SECUROM BULLS**T

dghillza · Post by **dghillza** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 2:18 pm

Ok I'm not haveing all the issues that been reported here and ONCE the game is running is it stable. HOWEVER my gripe is when ever I try run Railroad from the desktop icon with the original disk in the original drive I installed it with I get this fricken error:

Please insert the original disc instead of a backup (1000).

Please have a look at http://www.securom.com/message.asp?m=copy&c=1000 for further, more detailed information.

How do I get around it - well just open and close the drive bay - not to much of a mission but it is annoying !!!!

AND my question is what software has been installed on my machine for this securom to work - and can it F**K up my drive later on?

d53642 · Post by **d53642** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 3:33 pm

Contact Securom they have helped me in the past with a quick fix. They respond pretty fast too.

If there wasn't pirate kids out there we wouldn't have to worry about all these anti-pirate schemes.

TKilmer · Post by **TKilmer** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 4:27 pm

d53642 wrote: If there wasn't pirate kids out there we wouldn't have to worry about all these anti-pirate schemes.

That is bull. Copy protection does not prevent or even inhibit Piracy. It just causes problems for the legit consumer. Hell I even think a cracked Railroads was up on torrent the day of release.

Hopefully we are seeing a new trend recently that gives me hope and will not force me to look for No CD fixes. Both Company of Heroes and Galactic Civ 2 only require keys for multiplayer. And Star Trek Legacy does not appear to have any type of protection whatsoever.

I have a 2 year old who loves to irritate daddy by taking my CD's or DVD's out of my computer. One of these days she is going to ruin one. Plus I have alot of games, I hate searching for the damn disk just to play it. I can't keep them on my desk because of my daughter. One of the reasons I have not gotten into Medievil 2 is when I think of playing it, I don't fell like getting the disk, so I just open a game up that I either have a No CD fix or does not require the disk.

I am addicted to Railroads right now, so it just stays in my drive, it is not popular enough to get quick fixes anymore and you need to play with the patches. But I will keep checking for new ones. I buy my games, I should be able to play them without the hassle.

I am just greatful I have never had an issue where I actually owned the game and could not play like the original poster.

d53642 · Post by **d53642** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 4:37 pm

Have you seen a crack since the first, and it wasn't up on release. It took a few days before RELOADED released one, I had the game the day after release and trust me there was only 6 people playing the game that was a Tuesday. Come that Thrusday when RELOADED released their version the chat lobby was full. Had like alot of people in there.

I use cracks for my games cause I hate swapping out to CDs when I have 4-5 games on the go at once but I don't mind using the cd if I must just a little annoying somethimes. Right now I have to use them for NWN 2 and Railroads. And oh ya NHL 07. I don't use images cause of all the crap you must install to get them to work.

Daryl

TKilmer · Post by **TKilmer** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:01 pm

So...you think copy protection works?

I am not saying people won't pirate a game if it has no copy protection, I am saying copy protection does not matter to pirates. They always find ways around it, so why frustrate your legit consumers with the crap. Starforce being the worst example.

I think this is an interesting story and food for thought:

I actually had an irritating situation with Pirates. I formatted my harddrive to reinstall XP and when i went to reinstall the game, I needed a CD Key, but the key was not on the CD and the manual was no where to be found. I think my daughter took it from my desk, not sure, but Mom found it a couple months later LOL. But in the meantime I was SOL with the game even though I had the disk. So this is when I started looking the net and came across torrent sites, did not know much about them before hand. I mean I knew about them, but just figured it was for pirates. I was shocked to see what you could find. I found a torrent of a cracked Pirates, but did not need to download it, someone posted a CD key in the message thread. I used it to install the game. But guess what, that thread led me to No CD fixes, which I am thankful for now, but this is an example of copy protection is educating the masses on Piracy and not preventing it.

d53642 · Post by **d53642** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:12 pm

I have trouble with StarForce sometime, usually takes me about 10 tries before I can get them games to work.

Pirates will always find a way to break a game or program but its no different that a car company putting locks on your car. If a theft wants in it he will still find a way.

TKilmer · Post by **TKilmer** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:23 pm

I won't install a game with Starforce, luckily it has not been used on a game I want anyway. Just read all the nightmare stories about it on IGN.

d53642 · Post by **d53642** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:29 pm

I have had my own with them. I know research if a game is coming with it then I pass on it even if I want it really bad.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 12:28 am

A lot of CD cracking is not because someone doesn't want to have to use the CD. Or even because they want a copy of a CD without paying for it. It's come to be a chalange, 'Can I crack it before anyone else can?', 'I want to start a web site with all the CD's I've cracked'. It is like viruses and other ways that are used to stop computers, 'Can I do it and can I be the first'.

And no, I don't like the copy protection, but like others, I don't like to have to have that CD in there. Are the companies going to replace that disk if it becomes damaged from handeling??

dwax · Post by **dwax** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 3:37 am

It's verry easy to make a one to one copy of the game disk. you get Alcohol 120% and A-Ray Scanner. and you have the one to one. I backed up mine just to be on the safe side. I have lost to many disks one way or another.

recca421 · Post by **recca421** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 7:16 am

TKilmer wrote:I won't install a game with Starforce, luckily it has not been used on a game I want anyway. Just read all the nightmare stories about it on IGN.

CDV's Canadian/American release of City Life used Starforce. I never had one single problem with my system after installing it, nor did I have any problems removing the copy protection whenI realized that the game was utter crap.

Played the game 2 months, tho, and my drives are still in perfect working order.

That having been said, *earlier* versions of Stasrforce had a lot of problems.

TKilmer · Post by **TKilmer** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 3:46 pm

Securom software can't kill older DVD drives can it?

I was leaving the disk in my older Plextor that I don't use that much since my newer Lite On is so much faster. I rebooted my system and for some reason it locked trying to read the drive to check for bootable disk and I have not been able to get the drive working at al since. Had to pry the disk out and put it in the other drive.

I mean it is likely it was just time for the drive to go, it is about 3-4 years old, but awefly coincidental considering this thread.

recca421 · Post by **recca421** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 5:51 am

TKilmer wrote:Securom software can't kill older DVD drives can it?

I was leaving the disk in my older Plextor that I don't use that much since my newer Lite On is so much faster. I rebooted my system and for some reason it locked trying to read the drive to check for bootable disk and I have not been able to get the drive working at al since. Had to pry the disk out and put it in the other drive.

I mean it is likely it was just time for the drive to go, it is about 3-4 years old, but awefly coincidental considering this thread.

I buy cheap drives for 2 reasons : Firstly, I burn a LOT of DVDs, both data and video. Secondly, I smoke around my computer. That combination seems to cause my burners to have a max. 6-month lifespan. As far as I know, I've played games with every major cpoy protection, and none of them have ever broken my drive.

On the other hand, I consider a burner dead when it stops burning usable DVDs. My last dead drive works great for reading, and is currently the only working optical drive in my 1.8ghz machine

dghillza · Post by **dghillza** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 11:03 am

Ok I did complain to Securom and they did send me a new Railroad.exe
which seems ok.

However I do agree with what been said in this post that if software is giong to be pirated then the pirate's will find a way and why should paying customers be subjected to this furstration.

If that be the case I might as well get pirate software because paying for it doesn't seem to take away the furstration if anything it just add's to it - If I didn't pay for it them I have no room to be upset.

I had a simular issue with Spellforce - for some or other reason the copy protection clashed with another program I had and thier answer was remove that program - So what did I do - I got a crack! - my only regret was paying for that game mostly because of thier attitude and because it wouldn't work without a crack. I would have been far better off pirating the whole thing because then at last it would have worked I would have never gone through all the furstration and I'd have saved some money.

TKilmer · Post by **TKilmer** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 3:02 pm

Well I flashed the drive with its latest firmware, something I am not sure I ever did and it seems to be working fine again.

I keep it because when the drive I use for just about everything (used to be an LG, now it is a Lite On) has a problem with a disk, the Plextor can always read it. It is the PlexCombo 320a. Although that was more common with the LG, seems like the Lite On can read everything.