TOAW I & ACOW No CD Option

[General Staff]

Hi,

Been a while. Looking to get back into TOAWIII, but need to convert some scenarios from TOAWI. It was always a pain loading this with a CD in the drive for both TOAWI and ACOW and I'm going to have to go TOAWI->ACOW->TOAWIII to convert so this will be more of a pain.

There used to be a No-CD set of instructions which included .icd files in a c: location and a couple of registry changes to allow for startup without a CD. I used to have these, but time and a new PC or two have unfortunately taken their toll.

Anyone remember them, where they are or how to perform these operations? I used to have an instructions text file which I know I distributed to some folks out there.

Any help earns my eternal gratitude.

Best,

General Ising/Staff

[Currahee]

Hi Chris, welcome back!

They're right here....go "game action" from the menu at the top of this page; then, "member hosted web sites"; then, "TOAW/COW Mods & Patches"

Ed Morris "Currahee"

[General Staff]

Hi Chris, welcome back!

They're right here....go "game action" from the menu at the top of this page; then, "member hosted web sites"; then, "TOAW/COW Mods & Patches"

Thanks, Ed, and good to hear your voice again too. I've checked in from time to time, but not many posts. If any time, mostly AARs versus Elmer for newbies over at GS (ex WHQ).

The link works for ACOW brilliantly, but not TOAW I. To convert scenarios I need a No-CD for this too. The original text step-by-step text instrux worked for both (with obvious differences for file structure) so if anyone has these appreciated.

[General Staff]

After some extensive searching deep in the bowels of TOAW history here it is for future reference: http://forums.gamesquad.com/showthread.php?t=548. Or in case this goes- text:

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ALF (04-19-2002 12:07 p.m.):
1. Use 'Unsafediscv1.5.5' (CW uses safedisc 1.5.xx so that's the one, don't try with other versions) to remove the safedisc copy protection on both opart files...
HOWTO: Put the *.ICD and the *.exe's + the dplayerx.dll in a directory, put unsafedisc in another directory (must not be the same!), launch unsafedisc, select the icd and go, repeat the procedure on both opart files

2. Copy the root level files of the TOAW-CW CD onto a directory on your HD

3. Use 'VSubst' to substitute the newly made directory as a CD volume

4. Edit registry key pointing out the TOAW-CW volume: "cd_path"="X:\TOAW-CW\" to correspond to your newly made virtual cd directory

--- this part by ALF

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found an even easyer way!
1) un-safedisk the files as mentioned above.
2) create a new dir and in this dir create a file called TOAWintro.smk (I simply renamed a small .txt file)
3) change the registry setting ( HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TalonSoft\The Operational Art of War, CW ) cd_path to point to the new folder you've just created.

4) done

--- this part by Kraut

----------------------------------

And actually I also notice you mention that nothing will work under 98 and XP ---- esp. the unsafedisc stuff.... hmm... I do not have the tool, neither do I have the older OS ... but I really hated the CD --- it is always turning like crazy in the drive, ... one drive was broken soon after I run this game (I could not tell if it was the game damaged it or just aging). But my other 2 brand new drives are now suffering the same problem. I just wish there is some way to get around this. Er.. Kraut and ALF, would any one of you please kindly send me the unsafedisc tool or point me a way to download them so that I can have a try? Many thanks!

And my comment:

Works for TOAWI also.

With dplayerx.dll, opart.exe, opart300.exe, opart.icd, opart300.icd files in the new directory- in my case C:\Program Files\TalonSoft\TOAW\CD\, I then ran the UnSafeDisk program from another (different) directory.

I found the UnSafeDisk procedure created a file called testfile.exe when I processed OPART.ICD. I renamed this OPART.EXE AFTER deleting the original OPART.EXE in the new directory. Then when I processed OPART300.ICD I got the same file again (Testfile.exe). Renaming this to OPART300.EXE (again, after deleting the original OPART300.EXE) I then copied the whole lot back.

Then I made the registry change cd_path=X:\TOAW\ (where X is your CD drive location) to C:\Program Files\TalonSoft\TOAW\CD\ for example (the new folder is CD in the TOAW folder) and put the small empty file (TOAWintro.smk) into the CD folder.

Now I have both TOAWI AND ACOW without the sh*%g£&g disks- brilliant! Thanks to all.

[General Staff]

Slight update to procedure:

1) If you're using a c:\Program Files\Talonsoft\TOAW and c:\Program Files\Talonsoft\TOAW-CW directory structure, then put Unsafediscv1.5.5 file in c:\Program Files\Talonsoft. This satisfies the requirement that file being worked over is in a separate directory to Unsafediscv1.5.5.
2) Make a nocd directory in c:\Program Files\Talonsoft\TOAW.
3) Put opart.exe, opart300.exe, opart.icd, opart300.icd files in the new directory. Forget the copy of dplayerx.dll mentioned previously- it's unnecessary as the exe will find it working backwards through directory structure.
4) Run Unsafediscv1.5.5 on opart.exe in \nocd\ directory first, which will give you a *test*.exe. Delete opart.exe in \nocd\ directory, then rename the *test*.exe to opart.exe.
5) Repeat procedure for opart 300.exe. Then copy both files to c:\Program Files\Talonsoft\TOAW.
6) Make the registry change cd_path=X:\TOAW\ (where X is your CD drive location) to C:\Program Files\TalonSoft\TOAW\nocd\ for example (the new folder is nocd in the TOAW folder).
7) Create using notepad or some simple text editor an empty file called TOAWintro.smk in the nocd folder.

For TOAW-CW repeat all above steps but using the relevant TOAW-CW directory structure instead.

[Currahee]

Thanks Chris, that's a nice addition to our legacy arcana!!