In case u haven't noticed, Singles Demo is actually a full version having 4 hours of playing time as only limitation. Only thing needed to unlock the demo is a license key file. No one has got one, really?? Can't believe this.

Or if someone smarter than me has discovered where the demo version stores that information showing how much playing time is left, a hint would be nice... I already tried to trace registry changes etc. but didn't get any wiser. :confused:

Stay away from the Singles demo.
 

The Singles Demo is protected with Trymedia's ActiveMARK copy-protection system. This copy-protection is particularly draconian because it is tied to the hardware of the PC on which it is activated/registered (Think Windows XP retail activation only worse.). So, if you upgrade your PC/replace components or replace your entire PC, you must request a new activation from Trymedia. If Trymedia goes out of business or refuses to give you a new activation, then you are sh*t out of luck if you want to play the full game for which you paid.

I strongly recommend that people avoid buying games from Trygames.com because of this and also because games from Trygames.com are NOT the same as the retail CD-ROM versions in content either. They have more in common with "ripped" versions of games in many cases, and given that ActiveMARK encrypts many of the game files, creating mods with these games is not possible even if mods can be made with the retail version.

But there must be some registry values etc. from where Singles demo sees how long it's been played and removing all traces of the demo would allow another 4 hours of playtime? I can't think of any more complicated method how that could have been done, my PC isn't even connected to web all the time so it can't store that data into some server either.

@Acimus
Buy the game from the Store or from Trygames.com.

Either the registry or a hidden file or the MBR of the hard drive or some mechanism is no doubt used to track the time. Of course, I bet if you run the ActiveMARK version of the game for four hours straight it will also shutdown so even if you could reset the time period you would have to shut the game down every four hours.

In any case, I would stay away from Trygames.com games if I were you. The only way to make that crappy hardware-specific ActiveMARK copy-protection go away is simply to avoid the games which use it altogether.

Nar not even close.
First I thought it was the registry, but after killing the keys and reinstalling I still had a time lock. This is for the 1.5 version SINGLES dist by "softwrap"
I'll tell you something they didn't pay no big Codemaster to make this trial lock.
Hit the start button
go my computer
local disk (ie c:\)
documents and settings
all uses
shared documents
Delete the global.sw file (may be hidden on your PC so change setting)
Delete the Softwrap folder and files within it.
load game and game save.
That's it. Another 4 hours of bordem. :D
Here's to Version 1.6
J

:mad:
sorry I think it is version 1.4 Don't qoute me. here's to 1.5

Different Version
 

You are talking about the Softwrap protected version. I was talking about the Trymedia ActiveMARK protected version.

While I agree that ActiveMARK sounds like a horrendous copy protection, we still cannot allow you to pirate the game by converting the demo in the full game. Do not talk about this anymore. Thread closed. If you want to play Singles, buy the game on a regular cd.