Author Topic: \"Game Drive\" from Farstone (Read 6130 times)

Wolverine of Ambush! · « **on:** October 28, 2003, 04:18:50 PM »

You are at a LAN party and the gaming begins. The first tournament starts and it is UT2003. What do you do? You get out your UT2003 Disk 1 and put into your cd tray so you can play the game. Once that tournament is over....the game of choice is Perhaps Battlefield 1942 Desert Combat... So what do you do now? If you are me and alot of other gamers.. you would open up the cdrom pull out the disk for UT2003 and then pop in the disk for BF1942. To me, that is such a big hassle.

There are patches out there that allow you to 'crack' the software so your game will not 'seek' for the cdrom. However, in some instances you need to have everyone using that 'crack' in order for everyone to be able to play together. With that being said... I think I have found an AWESOME alternative to having to swap out cd's all the time.

There is a company called Farstone that has created some software called "Game Drive" . This software allows you to take your game cd's and create VCD images of them. It also gives you the ability to create up to 23 virtual drives on your system. Once creating a VCD of the disk(s), you insert it into one of your newly created virtual drives, and install the game onto your computer using the VCD. Once installed, you can take out the physical cd and OOOOlah!

A copy of that cd is now on your harddrive and was installed using that vcd in the virtual drive you created. The game will now reference it in the virtual drive and you no longer need to swap that game cd in/out. When you reboot, the VCD images are still in the virtual drives you have created.

For example, I have created a VCD image of UT2003 disk 1, MOHAA Disk 1, and BF1942 disk 1. I created 3 virtual drives (H, I, J). I have insert these VCD's into those virtual drives. Now when I start up a game... I don't need the actual cd's anymore.. The games start right up. No more swapping disks in/out. YAHOOOOOOO!

By now, you probably have a question like..."But doesn't that use hard drive space?" The answer is yes. I do not know how big my VCD's are because I am at work writing this, however, I will update you all after I get home.

If you are interested... you can get it at GOGAMER.COM for about $20.

Not a bad price for the convenience of not having to switch cd's anymore.

Wolverine of Ambush! · « **Reply #1 on:** October 28, 2003, 08:23:39 PM »

I looked at the sizes of the VCD's I created..

BF disk1 is 754mb
BF disk2 is 447mb
MOHAA disk1 is 641mb
UT2003 disk1 is 651mb

I am ok with that space being used up for the convenience of not having to keep popping cd's in/out.

ZWarrior · « **Reply #2 on:** October 29, 2003, 01:25:02 PM »

Seems to me that a 3rd drive just for the VCDs would be the answer to storage.

Zeet · « **Reply #3 on:** October 29, 2003, 02:08:56 PM »

I had the symantec ver of this called Virtual Drive and loved it the only problem was that they never updated it to work on the newly encrypted CD's. So I haven't used it since. BUT, when it worked it was awesome! You just start a game and boom you are there!!! Plus no concern of bringing cd's to LAN Parties, where bad apples could swipe or you breaking them during transporting your stuff.
:rolling:rolling:rolling

Wolverine of Ambush! · « **Reply #4 on:** October 29, 2003, 10:15:26 PM »

this program has Live update as part of it.. so the latest games are being updated... woo hooo!

jharsh · « **Reply #5 on:** October 31, 2003, 10:35:00 PM »

wow just what I was looking for. Now one question... Can I convert these to standard iso format in case my original cracks. I need iso files to burn a cd.

jharsh · « **Reply #6 on:** November 01, 2003, 10:30:37 PM »

found something better for my use. Visit http://www.gamecopyworld.com and download the patch for the game you want to run without the cd (if they have it). I used this site for bf1942/aoe2/settlers4 and a few others. Some may think it's a borderline illegal but as long as you have the original cd's.

BTW
that site was released on live tv on the screensavers at techtv.:8o:

Wolverine of Ambush! · « **Reply #7 on:** November 03, 2003, 09:22:58 AM »

'my original cracks' .. I am assuming you are referencing your original cd's... Well you would no longer need the original cd's. Once you create the VCD's you have the cd's on your hard drive.. Just install it from those...

I hope that is what you meant...

ZWarrior · « **Reply #8 on:** November 03, 2003, 01:21:11 PM »

BTW, when you crack the BF1942 install, that usually means that you can only play with other people with that same crack installed. all the "pure" players won't be able to play with you.

n1c · « **Reply #9 on:** November 20, 2003, 02:28:03 PM »

thats ALWAYS the case with BF1942 if there are files that are different on the server than the pc your playing on it will not let you play on that server... also good luck finding a server thats cracked with the same one that you used, if you find one at all!!!!

n1c · « **Reply #10 on:** November 20, 2003, 02:31:47 PM »

I used to have a virtual drive program for win 98/ME but it will not work on 2000 or 2002

so I have been looking around for another prog to do this, but right now I dont have enuff hard drive space... unless I put them on my C: drive but then I would need to replace them every time i reloaded my OS

ZWarrior · « **Reply #11 on:** November 20, 2003, 03:25:09 PM »

Drive costs are now down to below $1/GB.

Go find a 40GB drive!

n1c · « **Reply #12 on:** November 20, 2003, 06:12:51 PM »

Yeah but I dont have the money to spend on hard drives right now

ZWarrior · « **Reply #13 on:** November 20, 2003, 10:33:24 PM »

We'll take this up in the proper thread.

Boomslang · « **Reply #14 on:** January 22, 2004, 08:17:57 AM »

Well I got gamedrive. First BACKUP! After three attempts and two blue screens of death and six hard reboots. I now have it working. If I was getting paid by the hour I would be a very rich man.
The problem came on the auto update to 8.0. The third time it worked.

Boomslang · « **Reply #15 on:** December 14, 2004, 04:10:20 PM »

My Game Drive update has not updated for some time now I went to the website and they have a new version out 9.0.
The want $20 to upgrade. Is it worth it. I hate programs you have to buy over and over every time a new version comes out.

PS. how come the spell check doesn't work for me?

JollyRoger · « **Reply #16 on:** December 15, 2004, 01:12:44 AM »

I don't think it is worth it, they cost too much money and too much Hard Drive Space.
I'd just start finding NoCD Cracks. Free and little to no space.
at least that is what id do.

Spell Checker is Broke!

Morpheus · « **Reply #17 on:** December 15, 2004, 10:56:12 AM »

I use a free tool called deamon tools The drawback is that you need another tool that is capable of making exact 1 to 1 images of your game disks. There are a few out there, but I have not found any free versions. I use the demo of Alcohol 120 Since I have multiple pc's, and reload semi regularly I can usually get an image created. Plus each time they upgrade, you can install a new demo version.

Wolverine of Ambush! · « **Reply #18 on:** December 15, 2004, 12:14:39 PM »

I have Game Drive and love it. I have to update mine.

Yes. it takes up harddrive space because you are making a virtual drive of the cd.

But don't forget you don't have bring as many cd's when traveling.

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Author Topic: \"Game Drive\" from Farstone (Read 6130 times)