Just my two-penneth worth here...
Just joined and going through a few posts...
I am running a Pentium 4 Hyperthread 3GHz with an nvidia 7300 gfx card. I run Windows XP Pro as the o/s.
With Discworld 1 and 2 I don't bother installing. I drag all of the files over from the _original_ cd into a directory on the hard drive, then run with vdmsound and a vesa graphics emulator (univbe or vbeplus). This seems to work just fine without me having to use any compatibility modes for Windows.
You DO need to keep the original cd in the drive though, as the protection is still present!
Discworld Noir installs just fine but I DON'T choose to install DirectX, as I am already running 9c. Again this runs just fine without compatibility mode but all of the menu options MUST be accessed through the F1 key.
I have to admit that I don't need the nocd crack either, Securom seems to work on my machine... (Pioneer 110 DVD Recorder)
Just thought I would throw this in...
Regards
JC
DiscWorld Noir
Moderator: ScummVM Team
Protection on DW 1 and 2? I own original CD releases of all the Discworld games and I can assure you that at least the first two games have no protection whatsoever as they are strictly CD-ROM compliant (which is more than can be said for most modern games 
). In fact, when the first two games were released, there was no such thing as a CD-ROM-based copy protection. A simple CD check, perhaps, but nothing resembling copy protection.
Also, if I'm not mistaken, the budget re-release (on 3 CDs as opposed to 4) of Discworld Noir, released by Infogrames, didn't have any copy protection on it (a rare occurrence for Infogrames).
). In fact, when the first two games were released, there was no such thing as a CD-ROM-based copy protection. A simple CD check, perhaps, but nothing resembling copy protection.Also, if I'm not mistaken, the budget re-release (on 3 CDs as opposed to 4) of Discworld Noir, released by Infogrames, didn't have any copy protection on it (a rare occurrence for Infogrames).
My apologies, I did not word my comments very well. You are quite correct, Discworld 1 and 2 do not have copy protection and do indeed have a simple cd check. I stand corrected on that one 
I seem to have one of the rare copies of Discworld Noir with a Safedisc protection on it which is why I mentioned protection but I do take your point that the re-release was free of this protection. I believe it still has some sort of cd check on it although I may be wrong.
However, putting my incorrect phrasing to one side (thanks for picking me up on that
) I have managed to get these wonderful games running (although somewhat reluctantly) on the XP platform with a few small tweaks.
Now the Vista platform... that's another matter entirely...
DosBox works quite well and, of course, the ScummVM Emulator. I haven't experimented too much with Vista lately but I will when time allows.
Regards
JC
I seem to have one of the rare copies of Discworld Noir with a Safedisc protection on it which is why I mentioned protection but I do take your point that the re-release was free of this protection. I believe it still has some sort of cd check on it although I may be wrong.
However, putting my incorrect phrasing to one side (thanks for picking me up on that
) I have managed to get these wonderful games running (although somewhat reluctantly) on the XP platform with a few small tweaks.Now the Vista platform... that's another matter entirely...
DosBox works quite well and, of course, the ScummVM Emulator. I haven't experimented too much with Vista lately but I will when time allows.
Regards
JC
Actually you are not completely wrong - there are rumours (that I can't confirm) that some particular release of Discworld 2 had an early Safedisc protection on it (which would be very early indeed if it's true). My particular build doesn't.JCDenton wrote:My apologies, I did not word my comments very well. You are quite correct, Discworld 1 and 2 do not have copy protection and do indeed have a simple cd check. I stand corrected on that one
I seem to have one of the rare copies of Discworld Noir with a Safedisc protection on it which is why I mentioned protection but I do take your point that the re-release was free of this protection. I believe it still has some sort of cd check on it although I may be wrong.
Also, there are some who claim that the first disc of some release of DW Noir had Securom on it (which would be consistent with other Infogrames releases at the time, and they haven't ever used Safedisc as far as I can remember).
Not that this has anything to do with the topic, I just mention it for completeness.
I have the original release of Discworld Noir and there's indeed a copyprotection on it. I do not know what kind of copyprotection there is, but it's only compatible with Win9x so I had to use a cracked exe to play it in 2k/XP.
As for the first two Discworld games, I never had any problems running them in DOSBox from disc images using the IMGMOUNT command. Very smooth.
As for the first two Discworld games, I never had any problems running them in DOSBox from disc images using the IMGMOUNT command. Very smooth.
That'll probably be Securom, then. I've rarely heard anyone having a problem with any incarnation of Safedisc in any Win32 OS, except a few games under XP that failed to start. But that was due to the Safedisc driver not loading properly, so it was a simple matter of upgrading the Safedisc device driver (which is built into Windows XP anyway so the patch was courtesy of Microsoft TechNet) and all those games worked flawlessly again.Freddo wrote:I have the original release of Discworld Noir and there's indeed a copyprotection on it. I do not know what kind of copyprotection there is, but it's only compatible with Win9x so I had to use a cracked exe to play it in 2k/XP.
That's not true, Safedisc is NOT built into Windows XP by default. It's installed automatically by games that are protected by Safedisc or by tools such as Daemon Tools. Yes, Microsoft does have a fix for Safedisc right here:cappuchok wrote:which is built into Windows XP anyway so the patch was courtesy of Microsoft TechNet
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en
but Safedisc is not installed by default in the OS, neither it is a Microsoft technology
[OFF TOPIC]
However, as you said, it is not a Microsoft technology - but they do use it on mostly all their games and it seems to be their copy protection of choice (and they have an agreement with Macrovision to work together to make sure Macrovision's technologies work well in Windows).
I do know that Secdrv.sys (the Safedisc driver) exists on the XP installation disc (at least the SP2 ones) and is installed by default on even a clean installation with no games except the built-in Windows games. It's easy enough to verify by installing a clean XP on a virtual machine and look for secdrv.sys. I'm sure Microsoft provides the fix mostly because they provide the original driver as part of the Windows installation.md5 wrote:Safedisc is NOT built into Windows XP by default. It's installed automatically by games that are protected by Safedisc or by tools such as Daemon Tools. Yes, Microsoft does have a fix for Safedisc right here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en
but Safedisc is not installed by default in the OS, neither it is a Microsoft technology
However, as you said, it is not a Microsoft technology - but they do use it on mostly all their games and it seems to be their copy protection of choice (and they have an agreement with Macrovision to work together to make sure Macrovision's technologies work well in Windows).
IIRC this MS update just fixes problems on LUAs (non-admins), if you run the games as admin (which highly improves the chances to get old stuff to run), this doesn't change anything.
But I'm too lazy to check the link ATM.
Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 has the same problems: Starting it on Windows XP w/o NoCD-Crack gives the highly valuabe error message:
EDIT: What I'd like to see would be a combination of DosBox and WINE as a complete V86/RealMode/ProtectedMode/DOS/Win3.11-16-Bit-Replacement that integrates well into XP. No messy DosBox configuration or additional windows, auto-detecting injected CD-ROMs and floppies, etc.
So you could use 16-Bit-Stuff on Win64, too.
Yeah, I'm dreaming in the rain...
But I'm too lazy to check the link ATM.
Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 has the same problems: Starting it on Windows XP w/o NoCD-Crack gives the highly valuabe error message:
EDIT: What I'd like to see would be a combination of DosBox and WINE as a complete V86/RealMode/ProtectedMode/DOS/Win3.11-16-Bit-Replacement that integrates well into XP. No messy DosBox configuration or additional windows, auto-detecting injected CD-ROMs and floppies, etc.
So you could use 16-Bit-Stuff on Win64, too.
Yeah, I'm dreaming in the rain...
Hi! Im interested in running Discworld series under GNU/Linux.
The wine appdb entry Discworld Noir it is dated, but claims it doesnt work. On Discwold 2 its not so dated, and also doesnt work. I dont have the games and am hesitant on obtaining them not knowing how to get it running, or if I even can.
I see the playstation version could work on GNU/Linux, since ePSXe is claimed to support them fully, and though I couldnt find definitive information, Id expect PCSX emulator would not likely do any worse, since its generally more compatible (and is free software too). Is this the only option on playing it then, for now? What about Discworld 2, is the DOS or the Playstation version better, or is it the same?
The wine appdb entry Discworld Noir it is dated, but claims it doesnt work. On Discwold 2 its not so dated, and also doesnt work. I dont have the games and am hesitant on obtaining them not knowing how to get it running, or if I even can.
I see the playstation version could work on GNU/Linux, since ePSXe is claimed to support them fully, and though I couldnt find definitive information, Id expect PCSX emulator would not likely do any worse, since its generally more compatible (and is free software too). Is this the only option on playing it then, for now? What about Discworld 2, is the DOS or the Playstation version better, or is it the same?
Although a little off-topic in this thread, I'll have a go at answering this.aryah wrote:Is this the only option on playing it then, for now? What about Discworld 2, is the DOS or the Playstation version better, or is it the same?
Discworld 1 works perfectly under DOSbox, so try it out (I really must try this on a GP2X!). As for Discworld 2, I haven't tried it under DOSbox since I prefer the Win32 flavor (runs under Win98) but the DOS version (it's on the same disc) should work under DOSbox as well, though it's broken in the latest release so use 0.63 instead (and DW2 needs at least 21000 cycles according to posts on the DOSbox site).
Discworld 2 is (IMHO) superior on the DOS format compared to the Playstation release, since the Playstation version uses low-res graphics (because of this it fits on only one disc) while the DOS and Windows versions use high-res (640x480) graphics and animations and comes on two discs.
Could you, or somebody else possibly give me some detailed, step-by-step instructions for getting Discworld 2 to run on a windows XP machine.
I have tried several methods that I have found online, but none of them have worked properly.
DOS Box is too complicated for me to use - I cannot work out how to get a full screen, sound or a game that is saveable.
This looked promising, but when I came to alter the dw2.bat file I found it contained only the text
"@echo off
dwb"
and pasting in
"vbeplus.exe
univbe.exe
dwb.exe"
simply caused the computer to crash when I tried to run it.
I have also tried installing VDMSound2.1.0 and running it from that, but whenever I click Play with VDMS, the computer cannot detect the CD-ROM.
Please help. I really want to play the game and I'm at my wits end.
Thank you,
Lucy
I have tried several methods that I have found online, but none of them have worked properly.
DOS Box is too complicated for me to use - I cannot work out how to get a full screen, sound or a game that is saveable.
This looked promising, but when I came to alter the dw2.bat file I found it contained only the text
"@echo off
dwb"
and pasting in
"vbeplus.exe
univbe.exe
dwb.exe"
simply caused the computer to crash when I tried to run it.
I have also tried installing VDMSound2.1.0 and running it from that, but whenever I click Play with VDMS, the computer cannot detect the CD-ROM.
Please help. I really want to play the game and I'm at my wits end.
Thank you,
Lucy
