retired_Sheree

lol, if you make a back up, you don't edit the exe. which means the back up wouldn't work anyway, you probably be able to install it but it wouldn't work the way the real disk would, hense a waste of time that would be.

retired_abbsolue

Never said whether it would work or not, said you could legaly make a back up...

sarasbluegroove

Its something that gets you banned when you ask about it !

furia101

You must be a gaming industry representative. The bolded part has been stated in the Eighties, the Nineties, and the present decade by the gaming industry, but still new games are being released every year. And cracks for them. Some companies have gone under, sure, but that's normal in any business field. New companies have sprung up, while others have been bought by their competitors, just like in any other industry. No-cd cracks or any other cracks for that matter won't kill the gaming industry; bad releases should do that, but looking at the history of the industry, they haven't really done that on a large scale. Good releases on the other hand have killed smaller companies, as they haven't caught the public's eye to sell enough copies. But that has to do with the media hype thingy and all those stupid FPS games dominating the gaming world. For instance, adventure games have basically died out because of the way the gaming industry has been for the past decade. Luckily FM is still kicking strong! And the Civilization franchise.

But back on topic. I use no-cd cracks on most games I own, but not on FM's. Simply because somebody said that there are further checks in the code to see whether the user is using a crack or not. If one is found, the game will "misbehave". I don't want to take any chances, so instead I'm using an additional optical drive to host the FM CD on it continually. Then I can use the other optical drive for any other optical media usages that I might have. I bought the latest drive (a DVD-ROM) back in 2003 and it cost some 40 euros back then. No big thingy. That was nothing compared to the hours and hours of enjoyment the game has brought me over the years.

I still have all the original boxes left of CM/FM that I've bought since 1992. I can thank the bad guys back then in 1992 for providing the first game cracked for me, otherwise I might never even have tried it out. And then went on to the shop to buy it, so some good can come from pirated software. It is an easy way of trying out a game to see if it's worth buying. There are so many crappy games released every year that there's no way I'm buying anything without having tested it properly first. The only exceptions are any new FM and Civilization releases, which I buy straight-out. But I do use a no-cd crack for Civilization, as having a game's CD/DVD in the drive is just too much hassle. I'm a lazy guy after all.

And making copies of legitimately obtained software media for personal use is legal. You just have to destroy the copies if you sell or lose the original. Anybody claiming the opposite is simply wrong. And no EULA can change that as laws are above EULAs.

TheNextBigThing

Only because it was warned against in the eighties, nineties and now, doesnt mean it has no effect. The fact is that if every one pirated the game it will put that game out of buisness or effect the quality of the game.

Also saying that its ok to pirate games to see if you like them is rubbish. Most games release a good enough demo for that.

retired_Sheree

I wont quote the whole thing, but I can see what your saying in some cases, but I can't see how an illegal copy will help you decide on buying the original, the way technology currently is with game demos available on nearly all new games pre to realise games, companies hosting pubic forums, sites like youtube where you can see in game action before deciding if you want to part with your money seems sufficient enough to avoid having to break the law.

There's no justification in it, no-cd cracks are illegal full stop, roll on next year when blue ray comes into play or hd disks which ever comes first, illegal copies will be down the drain due to high prices on blank disk which is great news for the paying public.


Btw I’m in no way linked with the gaming industry just get fed up of rising prices and poor quality of games currently on the market, and to so the pc gaming industry isn't suffering is wrong, SI for example already had to pull one game because of it.

I really can't see the hassle it takes to open a dvd draw and placing a disk into it, I really can't see the big deal of this, not just that dvd-roms are so cheap now get 4 of the things leave the disk it if it's that big a problem.

furia101

They are not explicitly illegal, just as P2P software are not illegal as such. They can certainly both be used for illegal purposes. With no-cd cracks that would be using them to play illegally obtained games, but using them on legally purchased games is a different matter. It's against the EULA, sure, but those have no real meaning when compared to usual consumer rights and/or legislation.

HD DVD/BD releases won't change the wares "business" really. This was said of CD's back in the middle of the 90's, but in fact the piracy/wares scene just got stronger. HD DVD movies have already been broken, and BD's are close behind. Harddisk space is growing steadily with prices coming down per gigabyte and internet connections are growing faster at the same time. No copy protection system will ever be unbroken, so they are simply a waste of gaming companies' resources and a nuisance to legitimate customers. Those using cracked versions won't have to battle with starf*** or similar malware misnamed as copy protection, but the legitimate customer might face a optical drive malfunction as a result of using a product he's paid good money for. Oh well, I could go on and on, but that would not change the minds of the brainwashed.

If you like the software, buy it and support the developers! That's the motto.