TOAW I & ACOW No CD Option

[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

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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

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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.