backup of unreal tourney won't work??

[bdog]

I got a good deal on cdr's a while back so I decided to make a back up of all my cdroms and use them instead of the originals. Everything works fine except for Unreal tournament. I installed the program from the backup cd and it went fine, but when I try to play it says "plese insert ut cd" If I put the original in it works fine. Anyone have any ideas? I hate to use the original because I have already had one cd damaged due to careless handling.

[seti]

Awhile back I really damaged my need for speed: HS disk.....I came on this forum asking if there was a way to get a new disk from the company and I got what I thought was the craziest sugestion. Rub the damaged area with toothpaste...and it worked!!!! I couldn't belive it! It was this huge gash (It fell on the ground on a case screw and got stepped on)....yet it worked after I used the tooth paste. Now I don't know the extent of the damage, but it's an idea. As for backing up your cd's...and UT. Um, well, scince you actully own them I don't feel so bad sugsesting this...but you could maybe find and download a crack for it that will alow you to play without the cd. Or there may in fact be a crack, or "patch" that fixes the problem your haveing.

[bdog]

Thanks for the reply, and the info about the toothpaste trick. That is strange, but if it works, that is good to know. As far as the crack, I am not wanting to do anything illegal or go to warez sites just to backup my own cd. I just thought maybe I was doing something wrong but I don't know.

[seti]

Would applying a crack to something you own be illegal???? I wouldn't of suggested it if I thought it was. I mean, all it's doing is changeing where the game gets some of the data from the cd to the hard drive. It seams like less of a big deal then copying the whole disk. I guess it is changeing the code of the game somehow though....and I belive that's a nono. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif

I'm sorry.

[bdog]

No problem, and I didn't mean that what you were suggesting was illegal. I just meant that that there ought to be a way of backing it up without having to go to a warez site.

[U-96]

Yes I think there is a crack to avoid the cd-insert protection on UT. I think the impetus came from the mod-building community, because it was a pain in the ***. There are frequent comments about it on the UT forums.
I wouldn't be surprised if a patch will remove this. Sometimes the developers don't want protection, then the publishers think they are being clever by adding it.
Anyone into piracy on a real criminal and commercial scale wouldn't find such weak protection a problem. Most programmers tend to appreciate that.

U-96

[rl]

whenever i get a game, where very time you start you have to put the cd in, i always get the no cd crack, that way i can listen to music during the game, i figure i payed for the game, i can do what id like with it

[seti]

Yeah me too, mp3's are fine, but they take up more resourses....and I'm lazy(jk), I hate swaping disks. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[bdog]

Ok then, since the general feeling here is that it is ok and not illegal to apply this crack to my copy of unreal, could somebody point to me where to get it? Hopefully there is some legeitimite site that has it, but if not I am about to give up on figuring this out. So if the site is of questionable nature, could you email the link to me so that it isn't posted here.

[seti]

Most crack sites are crack only. But in order to not provide a resourse for people that don't own the game, I'll e-mail you.

[bdog]

Got it. Thanks for your help.

[cyphen]

Hey - I'm actually doing the same thing - you need a utility that will bitcopy the CD - a standard "data" backup (that is - just dragging the files onto a new CD) won't work. Also, the jerks put a special kind of copy protection where they make about 200 sectors on the disc unreadable, so when you try to do an .iso file, it stops at 1600 KB. I swear, if my CD gets a scratch, and they give me ANY hell about getting a replacement... I'll... well... probly do nothing and just take it.

Get the program called CloneCD by Elaborate Bytes. It can continue after coming across bad sectors, and copies by reading RAW. (a full 740 MB of data) Unfortunately, after the read, you can only write with certain cd burners, but hey - try yours, maybe it will work. Also, i believe they list what burners are supported on their website. With this program, you can copy the CD. I can't because my burner is incompatible.

Good luck.