[geeks] [rescue] Video card request

[Phil Stracchino]

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 28, 2005 at 08:54:54AM -0500, Phil Stracchino wrote:
>>Because of this, I'll probably never take the chance on buying another
>>UbiSoft game.  There's also a good chance I won't buy Halo 2 when it
>>comes out, despite how much I liked Halo, because it was such a bloody
>>battle getting Halo to work.
> 
> I've had similar problems with other games. Since they require the original
> CD to be in the drive when they start, the CD eventualy becomes so damaged
> (by a 10 year old) from taking it out, putting it away in those horrible
> vertical stack boxes and putting it back in that you can no longer install
> it from the CDs.

This is why we don't use the original CDs; we use VirtualCD to create CD
images, and install from those.  Most games run quite happily using just
the CD image.  A few (Ghost Recon, Diablo II, Civ3, for example) make it
necessary to use a No-CD patch.

> What really caused a problem was an older game, sold here as a re-issue
> in a Hebrew box, with a Hebrew instruction pamphlet that would not work if
> you had a CD or DVD burner. The original disk had to be in a read only
> drive. Luckliy Clone-CD had a way of getting around it, because how do you
> explain to a 10 year old that he just spent two month's allowance on a game
> that won't run on his computer.

I continue to wonder at the stupidity of these game companies who, in
their continuing efforts to stop people from using hacked or pirated
copies of their games, force people to use hacked or pirated copies of
their games.

Face it, you entertainment industry idiots, you're not losing half as
much sales as you think you are; the people who will only use pirated
CDs and games WEREN'T GOING TO BUY YOUR GAME OR MUSIC CD ANYWAY if they
couldn't get it for free.  Maybe if you counted actual pirate copies in
circulation, instead of saying, "Well, we think this CD/game SHOULD sell
four billion copies, any less is OBVIOUSLY the result of piracy", you
might have a more realistic picture, and you might not piss off as many
customers.  Macromedia is telling you scare stories to make you buy
their lame product.


-- 
 Phil Stracchino       phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net
    Renaissance Man, Unix generalist, Perl hacker
 Mobile: 603-216-7037         Landline: 603-886-3518