[aquaclear]

So, anyone know of a place? i hate carrying around a cd just to place a game when I am on trips...

Thx.

[blizzard]

I've never really understood that...I mean, we get people coming on here every time a new game comes out saying that they hate carrying CDs around with them...you'd think it wouldn't be that big a hassle when you're already lugging around a five pound notebook, undoubtedly already in a hefty travel pack that could easily fit a three ounce CD.

Mind you, I don't have a notebook so I obviously don't know what I'm talking about...

Maybe what I'm trying to say is...come on people, if you're pirating the game, at least come up with an ORIGINAL excuse!!

(Kidding)

[BobVB]

Originally posted by blizzard:
Maybe what I'm trying to say is...come on people, if you're pirating the game, at least come up with an ORIGINAL excuse!!

(Kidding)

Hopefully you are kidding, since even if you've pirated you probably have the install disk image and could just burn it to a CD if pirating the game was your goal.

No, when people ask for a CD crack its usually because they don't want the hassle of carrying a CD around with them regardless of whether they got the game via retail or 'otherwise'.

'Key disc' technology only inconveniences the paying customers, it doesn't give pirates a second's pause.

[Brad Oliver]

Originally posted by BobVB:
'Key disc' technology only inconveniences the paying customers, it doesn't give pirates a second's pause.

When I pirated a game, I found key discs to be very annoying, doubly so if the only available krack was for an earlier version of the game.

[BobVB]

Originally posted by Brad Oliver:
When I pirated a game, I found key discs to be very annoying, doubly so if the only available krack was for an earlier version of the game.

Well, sure, they are as inconvenient to the pirates as they are the paying customers, but they don't prevent the piracy. Mac games pirates share them as disk image files. All pirates have to do is burn it to a blank CD and it works just like the original. 'Kracks' are for convenience, they aren't required for piracy.

So I guess I do have to correct my statement:

'Key disc' protection schemes are ineffective since a pirate need only burn the game disc image that he got when he pirated the game to a CD to circumvent it. As a result it doesn't do a thing to prevent piracy and 'key discs' are just the same annoyance to everyone.

Better?

Even the game in question works just fine off a CD burned from a disc image. The requirement of a 'key disc' has probably not prevented one act of piracy but it *HAS* inconvenienced every user of Jedi Knight II, legal and otherwise.

Doh!

[Liquidity X]

I tend to buy most of my games, i d/l em 1st to see if they r worth the $$ then i buy em, and i must say the cd thing is VERY annoying. I like to jump around alot game to game, and I only have 2 cd drives, and its very annoying to have to always switch em around. I wish since therre ae only 2 or 3 major game companies, they would relases a USB dongle, that when u put the cd in for the 1st time, ands register it, it verifyes with aspyrs or macplays server, and imprints it on the dongle and the cd is never needed agian, now that ouwd be kool. Sorry for the spellign and such, my medication is reallying making me loppy, got fuxing pnemonia agian, and i can;t focues on anything but i feel better at least

[Fran441]

It is annoying having to dig out a CD when you play a game. That doesn't even bring up the more important point that having the CD in the drive drains the battery life on a PowerBook much faster than when using a disk image.

Plus, it's nicer to not have the fan go on because you have a CD in the drive.

[Brad Oliver]

Originally posted by Fran441:
That doesn't even bring up the more important point that having the CD in the drive drains the battery life on a PowerBook much faster than when using a disk image.

I recently timed battery life on my iBook with and without a CD. Playing JK2 (or at least letting it idle on a level), the battery life was roughly identical. The reasons are fairly simple: one, JK2 doesn't spin up the CD during game play. Two, JK2 runs the CPU and GPU at full tilt anyway, so the battery is getting drained pretty quickly regardless.

If someone has empirical data that shows otherwise, I'd be happy to investigate further.

[alex_kac]

I don't pirate games, but I do own a laptop that I carry around. It IS a huge inconvienance and trouble to carry around my game CDs. If I use the game cases, the cases crack, sometimes the CDs crack, etc.... its a mess!

For example, I can't find my WarCraft III CD at the moment, even though I want to play it, because I had it in my laptop bag, carried it somewhere in my house to play and now I don't know where it is.

Fun. On the PC, there was GameCopyWorld.com - is there anything like that for the Mac?

[wreks]

what I have done for games like warcraft III (which I bought the collector edition for $80 or whatever) was to just make a disc image through toast and mount that instead of using the original cd.

granted it might not work well if you have limited hd space, but if you have 120 gigs it's a good solution, plus if you just do it with the 1 or 2 games you're playing now it shouldn't be that bad.

[Brad Oliver]

Originally posted by alex_kac:
I don't pirate games, but I do own a laptop that I carry around. It IS a huge inconvienance and trouble to carry around my game CDs. If I use the game cases, the cases crack, sometimes the CDs crack, etc.... its a mess!

Get a CD wallet and stick your CDs in that. Presumably you're carrying your laptop around in a bag, so a CD wallet will protect against cracking of the cases and the CDs and will fit nicely into your bag. You can also stick DVDs into the wallet and if you have Virtual GameStation, some PSX CDs.

[rampant]

Hell no, I won't be carrying around my CD's. It isn't even carrying them with me, it's putting them in my drive. I've never used a CD for a game, and I never will. Gobbless GameCopyWorld.

[alex_kac]

Originally posted by wreks:
what I have done for games like warcraft III (which I bought the collector edition for $80 or whatever) was to just make a disc image through toast and mount that instead of using the original cd.

granted it might not work well if you have limited hd space, but if you have 120 gigs it's a good solution, plus if you just do it with the 1 or 2 games you're playing now it shouldn't be that bad.

I've tried that - but it didn't work for me. Did a DVD/CD master of my WC3 CD. No go....

[alex_kac]

Originally posted by Brad Oliver:
Get a CD wallet and stick your CDs in that. Presumably you're carrying your laptop around in a bag, so a CD wallet will protect against cracking of the cases and the CDs and will fit nicely into your bag. You can also stick DVDs into the wallet and if you have Virtual GameStation, some PSX CDs.

I do that, but it really doesn't work well. I still end up losing CDs, kids getting at them, or them falling out and losing them.

I've lost several DVDs that way as well. Its a royal pain. I carry my iPod with me because I don't want to carry around my CD collection. I carry my laptop around with me 99% in the house. So no, its not always in a bag. In fact, I prefer to play my games in various comfortable places througout the house.

My goal is actually to buy an XServe with a 120GB HD or larger and archive every single CD I've got onto the hard drive. Then just network access it all. That's my goal.

My biggest issue though comes from my 2 year old toddler - who has destroyed about a few hundred $$$ of DVDs through scratching and loss even though they are kept up high out of reach, etc... Every so often he finds one and...well.

The point is, some of us have completely legitimate copies of our games. We bought them. In fact, I've REBOUGHT many games on my Mac that I owned on my PC - for two reasons. One, I wanted to play the game on my Mac, and two to support the Mac publishers. But I loved the fact that I did not have to become a manual juke-box when I wanted to play a game.

It sucks when you want to play and can't find your CD at that moment.

[wreks]

Originally posted by alex_kac:
I've tried that - but it didn't work for me. Did a DVD/CD master of my WC3 CD. No go....

Always works for me. I just did it with my wc3 cd to verify and tell you exactly how.

1) insert cd
2) launch toast 5
3) click the copy button/tab
4) select the appropriate drive from the popup
5) go to the File menu, select "Save as Disc Image..."

[joe]

Originally posted by Brad Oliver:
When I pirated a game, I found key discs to be very annoying, doubly so if the only available krack was for an earlier version of the game.

We'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you pirated your own games Although even that may be illegal given the big-brother-like legislation being passed these days.

Seriously though, as a paying customer I think key disc sucks. I don't mind being inconvenienced once, twice, or even a few more times for a good cause. But every single time I play? I bought the damn things so why should I be treated like a criminal? And why should I be inconvenienced - not to mention why should I be prevented from using my own hardware the way I want? I do agree the developers have to protect themselves and key disc must have some positive effect or they wouldn't be using it. But there's got to be a better way - something that's just as effective but doesn't prevent legit owners from using their own hardware/software the way they want. Yeah, that's a tall order. So... how about an online verification?

I only recently noticed this with my Formac Studio dv/tv after the last software update (StudioTVR). This may not be the best example though since it didn't work initially. Anyway, starting with the last update StudioTVR kept coming up with a nag requestor saying to register before it would run. If you clicked the "register" button it would launch your browser and take you to Formac's site (this part didn't work at 1st). Once you register, the software starts working perfectly! I'm not sure how it works, but I didn't download anything. The software itself must have some sort of online verification - or maybe it has to do with the web site. I don't really care. All I know is that I don't have to put up with the nagware hassle anymore and the developers KNOW my software is legit. So why can't game developers do something similar? There's got to be a way to adapt that to work with Mac gaming software....joe