https://www.preservegames.org/p/contact-donate.html

Found a ripped Warcraft2 on an old CD. Just copied the war2.exe and the muddat + snddat and it works.
No CD Audio though.
--> There is a CD copy protection in the war2.exe.
I'm wondering why none of the burning software recognizes it and can't make an exact copy.
Also I'm wondering why the Images work under dosbox.
Does anyone know?

I suspect there may be something wrong with your burner or your reader. Maybe some strange incompatibility.
Although I must confess I don't recall using a burnt Warcraft II CD in pure DOS.

If all else fails - you might be able to adapt the No-CD cracks to the German version (follow the comments on that page on how we were able to adapt it to the Spanish release):
https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/no-cd/no-cd-warcraft2/
And you will get CD audio too, provided the audio tracks on the burnt CD are recognized.

dr_st, you are right!
Tried the Copy on my second DOS-PC: Works like a charme! Intro etc.
But why ???
I changed even the CD Drive on my first PC with no success. But if it's not the CD-Drive, then what else could be the cause?
Copied the CD on my Win 11 PC.

Easiest thing to check and equalize would be the CD-ROM driver and startup settings (CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT).

Beyond that - BIOS settings, if they somehow differ. IDE cable?