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| 1 DEC 2003 at 5:19am |
Britney_SpearsIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 77
Joined: 2 DEC 2002
Status : Online | That is NOT good to hear....If Star Force was meant to protect the game from pirates....Who protects us gamers from Star Force?
What a paradox!
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| 1 DEC 2003 at 5:26am |
DracheHexeIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 39
Joined: 26 AUG 2003
Status : Online | So what's so horrible about that? I can safely say that probably 1 out of 3 games I install leave some garbage or other after the uninstall. Of course, it's uncommon that these "leftovers" cause problems, but it's not the first time.
There have been several games, some still unpatched, that have caused problems with hardware, software, and even the OS long after the game was uninstalled.
I wouldn't say this is by any means a tradegy in gaming. Besides, it seems like Dreamcatcher does have a solution to the problem, so why worry?
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| 1 DEC 2003 at 7:14am |
SusanGuild Master
Posts : 5485
Joined: 13 OCT 2002
Location: 0
Status : Offline |
Sure, you can get a program to remove the extra files AFTER you contact Dreamcatcher.
Originally Posted By DracheHexe (1 DEC 2003 5:25am)
So what's so horrible about that?
Don't you realize this means the apocalypse is coming?
I miss my Bubba: 1986 - 2006.
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| 1 DEC 2003 at 2:28pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By DracheHexe (1 DEC 2003 5:25am)
Besides, it seems like Dreamcatcher does have a solution to the problem, so why worry?
Hmm. Some solution. Feed Dreamcatcher more information than is usually required to buy something online for no purpose other than removing copy protection debris left over by a legitimately purchased product.
Call me cranky, grumpy, even, but this really isn't my idea of an entertainment experience and I see no reason to support this sort of nonsense with my entertainment dollars. reamcatcher's intellectual property is safe from me because I have no plans to purchase any more of it. >
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| 1 DEC 2003 at 5:14pm |
LagavulinPrivate Detective
Posts : 475
Joined: 21 OCT 2002
Status : Online |
It can not be Starforce itself that does this "thing".
I have played and uninstalled In Memoriam which uses the same "copy protection"Starforce) and with this game it never even installed these files(mentioned above) and of course never left them on the computer.
Cheers
FOR THE MOMENT I AM PLAYING ON MY Win 7&&&&Recently Played&& ark Fall Lost Souls,Outcry,SH vs A Lupin,Tales of Monkey Island,Still Life 2,Sinking Island,Pandora Directive (RP),The Lost Crown
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| 1 DEC 2003 at 5:20pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Lagavulin (1 DEC 2003 5:13pm)
I have played and uninstalled In Memoriam which uses the same "copy protection"Starforce) and with this game it never even installed these files(mentioned above) and of course never left them on the computer.
Are you running 98SE or XP? It may not need to install them on XP.
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| 1 DEC 2003 at 6:22pm |
jamarchandSchattenjger
Posts : 1665
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | I have a pirate copy of Black Mirror....The game already came with a crack soluction.
All these protection softwares are void, ridiculous and unnefective.
 &&&&[move]Actually playing SHIVERS and Rhem 2[/move]&&
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| 1 DEC 2003 at 6:33pm |
AyaGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7277
Joined: 16 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By jamarchand (1 DEC 2003 6:21pm)
All these protection softwares are void, ridiculous and unnefective.
i couldn't agree more! i never understood (throughout 15+ years of gaming) why don't companies FINALLY get it... all that copy protections manage to do is to piss the ppl that buy their products off, while everyone can get a cracked copy and avoid all the copy protection crap... :
the only "protection" i ever saw that was clever and kinda effective was what sierra did to conquests of the longbow (and other games too) where you needed the (printed in a nice book not thrown in pdf back in those days...) manual to get important hints to solve puzzles (still remember the palm decyphering puzzle!)
You have gotten the attention of the mysterious lady. She turns to face you. Her face is devoid of any flesh. You are frozen with horror as she begins ripping your body into a bloody mess.
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| 1 DEC 2003 at 6:38pm |
GreatPumpkinSpace Cadet
Posts : 162
Joined: 19 OCT 2003
Status : Online | One of my favorates was the Wheel-O-Pirates for the original Monkey Island. It was relatively quick and painless.
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| 1 DEC 2003 at 8:27pm |
LagavulinPrivate Detective
Posts : 475
Joined: 21 OCT 2002
Status : Online |
Oopss! Sorry Mr Lipid:
Forgot to mention, I use Win XP.
FOR THE MOMENT I AM PLAYING ON MY Win 7&&&&Recently Played&& ark Fall Lost Souls,Outcry,SH vs A Lupin,Tales of Monkey Island,Still Life 2,Sinking Island,Pandora Directive (RP),The Lost Crown
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| 1 DEC 2003 at 8:59pm |
Jenny100Guild Master
Posts : 3510
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | According to what I've read on the Internet, there are three different varieties of StarForce. In Memoriam may be using a different one from the one Dreamcatcher is using. Or the uninstaller for In Memoriam may be better at removing whatever was added by StarForce. In any case, using a "system restore" seems to get rid of the problem, if your version of Windows supports it. This does not help those with Win 98, or those whose system restore is not working properly. Dreamcatcher should post a link to the StarForce uninstaller on their website.
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| 1 DEC 2003 at 9:24pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | The StarForce uninstaller (SFCLEAN.EXE) is available as part of a patch for World War II: Frontline Command.
You can find a link to the patch HERE. Look for wwii_fix_2ksp4.zip.
(Bizarrely enough, this patch was designed to address problems arising between StarForce and Win2K installations patched with Service Pack 4.)
I discovered a few of the StarForce files in my system (and in my Registry!), ran SFCLEAN.EXE, the system rebooted and all traces of StarForce were gone.
That said, Dreamcatcher should make the uninstaller freely available. It should not be necessary to submit 14 different data points before being supplied with something that should ship with any title using StarForce as its copy protection.
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 12:29am |
adventuredogGuild Master
Posts : 3255
Joined: 14 JAN 2003
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By jamarchand (1 DEC 2003 6:21pm)
I have a pirate copy of Black Mirror.... Boo! Hiss! What are you doing with a pirated copy?
Still adventuring after all these years!
Patiently awaiting The Last Crown: Haunting of Hallowed Isle, and Bracken Tor...
... and Asylum if it's not tooooo scary...
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 2:24am |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4953
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Copy protection devices like Starforce are one good reason to make use of the Restore capability if you are using WinME or WinXP. Simply set a Restore point before installing the game and when the game is finished you can Restore back to that point. That won't remove the drivers themselves, but will restore the registry so it doesn't know the drivers exist. The only conceivable problem that might arise is if any of the copy protection drivers actually replaced one of the regular system drivers the registry looks for, but that is unlikely since it would potentially cause so much havoc that companies would not want to use that form of copy protection to begin with.
The future ain't what it used to be!
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 2:55am |
AyaGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7277
Joined: 16 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By SirDave (2 DEC 2003 2:23am)
Copy protection devices like Starforce are one good reason to make use of the Restore capability if you are using WinME or WinXP. Simply set a Restore point before installing the game and when the game is finished you can Restore back to that point.
of course that would work only if you don't install or generally change anything else while you play the game, and that's smth that very rarely happens
You have gotten the attention of the mysterious lady. She turns to face you. Her face is devoid of any flesh. You are frozen with horror as she begins ripping your body into a bloody mess.
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 5:35am |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4953
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Dark Aya (2 DEC 2003 2:55am)
of course that would work only if you don't install or generally change anything else while you play the game, and that's smth that very rarely happens
Very true and that can be a problem. But, at the very least one should set a Restore point because if you start having system problems due to driver conflicts, restarting may save you some hastle even if you have to reinstall some other stuff.
The future ain't what it used to be!
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 12:12pm |
jamarchandSchattenjger
Posts : 1665
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By adventuredog (2 DEC 2003 12:29am)
Boo! Hiss! What are you doing with a pirated copy?
Playing in a cheaper way!
&&&&[move]Actually playing SHIVERS and Rhem 2[/move]&&
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 3:46pm |
| Deleted User | A tech support guy from StarForce started posting this morning on the TAC forum, attempting to defend their copy protection system and offering to help those who have been screwed over by StarForce.. You can get a glimpse of the action here.
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 4:32pm |
SnowmanSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 309
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Online | I think I'm going to do what BacadiJim has suggested a lot of other people are doing.....Not buy any Adventure Company games until they drop that crappy copy-protection system (unless I can find a cracked pirated one)! Ridiculous!!!
A company that uses a crap system like one that can screw up your PC DESERVES to have their games pirated!!
Never do anything half-assed, always use your WHOLE ass!!
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 5:31pm |
MichalNGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7058
Joined: 14 SEP 2003
Status : Online | Originally Posted By jamarchand (2 DEC 2003 12:12pm)
Playing in a cheaper way!
Now we know why we paying customers have to suffer through crap like StarForce. That's not gonna make you very popular, jamarchand...
I forgot my sig.
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 6:15pm |
adventuredogGuild Master
Posts : 3255
Joined: 14 JAN 2003
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By MichalN (2 DEC 2003 5:31pm)
Now we know why we paying customers have to suffer through crap like StarForce. That's not gonna make you very popular, jamarchand... NOT AT ALL POPULAR! >
To Snowman - No one DESERVES to have their games pirated. That is theft.
Still adventuring after all these years!
Patiently awaiting The Last Crown: Haunting of Hallowed Isle, and Bracken Tor...
... and Asylum if it's not tooooo scary...
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 6:30pm |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4953
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By BacardiJim (2 DEC 2003 3:46pm)
A tech support guy from StarForce started posting this morning on the TAC forum, attempting to defend their copy protection system and offering to help those who have been screwed over by StarForce.. You can get a glimpse of the action here.
BJ. I see that you just skirted around the problem in your usual passive, subtle, non-assertive way with that Starforce guy. Why not let him know how you really feel?
The future ain't what it used to be!
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 6:48pm |
AyaGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7277
Joined: 16 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By MichalN (2 DEC 2003 5:31pm)
Now we know why we paying customers have to suffer through crap like StarForce. That's not gonna make you very popular, jamarchand...
and i say again: crap like starforce obviously can be cracked... it's been done for decades... so why the hell don't companies realize that their programs will be cracked no matter what and stop make paying customers suffer?
You have gotten the attention of the mysterious lady. She turns to face you. Her face is devoid of any flesh. You are frozen with horror as she begins ripping your body into a bloody mess.
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| 2 DEC 2003 at 6:53pm |
MichalNGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7058
Joined: 14 SEP 2003
Status : Online | Originally Posted By adventuredog (2 DEC 2003 6:15pm)
To Snowman - No one DESERVES to have their games pirated. That is theft.
No one deserves to have their PCs messed up by so-called copy protection schemes either. Wait for the class action lawsuits.
I forgot my sig.
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