I image all my games because I don't want to dig through over 1000 discs for something.

Harekiet: How do you get CDDA with DT under Windows 98SE ? I couldn't never get that to work.

Good thread since it touches on a major aspect of PC gaming, collection digitizing etc.
My own "Game CD triage" priority is as follows:

1. no-cd patch if at all possible

2. custom full-install next best: there are quite a few tutorials out there explaining how to full-install games not originally intended to be. Over the years I spent a lot of time with this, both using web assistance and figuring it out myself.

3. make/mount images with DaemonTools and MagicDisk

4. physical CD as a last resort.

With respect to GOG - if it's a good release I use in lieu of all the above.

Also, I beefed up the hard drive capacity on all my retro rigs to accommodate storage of the CD images appropriate to the rig.

Usually i make an image of the disk and then i mount it with Daemon Tools. It has working CD Audio so you don't miss out on anything. You have to play the games inside Windows though cause Daemon Tools is a Windows program.

RoyBatty wrote:

I image all my games because I don't want to dig through over 1000 discs for something.

Harekiet: How do you get CDDA with DT under Windows 98SE ? I couldn't never get that to work.

You have to use an older version that has this feature, i use V3.47. Also make sure that your virtual drive's letter is before that of your real CD-Rom if you have one, cause most games try to use whichever is first.

Yeah I still run all my games off of real CD-ROM discs or Floppy diskettes. Also I should note that if a modern game is good enough I also try to procure a physical copy so that I don't have to have it installed all the time or have to wait overnight for it to download and install on steam.

brotalnia wrote:

You have to use an older version that has this feature, i use V3.47. Also make sure that your virtual drive's letter is before that of your real CD-Rom if you have one, cause most games try to use whichever is first.

I just tried this version, not having much luck. Are you sure this is in Windows 98, not Windows XP?

Analogue audio is ticked through the taskbar icon and the volume slider is up in the device parameters. I have even removed the optical drive, so the virtual drive is the only one with letter D.

Yeah from what I remember Windows 95/98 did not support digital audio from CD Rom. I am of course using DT 3.47, the newer one sucks and doesn't work on legacy.

I can confirm DT 3.47 works fine in win98Se, it's what I use under win...

keropi wrote:

I can confirm DT 3.47 works fine in win98Se, it's what I use under win...

What sound card are you using? I'm using an Aureal Vortex 2.

I wasn't disputing that Daemon Tools works fine for DATA. It's CDDA (CD Audio) that I want to know how to get to work if it does.

I moved on 😀

Back to using CDs like I did before.

Just tried it again and Daemon Tools works fine with cue/bin with Loom on my win 98 se with sb16, since that game only does cd audio without soundblaster. If games use regular soundblaster with cd audio you'd need an SB Live or something that could do soundblaster emulation and still have windows sound as well.

Yes i have Windows 98 SE, not XP and CD Audio works with Daemon Tools. I've tested it in Half-Life, Quake and Moto Racer. My sound card is an Yamaha isa card but i don't remember the exact model.

Are you sure the disc image you used had audio tracks? You need to mount a .cue file for the audio to work.

I've got an Yamaha ISA card too, might check it out when I work on another system.

Maybe it is the drive letter thing, I have an SB Live in that machine too. Humm, well I need to get some new fans for the voodoo5500 first before I can use it again.

Yes I'm sure the images have audio tracks as I make them myself, and it's not a simple process to get perfect images.

Since I have a big and good HDD, I store all my CDs into my hard drive and opens it with daemon tools for Windows 98. (I think there was even a tool for emulating a disc drive over ms-dos).
The only bad is that some games like tomb raider 1 doesn't have sounds 🙁

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Like the GOTEK, just for CDs/DVDs.

I want this so badly for my dedicated DOS computer. (no windows)

For edutainment titles, this is mostly a matter of registry/.ini edits and copying contents from the disk to the hard drive. I don't mind slapping the original disk in myself, but for the purposes of disk preservation that's where the no-CD cracks come in. Illicit as they may seem, but at least you don't end up with a badly scratched platter, more so for a vintage title.

. The only time my computer ever comes in contact with an original CD, I'm making a CloneCD copy. From that point forward, it's always the copy that gets used whether it be in physical or purely digital form.

. I'll favor a non-CD patch over slapping a CD into the drive (real or virtual) if not one bit of the expected functionality and performance is lost as a trade-off, which's often the way it will be.

. People who re-pack and distribute CD-based games and replace the original RedBook audio tracks with mp3's, ogg's, etc, should be captured, then given a choice between stripes and servitude.

tincup wrote:

Good thread since it touches on a major aspect of PC gaming, collection digitizing etc. My own "Game CD triage" priority is as f […]
Show full quote

Good thread since it touches on a major aspect of PC gaming, collection digitizing etc.
My own "Game CD triage" priority is as follows:

1. no-cd patch if at all possible

2. custom full-install next best: there are quite a few tutorials out there explaining how to full-install games not originally intended to be. Over the years I spent a lot of time with this, both using web assistance and figuring it out myself.

3. make/mount images with DaemonTools and MagicDisk

4. physical CD as a last resort.

With respect to GOG - if it's a good release I use in lieu of all the above.

Also, I beefed up the hard drive capacity on all my retro rigs to accommodate storage of the CD images appropriate to the rig.

+1

I hate using cd's.

While I still derive actual fun from using cartridge-based media (even though I have heaps of ROMs emulated excellently and ready-to-go on PC) I have grown to dislike using optical media: it's slow, noisy, that cumbersome drawer (slot-loaders should go die in a fire though), spin-up time and every use risks damaging the fragile disc or case.

I still religiously collect the medium though, but most only see use once: to rip to .iso (or .bin/.cue for mixed media) and put on my NAS. DOS games are run this way via DOSBox, Windows games get no-CD-patched where possible.

Ironically, what initially drove me to image-mounting and no-CD-patching were the ridiculous anti-piracy schemes that caused read-errors on certain drives and problems on later OSses.