Topic: Making backups of PC Games

[enigma487]

quick question for a fellow computer geek.  i'm trying to make back-ups of some of my computer games.  i've managed to rip the disc images, and burn working copies, but i would like to be able to add the patches/updates right onto the discs.  does anyone know of some software that can view and modify a cd image?

and before this turns into a flame session of people telling me that copying games is illegal, i do a lot of traveling to LAN parties and really don't like taking all of my original discs along.  it's bad enough when people try to take my custom ethernet equipment, that's cheap.  but to drop $60-$70 on a game and expansion just to have someone walk off with it?  i don't relish the thought.

thanx anyone that can help

[manunited4eva22]

I feel your pain.  I'm not sure of a way to edit an image, the only way I can think of would be to dump the files and individually apply the edits, but considering all of that,  I wouldn't even bother.  Personally I just stored the games as images on my pc and run them on a virtual drive, but thats just me.

[SearanoX]

You could always just directly the copied files onto the disk, rather than acutally install the game.

Or, you could just not try that and just download the patches.  

[mouse_clicker]

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and before this turns into a flame session of people telling me that copying games is illegal

Actually, it's not illegal at all- you can legally make backup copies of games as long as you own the original disk. I'm not sure how many you're allowed to make, but I know it's at least one.

[Locke Cole]

Your best bet is to buy Nero Burning rom, it can make great backups for your games.  The price may be a bit steep, but its worth every cent.  It is also very user friendly.

[manunited4eva22]

BAH! For images, alcohol 120%, there is no substitute.

[KDR_11k]

Nero is a steaming pile of crap. Burn-Proof is worth nothing if the goddamn software just crashes.

[enigma487]

hey manunited4eva22.  what software do you use for your virtual drive?  i haven't found anything that seems to work very well.   i did try using iso buster to grab the information out of the image, then re-burning that information, but doing that, i lost the security layer of my the images, and then couldn't play the game from them.  

well anyway, thanx everybody.

PS i partially agree with KDR.  Nero Express that comes free with stuff is a steaming pile of crap.  but if you've ever used the real software suite, it's pretty good.  lately, i've taken a liking to CD-Mate.  it has copy protection stuff built in.  it's great.

[mouse_clicker]

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hey manunited4eva22. what software do you use for your virtual drive?

He uses Alcohol 120%, like he said- excellent program. However, if you're not up to pay the $50 or so it costs, you can get Daemon Tools for free, which is also a very good virtual drive.  

[KDR_11k]

And you only need those because Windows is too stupid to loop mount an image. Good OSes (like Linux) can do that out of the box.

[Uglydot]

My discs were getting scratched, so I started using alcohol 120% to back them up before this happened.  Works well, I usually use daemon or the alc drive to mount.

[Shift Key]

Alcohol 120% combines both image-making and emulation software into one package, and I reccomend it to any gamer. Managing images is very simple, emulates better than Daemon Tools (in my opinion - Sim City 4 refused to run with DT, and the switch to Alcohol fixed that problem), and plenty of options for the control freak...