Anti-piracy measures, WTF?

Wemt out last weekend and offloaded £50 for two games, Crysis and Medal of Honour Airbourne, basically wanting something to give the new system something to think about.

I updated Crysis to the latest version, and sudden;y it wouldn't run, it just kept saying "conflict with emulation software detected", in other words, "you pirate bastard, you're running this off a downloaded CDImage and I can see you doing it!!!!!!"

I do have daemon tools, which emulates dvd drives. So I killed it. I also killed Acronis Trueimage's system service that allows you to mount your backups as hard drives to get stuff out of them, in case that was it.

Nope.

FUck it, I thought' I'll shoot nazi's instead.

Medal of Honour pulled the same crap.

Much googlage revealed that.

1. Both games use a copy protect system called secureRom.
2. Secure ROM sees all SATA DVD drives as Emulated devices (in essence, they ARE, but then so are the more common IDE drives, but nevermind).
3. SecureRom therefor assumes that anyone who owns a SATA DVD drive is a pirate.
4. The cure is to install the crack for said games.

Brilliant, their "protection" has lead to me paying 50 quid for games I can't play online or anything, AND since the things play with the crack, it's not actually done any "good" in terms of stopping cracked versions.

From now on, anything with SecureRom, I'm downloading.

Wankers!

... and it's a pity your parents weren't aware of the other word

'protection'

:p

I had that prob recently, too. I don't own illegal loaded or copied game,s and so I looked pretty surprised when my system said: Turn of emulator software (or you get shot in the head). It took me some min to get what it meant. I got a little prog running here that analyzes DVDs. But I use it just to make them run on PC. Because it is hilarious that PC-DVD-drives don't play DVDs (unless you hack them -> the drives). But I admit that's the best copy protection: Not making it run anyway. Thanks game and music industry - that's a really great achievement.

GAMES-it was P.E in my day and i was always ILL!

Bere wrote: I had that prob recently, too. I don't own illegal loaded or copied game,s and so I looked pretty surprised when my system said: Turn of emulator software (or you get shot in the head). It took me some min to get what it meant. I got a little prog running here that analyzes DVDs. But I use it just to make them run on PC. Because it is hilarious that PC-DVD-drives don't play DVDs (unless you hack them -> the drives). But I admit that's the best copy protection: Not making it run anyway. Thanks game and music industry - that's a really great achievement.

Like I say, I killed everything that could come close to being called disc emulation software, and sill no joy.

Well done the copyright police (slow, slow clapping).

I guess I'll get my next legal games off Steam, that way there IS no CD/DVD check.

BTW, hacking drives to get em to play isn't a PC problem, it's a windows problem. None of my DVD-Roms even KNOW they are region 2, cos they've never been asked to play a disc in windows.

You could always try Movix or something....boot PC from (a 40 MB) CD, and it turns into a dedicated media server that can play most things, certainly DVD.

So if you illegally downloaded those two games, which you have rightly bought the copyrights for, are you pirating?

EdelBrock wrote: So if you illegally downloaded those two games, which you have rightly bought the copyrights for, are you pirating?

Technically yes because the .exe files (which is all I downloaded, from my trusty pal gamecopyworld)I'm using have been cracked to circumvent protection.

Still it's either that or the makers of SecureRom are guilty of libel for calling me a pirate in the first place.

You're better off cracking games anyway, so you don't have to wear the disc out like they want you to.

Doctor? wrote:

EdelBrock wrote: So if you illegally downloaded those two games, which you have rightly bought the copyrights for, are you pirating?

Technically yes because the .exe files (which is all I downloaded, from my trusty pal gamecopyworld)I'm using have been cracked to circumvent protection.

Still it's either that or the makers of SecureRom are guilty of libel for calling me a pirate in the first place.

You're better off cracking games anyway, so you don't have to wear the disc out like they want you to.

Such is the irony of the 'piracy' movement. Record and software companies all talk about copyrights when suing little old grandma for illegally downloading Frank Sinatra. But if you were to produce a copy of the music/software, then they would say it had to come directly from that cd/dvd/tape/record/8-track... so which is it? You have to buy a physical copy, or are you buying copyrights?

Fuckers can screw off for all I care.

You wanna buy a Wii and get over it lad!

Dodjem wrote: ... and it's a pity your parents weren't aware of the other word

'protection'

:p

post of the day!

i bought a pirate movie once, it was rubbish - not a single galleon was in it

Steve Uno wrote: You wanna buy a Wii and get over it lad!

MarioKart doesn'y exactly stack up against GTR2 or GPL or GTL or Rfactor or LFS, and my nice leather and steel steering wheel only works on PC, Xbox and PS2/3.

Also, playing FPS games with a spazzypad rather than a keyboard and mouse is just impossible.

Doctor? wrote:

...the makers of SecureRom are guilty of libel for calling me a pirate in the first place.

I wouldn't push that one if I were you

As you've described it, it's a proper balls-up by the games people there.

EDIT: Aren't you a bit OLD for computer games though?

Yeah, replaced the exe from GCW.

It's THE most impressive thing I've ever seen, none of this crap you get in other games with a true 3d field of a few tens of metres and then a 2d wallpaper, this is like a flight sim, everything, all the way to the horizon is genuine 3d. There's a scene where a mountain collapses several miles away, it's gobsmacking.

BUT, you have a choice......

1. Play fair, and discover that a North Korean Soldier in cotton fatigues can survive an entire clip into the chest and face at 6ft, but that a Delta Force operative in a biomechanical armoured nanosuit goes down when said Korean, in the midst of being shot, pops you with his pistol. This REALLY frustrates me, when made me go for Option....
2. Turn your armour up, your suit recharge time down, and your ammo to unlimited, and get down to kicking arse. This is still by no means easy, but it's easier than default by some margin. That's when you find the game is actually very short, and that's why they made the enemies so improbably mighty. It's not 2 hours and thanks very much or anything like that, but it's not Half Life2 long.

Col, of course I'm too old. But I'm the same age as David (dog's Cock) Coulthard and he still plays the same games (albeit, one assumes, with a 100% perfect car phys model) to learn tracks. Given that a competition preared Ferrari 550 Maranello costs more than I'll earn between now and death, and also that I tend to crash a lot in games, I think virtual racing is safer for everyone, don't you. I'll leave the real live heroics to the likes of Barney Army and his Nordschleife adventures.

PS, Ally, SR is a piece of piss to beat with GCW's help.....it's NOT beating it, and playing by their rules that's a cunt. Seeing SATA DVD's as virtual drives is no accident either....all PC's connect to all burners as emulated SCSI devices, so IDE and SATA should both be treated equally. And as for it possibly choking on Acronis's backup mounter, that's just wrong, as it emulates a hard disc, no ATAPI CD interface at all. Pished off to fuck of Bangor.

so is crysis any good then doc? i wouldnt normally care but it just so happens my mate was one of the guys that made it, they worked at it for bloomin years, i hope not in vain.

eldorado wrote: so is crysis any good then doc? i wouldnt normally care but it just so happens my mate was one of the guys that made it, they worked at it for bloomin years, i hope not in vain.

It's a bit short, but it's THE most visually and environmentally impresive thing I've seen any computer do in real time. It's fucking kryptonite to PC's though.

I've got a quad core @ 3.4 GHz, an overclocked 8800GTX and 2 GB of DDR3 1600Mhz, on the latest nvidia chipset....And at 1680x1050 in Dx10 I only get 25FPS, and that nosedives the minute you switch antialiasing on to even 2x,

When PC's are available that can run it at 60fps with all the FSAA and AiF up full, it'll actually look real.

[When PC's are available that can run it at 60fps with all the FSAA and AiF up full, it'll actually look real. hey doc im right with you there, i just worry that day will never come.

El Jarvo wrote:

BIGINLYCRA wrote: EDIT: Aren't you a bit OLD for computer games though?

I'd LOVE to be able to indulge myself in Pooter Games. Fcuking great fun. It's the finding the time though, innit?

Nah, finding time to play is easy, 20 mins here or there (provided your windows doesn't take 25 to boot), finding the time to not totally stink at them, THAT's hard.

eldorado wrote: [When PC's are available that can run it at 60fps with all the FSAA and AiF up full, it'll actually look real.

hey doc im right with you there, i just worry that day will never come.

Stick 3 9800GX2's (a total therefor of 6 Nvidia Graphics processors, each the equivalent of my current 8800GTX, in my board, with MAYBE a better CPU, and I'd be up for trying[1]. 18months from now, NOT running Crysis at that sort of level will instantly consign a machine to the "sux" club. Course 3 9800GX2's would use so much power and generate so much heat, that the system would be gently boiled (much like my old Linux machine which slow-cooked it's drives). I refuse to get involved with water cooling as That Way, Madness Lies.

[]1 OK maybe not with 16x anisotropic filtering and 16Qx AntiAliasing, but maybe 8 and 8.

Half Life 2 and the two subsequent "episodes", are masterpieces. They look stunning, are deeply involving and addictive, and as such I would advise that you avoid them at all costs.

Actually Doom3 and Quake4 run like treacle on a winter morning on my new machine. Much tougher games are running at an unbroken 60FPS, but those two are just lumpy as bollox, a shame as they're both great, particularly Q4 where you get chopped up and made into a part strogg, bloody gross.

El Jarvo wrote:

Doctor? wrote: Nah, finding time to play is easy, 20 mins here or there (provided your windows doesn't take 25 to boot), finding the time to not totally stink at them, THAT's hard.

It's not 20mins though, is it? It's more like 20hrs!

Last thing I ever remember playing was Doom 3 - remember when they released that freeware 'taster' version just beforehand when it only featured 3 levels or summat. Even when you'd mastered it the thing still took a good half hour to complete. Someone then bought me the complete game for Xmas and to this day I've never even opened the packaging!

I still get sea-sickness thinking about Half-Life though.

i'll take that off your hands!

doc have you tried flicking a 2 pence up the return slot? that always worked for me when i played games, when i was a kid, years ago, before girls and drink and music and mortgages and jobs and the general thrill of being alive.

FUCK! I just submitted my benchmark scores for Crysis in Vista at Very High detail (directx10). I've only gone and posted the highest score of anyone with a quad core and a single graphics card!!!! Without even trying.

Steve's No.1 Steve's No1!!!!!!!!

It'll be beaten by morning probably, so I better enjoy it while I can.

Just so happens I know one little trick about nvidia cards that most others don't, it's either that or the £300 mumboard and £200 RAM.

17th for High detail (directx9) too.

oh baby, more.

Hey, this is like the first worthy online thing I've "won" since me and my team-mate finished 1-2 in the UKGPL 4th division Monaco race in 20001

let me have my glory.