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Pirating does not pay, kids (warning: boring story)

TheGreatGodPan

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 21, 2005
Messages
1,762
As some of you might remember from a while back, I pirated Arcanum using bittorrent. Your instant reaction should be "Your horrible, horrible scoundrel! Troika is dead and TRUE RPGs with it because of people like you!", but the company was already long dead and I only sought out the warez copy because of people claiming widespread piracy was the reason for poor sales. Sort of like the ancient Greek self-fulfilling-prophecy's retarded cousin. Anyway, the file consisted of two mdf files between 700 and 800 MB each, two 1 KB mds files, an english update RAR file and a readme that said "Just burn the 2 cds and install. Have fun!". The problem is the writable CDs I had only had 700 MB of space. Since I've been away at college for a while without transportation or much desire to go to a store to buy something with higher capacity, I forgot about it for a while. Anyway, now I'm back home and was doing some Christmas shopping anyway, so I head to Circuit City and look for writable disks. The lowest capacity writable DVDs I find have 4.7 GB which is .7 more than my hard-drive! There are two packages with the same number of DVDs (25 or 50, I forget, but way more than I needed) and the same lowest price for writable DVDs ($10.99) from the same company (TDK) only one of them is DVD-R and the other is DVD+R. I don't know what the difference is, so I ask a red-vested employee who says that some older computers can't handle the plus variety, leaving me with no clue to what the benefit of that kind is, so after the cashier gives up trying to find the product's entry in the store's database and sends me to customer service, I buy the DVD-Rs. The next day I try burning all the files to one DVD, cause why waste CDs when I'm low on cases, right? Turns out that though my computer can read DVD-roms just fine, it can only burn to CDs. I return the DVD-Rs to the store, remembering that there were some double capacity DVDs with over 8 GB of space, and wondered if there might be a similar kind of CD. Wrong. They are all 700 MB, less than 100 MB away from what is necessary. I suppose it would be possible to upload the files online, download them to some other computer (I don't know which) that can burn DVDs and then use those, but it almost seems easier to try and get the game legitimately. I'm not going to do that either because I've got way too many games in my backlog already so I might never get to it and I only really downloaded it because I heard I easily could. I promise not to pirate Age of Decadence though, VD.

Since not much discussion should be sparked by that post, I'll unload a question that's been bugging me for all the people screened for reading boring computer stuff. Recently the windows update thing has really been annoying me. It doesn't stop updating. Every time it updates, it has to do so again. If I want to turn off my computer, it gives an extra option to turn off without updating (although it is determined to do so eventually), but I like using the standby option so I don't have to use task manager to turn off a bunch of auto-start programs. However, if I do that a message box will keep popping up to say it is going to restart my computer to update. I can press restart, cancel or remind me later. If I do nothing, it will restart. If I press cancel it will do what I presume it will do with remind me later, just pop up again in a few minutes. I can't leave the computer without it restarting. I try to use task manager to turn off wuaclt, which is what I get brought to when I select "go to process" on the yellow "!" update box in the applications tab. However, wuaclt just won't stay gone. I guess it's a restarting sort of process. I don't really want windows to update any more, I've been doing just fine for qute a while. Similarly, music match jukebox alway has a box when I start the program saying that there is an update for portable music devices, a type of thing I do not own. At least that doesn't have a timer to automatically restart the computer or make the message pop up again, but I still wish update gave an option to NEVER USE THIS UPDATE EVER AND I MEAN IT.
 

Kraszu

Prophet
Joined
May 27, 2005
Messages
3,253
Location
Poland
For the first problem just use daemon tools it is program that create virtual cd/dvd drives. You make virtual drive and select it to open mdf file.

Let windows update itself because many of those are security fixes.
 

Jim Kata

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
2,602
Location
Nonsexual dungeon
I think the piracy argument is bogus for a lot of reasons. The first reason is that it takes a level of effort and computer savvy most people don't have. The second is that most people who pirate pirate a big slew of games and then never play half of them, since they can download anything they want. The third is that many people download and then buy. The fourth is that it exposes people to things they would otherwise never have tried, and they will often prise them and expose others to it or else buy it themselves. The fifth is that when people really want something, they will usually want the boxed set and manual, assuming the manual is worth a good god damn. Piracy has also always been around, and it used to be super simple to bypass cpy protection schemes for old games - far easier than downloading and burning shit.

The final is that all the games coming out that fail are being PANNED by the users, so obviously it is a game quality issue, not some other goblin - if people could point to some good RPGs that didn't have serious problems and were big flops, then I might be inlined to look for something like that, but clearly it's obvious that RPGs in particular and PC games in general are failing because they are pandering to the console crowd, but can't keep up with the console budgets, which is a recipe for disaster. Applying Occam's razor makes it obvious they are failing because the publishers and devs suck dog jism and make glaring, stupid mistakes, and push out games of execrebable quality....
 

Psycroptic

Liturgist
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
287
Location
Long live the new flesh!
In Control Panel there's an Automatic Update Icon that allows you to shut off the updates.

I hate it when when the automatic update restarts your computer at night. Shutting down all of the programs I was working on. My machine would otherwise never turn off.
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
Pretty Princess Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Messages
24,924
Jim kata is a fuckin' mornic thief who is a piece of shit. He's an admitted scumbag. Then again, cowards usually are.
 

Jim Kata

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
2,602
Location
Nonsexual dungeon
Volourn said:
Jim kata is a fuckin' mornic thief who is a piece of shit. He's an admitted scumbag. Then again, cowards usually are.

Your dumbfuck title is richly deserved. I never pirate any games, and I have paid for many games multiple times.
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
Pretty Princess Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Messages
24,924
I don't fuckin' believe you. Anyone who is so painfully pro theivery like you most assuredly done some thievery yourself. And, as an old man, you have probably stolen thousands (if not millions) worth of games. In fact, it's probably how you became a millionaire.

R00fles!
 

bylam

Funcom
Developer
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
707
I disagree with the OP, piracy pays pretty well. I scored over a thousand crowns when my crew and I took down a spanish galleon last week. Arrrgh!
 

Temoid

Scholar
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
102
I come from a country where there was no such thing as legal copies - even stores sold warez in pretty boxes. Personally, I've never paid for a game in my life - which I will try to correct by buying a Fallout 1&2 bundle for $9.99 shortly.
 

cutterjohn

Cipher
Joined
Sep 28, 2006
Messages
1,629
Location
Bloom County
ALWAYS use DVD+Rs for data storage. DVD-R was a stop-gap, more-or-less-hack of CD-R with a really crappy data protection segment, and error recovery methodology, amongst its glaring weaknesses.

Also, don't use DVD+/-RW for data archiving, as their re-writeability amongst other details makes them a poor choice.

As to brands, IIRC Verbatim should be one of your top choices, with TDK some what below that if you care about the overall potential longevity of the recordable media. There is an obscure company that does produce slightly better media than Verbatim, although Verbatim while manufacturing their own disks will also buy from that company. Do a quick Google on the subject, and one of the top hits should give all your optical media needs answers, along with more detailed reasons as to why those companies were rated as they were. (essentially the types of dyes(ignore colors, as the stability of the organic ink used is more important), and media manufacturing methodology. most companies should be pretty good, but ... also gold backed -/+R(/W) media is a WASTE of $$$)

Also in Soviet Russia, computer programmed programmer, not vice versa...

[EDIT]
Oh yeah:
And all your bases are belong to us...
[/EDIT]
 

WittyName

Scholar
Joined
Oct 24, 2006
Messages
139
Location
United States
I never understood pirating games. They really don't cost THAT much... but I guess my opinion is colored by the fact that I'm horrible with computers and buy -- at most -- three to five games a year.
 

Jim Kata

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
2,602
Location
Nonsexual dungeon
WittyName said:
I never understood pirating games. They really don't cost THAT much... but I guess my opinion is colored by the fact that I'm horrible with computers and buy -- at most -- three to five games a year.

85% of it is in countries where 50 dollars is like a week's salary.

Most of the rest of it is people who burn every game imaginable and play like 20% of them for more than 20 minutes.
 
Self-Ejected

aweigh

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
17,978
Location
Florida
800mb images can be burned to normal 700mb CD-R's without a problem. It's a matter of bits and bytes; just ignore any warning messages and burn away.
 

cutterjohn

Cipher
Joined
Sep 28, 2006
Messages
1,629
Location
Bloom County
DVDs: Yep "normal" DVD+/-R(/W)s are 4.7G. Dual layers are double that, or 9.4G. Look for something on the drive specs that mentions dual layer or DL write support. (Don't bother with DVD-RAM unless it comes with the drive for "free", but even then I wouldn't bother using it...)

An NEC 3550A(handles dual layer) DVD+/-R/W drive is $29.99 from newegg in the OEM version. No cables. No software. But if you just gank out your CD-R drive and shove in the NEC you're good to go, assuming that you know that the CD-R is an IDE drive(should be as I doubt that it's SCSI, and I havent seen any SATA CD-R burners), can physically remove the old drive and insert the new, and be able to correctly set any jumpers(should be able to copy the CD-Rs as they should be labelled). (I have had one of these for c. 1y, and they were c.$50 when I bought it...)

You could also get a DVD+/-R/W drive with, ooo, lightscribe for around the same price. BenQ makes SOME good drives(you'll need to research them a bit), and Plextor does as well but they are more expensive usually. (Should fit your case too, but if you've gotten some funky OEM case(e.g. Dell, they may have gotten some funky non-standard parts(but I don't thinkt hey do that crap much any longer...)) it might not fit quite right...

meh, I've lost track of Lots of Irritating Superfluous Parentheses so I'll assume that I closed everything up, and I'm pretty tired tonight so...

[EDIT]
Oh, and I almost forgot, are you sure that those .mds files weren't part of a multipart DVD image and not a CD image?
[/EDIT]
 

Shagnak

Shagadelic
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
Messages
4,637
Location
Arse of the world, New Zealand
Your mds/mdf files are standard CD images as used by burning programs like "Alcohol 120%". If you try and burn the images to dvd, it prolly won't work (other than maybe having your mds and mdf files stored on another media - but the point is you won't have a working copy of the original).

The format that Alcohol 120% uses often blows the amount of data on a cd image to > 700 MB, but when burning the image using the correct software it will fit on the cd.

Another trick (if you dont have Alcohol 120% or are justifiably averse to buying or cracking it - mind you I'm sure a month-long trial is available) is to use something like Daemon Tools, mount the image, then make another a bin or iso or wotevathefuck from it using another cd burning or image making tool. The burn that.
(Oops, just noticed that Kraszu and others suggested a similarish thang)

As for Arcanum not being available in stores, I've seen it plenty of times (just last week, even) as a super-low-priced budget edition that should be available in the UK, AUS and NZ.
 

spacemoose

Erudite
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
Messages
9,632
Location
california
virtual drives are for grandmas. real men unpack the cd images to a folder and point the installer there
 

spacemoose

Erudite
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
Messages
9,632
Location
california
well its been a long time since I've pirated a game so I wouldn't know
 

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