I was thinking of clean cracks, with the copy protection mostly/completely removed. I don't want to install that Starforce shit on my well-maintained, stable Windows XP that was installed more than 5 years ago.

Minimages (PM World 2) are no cracks.
PM World 3 uses an early version of Securom 7.

I agree with you, I wouldn't want to install SF on my well maintained machines, not even temporarily.

But I checked GameCopyWorld, and there's only a "Fixed EXE" for Pac-Man World 3 (and a couple of trainers that I don't need). Is that the crack you are talking about for it? The instructions say to install the game first. Does that mean I still need to have SF on my machine before I replace the EXE file?

EDIT: Sorry - I keep getting PMW2 and PMW3 confused. So PMW3 uses Securom 7 and not StarForce. I take it there's no problem with having Securom 7 installed on your computer?

Oh OK, so the Pac-Man World 2 downloads just let you play the game without the disc, but you still need to have StarForce installed?

Yes!
(But Starforce 3.3, so it dont allow you playing with Windows Vista or 7.)

People, see the PC Games forum FAQ for crack-related terminologies.

I actually did check out the FAQ, and noticed that it says "No-CD/DVD" means it "removes the copy protection as well as the CD/DVD-check". And the PMW2 downloads from GCW are labeled as "No-CD", so that's why I thought they were cracked. But now I know if it mentions StarF*cker or StarForce Nightmare, then it's not cracked. :)

BTW, Joe - what do you think of having Securom 7 installed on your machine? I'd like to try PMW3, but then I found this page which makes Securom 7 sound as bad as StarForce:

http://lemueljopio.com/2009/05/01/se...-ummno-thanks/

PM World 3 is cracked, you will never have any Securom 7 on your PC if your replace exe right after installing it.
The article is about Securom Online activation, this version appeared a few years after the release of PM World 3. The original file checks the disc, it does not go online.
You can play PM World 3 without having any fears.

Damn, then there is a discrepancy between the terminology of the main site and the FAQ. Please, drop me a PM (or E-mail), reminding me to improve the description in the FAQ. Also, if you find some more then report those, too.

SecuROM 7 is not always running unlike StarForce; that's the major difference and that's why you shouldn't be afraid of or picky about the former as the latter. Yeah, yeah, I hate to have bullshit drivers on my PC, too, and frequently delete them manually - yes, potentially useful (but currently unused) ones, too! - but it's not that bad...

You got it wrong: this article is about the problem of online authentication and not SecuROM in general. And we absolutely agree with this: the PC Games forum FAQ also recommends against buying online authenticated games, if possible to avoid them (i.e. they are also released as good old CD/DVD with media-based copy protection).

Thank you guys for clarifying Securom 7 for me.

But I wonder if they released 2 different versions of Pac-Man World 3? Because I just checked my Pac-Man World 3 disc, and I saw a file named Data1.cab, so I looked in there and saw files named protect.x64, protect.exe, and protect.dll. Did a google search and those files are supposed to be StarForce files. Looks like I have a version of PMW3 with StarForce?!

The cracked Securom 7 exe will work for you, i think.

So I install the game, then remove StarForce, and then use the cracked Securom 7 .exe file? I just wonder if having StarForce installed at all, even if just temporarily, might not be a good idea?

I found this old thread: http://ww1.fileforums.com/showthread.php?t=83819

One guy said you can follow these steps to play a SF protected game without having SF on your system:
Then Joe Forster replied:
So that makes it sound like as long as you uninstall SF before it activates, then your system is safe.

But then why did Joe Forster say the following in this thread:
That makes it sound like having SF on your system, even if you uninstall it before it activates, is not a good idea. This is all very confusing.

You're mixing up the games: Pac-Man World 2 is protected by Starforce and has not been cracked ever since its release; Pac-Man World 3 was :p protected by SecuROM and has already been cracked. (By "cracked", I mean: clean no-CD/DVD patch released.)

OK, so for Pac-Man World 2, the following steps won't work, even though there is a No-CD patch available?


And then for Pac-Man World 3, I was wondering if there might have also been a version of PMW3 released with StarForce instead of Securom 7. Because I just checked my PMW3 disc, and I saw a file named Data1.cab, and inside the .cab file I saw files named protect.x64, protect.exe, and protect.dll. I did a google search and those files are supposed to be StarForce files. Pac-Man World 3 is also on this list of StarForce games:

http://groups.google.com/group/boyco...web/games-list

No, for PMW2 there is no no-DVD patch, only the images, so the instructions qeuoted do not apply to it. As for PMW3, no idea, I just had a look at the top of GCW's page.