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| 7 MAY 2005 at 4:04pm |
krkdnosePrivate Detective
Posts : 707
Joined: 9 JUN 2004
Status : Online | Originally Posted By SirDave (7 MAY 2005 1:47am)
I don't know if this is of any use to anybody, but there is something called Starf*ck Tools (seriously) that makes a mini-image such that you can play Starforce games having disabled IDE drives w/o disconnecting cables.
http://www.gameburnworld.com/cdprotectionutilities.htm
Starf*ck (and Starforce Nightmare) won't actually make mini-images. It will only allow you to use mini-images that you've either made or obtained elsewhere. It can help if you can't get your original copy working for whatever reason (blacklisted software installed on your computer for instance), but it's mostly for being able to play the games from a backup copy instead of the original. The Starforce drivers are still installed on your computer however. And the newest versions of Star Force have blacklisted the use of mini-images by implementing a complete cd-content check.
Anyway, I only recommend the use of either Starf*uck or Starforce Nightmare if you know what you're doing or you're really brave.
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| 7 MAY 2005 at 5:35pm |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Wanderer (7 MAY 2005 11:34am)
Mark, there's some instructions for this problem at the Daemon Tools forum website here:
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/portal/viewtopic.php?t=506
Yay! I got rid of the non-existant (virtual) "F:" drive letter by reading the topic you provided.
Thanks, Jenny, but I didn't have to re-install Daemon-Tools to get rid of this drive "F:". Now I just have my little "E:" CD-ROM drive letter - all by its little lonesome - the way it likes it. In its circa 1999 P350MHz sort of way. [smiley=zombie.gif]
Originally Posted By Wanderer (7 MAY 2005 11:34am)
I'm sure you've upgraded your hard drive since then?
Oh, yes! A bit more than that, as well. Go to Andromus' Topic in the Off-Topic Forum called Graphics Card Recommendations and see what I have now (finally - after six years of reading labels of game specs, sighing, and putting games back on shelves) for a new PC.
Originally Posted By Wanderer (7 MAY 2005 11:34am)
If not, then you would really be missing out on a lot of adventure games which use at least 2-3Gb or more (Myst IV for example) installation space. Also, having lots of free space to mount images in virtual drives is a great way to play those multi-disk games such as Obsidian, Riven, GK2 without ANY prompts for disk swapping.
I can't wait to do a (or so I've heard) the full install of 8 Gigabytes that Myst: Revelation takes. And I am so cock-of-the-walk with my new BFG nVidia GeForce 6800GT OC. A little overkill, really. Six years of throwing pocket change into a bucket, I tell ya!
Originally Posted By Wanderer (7 MAY 2005 11:34am)
I think you're being unnecessarily paranoid about Safedisc.
Wanderer, I realize now I have played older games that had SafeDisc installed, and I never even knew. I won't be so paranoid now - just a little cautious, maybe.
Originally Posted By Wanderer (7 MAY 2005 11:34am)
With Starforce though, there seems to be growing animosity towards it and judging by the problems some people have had with it, understandably so. I'm hoping that when (if) Still Life is released in the UK that Starforce protection won't be used on it, otherwise I'll avoid buying it.
Yes, it's a quandary that Still Life will have StarForce installed on the U.S. version, and I don't think I be getting it for that very reason. Not at least until I hear more about it.
Jenny100, Bazza_v2.5, SirDave, MrLipid, krkdnose, and Wanderer - many thanks for all your input and real help.
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 7 MAY 2005 at 7:24pm |
Jenny100Guild Master
Posts : 3510
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Mark (7 MAY 2005 5:35pm)
Oh, yes! A bit more than that, as well. Go to Andromus' Topic in the Off-Topic Forum called Graphics Card Recommendations and see what I have now (finally - after six years of reading labels of game specs, sighing, and putting games back on shelves) for a new PC.
[smiley=shudder.gif] It really does look like a yellow school bus. [smiley=shudder.gif]
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| 8 MAY 2005 at 5:57am |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Jenny100 (7 MAY 2005 7:23pm)
It really does look like a yellow school bus.
Jenny, it's beautiful. It really is in person. In fact, the finish was applied with many coats of paint - the same kind of paints used for auto body finishes.
In fact, I'm not supposed to use any ammonia-based cleaners, but a mild car cleaner/polisher instead!
And I'm gonna mod this "Yellow Bird" schoolbus, baby!
I'm going to find a miniature model railroad octagon red "Stop" sign that will mount on the side, and swing out when the 6800GT OC starts to blow up!
[img]http://www.mindspring.com/~markparrish/YellowSchoolbus.jpg[/img]
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 8 MAY 2005 at 10:01am |
lexxy2uIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 21
Joined: 18 JAN 2003
Status : Online | Yes, Still Life does have the keyless protection feature and I found out the hard way. I paid my hard earnd money for the game based on reviews and was prepard to make a copy to play and add the oproginal to my Won't sell/trade collection and found that I could not copy the game. I personally DO NOT feel that I am cheating the company by making a copy of the game that I PAID for. I will be very careful in the future when I buy a game. IF I had known that the game was procted I would have thought carefully before purchasing it but there was no mention of Starforce at the site or for that matter on the box. I feel the consumer should be advised and let them make an intellegent choice. Enough of my venting, I will either buy another copy or be Verrrrry careful with the one I have. ???
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| 8 MAY 2005 at 7:46pm |
Jenny100Guild Master
Posts : 3510
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Wait until you've finished the game before you decide whether or not you want to keep it or buy a second copy. Whether you like the game or not, it will certainly be less expensive in a few months.
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| 9 MAY 2005 at 12:16am |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4940
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By krkdnose (7 MAY 2005 4:04pm)
Starf*ck (and Starforce Nightmare) won't actually make mini-images. It will only allow you to use mini-images that you've either made or obtained elsewhere. It can help if you can't get your original copy working for whatever reason (blacklisted software installed on your computer for instance), but it's mostly for being able to play the games from a backup copy instead of the original. The Starforce drivers are still installed on your computer however. And the newest versions of Star Force have blacklisted the use of mini-images by implementing a complete cd-content check.
Anyway, I only recommend the use of either Starf*uck or Starforce Nightmare if you know what you're doing or you're really brave.
Thanks for clarifying it; I didn't describe it very well. I really just wanted people to know about those tools since until recently I didn't know they existed. And you're right- no one should fool around with them unless they know what they do & they know what they're doing!
The future ain't what it used to be!
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| 9 MAY 2005 at 1:41pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By SirDave (9 MAY 2005 12:16am)
...no one should fool around with (Starf*uck or Starforce Nightmare) unless they know what they do & they know what they're doing!
All this just to play a legitimately purchased game.
What's wrong with this picture?
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| 9 MAY 2005 at 6:43pm |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4940
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By MrLipid (9 MAY 2005 1:41pm)
All this just to play a legitimately purchased game.
What's wrong with this picture?
One of the reasons I think people like you & I get so p/o'd by things like StarForce is that we find it so downright presumptuous that someone would have the gall to fool with the relationship of our drives with our system ie. 'just so you won't fool with our one stupid game, we're going to monitor stuff going through the motherboard to the drive and screw with it.' These are the workings of some nerd-idiot in a little office somewhere who then presents it to some idiot executive who thinks it's just great!
The future ain't what it used to be!
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| 9 MAY 2005 at 6:57pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | If publishers don't want to run the risk of having the likes of me looking at their intellectual property, I am more than happy to oblige.
They can keep their property, I can keep my money and that should make both of us happier.
Well, they may be less happy than I am but that just balances the time when I was less happy than they were.
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| 9 MAY 2005 at 7:04pm |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Jenny100 (7 MAY 2005 7:23pm)
[smiley=shudder.gif] It really does look like a yellow school bus. [smiley=shudder.gif]
One more thing, Jenny100. Are those little 'bouncing around" icons supposed to be the terrified schoolchildren being carried around on the big yellow BlueBird® schoolbus? Before seatbelts?
[font=Book Antiqua]...or do schoolbuses have seatbelts now, anyway?
[smiley=shudder.gif] [smiley=shudder.gif] It certainly brought back memories of riding those buses when I was a kid! [smiley=shudder.gif] [smiley=shudder.gif]
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 9 MAY 2005 at 8:45pm |
Jenny100Guild Master
Posts : 3510
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | More like a personal horror of ugly yellow school buses.
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| 9 MAY 2005 at 10:54pm |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | "But...but, think of the children!!! :'(
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 10 MAY 2005 at 5:51am |
Jenny100Guild Master
Posts : 3510
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | I'm sure they're horrified too.
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| 10 MAY 2005 at 7:02am |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Jenny100 (10 MAY 2005 5:50am)
I'm sure they're horrified too.
Not of my new yellow computer, they're not! The games? Well...yeah...scared to death.
[font=Book Antiqua]"You're playing "Myst : Revelation??" "Ew!" "But you could be playing Half-Life 2 or Doom 3!!"
"Children, children; my dear little ones. If you don't like what I'm playing, we can always play "Tele-Tubbies: Search for the Yellow Custard".
"Eeeewwwwwww!!!!" "No, no; Myst is fine." "You play that, and we'll go play "World of Warcraft" on our new PSPs. Bye, Unca Mark!"
...slight mumbling as doors slam: "He's wack." "Unca Mark's got a pimp-daddy comp with all the bling-bling, and he's playing Myst!?"
"Eh, forget him." "You are pwn'd by me this round!!"
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 13 MAY 2005 at 3:02am |
krkdnosePrivate Detective
Posts : 707
Joined: 9 JUN 2004
Status : Online | Originally Posted By lexxy2u (8 MAY 2005 10:01am)
Yes, Still Life does have the keyless protection feature and I found out the hard way. I paid my hard earnd money for the game based on reviews and was prepard to make a copy to play and add the oproginal to my Won't sell/trade collection and found that I could not copy the game. I personally DO NOT feel that I am cheating the company by making a copy of the game that I PAID for.
For anyone interested, there's a "crack" available for Still Life that will allow you to play it without the Star Force drivers ever being installed. Technically, it's not even really a "crack". The first demo for this game was unprotected, and you can use the files from that to play the regular game. After you install the game, you just replace the game executable and four .dll files with the ones from the "crack" before you start the game. If you do this, the Star Force drivers won't be installed, but you can still play the game...without having to have the CD in the drive either.
You can also back up the game, as long as you use this solution to install and play it from the back up.
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| 13 MAY 2005 at 3:31pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | So, if I'm understanding this correctly, Still Life, for those who can't play it thanks to its copy control, may be playable by taking advantage of what appears to be a careless release of the first demo.
And this is supposed to be a consumer product?
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| 22 MAY 2005 at 7:50pm |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By MrLipid (13 MAY 2005 3:31pm)
So, if I'm understanding this correctly, Still Life, for those who can't play it thanks to its copy control, may be playable by taking advantage of what appears to be a careless release of the first demo.
And this is supposed to be a consumer product?
MrLipid, excellent point. Thanks, because your post also gave me the unabashedly rude opportunity to bump the topic up (and it also has some of our dear departed Anne's final and funny "one-liner" posts, too).
I apologize for the bump, and the Off-Topic forays into big, large, and yellow "boxes".
And I still am missing Anne. :'(
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 23 MAY 2005 at 5:01pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Mark (22 MAY 2005 7:49pm)
MrLipid, excellent point.
Thanks.
Who knows. Maybe the day will come when PC games again behave like consumer products. Wouldn't that be something to see?
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| 6 JUN 2005 at 2:24pm |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Well,I did it, ignoring the sage advice of others and my better judgement.
I installed and played Still Life (2-CD, U.S. version). Very good game, rather easy, some very tricky puzzles (and some very mundane but fun puzzles). It flows smoothly through miserable-weather and gloomy rain-slicked graphics - if that's your thing. In other words- beautiful in a nihilistic sort-of-way.
Still Life ran flawlessly, had a easy interface, no bugs, no crashes, artistically gorgeous - if bleak - fantastically-rendered backgrounds, plus actually decent-looking & acting 3d humanoid game characters.
Then I uninstalled the game using the games uninstaller.
And sho' 'nuff. Left all kinds of caca on my hard drive - and I don't mean just Saved Games.
So, I did the Acronis TruImage 8.0 "revert", as recommended by krkdnose and SirDave (Thanks!), and Voila! All nasties gone.
Never, never again will I do this. Too much trouble just to play a game, no matter how fabulous it's supposed to be.
Still Life was a well-performing game, wonderfully crafted, brilliantly executed with a very compelling story, but now I'm off to play Aura. I need some fantasy and beauty.
No Copy Protection hassles with Aura, and So What? if I have to keep CD 1 in the drive? No biggie. The time-consuming "clean-ups" after these StarForce-protected games ain't worth the trouble.
I don't want that Copy-Protection junk embedded in my Hard Drive after I uninstall a game, and I don't think any of y'all do, either.
So:
Still Life as an Adventure Game?: A
StarForce?: The Black Hole of Suck-tion: F-
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 6 JUN 2005 at 5:06pm |
StilerJourneyman
Posts : 1460
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, TN
Status : Offline | IMO Copy protection only ends up in the long run hurting the legit paying customers.
BTW, starforce has a cleaner on their home page for their "copy protection." [smiley=crazy.gif]
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| 6 JUN 2005 at 5:25pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Stiler (6 JUN 2005 5:06pm)
IMO Copy protection only ends up in the long run hurting the legit paying customers.
Couldn't agree more.
BTW, starforce has a cleaner on their home page for their "copy protection."
Wonder why no game that I have heard of either ships with the removal tool or installs the removal tool? Why should gamers be required to track down the StarForce website and find the tool on their own? And why can't StarForce remove itself when the game is uninstalled?
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| 6 JUN 2005 at 6:50pm |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4940
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Mark (6 JUN 2005 2:23pm)
I installed and played Still Life (2-CD, U.S. version). Very good game, rather easy, some very tricky puzzles (and some very mundane but fun puzzles). It flows smoothly through miserable-weather and gloomy rain-slicked graphics - if that's your thing. In other words- beautiful in a nihilistic sort-of-way.
Still Life ran flawlessly, had a easy interface, no bugs, no crashes, artistically gorgeous - if bleak - fantastically-rendered backgrounds, plus actually decent-looking & acting 3d humanoid game characters.
Then I uninstalled the game using the games uninstaller.
And sho' 'nuff. Left all kinds of caca on my hard drive - and I don't mean just Saved Games.
So, I did the Acronis TruImage 8.0 "revert", as recommended by krkdnose and SirDave (Thanks!), and Voila! All nasties gone.
Never, never again will I do this. Too much trouble just to play a game, no matter how fabulous it's supposed to be.
Still Life was a well-performing game, wonderfully crafted, brilliantly executed with a very compelling story, but now I'm off to play Aura. I need some fantasy and beauty.
Glad our 'solution' worked for you. But I wouldn't take the extreme action of 'never, never again will I do this.'. Think about it: although restoring an image seems like a huge hassle when you first do it, it's amazing how you can get fairly used to it and actually, it only takes minutes. I think the effort is worth it to get several hours out of good game- after all, you did seem to enjoy Still Life.
Now don't get me wrong, I am just as ticked off over StarForce as Mr. Lipid. It is an unfair, ridiculous piece of crap. But we can't let it stop our playing the games. I'd like to think that we could force the end of StarForce by a boycott, but we just don't have the clout to do it, as far as I can tell!
Consider it as you would, say, marriage: it gets more complicated every day, it's grossly unfair and inequitable, once you're installed, you can't extricate yourself easily and no-one provides an easy un-install. And yet, people continue to do it!
[size=0.5](Did I just say that?)
The future ain't what it used to be!
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| 6 JUN 2005 at 7:39pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By SirDave (6 JUN 2005 6:50pm)
Now don't get me wrong, I am just as ticked off over StarForce as Mr. Lipid. It is an unfair, ridiculous piece of crap. But we can't let it stop our playing the games.
Oh, I think we can. At least, I can.
By the time I am done with all the fiddling I need to do to set up my system to play a StarForce controlled game, I am not in the mood to play because I know I have to undo everything I've done to get back to work.
It is no longer a question of playing a game. It's a question of finding enough time to unplug all the things StarForce doesn't like, plug in those things StarForce tolerates, reboot, play a bit and then do the whole routine backwards in order to start working again.
I have never played a game that was compelling enough to keep me playing with that level of grief as its price of admission.
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