My method? 😁 I find it a better solution because I can play certain sierra CD games without requiring the 500mb ISO (since there are many uneeded files).

I don't have to mount anything either. 😏 However if you don't want to mount an ISO using daemon tools all the time, you could (as a third solution) copy all CD files into a directory and then use dosbox to mount that folder as a cd. This works on ALL cd games so long as they don't use any protection methods to recognize the cd (many older games haven't a clue)

Oh....and take all my suggestions assuming you OWN the original cd. I don't want to promote piracy here.

Dosbox can mount iso's natively, you don't need daemon tools (which is a good thing since I'm on linux, although you can mount iso's out of the box anyway).

In DOSBox type
imgmount
to see the syntax

As for the space an iso takes, not really an issue for me (hopefully most). And yes they are my cds, which is why I would prefer to make an iso, since one day these cds will no longer work (lost, damaged, etc it happens 🙁 ).
I just want to have a backup of "archival quality".

As for copy protection, I'll mention if I run into any (besides the old school sierra check the manual)

Whatever works, I just feel my approach is for the lazier, who want a backup and usuable with less file modification. 😀 Just mount your file to drive d, and you are golden.

Anyway, thanks for your reply, I think it's always good to have plenty of options to run these classics! 😀

I honestly never knew about dosbox's ability to mount ISO images, a very useful feature. I'm still prone to trimming the file sizes, as I am working on my own DLDVD backup and space matters 😅

However the image mounting method is best for games like Betrayal at Krondor since it has CD tracks.

I only wish there was a good way to take all my multiple CD sierra games and use my little "method". Unfortunately I can't think of a proper way considering the resource files have duplicate names. Worse yet, images won't help as there would be no way to switch cds. 😒 In this case it seems daemon tools is the only real solution..... 😅

Although I have heard of a CD-DVD conversion method....I wonder how that works?

Well, besides mounting an image to a series a drive letters for multiple cds I'm not sure... Do you mean you want to trim the contents of the iso, and then kind of "add them to one big iso"?

That should be doable. I guess if the program data goes like this
/lsl7/blah
/kq7/blah
/sq6/blah/blah

Where each game is a folder, and has all the resources etc it needs in it.

Under linux there program is called mkisofs (it's usually included)

http://freshmeat.net/projects/mkisofs/

Basically you can produce an iso out of folders on your drive. So then you could burn this to a DVD or something and simply mount that in dosbox. Would be one heck of a sierra anthology 😀

Hope I didn't misunderstand, if you need any help I'm willing to test it out. I've been using linux only since october, so I'm still a little green with it. 😀

I'll put this in a big font:

Mounting a CD as an image in DOSBOX results in better compatibility and nearly always helps if a game won't detect the CD

A lot of people don't know this - so far not a single game that gave a CD error still gave it after I made an image I then mounted.

red, by "better" do you mean compared to mounting a real CD, or do you mean compared to using external mounting software (e.g. Daemon Tools)?

boyofdestiny wrote:

Well, besides mounting an image to a series a drive letters for multiple cds I'm not sure... Do you mean you want to trim the co […]
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Well, besides mounting an image to a series a drive letters for multiple cds I'm not sure... Do you mean you want to trim the contents of the iso, and then kind of "add them to one big iso"?

That should be doable. I guess if the program data goes like this
/lsl7/blah
/kq7/blah
/sq6/blah/blah

Where each game is a folder, and has all the resources etc it needs in it.

Under linux there program is called mkisofs (it's usually included)

http://freshmeat.net/projects/mkisofs/

Basically you can produce an iso out of folders on your drive. So then you could burn this to a DVD or something and simply mount that in dosbox. Would be one heck of a sierra anthology 😀

Hope I didn't misunderstand, if you need any help I'm willing to test it out. I've been using linux only since october, so I'm still a little green with it. 😀

Now logically, using my method basically IS what you are suggesting. 😊 As editing the resource.cfg on games you can point to the HD instead of the CD and just copy required files over.

Most games, whether they admit it or not, do not require their CDs, but just some files on the cds. Thats why I usually fool around with their config and dat files to see if I can avoid using the CDs entirely.

I don't recommend my method to anyone who isn't quite up for some config hacking. Mounting images is probably THE best method of getting CD games to work without their CDs. Mind you....I'm still trying to figure my head around multi-cd games... 😅

Both of course - and it's only logical - DOSBOX has far better control over image mounting because it happens completely internally, while with a CD drive and Daemon Tools etc, it depends on hardware/software outside of DOSBOX.