Gta Vice City, Damn Cd Protection

[james_bond_rulez]

damn it the 2 GTAVC cd images are protected with SecuRom - 4.84.69.0071.

installed the game with daemon tools with emulations but i still can't play the game

any ideas?

my guess is the cd images are not made 1:1 copy that's why the protections are able to detect it's a copy

amature cd image makers, noobs

[Night Ass]

cant u just use a nocd crack

[james_bond_rulez]

after doing some research on the internet i found that this new copy protection technology employs a time-delay technique in the laser beams reading the data:


There is a new version of Securom, known as 4.8x. Most copy protections are based on recognizing a copy from an original CD. E.g. Safedisc does this by checking for defect sectors on the disc that are hard to copy. But those defect sectors can already be copied, so Safedisc doesn't deliver full protection against copying anymore.

SecuROM v4.8x goes another way, and this way looks very promising right now. The spiral data track on the disc has a varying structure which causes the drive to take more or less time to read a sector. These delays between the delivery of two sectors are checked, and if the delays do not fit the right pattern, the CD is recognized as invalid.

Unfortunately it is impossible to copy this structure because the spiral data track is already pressed into a CDR when you buy it. Inside this track there is a substance that changes when it is hit by the writing laser, so the bits and bytes can be burnt into the track. But it is impossible to manipulate one sector so it takes longer to read it so a CDR will always be recognized as invalid.

However it is possible to monitor these delays and write them down in a file - and this is exactly what tools like Alcohol 120% and Blindread do. In Alcohol, this feature is called DPM - Data Positioning Measurement. The information gained from the DPM process is stored in the .mds-files (but not alone, there can be .mds-files without DPM information as well) (in Blindwrite, it is stored in .bwa-files which are exactly the same). With the virtual drives created by Alcohol (as well as with Daemon-Tools' virtual drives) it is now possible to emulate these delays when the image is mounted. And this will be the only working way to make backups as long as the spiral data track's structure cannot be manipulated.

[muchspl2]

not in that game, just get the nocd patch
Gam3c0pyw0rld should have it

[james_bond_rulez]

Originally posted by muchspl2@22 October 2003 - 18:48
not in that game, just get the nocd patch
Gam3c0pyw0rld should have it
you still dont get it do u?

you just cant no cd it, the copy protection still works

I need the mds file for vice city but currently i can only find bwa files

[Night Ass]

Heres the nocd crack
http://vcnocdcrack.notlong.com

thats all i need to get my one to work

[muchspl2]

where did you get that copy from? I only needed the no cd crack

[Night Ass]

yes now i think about it it may have just been a bad rip :lol:

[james_bond_rulez]

i dunno i forgot

i got them a long time ago.

i was reading some stuff about gtaIII on klite forum and then I thought: hey didn't i have gtavc? haven't played it so I installed it :D

ok the no cd patch you gave me seem to get through the cd protection but when i go into "new game" the progress bar goes 1/2 and then just hangs there


should I wait more (waited more than 10 mins and still no reaction from the game)


ok the stuff i was talking about was when you make a backup cd of the ORIGINAL CD or the one you bought off of store, you need that mds (alchohol 120%) or bwa (blindwrite) file to emulate the shit


here is more detail:

It will not be able to make working 1:1 copies of SecuROM v4.8x-protected CDs anymore.
Mounting images and emulating the copy protection will be the way to go.

Now many of you may ask what about Blindwrite or Alcohol as they do make working copies of SecuROM v4.8x-protected CDs. That is correct, but read exactly what I wrote: it is possible to make working copies, but NOT working 1:1 copies!

Blindwrite's Twinpeaks feature uses the information stored in the .bwa-files (which, as we remember, tells how long it takes to read a sector on the disc). Now it uses a trick to "fake" this reading delay - the same sector is burned twice onto the disc, with exactly the same information including the sector number. This is a violation of the CDR-standard (the so-called red book, if I recall correctly), but as most CD-drives read both sectors but only deliver one, the delay of reading the second sector suffices to trick SecuROM v4.8x into recognizing the disc as valid. However some drives, e.g. some Plextors, report errors if the same sector is stored twice on the disc. As this is a violation of the standards, this is nothing negative, in fact this only happens with drives who strictly obey the standards.

The drawback of this method is that today's copyprotections (i.e. SecuROM) can easily be altered to check for these manipulations, too. So this ability to copy SecuROM v4.8x will most certainly not last very long, and if you're unlucky, your copy will become invalid with the next patch for the game because the patch will also update the copy protection (like No One Lives Forever 2 v1.2, Anno 1503 v1.02, Neverwinter Nights 1.21...)

The developers of Alcohol invented another way to make working copies of SecuROM v4.8x-protected CDs. When the DPM option, which allowed to read the structural information and store it in the .mds-files, was introduced, it was possible to mount the created images and emulate the delays caused by the varying track structure. So why not write the image to a CDR and somehow apply the structure (or, to be more precise, apply the delays caused by it) to the data that is just read by the drive? And this is what Alcohol does with the RMPS (Recordable Media Physical Signature) option. In addition to the data stream saved in the image, the structural information from the .mds-file is burned to the disc as well. Now this alone would be too obvious a difference between the CD-ROM and the CDR, so you need to install Daemon-Tools (version 3.29 or above) or Alcohol (version 1.3.6.1223 or above) and emulate their "RMPS emulation". This creates the necessary delays whenever they need to be applied to the data the drive just reads, and additionally it somehow hides the section of the CDR where the RMPS information is stored.

To help recognize RMPS-enabled discs, the actual label of the disc is always "NEEDS EMULATION", and when the emulation is enabled, this label will be replaced by the label of the original disc.

[james_bond_rulez]

here is a nice tutorial on how to backup ur cd using Data Positioning Measurement technique

http://forum.alcohol-software.com/index.ph...18&t=1531&st=0& (http://forum.alcohol-software.com/index.php?act=ST&f=18&t=1531&st=0&)

[muchspl2]

guess you just didn't get it :P

there was a few patches for that game, you will need to UNinstall then install, get the patch from rock* then patch the exe
make sure you got the latest video/audio drivers also

[james_bond_rulez]

Originally posted by muchspl2@22 October 2003 - 19:19
guess you just didn't get it  :P

there was a few patches for that game, you will need to UNinstall then install, get the patch from rock* then patch the exe
make sure you got the latest video/audio drivers also

so you are saying without the patch the game is unplayable?

[muchspl2]

no
more people than not can play the game as is, but if you start it and it hangs or freezes this requires a patch from the maker
its common to release game that apperaes fine only later to find out they contain a bug on some systems, thus the patch is created

and like I said make sure you got the newest video card drivers, audio is less likely but still causes the same issuses in some games

[james_bond_rulez]

interesting...

guess i wont have to worry about cd protections since the no cd cracks take care of all that

lol

[I_Delete_Fakes]

I downloaded this game ages ago and on cd2 there is a folder "crack" there is another icon that must replace the gta-vc icon IN the programs folder/Rockstar then just place the shortcut on the desktop, sorted !!

[james_bond_rulez]

ok guys, i updated the game, cracked the game but i still can't play it

my video drivers are up to date but when i go into new game the progress bar still hangs at 1/2 and wouldn't move

this sucks monkey ballz <_<

i even re-downloaded the game from supernova and the results are still the same.

...

[I_Delete_Fakes]

I had that prob with GTA 3 on XP (it would play on Win ME), but NOT with GTA-VC.

If you have a big enough hard drive can u do a dual boot system?
FDISK the hd into 2 parts and instal ME and XP ( I did )

Or take the game to a friends house and try it there, then u know it your pc or the game at fault :) but looking at your specs, I doubt its your pc.

[Nightwolf]

You know if you update to version 1.1, then you also need to use the 1.1 No CD crack. You can get it at Megagames.com. Are you sure your PC meets the minimum requirements?

[james_bond_rulez]

meets min reqirements? did you look at my sig? lol

and yes i did i used v1.1 crack for v1.1 game

oh well there are other games :D

[Nightwolf]

Originally posted by james_bond_rulez@24 October 2003 - 04:29
meets min reqirements? did you look at my sig? lol

:lol: Sorry, I have sigs turned off. Most of them are just too annoying.

Anyway, I really think you should keep trying. Vice City is one of the best games I&#39;ve ever played (once you come up with a comfortable control scheme). Are you running XP with SP1? Have you disabled your Virus Scanner, screen saver and anything else that might interfere before running the game? Maybe you should try downloading a different version. I got mine from eMule and it works just fine on my clunky old 550mHz PIII.

Don&#39;t give up, it&#39;s worth it&#33; ;)

[james_bond_rulez]

i am just pissed off when i read the shit from the game&#39;s support page

1. install in default folder... c:
2. turn off ur antivirus and firewalls...lame
3. make sure u have the latest drivers...yeah like i dont know that
4. make sure ur cd drive support the latest cd protection...pff
5. blah blah blah

what a turn off

i am running w2k pro sp4

[james_bond_rulez]

hey could this be it?

you have to turn off antivirus and all the shit b4 u play?

that&#39;s the most bs shit i&#39;ve ever heard

i wouldn&#39;t turn antivirus and firewall off for anything :D

[james_bond_rulez]

am i right or not?

[johnboy27]

I never turned anything off while I was playing it.Even had virus scans gpoing on in the background for that matter.maybe that game just doesn&#39;t agree with win2k.I have had problems like that in the past where I couldn&#39;t get games to work even though my system easily met the requirements and what not.
I think you may just be shit out of luck dude.Shitty for you as you are missing out on a pretty cool game.

[Nightwolf]

This may be a dumb question at this point, but are you sure you have the latest version of DirectX? Have you defragged your hard drive lately? Also, is your version of Win2K Workstation or Server? Vice City is only supported in Workstation.

I&#39;ve already downloaded games with Bittorrent that did not work properly. You might have better luck with eMule (but it&#39;ll take longer). Look for bin&#39;s or iso&#39;s so you get the radio stations. Try these...

http://www.sharereactor.com/release.php?id=4766

[james_bond_rulez]

well stupid questions but i&#39;ll still answer them

yes, yes, win2k pro not workstation but it&#39;s fuking dumb of game developers not to support all platforms.

imo, this game should be running smoothly with all windows 95/98,me,win2k/servers,xp otherwise it&#39;s crap

i tried both versions from emule and bittorrent

guesss i am outtta luck

fuck this game anyways

[miffo]

Got a really stupid question :P but the problem pissed me of a day or two until I "solved" it

Q: Are u shure your firewall is set to block or allow an internet connection??
that question sometimes stays "behind" the game window and closes when u kill the game
cause if it&#39;s askin u to decide what to do, the game will hang

this is 1 of the problems I encountered once and it&#39;s so simple and fundamental that I never realized what it was until I slapped the keyboard around and accidently hit y or n which sent the game running, took me a day or so before I found it out

I&#39;ve even written it down on a post-it attached to the screen :lol:

[james_bond_rulez]

interesting, zonealarm usually pops the message box INSIDE the game so i know if a game wants internet connection but i didn&#39;t get shit from vice city

go figure

[miffo]

Originally posted by james_bond_rulez@29 October 2003 - 14:26
interesting, zonealarm usually pops the message box INSIDE the game so i know if a game wants internet connection but i didn&#39;t get shit from vice city

go figure
That&#39;s y I couldn&#39;t figure it out cause it popped the question outside the game and dissapeared afterwards

wasn&#39;t GTAVC I installed though

please tell us if u find the solution

[james_bond_rulez]

ok yeah

i am gonna take the images to my friend&#39;s house and try it on his computer.

not really in the hurry to play this game right now

patience my friend :D

[james_bond_rulez]

ok i just downloaded another copy from bittorrent and this one is a 1:1 copy


used daemon tools on my machine and securom doesn&#39;t even know what hit it

:P

great game