People who need a legal way to play without CD

[cjlee]

I noticed this thread where someone was asking for a way to play without CD, and Kalah locked it immediately.

I'm not disagreeing with the policy of not discussing cracks as it could lead to trouble. But I think we should have found a way to address the forummer's needs as these are legitimate. It's not fair to lock the thread and give people no answer, because then they will go to bittorrent and find an illegitimate solution. And how can that be good for our community?

Not to mention, most of these bittorrent freebies come with malware. (You didn't think software pirates make cracks out of some charitable purpose, did you?) Throwing some poor guy out there to get his computer zombiefied by malware is hardly a nice thing to do.

Many people legitimately need no-CD ways to play because more and more gaming is done on smaller and smaller laptops, often without their own CD players.

Actually, even I have removed the CD player from my laptop. (For purposes of saving battery life.)

Recently a friend bought Heroes IV for the second time. (He upgraded to a newer computer then realized he had lost his original CD and without the original CD, of course he can't install Heroes IV WOW and TGS.) Then he realized he could buy Heroes IV for a mere $9.99 from GOG.com. He downloaded Heroes IV immediately and can play it on his comp without the use of CDs. He was very pleased as it saved him all the trouble of using the CDs. It was all bundled together, so it took only ONE installation. From download to playing was pretty fast - he claimed under twenty minutes.

GOG is selling the complete bundled Heroes V for 19.99 via download and it should be a no-CD version also requiring only one installation.

GOG claims these are DRM-free. My friend was able to copy and install his Heroes IV on separate computers, so he could play at home and when travelling. Not having personally bought from GOG I am unable to verify if their Heroes V is DRM-free and allows you to copy between your laptop and desktop.

Those guys in the know, please speak up and say whether you can buy a no-CD version of Heroes V for less, and if you have met problems regarding reliability and compatbility. Steam, uplay, or whatever you buy it from.

I am NOT WRITING TO PROMOTE ANY WEBSITE OR SELLER. I GET NO BENEFIT FROM PRAISING GOG.COM. I am simply a Heroes III and IV fan who was very pleased to find them making the game available at a modest cost and high level of convenience.

[klaymen]

Not having personally bought from GOG I am unable to verify if their Heroes V is DRM-free and allows you to copy between your laptop and desktop.

While I haven't bought it either, I think you can be sure about the absention of the DRM. Many people on the GOG forums are quite anti-DRM oriented and if some game contained it, quite a shitstorm would follow. But I may try to search their forums for some answers, I believe someone asked about it when it was released there.

[Kalah]

I see your point and I too think that people should have the right to play their games without a disc in the drive.

The reason we drew a very firm line against any cracks/warez discussion on the Round Table when we started up in 2005, was that we wanted to take an independent yet serious and trustworthy stance in relation to the game producers and big gaming sites. We felt that it would be wrong to - on the one hand - expect the producers to take us seriously, and at the same time allow members to freely exchange information on how to violate licence agreements and copyright laws.

So we banned it completely instead of trying to find out exactly where to draw the line. We have not discussed changing this rule since as there seemed to be little need for it. It's not like the info is very hard to find out there ...

[Pitsu]

He downloaded Heroes IV immediately and can play it on his comp without the use of CDs.

In case of HoMM IV wouldn't it be easiest to get Equilibris? Fan-made mods that change game exe often remove CD check. For H3 i'd understand that WoG has a reputatin of changing the game too much, although IIRC it is more a fault of certain maps, not the mod base.

I have gotten CD-requests from GoG HoMM2, but i either had multiple copies of the game installed or the game was installed on a memory stick which did not have the same letter assigned in all tested computers. Reinstall always helped.

[HOMMV_N00B]

There is a flashsale on steam where you can buy all 3 hommV games for 7.5. It only lasts 2 more hours though.

[Variol]

Maybe I'm missing something, but H5 is on "DVD" and I don't need it in the drive to play. At ToE is.

[Variol]

Maybe I'm missing something, but H5 is on "DVD" and I don't need it in the drive to play. At least ToE is.

Sorry, I must have hit quote, instead of edit.

[bkknight2602]

Maybe I'm missing something, but H5 is on "DVD" and I don't need it in the drive to play. At ToE is.

I have a similar comment. Recently my Win 7 op sys became unstable and I had to do a complete installation, backing up all my files including the program files onto an external hdd. While installing all my software, I couln't find my copy of TOTE and was upset. One evening I just copied the program file from the back up and viola, it all works, at least the couple of maps I tried.

Anyone that has it backed up and can't find the disk can get back to playing using the same technique.