Re: Star Wars: Empire @ War


"Gwen Morse" <goldmooneachna@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0s4r321kegj7cfhvm4kc78nah0rt8ki453@xxxxxxxxxx

I have a copy of Star Wars Empire @ War that I bought for my son.
After installing it, I get an error message that I can't play because
of emulation software I have installed.

I have Alcohol 52% installed so I can play The Sims 2 without carting
the disks everywhere. I don't have _any_ software on my computer that
I don't have the original disks for.

Do I have any effing options to getting the game working? Otherwise, I
paid $50 for a game I can't play and that I can't return.


So far as I know there's no way around the install problem but to remove
Alcohol before you install.

Fortunately, you don't need Alcohol- what you need is a no-cd patch for The
Sims 2, which you can get at http://www.gamecopyworld.com/ .

I refuse to shuffle disks as well, so I no-cd patch every game I get. (and
2 of them (Dungeon Siege, Planescape Torment) required hex editing the
executable and I *still* haven't found one that works for StarCraft)
Unfortunately, there's no patch out for SW:EatW version 1.03 yet. There's a
1.02 no-cd patch, but the game will automatically patch itself to 1.03 when
you run it, so that doesn't help. Every day I check to see if a patch has
been posted.

Anyway, no-cd patches are the way to go, but depend on someone else doing
the work (the above mentioned hex editing was done with very explicit
instructions (go to this address and replace this value with that value), I
don't have the skills to crack games myself). Alcohol et al you can do
yourself, but many games are written to be intolerant of their presence.


Avoid Starforce protected games like the plague they are, but they have
patches just like everything else.

If you happened to buy Silent Hunter III in ignorance, you can get around
Starforce by following the following procedure while being careful *not* to
run the game until the end-

Download the no-cd patch from Game Copy World.

Download the Silent Hunter III update from the publisher.

Insert the SHIII disk and install the program. Make sure not to click any
button that resembles 'play the game'.

Run the update.

Apply the no-cd patch.

*Now* you can play.


SHIII checks for Starforce the first time it runs (and not in the normal
game installation) and installs it if it isn't found. The no-cd keeps it
from checking for Starforce in the first place.


I have no idea if this would work for other Starforce games. I don't intend
to find out. I didn't know about Starforce when I bought SHIII, if I had I
wouldn't have.

I no longer buy Ubi games no matter what, because some of their games use
Starforce. I have refused to buy the Freedom Force sequel because it uses
Starforce.











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